216 Responses to OPEN THREAD…

  1. Charlatans says:

    http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/economics/owen-jones-and-the-real-story-of-the-last-35-years

    Excellent and balanced – why cannot BBC do similar

       19 likes

    • +james says:

      How true, the Socialist of North Korea are threatening the World with destruction, in the same way the Socialist of the Labour Party in the 80s threatened to destroy Britain.

         30 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Very good article, and there have been a few similar ones – full of inconvenient facts which contradict the The Left’s version of history – over the past week.

      ‘….why cannot BBC do similar’. Because it’s full of inconvenient facts……

         6 likes

  2. Pounce says:

    So the bBC reports how people from all over the country have converged on Trafalgar square in which to celebrate the death of Maggie. (Give the bbC credit for trying to pass it off as a protest about her funeral)
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22137848
    So how many people turned up out of a population of around 60 million, 1 million, 2 million, 3 million? well according to the bBC , 500 people (How many were tourists?) but at the time Plant reports that was down to 300.
    You see more people get off the tube at Leicester square , but to the bBC this shows to the world how much Maggie was hated. (I wonder how many were Romanian pickpockets?)

       79 likes

    • +james says:

      Why get wound up? Who was in Trafalgar square? Supporters of IRA horse bombers, supporters of greasy Argentinian fascists. supporters of Romanian and Albanian Communists and supporters of Labour’s policy of importing “Asian” groomers.

      You know, care in the community types, vandals and looters, mentally ill.

         88 likes

    • George R says:

      “Mastermind behind plans to disrupt Thatcher funeral is Oxford student whose parents live in £700,000 house in Tunbridge Wells”

      Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2308091/Dominic-Francis-Mastermind-plans-disrupt-Thatcher-funeral-Oxford-student-parents-live-700-000-house-Tunbridge-Wells.html#ixzz2QOJ8EOOV

         43 likes

      • London Calling says:

        Fancy that. Socialist-student politics spurred on by knowing you are going to inherit a million at some point. I trust he plans to redistribute it to the poor.

           46 likes

      • Doublethinker says:

        It wouldn’t be a surprise that if there was trouble on Wednesday some people were so hurt by the show of ill manners that they decided to teach some folks a lesson. Perhaps the potential disrupters should think twice before jeopordising their own safety. No doubt the BBC are well aware that the risk may extend to their own staff and have taken suitable precautions.

           34 likes

        • Richard Pinder says:

          Well, they can’t assassinate Maggie, so they will have too assassinate everyone at the funeral who voted for her in those three landslide victories of hers.

             11 likes

      • Sophie says:

        I went to the same college as this person and he is typical of many of the students and tutors who work there.
        Have a look at their facebook profiles and you will see what I mean.
        If there is anyone reading this blog/this post that is to do with the ministry of education or Conservative politicians they need to do something about that place.

           25 likes

        • Ian Hills says:

          Middle class lefties like Dominic Francis have now taken over Ruskin College, squeezing out the working class people for whom it was founded.

          Reminds me of good quality state schools, with the peasants now squeezed into sink comprehensives.

             20 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      300? Very Spartan.
      Crop that right and they can play BBC number semantics and maybe get it on par with the IDS petition.
      At the very least enough for choir and they can do a cover version of a certain song the BBC can then drive up the R3 classical charts.

         17 likes

  3. John Paul Jones says:

    They can’t help themselves. I have decided to attend the funeral on Wednesday.Not something I would normally do.

       29 likes

    • Pounce says:

      I’m thinking of doing likewise,I’m going to knock out hundreds of cards saying that the bBC informed the Argentines during the war that their bombs weren’t working which resulted in hundreds of British servicemen getting killed

         54 likes

  4. Scrappydoo says:

    Margaret: Death of a Revolutionary.
    I recomend this really excellent program about Margaret Thatcher.

    http://www.channel4.com/programmes/margaret-death-of-a-revolutionary/4od#3508791

       33 likes

    • Andy S. says:

      I have to give Channel 4 full marks for broadcasting this excellent documentary – even though it must have rubbed against their leftie mindset. It would NEVER have been made by the BBC.

      Did you notice how sour and small minded Kinnock and Toynbee were in their interviews? They both seemed to make disparaging and condescending comments about the “lower classes” at one point and showed their true attitudes about the people they spuriously claim to represent. Kinnock especially came across as an embittered old loser.

         74 likes

      • Big Dick says:

        Yes ,excellent documentary on Maggie , a true leader , the like we will never see again , in our lifetime ! Pissed myself, that the Axis of Evil (B-Bbc ) , was trying to hype up Trafalgar Square demo of less than 500 ,as some mass protest against , The Iron Lady ! Yeah Right !

           54 likes

      • Doublethinker says:

        Yes it was a programme which set the record straight as I see it. But of course if the BBC had produced this programme then I would be happy for them to broadcast a view from the other perspective.
        They are supposed to present a balanced view of the world and this can only be achieved by broadcasting differing points of view. Not just those of the liberal left which this programme took to the cleaners.
        If there had been more programmes like this, to counter the decades of let wing bile about Lady Thatcher pumped out by the BBC ,then those young ,impressionable, boys and girls,who only know the liberal left view of the 70’s and 80’s, wouldn’t be buying stupid songs and getting ready to turn their backs on a truly great prime minister.
        The BBC must be shut down. Who knows how to organise a Face Book campaign to refuse to pay the License Fee? How do we do this? I’m sure that many thousands would join within a week or two.

           54 likes

        • Old Timer says:

          Shutting the BBC down is not realistic in practice and a step too far for the Tory’s at the moment being part of a wet Liberal Coalition. And there are still folks that like the BBC apparently. Mind you, if the ones that come on here supporting the BBC are a representative sample, they are a very intolerant bunch of odd bods and generally take the BBC’s shilling anyway.

          It’s simple, just a couple of things need to change that shouldn’t cause too big a riot from the great unwashed. They also fit in with being a free enterprise, capitalistic country. We are still free and capitalist aren’t we?

          The first is allow the BBC to advertise and openly make profit. To be fair they do now of course via their investments in UKTV. “UKTV is a multi-television channel and video on demand (VOD) provider in the UK, formed through a joint venture between BBC Worldwide, a commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation and (now) Scripps Networks Interactive. It is one of the United Kingdom’s largest television companies.” That quote is from Wikipedia. Here is the link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UKTV

          The second step, bearing in mind they are already a commercial organisation, is to make the license fee (Household Poll Tax) a subscription service and then of course, optional. I will repeat that last bit for the hard of hearing “make the BBC license/subscription fee optional”. They can charge what they like for it of course.

          Job done!

          The BBC can then spout their anti-British, left wing and climate change messages to their hearts desire. At least I, and the rest of us, who do not want their mindless propaganda do not have to pay for it. What is more, honesty from them would be for them to admit a formal link with the Labour Party. The name British Broadcasting Company would then be an oxymoron, but then it is now if you think about it, so a new name will have to be chosen. Answers on a post card please.

             36 likes

          • Doublethinker says:

            Very happy to accept your proposals.

               10 likes

          • 45543 says:

            Seems a good plan to me. But, others may disagree:

            I, DAVID CAMERON, of 10 Downing Street, London SWIA 2AA, will say as follows:
            1. I have been asked by the Solicitor to the Leveson Inquiry to produce a statement and documents to assist the Chairman in his examination into the culture, practice and ethics of the press.
            ….
            63.In terms of securing a successful television industry, my experiences at Carlton also help explain why I have come to believe so emphatically in the BBC licence fee. A strong, well-funded BBC has helped to set a high standard in terms of national and international news and has promoted investment in original programming, both by the BBC and its principal competitors.
            ….

            (Note that even this level of nosing did not stop stuff such as the spider-web graphic.)

