272 Responses to WEDNESDAY OPEN THREAD…..

  1. ember2013 says:

    The BBC have not let up linking the BAE decision to political machinations in government. Others say it was a commercial decision. The BBC knows otherwise.

       26 likes

    • George R says:

      I presume BBC-NUJ is not in favour of UK government developing drone military technology to use against the Islamic jihadist Taliban, which BBC-NUJ is so politically empathetic about.

         25 likes

      • Razer says:

        What I am getting hearty sick of is the reporting by all the networks of the ‘hundreds of years’ of shipbuilding in Portsmouth that has now gone. Portsmouth naval base closed for shipbuilding in 1967 and only reopened again in the mid 2000s when they started on the modules for the Type 45 destroyers and more recently the carriers. The only ship completely built in Portsmouth since 1967 was HMS Clyde in 2006. But hey, why let the facts get in the way of a good story. Even HMS Victory wasn’t built in Portsmouth. The Dockyard is to go back to what it was in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, a maintenance yard. Nothing new.

           7 likes

  2. DB says:

    This tweet by BBC World Service journalist Stephanie Hegarty pretty much sums up the BBC’s coverage of US politics:

       51 likes

  3. Andy S. says:

    Apparently De Blasio doesn’t like the crime reduction policies of the New York cops and plans to abolish them. Many commentators believe this will lead to an explosion in violent crime. How cool will De Blasio look then?

    New Yorker had better start wearing flak jackets to go shopping.

       46 likes

    • will says:

      De Blasio is bound to appeal to the BBC, as like their other favourite Huhne, he has cured a lesbian.

         36 likes

      • Bob Nelson says:

        Does anyone know why David Preiser (USA) has stopped posting? I miss his informed comments on US matters.

           47 likes

        • Demon says:

          I’ve been wondering the same thing. I feel he believed there were some posters who were trying to hijack all threads and turn them into anti-Muslim rants, with little direct relevance to the BBC.

          Maybe he’s just away for a while but it seems a long time.

             11 likes

          • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

            I have the answer, David is busy filling in his online obummacare application.
            The site is such a disaster, he’s bogged down inside it and cant escape.

               23 likes

        • Steve Collins says:

          Ah yes, another rat has left the Good Ship BBC Bias. Possibly he realised that being an American your website has sod all to do with him. Or alternatively, perhaps even he got fed up with the constant, droning rants against Muslims, immigrants, Europe, gays, socialists and anyone who doesn’t adhere to the worldview espoused by Enoch Powell and Mussolini. It seems rather quieter on here than the last time I popped over for a look, 9 months ago. Mind you, it still makes me chuckle – you lot railing against the world and how much better life would be if Melanie Phillips and Peter Hitchens ruled the world πŸ˜‰

             8 likes

          • zoo keeper says:

            whatever you say comrad. say what you like about the Right, but when compared to socialism, Stalin, Hitler, the dear leader and a dozen others, we’re all angels

            piss be upon you brother

               69 likes

          • Stewart says:

            Been in north Korea Steve ? Is that why you’ve missed how well bourgeois Fauxcialism has been worker around the world for the last year?
            P.S. thanks for reciprocation

               41 likes

            • Stewart says:

              Should be working not worker sorry for the typo Stevie, but being the lumpenprole I am ,I find it hard to type and laugh

                 20 likes

          • mo says:

            Stephen Collins. I like your fire but why not genuinely think for yourself and take a really good look around you. What is mostly said on this forum is a pretty valid view of what is happening within the BBC

               43 likes

          • Mat says:

            Oh joy another V for vegetable type well funny how narrow you define the groups you like to be protected ? shame one group likes Killing one of the others the and socialists just like killing!

               18 likes

          • The PrangWizard of England says:

            The Marxism/Communism story. 100 million dead and still counting.

               38 likes

          • Alan Larocka says:

            ‘much better life would be if Melanie Phillips and Peter Hitchens ruled the world’
            As opposed to Mohammed?

               42 likes

          • London Calling says:

            Steve,I’d love to see your family album – does it have the correct proportion of blacks, browns, gays in your family tree? Or are you a white middle class left wing pr1ck, as you come across?

               19 likes

          • Span Ows says:

            Enoch Powell and Mussolini? I suspect you haven’t a clue about the lives or political careers of either of these people.
            btw, Mussolini’s ‘Third Way’ for instance, does that ring any bells?

               7 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          “I miss his informed comments on US matters”
          —-
          As do I. As an American, his insights on the BBC’s woeful coverage of matters pertaining to the most powerful nation in the world, from economy to foreign policy, really were a great deal. Likewise I am sure he was more than interested in how the world’s least trustworthy news monopoly misrepresented his home and people.
          Speculation on his absence, which is inevitable but possibly better left to those who know (I presume author access involved private contact, if still possible) has of course been hijacked gleefully to make a the same familiar Flokker point in a more than familiar way.
          I merely note that an annual pilgrimage seems to have coincided with an opportunity to trot out a cracked record of taunts from one who makes claims hard to credit. The troll is dead, long live the next named troll. As always, the Borg Box generator has popped out a cracker with chuckles.
          If David was driven away by false flags or abusive posters that would be a pity, as we have been given a poetic example within minutes as to who feels this serves what best.

             31 likes

        • Deborah says:

          Only last night as I was watching the BBC news I was thinking – ‘ignore the BBC and I will find out who these US politicians really are through David Preiser’s comments on this site’. Would really appreciate it if he came back with postings.

             21 likes

        • Teddy Bear says:

          As far as I can see, his last comments were on this thread and this one

          No indication he was bothered by anything other than BBC bias. Can only assume something came up in his life, which hopefully he will be able to sort out satisfactorily and be back with us soon.

             12 likes

        • Andy S. says:

          Dave hasn’t been heard of since that poisonous little snide Scott showered him, and others including me, with abuse which was not connected with the thread we were discussing. I do hope Dave returns. He shouldn’t let abusive, leftie trolls get under his skin.

          Any leftie troll being abusive and insulting to me I wear as a badge of honour. It shows they’ve lost the argument and have no alternative but revert to type and insult those who’s got the better of them.

             6 likes

    • therealguyfaux says:

      Whatever New York becomes in the next few years, it is more likely to resemble a shakedown game than a violent mugging.

      De Blasio is from the same part of Brooklyn, a heavily-gentrified neighbourhood called Park Slope, which is also home to US Senator Chuckie Schumer, another champagne Socialist type. We know HIS neighbourhood isn’t headed for the dogs anytime soon.

      What will happen is that the people of New York, having been accustomed to the lower crime and generally higher livability of the town, will insist that deB maintain it, which he will promise to do– at a price. The rental and condo markets are quite bustling, thank you, and the financial and IT industries are in fine shape. Of course you don’t want to lose that prosperity.
      So you play the old “Stroessner o caos” gambit and you say that you can keep a lid on “those people,” whilst all the while smiling in “those people’s” faces saying, “I DO have a son– and he looks like Trayvon Martin…” whilst doing very little if anything to cut down on “stop-and-frisk,” which due to a Court ruling that it is by-and-large permissible, he can justify on that basis by saying to the “communities”: “Yeah, I know it’s a hassle and it’s probably racist– but don’t you really want guns off the street?”

      Just so long as he keeps the politics of envy to a very slow simmer, never letting it boil so high that the money keeps leaving town, he won’t do nearly the damage he is expected to do.

      I don’t think he’s got this far in the Byzantine world of NYC politics without learning that a nod and a wink carries more weight than anything said.

         23 likes

  4. thoughtful says:

    Dammit! Last post on the thread again!

    Most people reading my posts here will know that I’m pretty much right of centre, but todays story of benefits suspensions has made me really angry!

    Don’t get me wrong it someone isn’t looking for work then they deserve sanctions to be applied. It isn’t the fact of the sanctions, it’s the numbers involve which lead me to believe that this cruel government is simply trying to cut costs by starving people.

