Victoria Derbyshire has on Bishop Nazir Ali (11:54) to talk about attacks on Christians…all going well until he mentioned Egypt when Derbyshire said:

‘Some might quibble…some argue that Muslims are now being targeted and that’s as bad as any other religious group being targeted.’

She goes on to mention that the Taliban claim that the attack on the church in Pakistan was in retaliation for American drone strikes….how does that explain attacks on Christians in Egypt or anywhere else?

Muslims being targeted in Egypt?  Well a political party is being targeted, the Muslim Brotherhood…one which bases its policies on the teachings of the Koran but it is a political party none the less….and of course the Army is ‘Muslim’ so it is a strange comparison from Derbyshire.

Also consider that when bombs went off in the UK the Muslims that carried out the attack were labelled ‘political’, ‘extremists’, and essentially not Muslims.

Yet now the highly political and extremist Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt are to be considered normal, everyday ‘Muslims’.

It seems now that your normal, non political Muslim isn’t really a Muslim, not a proper one in the BBC’s eyes…but the extremist Muslim Brotherhood are the true believers.

And on another topic….Derbyshire is interviewing Damien McBride tomorrow (Tuesday)….John Pienaar reckons if McBride thinks he’s ‘hard’ then he might have to think again….sounds like an interesting interview.

  Ed Balls today made a joke about Cameron and his beach towel then went on to hide his own embarrassment at Labour’s 13 years of destruction with a load of old flannel.

The BBC’s reaction to all that is going on with Labour at the moment?  Well…not too bad as I saw it….at least in parts.

John Pienaar was his usual Labour leaning self, in my opinion…with little in the way of hard hitting analysis of Balls’ speech.

This morning on Today Justin Webb had the job of tackling Balls. (07:35)  The interview was on the moderate side with no questions that Balls couldn’t easily bat aside.  Humphrys should really have done the interview, his style of interviewing would have rattled Balls far more.

Webb allowed Balls to get away with a lot of  that ‘flannel’.

For instance Balls said that the Socialism that Labour represented was not ‘economic socialism’..it was about values, policies with an ethical basis..fairness.  Webb didn’t challenge that claim that it wasn’t the economics of socialism that was being taken up once again by Labour.

Webb said that Labour were going to spend more but hadn’t laid out the ‘big picture’ of what cuts they would make and what actual plans they had.

Balls replied Labour would match the government’s spending plan but make different choices within that budget.

In contradiction to that, and his request to the OBR to scrutinize his plans,  he said the budget plans would only be published in the 2015 manifesto.

Webb didn’t react to either point…the first means that Balls has adopted Osborne’s Plan A…and the second point raises the question of just what would the OBR be looking at if Labour’s budget isn’t published until 2015…Balls has after all spent 3 years steadfastly refusing to disclose his spending plans whilst making claims that his spending plans would save the economy….and yet he always said he couldn’t publish the plans because he didn’t have the data…so how could he work out that plan in the first place?

The reliably awkward Andrew Neil however proved more hard hitting than Webb on the Daily Politics.….though the BBC have once again dragged in someone from the New Economic Foundation….she panned Labour…but only because they weren’t really socialist enough.

At 08:22  the Today programme delved into the murky world of Damien McBride who has lifted the lid to confirm what we already knew about the mad, bad and ugly goings on in Labour’s backrooms.

It seems also to have stirred the BBC into action…whilst they are reluctant to criticise Brown for his economic policies they apparently have no problem here slating him for his political machinations….and it seems apparent that Brown knew all too well what was going on and even ignored complaints from MPs and Cabinet members.

Later on Woman’s Hour brought on Harriet Harman and again the BBC laid into Brown in regard to McBride’s revelations with some reasonably challenging questions.  However once that little difficulty was out of the way it was all sisterly love and unity….eulogising about Harman’s feminist sensibilities.