               15 likes

      • chrisH says:

        Agree entirely.
        A lot for me to think about…and for Warnock to eventually admit that she was “snob” was priceless.
        The tumbleweed between “LORD” Neil Kinnocks ears when asked if Thatch had done any good was joyful too.
        “Well alright!”

           29 likes

        • Frederick says:

          I loved that moment. You would think that after 30 years he would have some statistic or quibble at his fingertips but nope. The guy was always brain dead.

             19 likes

          • Wild says:

            Kinnock claimed that Margaret Thatcher was “literally” assassinated.

            Really?

            Kinnock is proof that becoming a multimillionaire at the taxpayers expense does not require brains, it just requires bottomless greed and a complete absence of conscience.

               33 likes

            • London Calling says:

              and a nice fat-cat job along with wifey Glenys, the pair of them. Never seen a better argument for getting out of the EU than the sort of people they appoint. One permanently Socialist European government run by a thousand Kinnocks…the New Toffs.

                 14 likes

              • Mark says:

                And Kinnocchio wanted us to leave the EEC (as it was) back in 1983. The EEC was a less socialist beast back then, with only ten nations in it

                   9 likes

      • chrisH says:

        This last week has really revealed what vermin lie dormant beneath the astrodomes that the left call their brains.
        Warnock and Kinnock, Jackson…and would recommend that “Night Waves” show lately with Hitchens on.
        Listen to Selina Hall (or whoever!)…the Oxford lefty…now HER likes are around, we can see the grade of lefty we`ve got these days.
        And that self loathing Brooklyn gal up against Edwina Currie on BH this morning(Selma something?)…jeez, the lefts flotation tanks are truly septic…and they hate us seeing it, but we they just have to show it every time they open their gobs.
        Thatcher is a blessing in death as well-that Selina said she was “not spiritual” as well…how many brassnecked oafs could we smelt to make just one Iron Lady?
        RPI Margaret-keep on shining a light on who the BBC like to wheel out to trash you…we`re learning by the day!

           33 likes

        • chrisH says:

          Oops…would Maggie forgive my dislecksia re RIP and RPI?…bloody Warnock and her SEN Report!

             8 likes

      • Doublethinker says:

        He did indeed. But lets remember that even as a loser he is now a multimillionaire thanks to the public purse of British and European Tax Payers and has never done a days work in his life.

           30 likes

        • Cosmo says:

          His wife has done even less. Given a job as MEP (£1M per 5year term) only voted in because of the farce of a PR system. Their joint earnings plus pensions, zillions.

             31 likes

      • John Guest says:

        That’s because he is.

           3 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      scrappydoo

      Sorry – I had not seen your post about the excellent Channel 4 programme when I left a link to it elsewhere.

      And yes – I don’t mind if Channel 4 or whoever screen a balancing polemic from a strong critic of Thatcher – in the same week, giving proper balance.

      I wish the whole “balance” thing was swept out of the TV and radio legislation – it is mostly ignored anyway. I would rather have honest bias – stations which were recognised as either left or right, giving the public a choice.

      But of course that would give Murdoch do “do a Roger Ailes/Fox News” – move into the huge market gap for a right-wing channel, wiping the floor with the leftie channels.. Or rather, as with Fox, a right-wing channel that still managed to put both sides of the issues properly, compared with the left-left-left pattern of the other channels.

         4 likes

  5. +james says:

    I remember when the BBC had on their main news that a woman had died in Ireland after allegedly not being given an abortion.

    However, the BBC have been very quiet about Dr Kermit Gosnell in Obamaland.

    There has been a blackout in the MSM in the States about this story. Read it hear….

    http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/04/why-dr-kermit-gosnells-trial-should-be-a-front-page-story/274944/

       16 likes

  6. Aerfen says:

    Why?
    Whats the theory?

       0 likes

  7. stuart says:

    dont be fooled by these posh boys and girls who call themselfes socalist workers party/class war.they are all the product of rich mommys and daddys with wealth we can only dream about,these lot are fakes who just like to rebel against there middle classness and all live in the leafy surburbs in there £1 million pads.just ask ed miliband/harriet harman.

       37 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      The Beeboids always claim to love Dylan, the Stone Roses and whatever is next up at Glasto. In fact this should be their My Tune (ooops… did I just reference Dave Lee Travis?)

         0 likes

    • chrisH says:

      No wonder the lefties hated the Poll Tax.
      We`d know just how many houses Kinnocks were taking up as well as the likes of Braggs Bistro out in Dorset.
      We`d know as well how many house the likes of Polly and Stansgate owned and how their kids were prospering, whilst daddy and mumsy were checking on Umbrias grapes or the olives of Thrace( Toynbee, Humphrys respectively).
      Tell you what-let our lefties volunteer how many bedrooms they`ve got spare, and give them to the Occupy/travellers and Bulmanians heading over here soon…and give them to them by way of a voluntary solidarity levy.
      All those spare houses could surely prevent the likes of Philpott from going that bit too far in a search for a bigger house.
      What of it Prezza, Kinnochio, Toynbee, Stansgate, Humphrys….shouldn`t need to recreate the Poll tax as a tribute to the Witch, should we?

         18 likes

  8. David Brims says:

    Watching the petulant adolescents rejoicing in London, Bristol and the Soviet city of Glasgowgrad ( twinned with Stalingrad ) It was like a scene from a Hieronymus Bosch painting.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h-OgzO-ELc

       34 likes

    • Ian Hills says:

      Apparently a revolutionary crowd of 500 vanguardistas brought Glasgow to a screeching halt. Fan my flies, they’ll be firing on the Winter Palace next.

         11 likes

      • Mark says:

        Another reason for Scotland to go it alone – we’ll be rid of the Red Weegies. If there is one sound I hate, it’s them.

           10 likes

  9. Sinniberg says:

    Remember that original BBC photo of the soldier “screaming” at a “Palestinian” which was used to “represent” Israel during the Olympic Games?.

    This looks strangely familiar:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22089936

    What a load of racist, made-up tosh that Israelis are a bunch of blunt, loud-mouthed cretins.

    I noticed this morning that they’ve now included a “cartoon”.

    It just beggars belief……..

       21 likes

    • Sinniberg says:

      Oops, apologies – I was too bleary eyed to see a dedicated thread had already been posted on the “Frankly Speaking” article.

         2 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      “I noticed this morning that they’ve now included a “cartoon”.’

      Nothing wrong with that, surely?
      What possibly could happen in reaction in civilised society?
      The BBC must have felt it was entirely appropriate, in this case.

         11 likes

  10. thoughtful says:

    A survey about the banking industry complaints 20% say their complaint was not properly resolved.

    I wonder what the figures are for bBC compaints

       24 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Oo, goodie, a survey.
      Tend to be a bit dubious on these depending on who commissions them and with what intention.
      Whose was/is it?
      Actually surprised how low that % is, but may be a function of the procedures in complaint there are, and how they work.
      I complained to Santander a while ago about their reneging on an Abbey free banking commitment, and within a week I had forms and leaflets explaining how to escalate beyond their internal systems if a resolution could not be reached. Which it luckily was.
      It will indeed be interesting to see how the BBC ‘reports’ this, given they self-regulate the whole way, and institute delaying and obfuscation methods from the get-go, to the point a BBC Trust committee will find the BBC gets it about right a year or more later.
      Maybe an FoI question as you pose is worth it, if only to get them to again invoke exclusions to accountability the BBC would tear any other corporation a new one for attempting.

         8 likes

  11. thoughtful says:

    Apparently North Korea is a Nazi State, I guess that’s the bBC accepting at long last that the Nazi party were actually socialist? Or could it be that they can’t even admit to themselves that the left wing could be evil?