    I’m sure we all know that there are people swinging the lead, but a third of all claimants in Wales were sanctioned in a 9 month period !
    In the UK there were 400 000 people given 580 000 sanctions, that’s over 20%.

    The thing is having worked in the public sector I know just how incompetent and uncaring the morons who administer these schemes are. I have no faith in public sector anything there is nothing they do that couldn’t be done better by the private sector, and that includes the Police!

    So we hear tales of the most ridiculous reasons for these suspensions such as failing to look for work on Xmas day, or being late for a Job seekers interview when they changed the time and forgot to inform the claimant that they had! Or telling someone a second job interview was not a good enough reason to miss an interview.

    But it’s not just that. A Magistrate friend tells me that people are not turning up to court and having to be arrested because they have no money for bus fare – the cost of which far exceeds a weeks benefit. They cannot fine someone who has no money as it’s impossible for them to pay & it’s not legal to levy fines in those cases. They can’t sentence people to community penalties because jobseekers are being β€˜punished’ with those for being unemployed !

    This is an asinine policy implemented by idiots on behalf of multi millionaires so far removed from reality that they have no clue.

    Put yourself in this position:

    You’ve paid your contributions and are receiving the pittance the state dishes out when some junior apparatchik decides you haven’t done something the way they want and ends your benefit claim for 13 weeks. How would you pay the rates? the heating ? or feed yourself? How long would it be before you were forced to either beg from relatives or else turn to crime?

    This is needlessly cruel, there has to be a better way.

       36 likes

    • pah says:

      A Magistrate friend tells me that people are not turning up to court and having to be arrested because they have no money for bus fare – the cost of which far exceeds a weeks benefit.

      Unless they can’t why don’t they walk? That’s how I used to get to the job centre (5 mile round trip). And the cost of a bus ride exceeds a weeks benefits? Really?

      And have you considered that, apart from the fact that a lot of these stories are down right lies, job centres contain a lot of militant staff who are more than happy to shaft the unemployed – ‘for the greater good.’

         5 likes

      • thoughtful says:

        Why should they walk when they can get a free ride in a Police car, and a couple of meals thrown in?
        When you type “And the cost of a bus ride exceeds a weeks benefits? Really?” It makes me wonder if you’ve either read or understood my post?
        If your benefits are sanctioned it means you don’t get any money at all for a minimum of 13 weeks. Nothing Zip Nada ! So the bus fare exceeds the weeks benefit by an infinite amount!

        Because you haven’t read or understood the post you won’t have realised that these ‘down right lies’ are government statistics ! And the story about the graduate being suspended for attending a job interview was in that well known lefty paper, the Daily Mail !

        As for the militant staff in the job centre, I think most of them would make quite convincing extras from a zombie movie – not even up to shafting anyone in a political cause.

           7 likes

        • Old Timer says:

          The hard done by folks in the affordable houses around me only get out of bed before midday to then take a taxi to Tesco, paid for by the bennies, to collect their pizzas, fags & booze, paid for by the bennies, so they can settle down in front of their 42” TV’s, paid for by the bennies. Some of them of course do work hard though at growing smelly plants in brightly lit bedrooms for recreational smoking, so it’s wrong to call them lazy.

          As far as I am concerned, and I am a man who never collected a penny in benefits –EVER – and broke his back (literally) doing any work, no matter how hard, to keep myself and my family fed and warm and well educated, the good folks in the Job centres can be as tough as they like to make these criminals get off of their backside and WORK. Calling the workers in the Job Centres zombies when they take such terrible abuse and have to be behind bars to keep them from physical harm from the filthy loud mouth louts that inhabit the Job Centres is about as low as you can get. Don’t talk to me about the injustice of not getting bus fares paid. Justice would be the stocks.

          Thoughtful. I don’t think so.

             9 likes

        • Pah says:

          Nope, still not impressed with your argument especially if you are going to quote the Daily Mail, which is not exactly the arbiter of all truths.

          And government statistics? Seriously?

             0 likes

          • Andy S. says:

            Arbiter of truths? How many retractions has the Guardian had to print in the past few years because they got the story wrong?

               4 likes

  5. Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

    Highly recommended reading:
    Into the Canibal’s Pot, by Ilana Mercer
    Hat tip to David Brims for finding it.

       8 likes

  6. Geoff says:

    BBC Points West bring to light a Facebook row over the subject of the West Country delicacy Faggots. Apparently a local chap was banned from Farcebook for using the ‘offensive’ term.

    Amazingly they got through the whole 3 minute report and street interviews by only using the word twice, now just waiting for someone to complain as the word ‘mincer’ was used when interviewing the butcher….

       56 likes

  7. #88 says:

    It’s the hypocrisy that defines the lefties.

    BBC Watchdog (Miliband’s favourite programme – BTW why wasn’t Cameron invited to appear on Watchdog last year when HE actually set the agenda by trying to bring the energy companies to heel, Miliband catching up a year later), ran a story on parcel delivery companies, their performance, charging structures and inconsistencies.

    Having run their usual critical, cynical piece, you would have expected the companies targeted to be given the right of reply. Yes…but no….’responses from the companies features can be found (tucked away) on our website’. I wonder how many people could be arsed to log on and hear the other side of the story, particularly those disadvantaged people, we are always told, who aren’t online.

    I raise this and the BBC’s hypocrisy, for it is they, the Leveson supporting, News International hating Hacked Off cheer-leading BBC, who want to see improved standards and accountability in the press. Accountability that includes giving victims of press intrusion the right of recourse in a prominent position – not tucked away, buried deep in a newspaper.

    Likewise, if the BBC / Watchdog are going for a business, their response should be broadcast also.

    What’s source for the goose…

       44 likes

  8. hadda says:

    VD’s (no doubt all expenses paid by us) pre-World Cup junket to Brazil was being trailed on 5Live footie this evening. Brazil, she says, is the ‘spiritual home of football’. Yeah, ‘course it is. Obviously she hadn’t noticed the FA marking its 150th anniversary the other week. In England, the country where the game was invented. If that doesn’t make England the ‘spritual home’, I don’t know what does. But to credit Englnd with anything cannot be countenanced, can it?

    I doubt she knows the rules governing corner kicks, let alone off side.

       53 likes

    • Dave s says:

      The liberals pretend to like football. That is why they are always going on about the team they support.
      You never hear one go on about how much they hate it and prefer rugby.
      It is part of the hive mentality.
      In fact we invented most modern sports but to mention it would never do would it for a liberal.
      i really don’t like liberals. Pod people.

         27 likes

  9. Llareggub says:

    The BBC along with other media outlets have reported the tragic death of a child by a pet dog. As usual sensationalist reports tend to over ride the facts, and often very sincere people are damaged by mis-reporting. In particular, the animal rescue organizations which are largely voluntary and devoted to the well being of companion animals. Here is a press statement from the Bulldog Rescue Society. One might think that the BBC would first approach people with first hand knowledge of the animals featuring in their news reports; they rarely do.

    P R E S S R E L E A S E

    —————————–

    06/11/13: Bulldog Rescue feel the need to correct the mis-reporting in today’s papers regarding the poor child who was tragically killed by her pet dog. Both Sky and the BBC have reported the dog to be a Bulldog and in particular a rescued Bulldog. Bulldog Rescue would like to clarify that the dog is NOT a bulldog and is NOT from Bulldog Rescue, this dog appears to be an American Bulldog and Orchard Kennels in Barrow upon Soar have admitted to having rehomed him earlier in the year.
    Bulldog Rescue would like send our sincere sympathies to the family of the child in question

       31 likes

    • Geoff says:

      As the owner of a mild mannered Border Collie Im amazed at parents reaction to her when walking past, they grab their kids in upmost fear. The reporting of these stories is certainly taking effect.