Harman complained about the lack of women in Parliament….stating that the problem with Thatcher was that yes, she was a woman PM, but she did little to help women to enter Parliament and that Thatcher got to be PM by the shocking tactic of playing men at their own game…..whatever that means….is there a separate and different route reserved for women…bikinis and baking competitions rather than the trouble of having to win at the ballot box?

Harman was allowed to avoid answering the obvious question…she could have been Labour Leader and possibly PM if she had gone for the leadership, but she refused to take on the challenge.  How is it that a champion of women’s progress and someone who says she wants more women in higher profile jobs refused to put herself in the role that could have helped with that…apparently…if, as she claims, Thatcher could have helped women, why did she not take on the responsibility herself?

And no questions about her casting aside her feminist solidarity when it came to refusing to accept an all woman candidate list in a constituency her husband wanted to stand in.

All in all a mixed bag today….they were on the right track but the heart didn’t seem to be in it for the most part, lacking a bit of the necessary brutality when dealing with Labour’s politicians and policies…..a brutality necessary because whilst Balls made the hilariously unaware claim (having spent 3 years denying Labour had anything to do with the greatest economic crash in 100 years…and still denying it in his speech today) that Osborne can’t airbrush out the economic past, Balls and his Labour comrades are all wandering around the studios saying that McBride’s allegations are all things dragged up from the past, irrelevant, depressing, and you know what, let’s not talk about it.

The one thing that you can be certain about is that Roger Harrabin is an unapologetic cheer-leader for the AGW mob.

“Scientists are more certain than ever that greenhouse gases from human activities are heating the planet, the head of the UN’s climate panel says. Rajendra Pachauri made the comments in an interview with BBC News. The panel is due to deliver its latest report on the state of the climate later this week in Stockholm, Sweden.”

Chris Patten is the kind of guy who walks the plank last. So no big surprise to read that he has suggested that three out of five senior BBC managers could lose their jobs.

The former governor of Hong Kong praised the corporation for becoming more efficient but said viewers do not expect BBC bosses to be paid massive salaries and he wants to see a smaller, more accountable group in charge. Speaking at the Prix Italia in Turnin last night, he said: “There are still too many senior managers, around 2.5 per cent of the workforce at the last count.”

Cutting the bloat won’t remove the bias. Were the BBC uncoupled from the drug of the License Tax it would move instinctively to become less top heavy. That’s where the cut has to happen.

I thought this was interesting;  “Kenyan officials say they are in the final stages of bringing to an end the deadly stand-off with suspected al-Shabab militants at the Westgate shopping complex in Nairobi.” Erm, not quite. Kenyan officials refer to them as terrorists but the BBC feels a need to parenthesis around the term. Also, in what way are they “suspected”???? We have dozens slaughtered, Al Shabab stating it has carried out the atrocity, yet the BBC seems unsure? Further, I heard an “expert” on the BBC inform us that is a moderate side to Al Shabab? Really?

It’s Monday so time for a new one of these!

Germany is the most powerful nation in Europe, the most economically successful, the one with the most radical green programme…and one that is in the midst of an election.

You might have thought then that this would have been of interest to the BBC:

Germany industry in revolt as green dream causes cost spiral

Germany’s top economic adviser has called for a radical rethink of the country’s energy policies, warning that the green dream is going badly wrong as costs spiral out of control.

It seems not…I haven’t seen any recent mention of German problems with its drive to green the economy and energy sector….as it is seemingly having a massively damaging effect upon the economy and hence may be an election issue you could be persuaded of the case for a bit of news coverage by the BBC….especially as it reflects what is happening in our own economy and domestic fuel prices.

I’m certain the BBC environmental and political, and economic reporters are too busy elsewhere to report on the imploding of the biggest economy in Europe due to green policies….it couldn’t possibly be that they just don’t want you, the Public, to get the idea that all is not rosy in the Green garden.