       34 likes

  12. George R says:

    “Savile probes to cost BBC £10million: 19 witnesses were allowed up to £50,000 of legal advice.”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2308737/Savile-probes-cost-BBC-10million.html#ixzz2QQX5dv83

    Of course, it is BBC licence-payers who will have to foot this bill.

       30 likes

    • Ian Hills says:

      Not from Ariel –

      “Internal whitewash allows police to frame old white blokes to distract public from moslem grooming.”

         9 likes

  13. thoughtful says:

    An interesting piece from a radio 4 contributor I bet the Beeb didn’t expect, just how sexist ‘the witch is dead’ actually is! It seems that double think is alive and well with the usual unthinking lefties.

       25 likes

    • chrisH says:

      This the Tory lady on BH?
      That lefty who was condoning the use of the word witch sums up the airhead mentality of lefties chosen by the BBC to represent “the sisters”, such as Helen, Caroline, Jenni and Jayne.
      And these vacuous fa packing opinionated airbags have the NERVE to scorn Essex girls or TOWIE types.
      At least their opinions come from Closer magazine…far safer to me than the tripe from Essexuni Gendastudiz that this lot of herpies have swallowed hook line and sinker.
      Warnock?…Ashton?…Harman?…Jowell?…low grade witches, so it turns out!
      Me being sexist then?…oh dear!

         19 likes

      • Richard Pinder says:

        I thought Glenda Jackson physically looked very much like a Witch when she squealed “Gweedy” “Gweedy”.

        And she was not acting either, it was for real, she REALLY is a WITCH.

           27 likes

        • chrisH says:

          Poor Glenda…from Oscar type actress, to lost and losing Hampstead voice of the whoopee cushions like Miller, Rushdie and Warnock.
          Somebody left the old guy too near the Aga, because her face seems to have melted.
          Or can they take an arse and transplant it completely onto the face these days?
          Poor bitter Glenda…a life less wasted would be hard to imagine.
          And Thatcher not feminine enough?…I think the thunder last night was the sound of them all rocking with laughter up there.
          Glenda not Andrea Dworkin enough then?…or am I sexist, like she is?

             25 likes

  14. noggin says:

    hello! bbc? … panorama, anyone? … maybe we need another undercover mosque (council) from ch 4s dispatches?
    just checked on that sharia special … on the panorama bbc site …
    yep! must have folded quicker than a cheap bedouin tent

    … meanwhile
    bradford council for mosques – Muslim leaders in Bradford want to set up a islamic court in the city to set a good example for (ahem!), all other towns and cities in the UK to follow. …. HELLO 😀
    Talks were taking place for Bradford to have its own Sharia panel … hmmmm get this

    “There is a strong case for the Shariah councils to be better resourced and supported to make their work standardised to ensure consistency and quality across the board.”
    Mo Mushtaq “the work of the Shariah council now needed to be recognised at Government level and better resourced with an agreed framework”. ???????

    oh! other sterling brainwashing … i mean enriching BCM projects
    Young Girls Development Project: The project provides a safe space for Muslim young girls to meet, plan activities and receive support from each other and a trained Muslim women youth worker …
    (trained in what? and by who?, sharia compliant?)
    sounds slightly suspicious to me, for all these “endangered” 😀 little cherubs …

    i d be interested in the list of the allowed “activities”

    http://www.wharfedaleobserver.co.uk/news/10352126.Ilkley_MP_speaks_out_against_Mosques____Sharia_law_bid/?ref=twtrec

       26 likes

    • noggin says:

      ps
      so it appears to the these concerned mosque dwellers, that the deeply flawed systemic failure called sharia, needs to be more regulated … to what?
      more ahem “scholars”, closer to the deeply flawed quran?
      what planet are these arrogant ignoramuses on?
      maybe they should appeal to the equally deluded “Muslim” Parliament of Britain, – a Parliament which actually holds no regular elections, or has any form of democratic accountability, holds no sway in law, run by an deluded ego maniac
      (who used to advise the quilliam foundation – take note)
      … so here in the UK is as welcome as a fart in a space suit

         10 likes

  15. Joshaw says:

    Apparently Grantham has a bishop (I don’t know why and I don’t particularly care) and he has suddenly become of interest to the BBC. He must find it intensely irritating that, not only is he being overshadowed by someone who left the town years ago, but he is also not going to get his fifteen minutes of fame on Wednesday.

    I think MT would be amused at the verbal gymnastics by people who want to damn her with the faintest praise they can get away with, without actually sounding churlish.

       22 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Seen the same trend throughout all the liberal lefty bedwetters too.
      Can you imagine what goes through little Kinnocks sad thatch whenever he is asked about his memories of Margret Thatcher?
      As if, had he pegged it…anybody would be asking Thatcher or Kissinger about HIM?
      Sheer torture for these failed lefties forever feted to be the windsocks and extras, as Thatcher helped end Commmunism, won wars and created a true revolution( as opposed to playing air guitar at Der Mauer like Barclay James Harvest roadies…the usual lefty pose!).
      Let`s ask Neil, Roy, Glenda, Tessa etc just how it felt to ride pillock on historys sidecar. The people who future historians will be writing about will only remember them if they were Spitting Images or Spitting feathers!
      Keep on asking them….make way for the mushrooms everybody!

         27 likes

      • thoughtful says:

        You should have a thought for what the consequences were.
        All the hard line lefties moved into education, ‘entertainment’, health, journalism, civil service, etc where they have proceeded to use their positions to influence (brainwash) kids and adults with their left wing beliefs.
        It needs another Maggie to root them all out again, but at the moment they have complete control and woe betide anyone who doesn’t agree with them.

           24 likes

        • Dave s says:

          The crux of the matter and vital to the future of Britain and in particular England as Scotland is looking a lost cause now.
          But the left dominance of the non productive part of the nation is not as secure as one might think. It depends on the wealth being created by the rest of us to sustain it. And that is not looking so good. The BBC I class as non productive as it is financed by taxation and so , by neccessity , will always cleave to the non productive camp. Lefties never really understand how wealth is created but they love spending it.
          Sometimes I wonder if their rage against the bankers is because the money tap suddenly got switched off . The modern brand of liberalism is completely dependent on taxation and that is dependent upon wealth being created. These idiots can moan and bluster all they want about Thatcherism etc etc but she understood exactly how a nation works. They don’t. Milleband, Balls and the rest are as clueless as my cat.

             21 likes

        • ChrisH says:

          You`re quite right.
          Sometimes I wonder if it has been systematic effort, but then you look at the calibre at these dullards and know that they`re only a bureaucracy seeking to make it to a pension.
          The beauty of seeing them all at the moment is to show them in the shadows , under their damp stones and blinking when Thatchers light shines on them.
          They`ll not easily be able to say anybody is nasty from now on-these are low grade,, venal creeps without an original idea or a principle.
          And these wannebe revolutionaries and grave robbers hope that any of us will remember them…Thatcher is the plumb line by which all others will be judged by.

             10 likes

          • Mark says:

            MT is being cremated, so the Left wouldn’t be able to desecrate her tomb, and not only that, by having her ashes placed in the grounds of a hospital, the aforesaid Left wouldn’t be able to use that as a focus of protest.

               14 likes

        • Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

          All the hard line lefties moved into education, ‘entertainment’, health, journalism, civil service, etc where they have proceeded to use their positions to influence (brainwash) kids and adults with their left wing beliefs.
          An excellent point that I have been musing on during the last few days. Mrs Thatcher did a great job in reforming manufacturing industry, the City, the unions etc but, as you say, left alone the major monopolies of the BBC, NHS, Police, Post Office etc, which are now the bastions of loony leftism, opposing any progress.
          And, worst of all, the socialists have been allowed to take over the schools and their exams, dumb them down and turn schools into places for social engineering instead of education. It is no surprise that the mjority of members of the Labour Party are teachers. Even basic education – the three Rs as it used to be called – now has to be provided after the kids leave school, by employers and universities.