      I do wonder if such reporting and the demonising of British mans best friend is to appease those who find dogs ‘unclean’

      Having said that as much as I trust my dog under no circumstances would I leave her alone with a young child.

         34 likes

    • David Kay says:

      pisses me off the way the media always show pics of staff’s when they’re reporting on dangerous dogs. a little bit of research (about 2 seconds) and they’d find out they’re also known as the “childrens nanny” because of how protective they are towards children

         19 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      Around 95% of attacks by dogs in which people are killed or serious injured come from owners living in social housing.
      The class warriors are so blinkered and bigoted in their opposition to anything which might restrict the freedoms of those living in such housing that they prefer children being killed as an acceptable consequence to restrictions being put on the poor poverty stricken ‘decent’ people living in social housing.
      As a straw poll on a different site more people thought that the deaths of innocent children was a price worth paying for freedom on restriction of dog ownership, than did not.

         16 likes

      • Joshaw says:

        Many dog owners don’t understand dogs. Specifically, they don’t understand what certain breeds were bred for, they don’t understand the pack instinct and the pecking order within, and they don’t understand territory.

        Doesn’t matter so much with small dogs (except where babies are involved), but when so many people insist on having macho breeds, the consequences are not surprising.

           16 likes

        • Geoff says:

          Yep, its hard to tell sometimes at which end of the lead is the animal…

          Its not just kids that are at risk from these things, they are aggressive towards other dogs my dog has been attacked a couple of times and the ‘owners’ are powerless to stop them.

             19 likes

          • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

            My favourite line that emanates from dog owners while their animal menaces you:
            “Oh, it’s all right he doesn’t bite”
            My reply usually is
            ” well YOU know, that, and now I know that, but does the fuckin’ dog know it? “

               11 likes

            • Llareggub says:

              I am having problems typing. My left hand was bitten by one of my dogs when playing, and my right hand was injured by a boy scout who closed a door rather sharply. But I am not calling for punishments for scouts. Seriously, it is said that in politics a tragedy should not go to waste, and the BBC and other media have latched on to the panic over dog attacks. You can study the various reports which indicate that companion animals, such as dogs, play a valuable role in society – health benefits, companionship, and massive economic benefits for the industries catering for companion animals. But there is an anti dog movement, and the BBC have latched on to it – maybe because they support people whose culture informs them that angels do not enter houses where there are dogs – and we can expect more BBC encouraged media hysteria together with draconian punishments for dog owners whose animals cause harms. Current legislative proposals have penalties of 5 years for a dog that injures someone and 14 for a fatality. But can we hear something, via our media, in defence of the responsible owners who take every reasonable and practical steps to avoid such harms?

                 3 likes

  10. Teddy Bear says:

    Daniel Hannan identifies one of the ploys we’ve all here come to recognise used by the BBC to generate their agenda. Use an outside organisation that shares the same agenda, but refer to it as independent or expert, without making their true aim clear.

    Quote:
    Memo to the BBC: Please stop referring to the CBI as ‘British business’

       41 likes

  11. Fred Bloggs says:

    When you watch the politics show as a repeat, gives you time to see what has been feed. I refer to PMQs when Militwat starts with his non existent attack about the crisi in A&E. What crisis, well the one he needed to try and deflect to assault he knew he was going to get about Falkirk and the corruption of Unite and labour. So on the politics show they have a bBC reporter state that A&E will be the Labour attack.

    So that means that the bBC got a briefing from labour before PMQ and told what to look out for. Yet more proof that the bBC is the media outlet for the Liebore

       36 likes

  12. Bill Wright says:

    On the BBC news channel they were discussing tomorrow’s Daily Mail front page which says that the population will increase by 10 million in the next 25 years, due to immigration. I don’t regard the Mail as the fount of all knowledge wisdom and truth but I seem to remember reading the same story elsewhere a while back, so there’s probably a lot in it.
    The BBC had three people to discuss this at 23.45 Weds; one white, one brown, and one black as it happens (but thanks to the BBC’s racist policy of choosing presenters and guests by ethnicity, no big surprise). All three were unanimous that immigration is a very good thing, and the higher the population the better. You think I’m kidding don’t you? I wish I was. The BBC has absolutely no respect for the culture and traditions of this country.

    Bill

       85 likes

    • CCE says:

      It was mentioned briefly on the Today review of the papers – dismissed with a sneer. Now do we think it was a happy co-incidence that there was a “immigrants are good for the economy and much better and virtuous than feckless lazy indigenous people” astroturf exercise two days ago?

      10 million more people as a result of immigration, a growth representing 1/6th of the current population (which includes 4 million Labour immigrants), in twenty years. Isn’t that newsworthy?

      Anybody here being asked by any political party “do you want to live in a country with 73,000,000 people, mostly concentrated in London, with inftastructure – everything from bus stops to crematoria – designed for 58,000,000” No? You surprise me!

      Isn’t this the single most important issue facing Britain today? Apparently the BBC thinks that it isn’t even worth reporting – but the fact that I throw out stale bread is!

      The BBC is recusing to engage in this debate and actively closing it down – whilst we can get hourly 15 minute updates on the Brookes/Coulson Showtrial –

         51 likes

      • Dave s says:

        This debate cannot be closed down however much the BBC /liberal media want to do so.
        Refuse to debate with liberals. It is the only real issue confronting this nation. Will it survive as England or become someplace else?
        The liberal hates his country for what he thinks it is and wishes to make it something else. We must be implacable in our opposition to these pod people.
        Our descendants will never forgive us if we fail to keep faith with England.

           31 likes

      • David Kay says:

        dont throw out stale bread or any other waste food. Put it in the back garden for the birds and other wildlife

           11 likes

        • Llareggub says:

          I recall the days of post war socialism when school dinners were introduced. The appalling food went from the kitchens to the children’s plates, where it was uneaten and then placed in large containers where it was taken to feed the pigs. The children concluded that, as with all socialist policies, a cosy relationship existed between farmers and school authorities.

             5 likes

  13. Thoughtful says:

    Thought for the day.

    Hijacked by some woman to spend the time banging on about Ed Millibands ‘living wage’ without any kind of thought or sympathy for the businesses it will destroy, or the small business owners who will no longer be able to pay themselves a wage at all.

    There’s no sympathy, no thought or insight, it’s just like some monstrous young bird with it’s gaping mouth open for endless quantities of food.

    No mention of getting rid of Labours stealth taxes which successive governments have levied on life’s essentials pushing up the cost of living disproportionately higher for the poor.

    The stealth taxes of 30% on Utilities are an example of this.

    The answer has not occurred to them to remove this iniquitous Labour tax and to put it where it should be, on income tax where everyone can see it, and know what the government is taking from them.

    No they want to carry on hiding it so they can do what the left does best – tax & spend !

       41 likes

  14. dave666 says:

    ‘The records stuck’ BBc breakfast is back on the “mountain” of food we throw away, again! Thy have obviously timed this one well a the bin vanis shown dumping part of this “mountain” Surprise what do I see yes lots of pumpkins. Who would have guessed. I think this week I’ve thrown out 3 slices of bread and the remains of a lettuce and that’s gone in the compost bin. Oh yes and a pumpkin.

       37 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      Anything that racks up guilt in the ordinary joe and josephine is manna from heaven for the BBC.

         22 likes

    • Alan Larocka says:

      Food banks were back on last night too………….

         12 likes

    • Old Goat says:

      If we bought less, apparently, we could ‘save’ up to sixty quid a month!

      In the good old days, when women looked after the house, they often did a daily shop (no freezers, fridges, etc.) They only had to wander down the road in most cases, and job done.

      Now they go to work, like the blokes, so there’s nobody at home. one or other does a bulk shop on the way home, or at the weekend. There are far fewer individual shops, like greengrocers, butchers, bakers, fishmongers in most towns now, and everything is available in one giant supermarket on the outskirts.