The BBC does have time to report this outrage though:

Russia ‘seizes’ Greenpeace ship after Arctic rig protest

But if you are looking for a critical analysis of the IPCC’s leaked Fifth Assessment Report on climate change don’t ask the BBC or indeed the Guardian who have both launched pre-emptive strikes to try and stave off the critical sceptics:

This was from the BBC in 2012

 IPCC critical of climate change report leak

Don’t you just love the BBC…not investigating what the leaks say, or what others say about the leaks, but the BBC rushes to tell us what the UN tells us about the ‘leak’ itself and to defend the IPCC’s report whilst undermining any critics.

And the BBC doesn’t do it once…but twice…this from two days ago:

Climate leaks are ‘misleading’ says IPCC ahead of major report

And don’t forget this little white lie:

‘…the so called Climategate affair, in which leaked emails purported to show leading scientists trying to manipulate their data to make the report more damning.

Ultimately, several investigations showed the accusations of manipulation to be false.‘

 Well, only if you believe that those investigations were not a stitch up by the Establishment…which they were.

And then there is this classic from the Guardian:

Big business funds effort to discredit climate science, warns UN official

Climate change summit braced for counterblast from sceptics as report warns greenhouse gas emissions still increasing

Hardly a credible position to take when you consider the billions that are ploughed into the global warming scam by governments, big business and of course the BBC itself which provides extensive and priceless Media ‘cover’ for the corrupt politicians, fellow journalists and other cheerleaders for global warming.

An Israeli soldier is killed by a Palestinian and the story had all but vanished from the BBC website…relegated to the ‘most popular’ but now seems to have been resurrected on the Middle East page.

Interesting to see what they miss out in the report, the very short report….not much interest in a murdered Israeli soldier from the BBC?

A suspect – who Shin Bet said worked with the soldier – has been arrested.

The statement said he had confessed to killing Sgt Hazan in the hope that he could trade the body in exchange for the release of his imprisoned brother.

This information might have been helpful…all the way from the ‘China Daily’:

During the investigation in the Shin Bet, Amar said that the motive for murdering the soldier was to trade his body for the release of his brother, Nur Al Din Amar, a Tanzim Fatah operative imprisoned since 2003 for his involvement in several murderous attacks against Israeli citizens. 

The BBC’s report may be interpreted as seeking to elicit some sympathy for the Palestinian murderer…is there any doubt that he was driven to this desperate act when his brother, undoubtedly we might suppose, had been wrongly arrested and imprisoned by ‘occupying forces’ of the oppressive IDF?

You might want to compare the brevity of that report with the extensive coverage given to some diplomats who were ‘abused’ by Israeli soldiers as the diplomats decided to take part in a Palestinian protest…surely overstepping their authority and role.

A similar coyness and brevity is seen in the BBC’s reporting of the shooting in Kenya.

There seems to be a marked reluctance to mention the ’cause’ being ‘fought’ for by these gunmen.

The BBC refers to al  Shabab but refrains from mentioning Islam or Muslims until half way down the page.

Similarly this report from Pakistan:

Pakistan grapples with rising tide of extremist violence

It tells of attacks on Shias but not why they are attacked…because they are not considered ‘Muslim’ by Sunnis.

And curiously for a general report on extremism in Pakistan it makes no mention of Christians, Ahmadis, Hindus or Sikhs or any other group so targeted…this is the nearest the BBC gets to acknowledging their plight in this report:

Pakistan’s Shia minority, like the rest of the population, will not be protected.

An odd omission when this investigation comes on the same day of this report of an attack on a Christian Church:

Pakistan church blast kills dozens

There is absolutely no reason, or excuse, why references to such attacks aren’t made in the general report about extremist attacks if a much clearer, rounded view of things in Pakistan is to be appreciated. 

There should certainly be a brief ‘nod’  acknowledging these events when reporting similar ones for other communities…after all for over a year the BBC managed to append just about every report from the Middle East with the death toll from the Israeli 2009 Cast Lead operation in Gaza.

Anyone see the labour fest on Marr this morning. We had Lady Tuscany as the warm up act before the great Leader himself appeared. No matter how ingratiating Marr was Miliband was so poor that it really was a delight.

Hi all. Can see that Friday’s thread is fuller than empty promises from Miliband, so here’s a new one for y’all!