             24 likes

  16. David Brims says:

    Hatchet faced, Rosa Klebb look a like, Soviet Commissar Glenda Jackson having a demented rant.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDtClJYJBj8

    And to think, we could have been living in a socialist utopia if Michael Foot and Neil Kinnoch had been elected !!

       24 likes

  17. Miv Tucker says:

    I was curious why today’s play on R4 Extra – That Summer, by David Edgar (1993) – had been replaced by Murder on the Links, a Hercule Poirot mystery.
    Edgar’s play is about the 1984 miners’ strike (http://www.radiolistings.co.uk/programmes/t/th/that_summer.html), so fair-dos to the BBC for cancelling an obviously contentious broadcast. On the other hand, it does kind of beg the question why this fairly large-scale (2 x 90 min) drama was commissioned in the first place…

       7 likes

    • Colditz says:

      Sometimes its better to find what the plays about before condemning it. Ironically I would have thought a lot of posters would quite enjoy it.
      http://www.radiodramareviews.com/id365.html

      Also, most people would consider the strike a major event worthy of drama. Don’t forget that Billy Elliot is set around the strike and its impact.

         6 likes

      • stewart says:

        “Also, most people would consider the strike a major event worthy of drama”
        How dare you claim to speak for the majority
        you should immediately hold a referendum to substantiate that claim.
        welcome back by the way

           7 likes

      • Miv Tucker says:

        What makes you think I didn’t see that?

        But whatever the subtleties, any differences were only of degree – none of the characters seems to ask any big questions about the strike itself. And it might have been more interesting if the two girls came from a family / district which had ignored the strike.

        Still, casting Paul Copley against type as a working class ex-miner was certainly a bold move.

        In any case, Radio 4’s willingness to commission this play – nearly 3 hours’ worth of valuable air-time – should be placed in the context of the BBC’s mealy-mouthed refusal to broadcast the somewhat shorter Falklands Play, surely a major subject at least as deserving of being seen / heard. (In fact, R4 did broadcast a version of the FP a few years ago, but how close it was to original script I cannot say. And I’m willing to bet we’ll hear That Summer repeated long before the Falklands Play is ever aired again.)

           10 likes

    • Rufus McDufus says:

      And why do they think we might get upset by a play about the miners strike in light of MT’s death, but promoting ‘Ding Dong’ and all the other nasty stuff is perfectly ok?

         4 likes

  18. stewart says:

    Anti-Thatcher song misses top spot
    Press Association – 52 minutes ago
    Another failure for the Stundent W#nker Party to get all twisted up about

       16 likes

  19. AsISeeIt says:

    BBC house magazine feature ‘Overheard at the BBC’ : The gift that keeps giving…..

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/ariel/19558501

    ‘I love action film but I hate violence, y’know what I mean?’.

    ‘…I can never find the ‘I’ in the alphabet. It should be up near the top, like ABCDEI…’

    …Photographer: Great, okay… Now how do you want to do the pose with the mosquitoes around you? We can super impose them in but-

    Actor: The mosquitoes?

    Photographer: Yeah, here it says-

    Actor: Oh! No, that’s mosques. As in where Muslims worship. That’s not an abbreviation…

       8 likes

    • Rufus McDufus says:

      “…The only item of any use they’ve got on the sat-truck is a butt plug…”

      WTF?

         0 likes

  20. thoughtful says:

    http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/

    Another useful post, this week quite a long one about Margaret Thatcher, and the BBC output:

    Moving on to the reactions to her death, on balance people support the BBC coverage of her death – 24% think it has been too positive, 16% too negative, 40% that they have got the balance about right.

    However, there is also wide scale rejection of people who have organised parties to celebrate her death – only 14% of people think this is acceptable, 75% unacceptable (including a clear majority of Labour party supporters).

       6 likes

  21. Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

    bBBC radio is getting its anti-Thatcher revenge every hour, on the hour tonight by reporting as a ‘news’ item that ‘Ding Dong the Witch is Dead’ has reached no.2 in their charts, although they tell us that ‘out of respect’ they only played a few seconds of it.
    So, out of respect, do they keep telling us that?

       34 likes

    • Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

      And they think it is the second most important news of the day, according to its position on the bBBC ‘News’ website.

         21 likes

    • John Wood says:

      Two things

      1) They should have played it!
      2) If all the hatred of the left against Thatcher could only buy a 51 second advert it rather suggests they are a poor juvenile minority.

         12 likes

      • Joshaw says:

        Quite true.

        It’s quite a pathetic effort really. The losers can’t even do satire well.

           5 likes

  22. Deborah says:

    Countryfile News; ‘UK Pop Star Buys Farm’. How else could they get their quota of black people into the programme? One member of the group JLS bought 10 acres (4 ha) ie a very small field and 3 chickens. Although he would like to farm (admirable ambition), he obviously knew nothing about agriculture and looked embarrassed throughout the piece. No story there really at all.

       26 likes

    • Big Dick says:

      Great minds think alike , I was wondering if that person had been white , it wouldn`t have appeared on Country File , I am constantly watching out for this insertion of non white people into programmes . When the Black Farmer was discovered , the Axis of Evil (bbc) couldn`t get enough of him , until they found out , he was a Conservative candidate in the 2010 election , then they dropped him like a stone.

         23 likes

      • Joshaw says:

        I still won’t buy his sausages.

        Refuse to buy food marketed on the basis of his race.

           4 likes

    • uncle bup says:

      Join us next week on Countryfile where we’ll be talking to Harry Styles who has just bought a flat-pack shed from Wickes.

         14 likes

  23. George R says:

    Leftist BBC-NUJ’s ‘top’ World News headline online is about leftist Chavez:

    “Venezuela votes on Chavez successor”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22141786

       6 likes

    • Mark says:

      I’m spooked by Madero – he reminds me of Saddam’s Latino cousin.

         4 likes

      • Mark says:

        I’m even more spooked – he’d just won by a margin of a little under 2% of the Venezuelan vote.

           3 likes

        • Span Ows says:

          Well they found a load of ballot in a few bins in Chavez’s home state and expat votes weren’t fully counted so I expect a few rumbles to come.

          That said, with Chavez only a month gone, the whole State machinery fully behind Maduro (including the military who’s spokesman came out last month vowing to do damage to the ‘fascists’…Capriles is a Leftie by the way), all the gov and state institutions are controlled by chavistas, all the purse-strings behind Maduro, 4 out of 5 Four directors of the Electoral Council openly and publicly chavista, congress controlled, Judiciary controlled, a huge network of community radios, TV channels, and the country’s most read newspapers controlled by chavismo etc etc …to win by less than 2% is a massive FAIL…and they know it.

             2 likes

  24. John Anderson says:

    Not sure if this has been posted – but Channel 4’s Saturday documentary on Thatcher was real quality. Yes it was pro-Maggie, a polemic, but it was well-researched and brought out a lot of stuff never heard in all the BBC coverage this week. For instance the sheer extent of state ownership – gas, water, electricity, coal, posts, telecoms, airports, airlines, car manufacturing, aerospace ,manufacturing, computers, steel, railways, freight transport, – right through to Pickfords removals and Thomas Cook ….. All on top of the public services – health, education etc etc.

    The main theme of the programme is the view that Thatcher was far more on the side of the working family than Labour. A genuine radical, spurning the failed consensus of both Labour and Tory governments since the war,

    And as well as sharply reducing taxes, she hacked into Britain;s level of debt. Stunning, really – I do not think the BBC has at any point shown how deep her changes ran.