      Where I live, to get to a shop involves a fifteen minute drive. if I had to do that every day, rather than once a week, I doubt there’d be any saving at all more likely extra cost in fuel and I’d still chuck stuff away. Besides, I’ve bought it, it’s mine, and I’ll do what I like with it..

      Food, after all, is merely an organic substance. if we don’t eat it, we dump it. If we DO eat it, it’s also dumped, eventually. What would they like us to do, pack up all our leftovers and send them to Africa (where we send all our money, anyway?). Somehow, I don’t think the Africans would be too impressed when it arrived.

      Where do they find these hairbrained idiots who come up with these daft notions? Why can’t they leave us alone?

         36 likes

    • Rtd Colonel says:

      Well I enjoyed a great roasted pumpkin risotto and sage and pumpkin soup with mine – did have to throw out some dodgy looking chicken though lost to the back of the fridge. My own business and fault though, please stop nannying me.

         9 likes

    • Joe Chapman says:

      A while back I roasted a brace of wigeon that had been shot by my dad, it was organic, came with no packaging and had a negligible carbon footprint. Surely the BBC would approve of this?
      Although saying that, I think they might have been shot on Morecambe Bay, probably around the same time that Autumnwatch was being filmed……………..

         12 likes

    • Andy S. says:

      Most of the food is wasted because of the removal of preservatives (bread in particular) thanks to the efforts of the vocal food fascists in our society.

      I was born in the mid-1950s and was brought up on food that probably had more preservatives than vitamins but I’ve seen off more than a few muesli eaters who have departed this earth with heart attacks and cancer. Regular health checks have shown cholestorol levels in my blood are lower than average. I’ve probably consumed an abundance of the dreaded E numbers while growing up without the need for my parents to resort to regular doses of Ritalin in my system.

      Rant over, but the BBC’s sensationalist way with non-stories makes my blood boil. It’s the only thing in my life that guaranteed to raise my blood pressure.

         8 likes

    • thoughtful says:

      The amount of food we throw away, and because it’s calculated by the public sector you can put your house on it being done incompetently !

      I think the public servants who compile this crap should be made to eat the things the include in these lists!

      Fresh of course not the stuff gone off which is genuine waste.

      Things like:
      Bones. Chicken Lamb Beef or Fish
      Tea bags
      Coffee grinds
      gristle
      fat
      skin
      potato and other vegetable peelings

      All of these are included in the figures for household waste, which appears to be taken simply by weight alone.

         8 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      The BBC have been giving a lot of airtime over the past several weeks to Miliband’s ‘cost of living crisis’.

      Now they’re telling us the nation has so much money to burn it can throw away 20% of the food it buys.

      So which is it?

      Follow the facts, I’d say.

         8 likes

  15. Dick the Butcher says:

    Just had a look at tonight’s Question Time panellists.
    One of them is a Vicky Pryce, described as the author of a book titled ‘Prisonomics’.

       39 likes

    • Geoff says:

      If you or me spent time inside, we would find it almost impossible to find a job, yet these elitist luvies come out and continue as if nothing had happened.

      If under the same circumstances and she were to the right of the political spectrum no way would she be appearing on QT tonight …

         55 likes

      • Patrick55 says:

        Vicky Pryce is a friend of Polly Toynbee who felt that jail was not the right place for a friend of hers.

           18 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      How nice of albeeba to provide a fee for her to appear, and coincidentally advertise and promote her book.
      How very very sweet and convenient.

         42 likes

    • Dave s says:

      Her appearance is a disgrace. Typical of the arrogance of the liberal elite.
      The BBC is beyond hope.

         40 likes

  16. AsISeeIt says:

    ‘What do you want the BBC Trust to keep confidential?’

    ‘The BBC Trust usually publishes organisational responses in full when we reach our conclusions. If you would prefer that all or part of your response is treated as confidential, please complete the confidentiality section below.’

    Interesting, isn’t it?

    These lines come from the guidence notes for ‘organisations’ responding to the BBC Trust’s latest News and Current Affairs survey.

    Don’t get excited that this might somehow lead to some more balance at the BBC ‘We have identified a number of areas as being out of scope of this review….An assessment of impartiality…’

    But the problem I want to highlight is this – notice how the BBC wants to bend over backwards for ‘organisations’. Even to the extent that ‘organisations’ are invited to lobby the Trust and yet the BBC promises to keep their lobbying between themselves. Their own nice little secret.

    What price open democracy?

    This shouldn’t surprise us. The BBC is far more comfortable meeting the agenda and the narrative of campaign groups than it is with dealing with actual Licence Payers.

       19 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Do you have a direct link to where this is, please?
      (I’m sure I can locate it, but there have of late been so many such soul search offers, and often of some complexity, it may take a bit of tracking down).
      I’m always interested in what and when the BBC feels is best kept their little secret, and with whom.
      As with any BBC edit, FoI exemptions will cover who responded, and whose views the BBC decided to highlight… Or not.
      I have my doubts on the Future of the BBC consultation too, but at least it is not a filtered, gatekeepered internal BBC PR-driven stitch-up from start to finish like this one.

         8 likes

      • AsISeeIt says:

        http://consultations.external.bbc.co.uk/bbc/news_review

        Guidance for Organisations link to the pdf found here

           3 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          Many tx.
          I recall this one now.
          It’s another ‘external’ (well, it says so in the URL) effort, that puts feedback immediately though a BBC secret internal gatekeeping system.
          So even if ‘The Trust’ may claim to be above friggin’ with the riggin’, it can be done before they even see it, as the Pollard Report clearly shows happens all the time at the BBC.
          Hence it’s mainly a means to get ‘we get complaints from both sides, but here are ones that mostly say they love us’ trawl of vox pop straight to PR stunt.
          If I recall it may also be the one that doesn’t want to hear about or discuss anything nasty like Savile, McAlpine or Jobs for the boys & girls.
          So… BJ’s only guys & gals.

             7 likes

      • Teddy Bear says:

        Your cynicism is well founded.
        I wonder too if they launched this particular consultation with exactly that name to confuse anybody looking for the government request for public proposals also called The Future of the BBC 😯

        I certainly wouldn’t put it past them. In any event I think we’d stand a lot more hope achieving any kind of substantial change at the BBC through the government site.
        Proposals must be submitted on the Parliament Commons Select Committee Website before December 6th.

           4 likes

  17. flexdream says:

    R4 Today banging on again about the ‘problem’ of not enough women engineers. Still no mention of the ‘problem’ of not enough, men primary school teachers, not enough British doctors, not enough women rubbish collectors etc etc. It’s always about women and technology. BBC should give it a rest.

       51 likes

    • Leha says:

      If you were running a plumbing business on a tight budget and an even tighter schedule would you employ a female plumber of child-bearing age?

      sorry girls, no offense

      do the maths

         40 likes

    • Dave s says:

      It is only a problem in the minds of these equality obssessed fantasists who infest public life in this country.
      It is freedom of choice that matters. Does a girl wish to become an engineer or not? A personal matter in which the state, also known as the liberal orthodoxy, has no role nor should it have one.
      The real divide in this country is between the pod people who run it and us who live in it.
      I am not in a good forgiving mood today,.

         28 likes

      • Mat says:

        Hmm so they are ,are they? well my better half passed out as one the first woman Honda gradate mechanical technicians ran her own successful ATV business supplying to the biggest festivals in the UK Good wood ,Glasto and now runs maintenance for raft of fleets Tesco/Asda /prison service! yet when she was approached to appear on some BBC program on women in engineering they dropped her in favour of a Asian trainee fitter and labour activist ! shocked me narhhh funny but when she supplied the BBC with ATVs for the Lorna Doon shoot in the middle of no where in November ,with a know local sex offender in the area who had been hanging around the shoot for a week [they didn’t want to get the police involved bad PR and all that !] the brave man of the BBC left on her own at 12pm at night to load up 6 quads while they went to the pub !!!