       24 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      here’s the link to the Channel 4 programme, still availanle :

      http://www.channel4.com/programmes/margaret-death-of-a-revolutionary/4od

         9 likes

      • David Brims says:

        Enoch Powell on Margaret Thatcher from a 1995 documentary.

        ” She was following my ideas but did she understand them ?”

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXi6TMG8hTE

           7 likes

        • David Brims says:

          Margaret Thatcher on Powell

          ” Enoch was the best parliamentarian I ever knew.”

             16 likes

          • Mat says:

            Poor Enoch a man derided abused lied about and ignored ! because he said something the left didn’t like !
            Now if he was a left-batter with blood on his hands he would be a cultural icon and all round hero ! !

               15 likes

            • Wild says:

              The further Left you go politically the keener they are to cause death and suffering – the guillotine, the anarchist bomb, the torture chambers of Pol Pot, are the logical endpoints of their psychopathology.

              When you see the Left venting their hatred against Margaret Thatcher it is like watching Stewie Griffin on Family Guy – presumably a self-portrait by some of its Leftist authors – having a tantrum.

              Watching grown-ups behave like that is not only atavistic and pathetic it is also rather sad. The Left has nothing (and never has had) anything to do with love.

              No wonder Leftist marriages are generally so unhappy – they cannot transcend their infantile narcissism.

                 9 likes

    • Seek the Truth says:

      I couldn’t agree more; it was a fascinating programme that I think put the record straight, and dispelled a lot of the myths and lies that have been told about her, especially in this past week. I too, did not realise just how much she did for Great Britain.

      I have to admit that one bit that really spoke volumes was when the Welsh windbag was put truly on the spot towards the end of the programme. He was asked something like ‘ was Great Britain in a better state when Margaret Thatcher left office than when she entered it?’ The look on his face is something I will never forget – he knew he should have said ‘yes, of course it was’, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it, instead coming out with something weak and meaningless along the lines of ‘well, I would have to check the figures’!

         24 likes

    • Dave s says:

      It can never be said enough-state ownership does not work.
      Never has and never will. The nationalisations of the 1940s were a disaster that set the stage for our decline.
      The BBC is effectively state owned despite it’s charter giving it a veneer of independence. The money comes from taxation. It does not work and it never will.

         8 likes

    • It's all too much says:

      I watched the film and was amazed that it got on the air. The best bit were the two Kinnock segments – ‘why didn’t Labour reverse her changes? (er um…..) and ‘was Britain a better place at the end of her term (er umm)’

      The film placed a lot of current political environment into perspective. It is quite clear that Thatcher actually converted the real ‘working class’ – leaving Labour with the Public sector, the benefit aristocracy (how else would you describe an entirely non working class that live millionaire lifestyles – see my post below – exercises political control and constantly grants itself more and more every year) and the need to import new supporters.

      I suspect that mass immigration was a fundamental policy decision by Labour explicitly to counter the ‘pernicious’ effects of aspiration and work leading working class people away from their ‘natural leaders’

      It is about time we had a frank and accurate documentary series about the 1970’s, exploring the social political and economic state of the nation: the abject failures of Wilson, Heath and Callaghan the rampancy and arrogance of the TUC. I was around in the 70’s and for any junior Labour / BBC trolls who think ‘Fatcher was evil here is a piece of entirely unbiased and accurate historical reportage. The 70’s were shit in every single aspect.

         9 likes

  25. AsISeeIt says:

    BBC 5 Live this morning and a very sympathetic hearing is given to campaigners who wish to further expand the Welfare State.

    We are told we really ought to recognise ‘kinship carers’.

    A grandmother whose drug addicted daughter had her son taken into care and took on the caring for her grandson complains ‘I got no help from the Government!’

    There should be a special allowance insists a Big Lottery Funded campaign ‘charity’.

    Naturally their ‘research’ tells us most of these kids are ‘in poverty’.

    Here’s a wheeze. Let’s all swap our children with other family members and then we can call ourselves ‘kinship carers’ and claim some new ‘allowance’.

    Potty Nanny Statism brought to you courtesy of the BBC

       18 likes

    • thoughtful says:

      Having been in this position I can tell you that what they’re looking for is absolutely not ‘potty nanny statism’

      That comes in the form that they take kids and the elderly into care in the first place! £50K pa is the cost of taking a child into state care, yet if a family member looks after them the state just drops all its responsibilities and gives the new carer nothing at all! And we could be talking no child benefit either.

      While we’re not talking about £50K pa an amount of say £5K pa a tenth of what it would cost could be given to offset the additional costs of taking someone into your home.

      This makes good economic sense it saves the state a fortune and keeps families together especially when a sick family member recovers and family life is able to resume.

      Have you seen the products of the state raised kids? These are the victims of the Moslem grooming gangs with ‘carers’ unable to impose any kind of discipline, they can’t even give the kids a hug.

      Hmmmmmmmm £5K and a stable well raised child, or £50K and a life long problem adult. I think I know which I’d choose !

         4 likes

      • Deborah says:

        Whilst Thoughtful I can see your argument I can also see AsISeeIt’s argument that those who know how to play the benefit system would be ‘swapping’ children to maximise their income. Don’t know if it still applies but a colleague in the throws of a divorce taunted her husband until he lost his temper and hit her… the result was that there was evidence of domestic violence, she got £1,000 towards her divorce costs plus free counselling (her husband had to pay his part).

           7 likes

      • AsISeeIt says:

        Thoughtful
        I take your point that children being cared for by alternative family members is prefeable to the State’s idea of ‘care’. A good point well made. However, I am uneasy when I hear phrases such as ‘the state just drops all its responsibilities’ used in terms of child rearing. Call me an unreconstructed Thatcherite but my instinct is that parents and their wider family do indeed hold the first and most important responsibilty for their children’s welfare – not the State. Then you pluck a figure of £5000 per child out of the air. Where did that come from? As a backstop to save £50k, yes, it sounds a reasonable saving – but have you not heard of the law of unforseen consequences?
        Where’s my £5000 per child for not casting all the little AsISeeIts off onto the care of the State?
        Could we trust the State to weed out the Philpotts of this world and prevent them claiming for all and sundry sprongs?
        My point about swapping kids, as you will know, is in large part sarcastic.
        Back to BBC Bias – is it the function of our national broadcaster to unquestioningly press for further extentions of the Welfare State?

           8 likes

        • AsISeeIt says:

          Those sprongs are of course sprogs

             0 likes

          • thoughtful says:

            I think the issue of family carers is a much wider one than kids being taken into care, and I’m particularly touched by the children who forfeit their childhood looking after parents who are disabled or ill possibly terminally. If we can’t spend state money on these child carers then what is the point of a welfare state at all?
            When it comes to children being looked after by other adults you report that ‘I got no help at all’ often that is literally true. Wheras the parent gets all kinds of benefits such as child benefit the new carer receives literally nothing, this cannot be right!

            On the other side of the coin children abandon their parents to be cared for and the state is expected to pay ! Not that long ago we looked after our elderly at home and the offspring should have to pay in full for this care if they choose to abrogate their family duty.

            Why should it be raised on the BBC, well why not? There’s a point to be made and it seems it’s quite a powerful one too. I guess the BBC doesn’t always know what its contributors are going to say when they are invited on air so it’s difficult to provide someone to put the opposing view.

            On the other hand why do I want to hear about the Somalis in Cardiff (twice in one day) and all about how marvellous multiculturalism is?

               2 likes

  26. thoughtful says:

    ARRRRrrggghhhhh
    He just won’t lie down ! Yet another report on Ughgo shavezzzzzzz on the Today program at 08:30 not a short one either . Is there no end to the mourning of these obsessives at the bBC? I know some have received an allowance for legal advice, but I wonder if the money wouldn’t be better spent on psychiatric assessments?