           25 likes

    • BongoBongo says:

      Why are most news readers on the BBC wimmin (2 to 1) ? Why are most supermarket checkout operators wimmin? Why are most people who work in Boots wimmin? Why are most nurses wimmin? Why are most sports presenters on the BBC wimmin (except weekends)? Why is there a minister for wimmin and not for men?

         38 likes

      • Ian Hills says:

        As to female BBC news readers, the management sees them as disposable tarts who can be sacked when they’re too old and ugly to screw any more. There are a few notable exceptions – for instance, Kirsty Squawk is too well connected politically to sack, despite failing the shaggability test.

        Female sports presenters are a mixture of disposable tarts and bruisers of doubtful chromosomal provenance, whom you wouldn’t dare sack if you valued your life.

        Checkout operators need nimble female fingers, and Boots staff are mostly women because they need to know about scent.

           12 likes

  18. AsISeeIt says:

    Really need airtime?

    Got a lefty campaign you want to plug?

    The BBC are all over it like a rash!

    12 to 18 Management ‏@12to18MM 28 Oct
    @louisa_compton @vicderbyshire how about giving a bit more time to help with @katiegreenmodel say no to Size Zero. Really needs air time

    Louisa Compton (BBC) ‏@louisa_compton 28 Oct
    @12to18MM @katiegreenmodel thanks to you both for coming on today. Do keep in touch with me re your campaign.

    Louisa Compton (BBC) ‏@louisa_compton
    @12to18MM @vicderbyshire hi – is there a number we can call you on? wld love to talk to you on air now. or can u pls call 0500 909 693

       27 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Be interesting to find in such circumstances which punt makes the cut, as it were, and which gets ignored.
      Or, in some cases, gets the full BBC campaign treatment… ‘as it’s news, or will be once we’ve made it news’.
      Calling Stuart Hughes… calling Stuart Hughes… cause needing help in aisle whine.

         11 likes

  19. Stewart says:

    Just awoke to news of another outbreak of BSE (on late shift)
    http://home.bt.com/news/showbiznews/man-complains-over-bacon-refund-bid-11363847680993
    Expect plenty of encouragement for him to do the ‘right thing’

       8 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      I at first thought this was another ‘we’ve had complaints about insensitive foodstuffs’ nonsense, where every faith-based outrager gets full BBC access, and Dave & Theresa ban anything they can find to appease them again.
      As it is… funny anyway.
      ‘Bacon tweeted about his show yesterday, saying: “If I can’t make this show good’
      Presumably on the basis (supported of course by the ‘We back our team no matter what’ ‘Trust’) that if he’s claiming he can make a show he’s in good, he must be joking.
      All getting a bit unique.
      Maybe folk could now deem the licence fee demand from BBC employed representatives a joke and hence not needing to be honoured?
      The precedent has been set.

         12 likes

  20. Marsh says:

    7:45 am on 5Live this morning. Frack Master from the US and a loud-mouthed, rude lefty from Greenpeace. Segment starts with a recording of various protesters early this year and then back to the studio where Campbell gave more time to and free reign to the Greenpeace lefty, while laying into the Frack Master on the alleged dangers. Quite incredible bias – seriously how does Campbell get away day after day with sticking two fingers up to his impartiality obligations? Please find and listen, it was simply incredible.

       46 likes

    • Milverton says:

      I heard that. She was appallingly rude, and Campbell had no control of her whatsoever.

         39 likes

    • uncle bup says:

      Did Campbell – a professional broadcaster insofar as he gets paid money to broadcast – manage to get even a sentence out without losing his thread and saying ‘yerno…yerno.’ ?

      I’d love to see a venn diagram of

      a) people who complain about their energy bills and

      b) people who complain about fracking.

         15 likes

      • uncle bup says:

        Anyway I went to uni with the great grandson of John Venn.

        Not at quite the same time – but we overlapped.

        πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

        Igorremall.

           9 likes

  21. George R says:

    INBBC Radio 4, ‘World at One’:

    -suggests appalling behaviour by British troops in Afghanistan, assuming that British practice of killing Islamic jihadists is responsible;

    meanwhile, INBBC does not suggest appalling behaviour by Islamic jihadists in Afghanistan, assuming that Islamic practice of killing we kaffirs is not responsible.
    ‘Jihadwatch’:-
    “UK soldier posed for smiling photo with Afghan policeman who murdered him moments later”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/11/uk-soldier-poses-for-smiling-photo-with-afghan-policeman-who-murdered-him-moments-later.html

       24 likes

    • Andy S. says:

      Pity the soldiers are being tried by Court Martial.Had they been tried before a civilian jury I would bet they would be found “Not Guilty”

         19 likes

  22. George R says:

    While the ‘political left’ (inc ‘Guardian’-Beeboids) decide on the national security interests of the U.K. (and the West):-

    ‘Daily Express’:-

    “Spy papers ‘could expose countries.’

    “Two Western diplomats say US officials have briefed them on documents obtained by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that might expose the intelligence operations of their countries and their level of co-operation with America.”

    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/439043/Spy-papers-could-expose-countries

    Meanwhile, the Burgess and Maclean route?:-

    “Snowden finds a job in Russia”

    http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/snowden-finds-a-job-in-russia-1.1600571?

       16 likes

  23. George R says:

    INBBC’s global Islamic broadcasting chum, AL JAZEERA (of Emirate of Qatar) is given the whistle-blowing treatment by American, Pamela Geller, who is banned from Britain by Cameron-Clegg-May-Warsi Government.

    Will Beeboids support whistler-blower, Ms Geller, in the same way as they support Snowden-Greenwald-Miranda?
    Or is Beeboid political empathy for both Al Jazeera and Muslim Brotherhood too inhibiting?

    “Al Jazeera paying for exiled Muslim Brotherhood leaders’ hotel rooms.”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/11/al-jazeera-paying-for-exiled-muslim-brotherhood-leaders-hotel-rooms.html

       9 likes

  24. Jeff Waters says:

    ‘The world may have many problems, from climate change to armed conflict, natural disasters, poverty and the oppression of women and minorities ‘

    From http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24836917

    Right, so climate change and the oppression of women and minorities are established facts, not liberal viewpoints?

    Jeff

       24 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Insidious, isn’t it? The BBC shapes the views of the nation and sets the political agenda. Its coverage of ‘climate change’ – a thinly-disguised movement to facilitate a world eco-socialist government – shows it to be in complete denial of real world evidence whilst continuing to support the most ludicrous claims of the alarmists and their discredited ‘models’. At some point the nation will wake up to what’s going on, perhaps when they’ve had a few more of the Arctic winters the warmists said we’d never see again with regular power cuts brought on by the lack of fossil fuel energy they said was causing the non-problem of ‘global warming’.

      It’s your worst nightmare, jointly scripted by George Orwell and the Monty Python team.

      On second thoughts, it’s much more ludicrous than that.

         14 likes

  25. George R says:

    “INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY COMMITTEE OF PARLIAMENT”

    -today’s session, televised version, without Beeboid political editorials.

    http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=14146

       6 likes

  26. Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

    The new leader of the Pakistani Taliban has been announced.
    Mullah Fazlullah has been responsible for atrocities including public beheadings, burning schools and killing a Pakistani army general. But for the bBBC the most important story is that his men shot the blessed saint Malala Yousafzai.

       27 likes

    • George R says:

      Supplementary.

      “Pakistani Taliban name Mullah Fazlullah as new emir”
      By BILL ROGGIO.

      http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/11/pakistani_taliban_na_1.php

         5 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      I wonder what kind of campaign he mounted to secure such a coveted leadership position?
      Be funny if he’d opted for ‘Hope’ and ‘Change!’, if only to hear the sound of exploding Beeboid heads trying to cover it (up) at the same time as running interference for the world’s greatest Nobel Laureate, currently rather inconveniently trying to slot him and his merry band.

         8 likes

  27. Patrick55 says:

    Robert Peston was on twitter today covering events at the European Central Bank. Whose output did he choose to repeat?

    “Danny Blanchflower
    @Manish_05Singh @Peston why we are in QE wars ecb just worked out that they need to respond to push Euro down one day MPC will work that out”

    Ah yes the Labour party’s favourite economist Danny Blanchflower. Still it might be by chance or perhaps not?

    “Danny Blanchflower ‏
    @Peston last 4 months inflation gone 1.6; 1.3 1.1 0.7 should be in deflation by early in the new year especially with falling energy prices!”

    How is the the collapse of the UK economy predicted by Danny Blanchflower currently going? Maybe that is why he has switched to looking at Europe?

       21 likes

  28. Alex says:

    WHO BLOODY-WELL CARES who the Tallytubbytellyban choose as their new leader. I’m sick of the BBC and their foul relationship with these third-world excrement. I’d love to see them rounded up and executed immediately.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24854087

       29 likes

    • pah says:

      The BBC no longer sees itself as a merely British broadcaster but as an international one. There is therefore no problem, in their minds, with guff like – there are plenty of people out there who are interested in which monster is in the CIA sights at any one time.

      This goes their general dislike for all things British too as there are plenty of people out there still upset at us for civilising them.

      Of course we pay for their internationalism or perhaps I should say you do as I refuse to give the treasonous bastards a red cent.

         23 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        The BBC see themselves as the State Broadcaster for a future world government – the blueprint for which, according to our good friend Borroso (in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech), is the EU.

           14 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      Alex, don’t despair, with any luck albeeba will send out a team of his fan club to interview him. Then after they leave ( well preferably before) the CIA can get a fix from their iPhones, and drone the lot of the bastards.

         16 likes

  29. John Anderson says:

    The BBC downplays the dangers to peace from Iran and Saudi Arabia – each of them funding global extremism and terrorism. Because, of course, the only real villain in the Middle East is Israel.

    So, what a pleasant change to find some serious journalism from the BBC on the risks of a nuclear arms race between Saudi and Iran. Which includes reference to Saudi’s annoyance with Obama.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24823846

    We pay large salaries to the senior BBC journos. Why can’t they all try to earn their dosh ?

       14 likes

  30. thoughtful says:

    I thought I’d post a link to some of the stats about wind farms which I hadn’t seen before.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/7823681/Does-money-grow-in-wind-farms.html

    some fantastic stats such as if we doubled the number of wind farms in the world and placed them all in Britain they’d generate around 1/6th of the power we consume

    One wind farm managed to generate only 7% of its maximum output over a year, and the average is only 27% across all of them.

    That’s not the point though – they make more money from subsidies than they do from generating electricity so much so that they pay for themselves within one year! And remember you’re paying for this via your electricity bill – the one they keep blaming the utility companies for!

    This is never going to get onto the BBC unless someone phones in!

       27 likes

    • uncle bup says:

      I am quite happy for windfarms to exist providing every windmill has a giant picture with name and constituency of one MP that voted through the Climate Change Act (or whatever its called), with the proviso that even when the thing has become redundant – ie even more redundant – it is kept there for posterity thus allowing future generations to see the rank idiocy of this generation’s politicians.

         21 likes

      • Thoughtful says:

        If you read the report you’ll realise that they aren’t there to generate energy ! That’s just a minor by product.

        There are two main functions to a wind mill – one is the subsidy which it gets whether it even turns a blade, in fact they make so much subsidy that each one is paid more than arch greenie Nick Clegg as deputy prime minister.

        Secondly, they are a large and prominent advertisement that the people who erected it are ‘green’ and care about the environment.

        If they do happen to generate some power, well that’s a bonus !

           9 likes

  31. Glenn says:

    What the fuck is happening?

    Why is Vicki Pryce on here. She is a convicted criminal.

       33 likes

    • Dave s says:

      I switched off as soon as I saw her. Disgraceful behaviour from ther BBC allowing this woman to pontificate to us.
      What contempt they have now for us.

         29 likes

    • Cosmo says:

      Next time, Vicki Pryce, Lord Archer, Lord Ahmed and Chris Hune. A panel from hell ( or prison ). Don’t laugh it is the bbc you know.

         7 likes

  32. tommy atkins says:

    Question Time has got former con, Vickey Price on and is happily plugging her book for her. Dimbaldy did it at the start and the caption has “Vickey Price, economist and author of p*****omics”
    WTF? has Vickey Price got something on the BBC or do they feel sorry for a fellow travellor?

       38 likes

  33. ember2013 says:

    Vicky Price: economist and criminal.

       28 likes

  34. Geoff says:

    For once a decent debate on immigration on QT, but why is Benjamin Zephaniah given air time to talk unconnected shite?

    BTW spot the plants in the audience…

       30 likes

    • David Kay says:

      “they dont like it up ’em”

         12 likes

      • Pounce says:

        I would love to read in the news that NC had been beheaded by a peaceful relgious person and that as the knife was cutting into his neck Saint Nick was heard to be uttering:
        “I am a white racist and I deserve to be punished”

           11 likes

  35. BongoBongo says:

    When are the left leaning coterie, who purport to be impartial journalists, presenters, pundits etc, employed by the BBC, going to take Labour politicians to task over ‘MISTAKES’ made by them with regard to immigration.
    The latest example on tonights ‘Question Time’, where the odious Emily Thornberry referred to mistakes. How can a policy of ‘Rubbing our noses in diversity’ be classed as a mistake when it was clearly a deliberate policy of flooding the country with immigrants.

       41 likes

  36. Pounce says:

    I see the bBC continues its attack on the last establishment of the UK which hasn’t been subsumed by the policies of the left…The Armed forces.
    Army joining age ‘should be 18’, say campaigners
    The British Army should stop recruiting under 18-year-olds, campaigners and religious figures have urged. An open letter from human rights group Child Soldiers International called on the Ministry of Defence to raise the joining age from the current 16.

    So the bBC allows pacifist groups to strut their stuff by trying to force through a view that young men under the age of 18 can be and are sent to war zones and because of such the British Government are evil. But here’s something the bBC doesn’t mention, anybody under the age of 18 isn’t allowed to deploy to any zone of conflict, that is fact and was extant in 1991 when I was in Northern Ireland. (22 years ago)
    Second the vast majority of under 18 year olds enter the army foundation college at Harrogate or Wellbeck college. The former is a 40 week course, which is followed by phase 2 training (min 12 week) before the individual is allowed to join a unit. in other words

    Then there’s this little snippet the bbC didn’t bother mentioning, a little something which impacts quite significantly on the subject at hand:
    Rise in school leaving age:
    The school leaving age rises to 17 in England this term, and there are new rules for pupils who haven’t reached “C” grade at GCSE in English and maths.

       18 likes

    • BongoBongo says:

      Yes but note how they want to give sixteen year olds the vote. In other words quite happy to give ‘children’ a say in how the country is run.

         22 likes

      • Milverton says:

        Well, sixteen year olds are fully formed intellectuals, unless you are Adolph Miliband, in which case things you wrote at seventeen are merely meanderings of a youthful muse.

           21 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          Love it.
          ‘Well, sixteen year olds are fully formed intellectuals, unless you are Adolph Miliband, in which case things you wrote at seventeen are merely meanderings of a youthful muse.’
          And they may have got away with it but for you and highlighting those darn double standards.
          I may have some fun with that with a few high on horses around the twittosphere later.

             5 likes

    • Milverton says:

      Five Live actually led with this this morning. Very odd. I didn’t see it higher than sixth on the BBC News website. It’s eighth as I write this.

      You’d imagine Child Soldiers International might head to Central Africa before a Western liberal democracy.

      Perhaps they surmised a drugged up Warlord might be more difficult to persuade than Rachel Burden, rugby bore.

         11 likes

    • Span Ows says:

      Used to have Junior Leaders regiments too, entry at 15.