       12 likes

  27. Guest Who says:

    Sometimes you need Mrs Merton..

    George Galloway
    @georgegalloway: Im on Daily Politics at 12 on BBC then Sky News at 1.30. Thatcherites watch-out the Big Cat is about…

    “What was it about the heat over light predictable nutter Galloway that first attracted our ratings obsessed or agenda-driven broadcast kindergarten production teams to book him in another round of ther studios at this time… Again?”

       14 likes

    • David Brims says:

      George Galloway must suffer from ASB, which is Attention Seeking Behaviour syndrome .

      Galloway, his finest hour, in red tights, dancing and miming on Big Brother. He’s shameless.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBe-jMLuFN0

         9 likes

      • noggin says:

        old “allah”way is pushing for a block on that farcical PMQs cancellation … mee – ow! … always first with the self publicity

        mind you .. there should be block, on that expensive, and unwarranted tory charade on wednesday anyway

           6 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        What Mr. Galloway suffers from, sartorially, ethically, mentally or otherwise can only be of concern to any with sympathy for those a few pistachios short of a baklawa, but I remain curious as to why he is being inflicted by the MSM on a long-suffering public on such as the Daily… er… ‘Politics’ show if they are serious about being thought anything other than a bunch of ratings-addicted stirrers too.
        Who will be the ‘balance’ on the sofa, Kev ‘Tory Toffs’ Maguire or Polly ‘My villa sale funds are now none of your business’ Toynbee?

           13 likes

  28. Fred Bloggs says:

    It’s a matter of attitude/approach: R5L about 10,10 VD is talking to police about the weekends football violence. Her first question is not ‘what happened give an explanation’, but ‘what went wrong’. Always try to make the authorities look bad.

    I mused; what if she was interviewing Panorama about N Korea, would she ask the same question, ‘what went wrong’.

       16 likes

    • noggin says:

      while driving back today, i heard her nonsense on those “poor little loves” in Gitmo, apparently on hunger strike, because they have to have their korans checked
      … as true to form, the b-stards were using their supposed holy book, as a conduit to sneak paraphernalia
      messages etc, around that they shouldn t have.
      one is apparently nearly down to a 100 pounds?.
      oops! nearly forgot … baba achmed feels faint? …

      Old VD was all on her best “concerned” deep sigh mode,
      but never did ask what he was doing in afghanistan? or why he wanted to meet osama bin laden? did he take a wrong turn on the way to the chippy?

      i wonder baba still looks like that little blue elephant he used to be?

         12 likes

  29. Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

    I had to stop listening to the bBBC this morning … benefit cuts, benefit cuts, benefit cuts, did we mention that the nasty Tories have cut benefits? Apparently a few people who used to take lots of our money are now going to have to make do with a bit less, starting from today. No other medium thinks this is ‘news’ but for the bBBC it is the only story.

       19 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘Apparently a few people who used to take lots of our money are now going to have to make do with a bit less… for the bBBC it is the only story.’
      To be fair, it is a funding model they do have a unique affinity with amongst the broadcast community.

         9 likes

  30. AsISeeIt says:

    At the weekend Andrew Neil brings us politics and debate with a degree of balance that is alien to Andrew Marr and the rest of the BBC.

    Sadly his show is interrupted by a ‘politics where you are’ segment.

    Queue the usual suspects – the BBC regional activists formerly of the minority unit.

    In London we say hi to Anita Anand a face for radio sitting in for ‘Face of London’ (TM BBC) Rizla Teeth.

    Opening the debate on Mrs T our Anita says ‘well I want to talk about racism… a report from Australia says….’

    The BBC: Very predictable – no less annoying.

       16 likes

    • Doyle says:

      In the north west we get Arif Ansari. To present the regional Sunday Politics there must be a prerequisite to be ‘asian’ i.e. a Pakistani muslim.

         9 likes

  31. Charlatans says:

    This link from the Mail is part of the balance that I would expect from my TV tax.
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2308755/Which-PMs-sacked-miners–Clue-It-wasnt-Lady-Thatcher—The-amazing-facts-make-mockery-rabble-want-wreck-funeral.html
    No wonder we are complaining in droves on a free speech site like this. I get so angry when I have to go elsewhere to ensure I get a factual picture. Please someone in the Government grab this nettle and propose the licence fee is transferred into a voluntary subscription, please.

       17 likes

  32. Joshaw says:

    Not about the BBC (directly), but I had to laugh at this:

    Hampstead – The wilderness years

       5 likes

  33. Louis Robinson says:

    The utter silence of the media in one of the most sensational murder cases in recent US history is astounding. The details are too horrible to express here but please google and find out for yourself.

    The name of the accused is “Dr” Kermit Gosnell.

    When you have read the charges (seven counts of murder) ask yourself why media outlets like the BBC have ignored this case.

       9 likes

    • Joshaw says:

      For the same reason they’ve ignored certain other crimes – like the murders committed by Reginald and Jonathan Carr in Wichita, 2000.

         4 likes

    • Dave s says:

      It makes hard reading so I expect the sensitive souls at the BBc prefer to ignore it. Daniel Greenfield covered it on Saturday at his Sultan Knish blog. Be warned. It is harrowing.
      Greenfield is very unlikely to be quoted by the BBC. Far too controversial . In the wrong way that is.

         3 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      Louis

      The most damning criticism of the mainstream media’s deliberate avoidance of the grisly late-term abortion/infanticide trial is this photo of the empty press benches at the court. :

      http://hotair.com/archives/2013/04/12/photo-of-the-day-media-row-at-the-gosnell-trial/

      The abortionist could be the biggest mass-murderer in US history – but no coverage because the press is overwhelmingly pro-abortion with no limits

         6 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Timothy McVeigh murdered more people. Although he was not black or part of an industry sanctified and protected by the Left.

           1 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      I brought this up the other day, saying that the BBC didn’t have to report it because their fellow travelers in the US Left-wing media have been trying to suppress it. There were less than a handful of mainstream media reports over two years ago when the story first broke, and that was it. That was long before many of the more grisly details came to light.

      Now they can’t make much of it because they know all too well that the story could be used by those who oppose the abortion culture in the exact same way the President and the media (and the BBC) have been using the Sandy Hook tragedy to curtail gun ownership rights.

      The journalists and editors know exactly what they’re doing here. There will surely be some who simply don’t realize their personal ideology is blinding them from seeing it as a major story, but most will surely be more clued-in, and understand the potential.

      It’s only starting to get wider press now (the NY Daily News may have a nominally conservative-ish editorial page, but it’s been a very Left-wing paper otherwise for a few years now) because of the outcry raised by various non-Left blogs and smaller publications.

      But don’t take my word for it, as I may be merely fantasizing about the inner thoughts of people I’ve never met. Let them explain it to you for themselves, and judge for yourselves:

      http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/04/12/kermit_gosnell_the_alleged_mass_murderer_and_the_bored_media.html?fb_ref=sm_fb_plugin_activity

      http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/04/why-dr-kermit-gosnells-trial-should-be-a-front-page-story/274944/

      http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/opinion/sunday/douthat-media-balance-and-bias.html?_r=1&

         7 likes

      • Louis Robinson says:

        Thank you, David. Reminds me about how the death camps in Nazi Germany were never mentioned during the war. I read a history of the New York Times saying the victims of the holocaust were identified as “Jews” only twice.

        History will judge this era with the same incredulity. I heard a statistic today that flawed me: a MAJORITY (over 50%) of babies in the USA are born either to unmarried mothers or aborted. The world has gone mad.

        Socialism may claim to give people cradle to grave care – but only if they can only get to the cradle safely!

           6 likes

        • Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

          Remember the Freakonomics theory that abortion was the major driver underlying the drop in US crime figures? A higher proportion of those who were aborted would have become criminals than of those that were born.