         4 likes

  37. Thoughtful says:

    Oh Jeez!! Now the BBC are starting to wring their hands that ‘Waycism’ might be becoming socially acceptable in France !

    Not content with continually bullying the UK populace they’ve turned to attack the French. Somehow I think the French will be less supine than the British and the far left output of the BBC will be a lot less effective.

       26 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      The French are also less compelled to fund it (bar chipping in on the EU bung) much less blanket exposed in options to be exposed, so they may not give a monkeys even if they notice.
      Hence the BBC’s power to shape policy there may be much less than here, where of course it is as pervasive as it is vast.

         8 likes

      • Arthur Penney says:

        Talking about France – I notice that S&P downgraded French credit AGAIN – from AA+ to AA. This article is 2nd to the Nissan one.

        However – I expect that the export figures will soon dominate the BBC business website.

           7 likes

  38. Ian Rushlow says:

    Pro-EU alarmist headline from BBC (no, really): “Nissan boss warns UK over possible EU exit” (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24859486). Apparently, if the UK left the EU, Nissan would pull out of the UK, causing thousands to become unemployed. But after the headline, the article continues: “But he (Ghosn) also added that he considers the exit scenario to be unlikely… Praising the Sunderland plant, Mr Ghosn said it was one of the most productive in Europe and said Nissan was ‘blessed’ to own it.” Of course they are blessed: their UK-based operations generate billions in sales and hundreds of millions in profit, and Nissan are unlikely to slit their own throats over some abstract political principle. This is just propaganda from the BBC – an organisation that has received loans and financial benefit from the EU. The fact is that Britain’s membership of the EU does not guarantee that any foreign company will stay here; consider, for example, the decision of Ford to move a factory from here to Italy.

       29 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      My instinct is always that taxes should be kept as low as possible – but if big businesses are going to sing the praises of the European Union then they should jolly well dig deeper to pay for the extra schools hospitals and housing that Euro Immigration demands.

      Now that’s a Miliband-esque view you don’t hear from the BBC

         19 likes

    • flexdream says:

      You might also want to ask Nissan why out of all the countries in the EU, they chose to invest in the most Euro-sceptic and in the only country likely to leave the EU.

         14 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Europe buys our Nissans, we buy their BMWs, Audis, Citroens, Renaults, Fiats, VWs etc etc. Do the BBC honestly believe the EU will stop trading with us if we leave, especially as there is a massive surplus in their favour? They treat us like idiots.

         6 likes

  39. AsISeeIt says:

    Nicky Campbell and his big state-loving public sector make-work chums happily play host to yet another campaign group this morning.

    The subject matter hardly need concern us.

    ‘Sounds like a sensible idea…. Is there an argument for going even further?’

    Any idea that infantilizes, takes responsibility from the individual, increases rules and regulations and – best of all – puts us in awe of central authority – that’s catnip to Campbell.

       17 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      I’d love to know what the criteria are for getting your campaign publicised by the BBC. I think we all have a good general idea, but the official guidelines would be interesting.

         7 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        ‘I’d love to know what the criteria are for getting your campaign publicised by the BBC… the official guidelines would be interesting.’
        Indeed they would.
        But Hugs and a squad of FOI-exclusion lawyers have just clicked the billable minutes meter at the mere mention.

           2 likes

  40. Phil Ford says:

    Last night’s QT was, as feared, a totally shambolic disgrace – yet another clear reminder to anyone who still doubted it just how slippery, delusional and brazenly dishonest are the opponents of UKIP (on both the Left and Right). An hour-long display of blatant ad hominem attacks on Mr Farage, with the other panelists repeatedly slurring the leader of UKIP as a ‘scaremonger’, suggestions of racism and even a crafty comparison of UKIP to the Nazi Party. Dimbledore, of course, did nothing at all to dissuade the four other panelists from making such crass verbal accusations.

    It was clear that the Tory patsy sent onto the programme was there for one reason and one reason alone: to ‘put the boot into Farage’ – so worried are the Tories by UKIP that they have now resorted ignorant, fact-free bullying.

    The other panelists ranged from an ex-con to an irritating woolly-minded socialist poet. Hardly a stellar line-up, admittedly, but with a Chairman less interested in hearing a honest debate than refereeing a bear-pit, it all made for fairly uncomfortable viewing.

    If you watch the programme carefully you’ll see – very, very clearly – that on the issue of immigration the only panelist to offer up actual government statistics on immigration was Mr Farage. The other panelists simply engaged in name-calling and playing shamelessly to the gallery.

    All in all, a sham of programme and a clear illustration (as if one were still needed) of the parlous state of ‘honest political debate’ at the BBC.

       52 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      I am unsure why the likes of Mr. Farage agree to be the sacrificial offering on such programmes. Possibly a variant on ‘no such thing as bad publicity’, but as with claims by some here on trolls, they really only provide the sustenance to keep these rigged bully pulpits going.
      Beyond political wonks I know of no one who watches it. Certainly no one expecting any light on a topic, over heat.
      So it’s basically a conformation bias echo chamber.
      And I doubt it would survive long if these saps stopped providing the entertainment to the emperors and the mob, as they’d only be left with each other to savage.

         19 likes

      • Cosmo says:

        I lasted about 20 mins before going to bed. You would have thought that Boston of all places would have had at least someone in the audience to tell it as it is. After all wasn’t the lady that showed that woman Beard a thing or two from Boston ? Where was she last night ?

           21 likes

        • Deborah says:

          I lasted about as long as Cosmo – the woman in the audience quoting from the OECD report – who looked as likely to have read it as she was to have read War and Peace in Russian – ‘enough’ I decided and went to bed.

             19 likes

          • Phil Ford says:

            “…the woman in the audience quoting from the OECD report…”

            She was clearly the BBC’s appointed stooge for the evening. What was most revealing was how, when confronted by Mr Farage with actual government statistics on immigration under New Labour’s disastrous tenure she blatantly refused to listen. This was chilling example of how ‘progressives’ are in fact the enemy of truth. They simply will not – ever – listen to the facts when they are not in line with their noxious doctrinal mindset. Also worth noting just how long Dimbles allowed this woman to hurl abuse at Mr Farage uninterrupted.

               35 likes

      • Span Ows says:

        I presume because he knows the viewing public isn’t anything like the studio ‘public’. Even Nick Griffin got more sympathy afterwards because he was treat so shoddily.

           18 likes

    • Alan Larocka says:

      Any remaining sympathy for what used to be the Conservative Party with me disappeared last night on QT with that absolute c*nt of a woman and her sneering, contemptuous fat face.

         24 likes

      • noggin says:

        pah! spit! …
        “intimidated by the likes of … Farage! ”
        ooer! … same old “ad homs”
        So it appears Griffin has been forgotten
        all pretence is out the window,
        hmm the new scapegoat on the block.
        … and still no one wants to face the hard issue
        and tell the truth.

        aw diddums – just watch another al bbc “puff piece eh! … there are no words

        http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03h8r1j/This_World_Dont_Panic_The_Truth_About_Population/

           12 likes

      • Dave s says:

        I regularly have a mild converstion with a local Conservative( the party) bigwig.
        They are terrified of Ukip. Ukip will let in Labour. So what I reply .Same difference.
        I try to tell him it is too late. The Tory party has blown it but he will not listen.
        Only when the polls are over will they see reason.

           8 likes

    • Mice Height says:

      It’s ‘Farage’ actually. Putting Mr. before it is far too formal and polite.

      It’s a shame he didn’t point out the damage that E.U immigration must have on the poorest countries, when their best and brightest move here to clean toilets and flip burgers, rather than using their skills to improve their country of origin, now they’re free from Communism.
      Zephaniah may also wish to look at the unemployment rates among his own ‘community’, and question whether the influx of E.Europeans, with good qualifications, good work ethic, and no sense of victimhood, entitlement, or a huge chip on their shoulders, may have.

         23 likes

    • uncle bup says:

      The Tory woman, Soubry I believe, when Mr Farage opened his speech about how open borders had caused a massive increase in (im)migration adopted a (faux) curious expression and shook her head.

      Come her turn, though, could she give the lie to his statistics or his argument.

      Funnily enough – no.

         12 likes

    • Chingfordassociates says:

      I saw the programme and this sort of thing seems to happen with some regularity. Remember Amy Rutland and her ‘vile’ comments? Does it rankle with the likes of Nigel Farage, I wonder? Maybe a boycott of QT by the Conservatives and UKIP might have some sort of effect, leaving the show with only Labour and left wing voices. Or do they just want to be on TV no matter how much they are traduced or ridiculed?

         4 likes

  41. Thoughtful says:

    Today program this morning advertising an exhibition of left wing art at the Tate Liverpool.

    http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition/art-turning-left-how-values-changed-making-1789-2013

    There is what passes for ‘balance’ at the BBC when there’s a sneering discussion about ‘right wing art’ by Damien Hirst, and Tracey Emin spat through clenched teeth, as Hirsts patron is Charles Saatchi the mastermind behind Margaret Thatchers election, and Tracey Emins support for the conservative party.

    Of course the fact these two are mentioned will give the excuse that the output is balanced when the gritted teeth and narrative tell a different story.

       15 likes

    • flexdream says:

      In the piece Justin Webb characterised right wingers as people who like things just the way they are! That says more about him than about right wingers. So, you like government running a perpetual deficit? You must be a right winger. To his credit Will Gompertz, the BBC art critic, audibly recoiled at this juvenile misrepresentation of the difference between left wing and right wing.

         15 likes

      • Dom says:

        Actually, that’s correct. The word conservative means to conserve the status quo.

           2 likes

        • uncle bup says:

          Yes thanks we can all speak English on here. (and Latin)

          You don’t think there is just slightly more to the word ‘Conservative’ than conserving the status quo do you?

             10 likes

        • johnnythefish says:

          Margaret Thatcher was a Conservative, if my memory serves me right.

          She changed things.

          Big time.

          You numpty.

             4 likes

  42. AsISeeIt says:

    Nicky Campbell has taken on a remit to promote Lefty-campaigners

    And naturally they lurve him….

    Susan G Crocombe ‏@shinybluedress 11h
    @jemmabrown Nicky Campbell mentioned me in a tweet! Wow! I feel so honoured! I’ve only been twittering just over a week!

    Susan G Crocombe ‏@shinybluedress 11h
    PLEASE SIGN PETITION FOR MANDATORY REPORTING OF CHILD ABUSE http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/educationgovuk-introduce-law-requiring-adults-working-with-children-to-report-alleged-abuse-mandatenow …

    Susan G Crocombe ‏@shinybluedress 12h
    Permission to gloat and crow… I have been mentioned in a Tweet by someone famous.

    And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how and why lefty luvvies simply lurve lefty campaigners – you see they are both such lurvley progressive people

    BBC : Spread the lurve

       12 likes

  43. AsISeeIt says:

    Susan G Crocombe ‏@shinybluedress 14h
    @NickyAACampbell just wanted to say thank you for “handling me with care” on Tuesdays phone in discussion

    Don’t panic readers…. this former radio one DJ ‘started just as…’ you know who ‘…left…’

    You’ve heard about those so-called ‘Chinese Walls’ and ‘Firewalls’

    BBC: the Chinese Revolving Door

       9 likes

  44. flexdream says:

    With the Phlippines devastated by an awful storm I anticipate the usual BBC coverage of the huge amounts of aid flowing from the ultra-religious, super wealthy Gulf oil states, and the Asian nuclear and space powers, compared with the miserable pittance from Western nations.

       15 likes

  45. Alan Larocka says:

    Any service or ex-service personnel on here? I am curious how they view the persistent siding with the enemy by the BBC at every turn as illustrated by the lead story last night regarding the 3 marines court-martial. Knowing that the state funded national broadcaster backs the very people trying to kill you must be extremely disturbing.

       28 likes

    • starfish says:

      Par for the course in my experience

      Anyone remember 1982 and the Argentinian bomb fusing errors dutifully reported by the BBC so that they would be more effective in future?

      As to the case in question on the face of it the military justice system seems to have done its job

         8 likes

  46. Old Goat says:

    Regarding the typhoon in the Philippines – did anyone else get the impression that, in his interviews, Evan Davis seemed to want there to be mass destruction and loss of life on a grand scale? The interviewees I heard both were at pains to say that this was not unusual, that it happened frequently to a greater or lesser extent, and that generally they were well prepared for the event.

    There seemed to be some variance in the alleged wind speed, in gusts – from 150 MPH to 230 MPH – it’ll be interesting to see, when the fuss has died down, how unusual (if at all) this storm actually was.

    I also heard one of them say that, in general, there were fewer cyclonic storms this year.

    I wonder how long it’ll be before they lay the blame for this “unusual” storm squarely at the feet of the dreadful climate change…

       18 likes

  47. Framer says:

    The Question Time audience last night was as always utterly unbalanced with waves of applause for any mention of the value of immigration and ululating screeching if Farage said anything effective.
    However what I particularly noticed was the pre-applause for anything that was potentially anti-British.
    It struck me that vast swathes of the left, let alone the far left, actually hate this country, as I think many journalists do – not just on the BBC but also Sky.
    They want the nation state to disappear they loathe their own country so much.

       50 likes

    • Old Goat says:

      In fairness, I have to say I loathe it too – that’s why I left…

         2 likes

      • Dave s says:

        A sad thing to say. I could never live anywhere else other than my South Country England.
        It is not the land but the fools who are destroying old England who are loathed.
        Pod people without imagination or character. They will pass in time I hope and the land will be restored.
        Sometimes it is hard to hold to this but what else is there?

           18 likes

    • Fred Bloggs says:

      My confusion is: as head of news why did he carry on doing all those things wrong. Why did he not speak up why he was in a position of power and influence; oh he would no longer be on the gravy train!

         10 likes

      • Fred Bloggs says:

        Sorry should be to the comment below by George R about Roger Mosey.

           0 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        ‘…as head of news why did he carry on doing all those things wrong. Why did he not speak up why he was in a position of power and influence…
        You of course answered your own question, but Mrs. Merton may have added an additional line regarding the inexplicable attraction of vast quantities of money.
        Which may also have had a bearing.
        But nice of him to confirm what is now well known outside the bubble post Pollard, Rose, PAC, etc.

           4 likes

    • uncle bup says:

      It’s actually just getting silly that programme; more and more like a conference speech by a party leader where, never mind every point but almost every clause gets its own round of applause.

      And the artificial ‘fast-clapping’ by members of the audience as a…

      ‘Wow I really really agree with that point (clause) ‘

      mechanism.

      Just STFU.

         16 likes

  48. George R says:

    “BBC is too big, too left-wing and ignored critics of immigration and Brussels, former head of news admits.
    “Roger Mosey said more of the licence fee should be open to rivals.
    “BBC has 70% market share for news, squeezing out alternatives.
    “Corporation-wide policies create the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ way to cover issues.”
    By MATT CHORLEY, MAILONLINE POLITICAL EDITOR.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2492363/BBC-big-left-wing-ignored-critics-immigration-Brussels-head-news-admits.html

       18 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Possibly some irony to there being a ‘Move your licence’ TVL ad (for now; I think it cycles with others) on the same page.
      Not sure who will be more mortified by the association, or message.

         1 likes

  49. noggin says:

    audience “utterly unbalanced” πŸ˜€
    and ….
    a panel, of ethnic poets jailbirds, and expenses/tax criminals from Westminister?

       17 likes

    • noggin says:

      and an “old feminist”, Tory who supports the Burkha?
      in public …. you couldn t make it up
      erm … yay! feminism?
      absurd Britainia

         16 likes