             3 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      There’s an interesting analysis in the comments below the main body of the piece too.

         2 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Seems like the “She destroyed lives” crowd don’t want to hear the facts about who closed what and didn’t do what when.

           5 likes

        • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

          And they also wont ask just why their previous NueLiebor, didnt reopen any of the mines, which were so tragically closed tearing the heart out of so many communities.

             3 likes

          • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

            Hope span ows picks up the link.

               0 likes

          • Mark says:

            The protesting miners and their sympathisers could have saved a lot of money by converging on Huddersfield and trashing the statue of Harold Wilson instead.

               1 likes

  34. George R says:

    £10million = £10 million.

    Much of ‘left’ is trying to make political capital out of possible £10 million cost of ex- P.M Margaret Thatcher’s funeral.

    There is no such ‘left’ complaint about BBC’ spending of £10 million of licence-payers money on legal costs relating to Savile case.

    “Savile probes to cost BBC * £10 million: 19 witnesses were allowed up to £50,000 of legal advice”

    [* BBC licence-payers.]

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2308737/Savile-probes-cost-BBC-10million.html#ixzz2QXG0fc9e

    “Preparing to say goodbye: Mark and Carol make final arrangements as Lady Thatcher’s daybreak funeral rehearsal goes off to a T.
    “More than 700 serving armed forces personnel took part today in Central London – many with link to the Falklands War.
    “Flag-draped coffin was taken on 19-minute journey to St Paul’s at around 6am.
    “Organiser Major Andrew Chatburn says the rehearsal ‘went very well’ and was a ‘vitally important’ preparation.”

    By MARK DUELL and MARTIN ROBINSON

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2309172/Margaret-Thatcher-funeral-Eerie-London-scene-daybreak-hundreds-servicemen-rehearse-PMs-funeral.html#ixzz2QXGrnJ8P

       10 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Value for money is of course such a subjective thing, especially in such unfortunate cases as a funeral.
      But then, we have, Going For A Gong, or the Gong Show…
      http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/gong-bill.html?
      I am hard pressed to immediately see the end-benefit to licence fee payers of such ‘investments’, along with abusee payoffs, failure compo and massive legal bills on the public purse.
      In fact, such things seem more designed to drive up the negotiating position of ‘market rate’ talents, which could almost see public funding folk getting awarded to be worth more, as going beyond conflict of common sense.

         2 likes

    • Mark says:

      The BBC obtained £3.6 billion in licence fee revenue in 2011-2012. That works out at £10 million per day. Coincidence ?

         1 likes

  35. George R says:

    Beeboids, EU and opposition to Press Freedom.

    Another self-interested political reason for Beeboids to support European Union:-

    “EU uses public cash to back groups that want to stifle Press freedom.
    “Brussels flows money to organisations opposing press freedom.
    “One organisation is a key partner of Hacked Off.
    “Critics say EU wants to punish critical press.”

    By DANIEL MARTIN.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2309152/EU-uses-public-cash-groups-want-stifle-Press-freedom.html#ixzz2QXJCyV8b

       8 likes

    • George R says:

      “Press freedom is at risk from all sides.”

      By DAILY MAIL COMMENT.

      Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2309099/Press-freedom-risk-sides.html#ixzz2QXMSJvAe

         6 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Similar problem in the US these days.

      James Goodale: It’s a bad time for press freedoms

      James Goodale has a message for journalists: Wake up. In his new book, Fighting for the Press (CUNY Journalism Press, 2013), Goodale, chief counsel to The New York Times when its editors published the Pentagon Papers in 1971, argues that President Obama is worse for press freedom than former President Richard Nixon was.

      The Obama administration has prosecuted more alleged leakers of national security information under the 1917 Espionage Act than all previous administrations combined, a course critics say is overly aggressive. Former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller wrote in a March op-ed that the administration “has a particular, chilling intolerance” for those who leak.

      I wonder if Mark Mardell, who thought it was so wrong for Mitt Romney to limit press access during one short trip to Europe that he blogged about it not once but twice, would suggest that racism lies behind Goodale’s criticism of the President.

      Why aren’t more people angry about what they see as Obama’s aversion to press freedom?

      They don’t believe it. I actually have talked to two investigative reporters who are household names, and I said, “Do you realize what’s happening to you if this goes forward?” And I talk, I get no response, and the subject shifts to other parts of the book. No one seems to care.

      So you think that if John McCain or Mitt Romney were the president and doing this, there would be a different response?

      We’d be screaming and yelling and the journalists would be going crazy. And that doesn’t speak well of journalists.

      Hmm. I thought this kind of thing was just the delusional witterings of old, single, angry white men with no redeeming qualities venting on an obscure blog that nobody reads. Yet, here’s someone from the NY Times saying exactly the kind of thing about media bias that we’ve been saying here for years.

         7 likes

  36. John Paul Jones says:

    No a big fan of this programme, or of Brain Blessed, but on this occasion, just enjoyed Blessed. Mad as hatter.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01ry872/Have_I_Got_News_for_You_Series_45_Episode_2/

       2 likes

  37. George R says:

    BBC-NUJ politically indulges Galloway, again.

    BBC-NUJ does not criticise (Muslim?) Galloway for hypcritically pretending that he is an enthusiast for Britain’s parliamentary democracy, when he rarely turn up.

    “Will Galloway turn up today, and try to speak? If so, will the Speaker call him?”

    By Paul Goodman.

    http://conservativehome.blogs.com/leftwatch/2013/04/will-georgegalloway-turn-up-today-and-try-to-speak-if-so-will-the-speaker-call-him.html?

       7 likes

  38. It's all too much says:

    I read the article on benefit changes on the web page this morning and was treated to a long whine by a single mother of three (white, middle class – carefully selected by the BBC) living in a nice prosperous looking house saying

    “I may have to cut back on gas usage, its really that bad”

    Oh my God, she may have to turn the heating down a bit. Oh the truly Dickensian squalor, one step from starvation…….She gets #500 a month tax free and entirely gratis from me; #26,000 per year for doing nothing whatsoever and she has the ***king gall to whine about having to reduce her gas usage. Does the BBC have any idea how these stories play in the public – the working public? It was very apparent that she was very comfortable indeed and no one asked her why the **** other people should have to work hard to pay for her and her progeny; after all she was articulate and able bodied and certainly capable of getting a job. Perhaps the thought of 38 hrs per week at work and another 15 hours commuting (@ #3,500 PA to the railway company) didn’t appeal, nor the fact that she would have to earn something in the region of #60K to have the same disposable income.

    This thought inspired me to do a very rough fag packet calculation. To generate #50k gross UNEARNED income PA assuming a generous net interest rate of 2.5% you would need a capital sum of 2 million.

    In effect every single one of the benefit families on the ‘cap rate’ is living the life of multi-millionaires – funded by approx 40% of the population. Is it any wonder that this lifestyle is so attractive nationally and, of course, internationally?

       18 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      500 mnth = 26k year?

         1 likes

      • It's all too much says:

        sorry, obviously used to monthly pay hence the error – she was reported as getting

        #500 PER WEEK

           3 likes

    • Joshaw says:

      “a single mother of xxx”

      Is there any other kind of family these days? Not on the BBC.

      Unless the “loss” of the father is due to crime, war or ill health, I don’t see why her financial problems are my concern. Everybody in my circle of friends cuts their coat according to their cloth.

         8 likes

      • thoughtful says:

        Single mother is a euphemism to hide the shame of what they really are – unmarried mothers who have chosen to bear a child out of wedlock.
        A Single mother describes the very people whom you describe, those who have lost their spouse by what ever means.

        Single mother is generally held to be a socialist term to take away the stigma of being the parent of a bastard (note how that word is never ever mentioned these days either).

           4 likes

        • Deborah says:

          the only true single parents are those whose husband or wife have died; all others have a ‘partner’ that contributed to the procreation and should take responsibility for the children they helped bring into this world.

             2 likes

    • thoughtful says:

      Instead of giving the £500 a week to her would you please give it to me instead ? 🙂

      Just in the interest of balance the £26K does include rent and rates so someone with 3 kids will struggle, having said that if she got a job she’d be entitled to family credit up to a max of £26K

      Assuming a rent of £500 per month and rates of £1500 it’s still going to leave £350 per week. Push the figures North, perhaps London at £1000 per week and £2000 for rates and that leaves £200 per week.

      But of course it doesn’t work like that. There’s an amount for the adult plus each child, the limit comes in if they have enough children to reach it, or the rent & rates is too high.

      For those living in an expensive property the solution is simple – move somewhere cheaper, but for those with a large family, what are they supposed to do?

      I’m sure that the child poverty bunch will be on their high horse about this, but child poverty is often self inflicted.

      I’d like to see the government end extra benefits for women who get themselves pregnant just to claim, bring it in in 9 months time . Offer a long term contraceptive, and for those who don’t want it, a written agreement that they will support the child by their own means.

         2 likes

      • It's all too much says:

        My point is that the BBC in its odious bias seems incapable of telling the working public just how much is handed over to the non working population and that the BBC wails and wave shrouds around at ANY potential curb on the massively expanding welfare state. As it stands welfareism and our current political consensus is doomed, because when a parasite drains too much blood from its host, the host dies and so does the parasite.

        here is no way to change this insane situation easily as politically a) the BBC with its information monopoly opposes tooth an nail any changes
        b) the non working class out number the workers and they are not going to vote for an end to ‘free lunches’.

        As for the self pitying whines of the woman with an net income of 26K – I have to pay out of my POST TAX income for the following fixed costs
        Mortgage
        Council Tax
        Rail travel
        Insurance policies
        TV tax
        road tax
        and a pitiable few variable costs where I can affect the level of expenditure – such as
        Utility consumption
        vehicle fuel
        basic foodstuffs

        leaving me with some money that I can opt to, if I can afford them, spend on things like savings, a trip to the pub, restaurants, holidays or a new lap top

        Sometimes you know I have to turn the gas down and forego a trip to Waitrose. Perhaps those who don’t even go to work could do the same

           3 likes

  39. Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

    The latest episode in the Nationalised Death Service is that Stafford Hospital has been put into administration. But the bBBC’s ‘related stories’ are all about local campaigns to keep the hospital open, with no mention of the Francis report or the thousands of people killed by Labour’s NHS.
    Anyone new to the story would wonder why it is thought necessary to bring in outside management to “safeguard the future of health services”.

       7 likes

  40. George R says:

    Will the ‘Ding-Dong’ people try to burn this book?:-

    “Charles Moore lands first blow in battle to define Margaret Thatcher’s legacy and destroy ‘myths of the Left'”

    http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/charles-moore-lands-first-blow-in-battle-to-define-margaret-thatchers-legacy-and-destroy-myths-of-the-left-8570353.html

       3 likes

  41. George R says:

    What with ‘ding-dong’ and ‘chemistry’…

    “If I were a bell”

    Jean Simmons & Marlon Brando. (3 min video clip.)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLooMzB_lgc

    (Margaret Thatcher did study Chemistry at Oxford University.)

       0 likes

  42. Guest Who says:

    The word ‘precedent’ being raised…
    http://order-order.com/2013/04/15/cross-party-slamming-for-jeremy-i-♥-maggie-heywood/
    ‘A civil service that is not neutral is neutered”
    Indeed.
    Unless, one presumes, they are ‘unique’, which renders them unaccountable, amongst quite a lot else.

       3 likes

  43. Alan Larocka says:

    http://www.channel4.com/programmes/margaret-death-of-a-revolutionary/4od#3508791
    Contrast this with the filth on the BBC……….

       3 likes

    • Andrew says:

      Yes, it’s strange how different the world seems if you can ever take off the BBC’s rose-/red-tinted spectacles.

         3 likes

  44. George R says:

    Talking about Luton and Islam (which INBBC censors) :-

    “Four” [ ? ] “‘planned to bomb Territorial Army base’ with toy car”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-2

    Of course, Luton happens to be the home town of Tommy Robinson, a leader of the English Defence League (EDL), who has campaigned against the threats from Islamic jihadists, and Sharia law for some time.
    BBC-NUJ branch policies are to oppose the EDL.

       9 likes

      • Dave666 says:

        BBc 18:00 news. Banging on about benefit cuts again. So at a quick guess the benefit cap would result a wage of £30K ?How many people do I know on that? I think one maybe. So housing benefit is pushing up the Benefits, well move. I’d like to live in Chester but I can’t afford to. Perhaps if housing benefit money wasn’t being pumped in then landlords would be forced to reduce rents. Additionally there is the usual long list of exceptions to the rule, which of course hasn’t been mentioned.
        Labours response is to “guarantee jobs” well if that ever happens I’ll eat my hat. If I was doing that interview I’d of burst out laughing and demanded to know where these £30K p.a. jobs were going to come from.
        On Breakfast Reid spat her dummy out at the employment minister demanding to know where the poor woman on the article should cut. Food, heating or school trips. Yeah school trips..right. Maybe in some cases smart phones, large screen tv, fags, booze…etc..

           3 likes

  45. George R says:

    We know BBC-NUJ is not interested in promoting freedom of the press in Britain, to say the least.

    Neither is it interested in promoting freedom of expression in British universities, as it continues to relegate issues such as this:-

    “It’s time for universities to address segregation on their campuses.”
    By Shiraz Maher.

    http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2013/04/its-time-for-universities-to-address-segregation-on-their-campuses/

       3 likes

  46. billy whizz says:

    Ah, yes. The return of “men” on the BBC again. Marvellous. All four men look suspiciously like retarded muslim psychopaths. What a strange coincidence!

       5 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Maybe if the Beeb called them “circumcised chaps not of the House of David”; then that could help us all.
      I know it`s a mouthful…but having heard Front Row call Londonderry…”Derry/Londonderry” for 30 mins repeating this formula ad nauseum, it could not be worse.
      They`ve got some city of culcha thing goin` on soon, so I`m led to believe!

         2 likes

  47. Invicta 1066 says:

    BBC TV text button for UK news. Four British men plead guilty to terrorist charges, including a planned attack on a TA base.
    Note the term ”British”, no other description that might more accurately describe them, apart from their names of course and oh yes, they come from Luton!
    The BBC should give the full facts and let us make up our minds.
    Anybody catch last week’s similar attempt by the BBC to safeguard any details of the convicted Latvian rapist’s criminal record of rape and crimes of violence in his own country, the fact that he had been in prison there for 19 years, and three months after leaving prison he ends up here and commits a brutal rape?
    No, they just said he had pleaded guilty to rape and gave his name!
    Luckily we have so-called right wing newspapers who give the whole picture. Both cases are disgraceful biased reporting by the BBC designed to hide the whole truth.

       16 likes

  48. Exasperated says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22158585
    Millwall & Newcastle violence: Who is to blame for football chaos? by Biased BBC Sports Editor David Bond.

    Before reading the article guess who Bond points the finger at. I wonder if the police and government cuts get a mention?

       5 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Read it.
      I was wrong…no it was not bloody Margaret Thatcher to blame!
      Apart from that-police, cuts…yada yada…too much drink, not enough minutes silence for Jackie Milburn…and so it goes!
      BBC as comfy as an old slipper at times like these…it will all have been Thatchers fault by the time the Guardian seek their enquiries into these “episodes”

         2 likes