163 Responses to WEEKED OPEN THREAD

  1. Guest Who says:

    At risk of opening the floor to the clearly already scrabbling weak-end B-team… there’s a typo in the headline.

       12 likes

  2. Demon says:

    Just watching a documentary on the British Jet-age. I learned a fact of which I was previously unaware, and was shocked and angered although it happened well before I was born. The Attlee government (of which the BBC always praise to the rafters and above) apparently sold jets and Rolls-Royce jet engines to the Soviet Union against American wishes (for one the Americans were right). And guess what, these engines and Soviet copies were used to power the Mig-15s used against us and our allies.

    The Labour Party, and their BBC cheerleaders, are this country’s enemies.

       63 likes

    • +james says:

      Did you notice how anti-American that documentary was. Trying to portray America as a paranoid bad guy, with the Stalin as peace loving and misunderstood. The presenter framed the cold war as Capitalism vs Communism. That’s not how I remember it, more like liberal democracy vs a one party totalitarian system.

      I had to laugh when an old Soviet Communist tried to portray Russia as a victim during the Gary Powers incident. It’s not as if they were not spying on the Americans.

      But someone should take a giant dump on Atlee’s grave for what he did. It just proves what a treacherous party Labour is.

      But apart from that I thought the documentary rather good.

         43 likes

      • Joe Chapman says:

        This is something that I have noticed happening more and more in documentaries from ‘progressive’ sources’, like the beeb. The Soviet Union is portrayed as a benign, harmless underdog that just wants to be left alone, you see they only developed all those weapons because they were threatened by the nasty Americans!
        Of course America and NATO are not allowed to feel threatened by the USSR and develop lots of weapons of their own. The BBC tends to display the same sort of crypto-racist attitude towards Islam these days.
        I wonder if the second part will cover the TSR2, another case of Labour standing up for the working man…………

           48 likes

        • Ophelia Gently says:

          Oh it wasn’t just the fabled TSR-2; Healey also chopped the P1154 (a supersonic V/STOL fighter-bomber that the P1127/Kestrel was a technology demonstrator for) and the HS-681 (a V/STOL Tactical Transport to keep the P1154 units supplied ‘in the field’).
          In Labour’s La-La finance world, the economies achieved by cancelling the P1154 was that 2 aircraft types were required to replace it which led to the purchase of the (American) McDonnell F4 Phantom* – for the supersonic Strike capability – and the Harrier (developed from the P1127/Kestrel for the ) for the S/VTOL Attack capability. The HS681 was replaced by the (also American) Lockheed C130 Hercules. And, of course, the TSR-2 was replaced by the F-111. Which was subsequently also promptly cancelled too. So the UK taxpayer – in true Labour style – had millions flushed down the toilet on cancelled projects that could have been world beaters and provided hi-tech jobs in the UK and more millions squandered on buying American kit to establish their aviation industry’s dominance whilst simultaneously emasculating the UK’s, from which it has never recovered. The BBC has you believe of course that the Wilson/Healey/Brown (no – not him; the earlier one) was a Golden Era…….
          On a completely different subject of course –a study of these decisions and the timescales of certain bribery scandals subsequently uncovered in other countries involving certain American aircraft suppliers reveals an interesting coincidence of timescales.
          *BTW the UK F4s were bastardised to include much UK equipment as possible. The Yanks now run case studies at aeronautical seats of learning examining how the Brits managed to install engines (R-R Speys in lieu of GE J-79s) that were about 20% more powerful but made the aircraft SLOWER……

             32 likes

          • pounce says:

            Another snippet about labour and its flawed defence polices:
            They purchased the F4 Phantom and decided that Guns were dead and Missiles ruled. They had to use a wingpoint for a gun pod

            Roll on 30 years and the Eurofighter.
            Labour decided that guns were dead and missiles ruled. They then spent millions trying to get rid of the gun which the plane was designed around. They initially were going to pour concrete into the space the gun took. After that didn’t work they decided that the plane would have the gun, but no rounds would be issued for it.

            That is how the left think.

               29 likes

            • pounce says:

              Further to my last:
              In May 2000 the British MoD announced that Tranche-2 and 3 Eurofighter’s in RAF service would have not been fitted with any cannon whatsoever, while Tranche-1 cannons would not be utilized. The recommendation for this was made by the Equipment Capability Organisation (ECO) which was tasked with finding the most appropriate mix of weaponry for combat systems. The official Government line is that the capability offered by ASRAAM equipped Eurofighter’s leads to the cannon becoming operationaly and economically unviable [note that the correct reading of this statement is “we must cut on something because there’s no money. This sounded smart!”].
              At the time, the British MoD had already spent £90M on the BK-27, while annual savings from not using it were put at a mere £2.5M (the costs of removing it were calculated at £32M). This, coupled with the problems in aircraft balance if the gun was removed (or swapped for a concrete ballast, as it was also proposed), which would have required expensive software redesign, led to the cancellation of this absurd cost-cutting measure plan.

                 26 likes

          • Rob says:

            The British Phantoms also ended up about twice as expensive as the standard US versions due to the cost of equipping them with Rolls-Royce engines. The airframe had never been designed with such a thing in mind, and had to be modified at great expense. Yet another defence fiasco from our wonderful politicians and MoD.

               28 likes

            • Dave666 says:

              Of course the final word in the F-4 Phantom story is that the government ended up with F-4J models in the Falklands. “RAF Phantoms began operating out of Port Stanley Airport in the Falkland Islands in 1982 following their recapture from Argentina. In order to compensate NATO for the diversion of these aircraft to the Falklands, Britain purchased 15 ex-US Navy F-4Js for use in Europe. They retained their J79 engines and their American avionics. They were assigned the designation F-4J(UK) rather than the more logical “Phantom F.Mk 3” so that they would not be confused with the Tornado F.Mk 3 “

                 4 likes

      • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

        Liberal Democracy v ….etc……
        Yes and look where our liberal democracy has gotten us.
        Absolutely up shit creek without a paddle.
        Albeeba crowing unceasingly about securing a guilty verdict on the marine, if it had happened to a Russian soldier, Putin would have awarded him a medal.

           47 likes

        • Ian Hills says:

          The BBC highlights supposed atrocities against moslems, causing moslems take offence, and leading the government to condemn the soldiers to make the moslems happy again.

          If only our troops would mutiny….

             25 likes

    • pounce says:

      At the time, we (the British) were the world leaders in Jet Engine technology , the lefts love in with communism, cost many a western life.

         43 likes

    • Richard Pinder says:

      My grandpa was second in command of the experimental design team of Blackburn Aircraft when it revived its first jet engine in 1951, that jet engine was a Rolls Royce Nene, the H.P.88 aircraft was the predecessor of the Victor bomber which my grandpa contributed a considerable amount to the design.

      Its still a bit hard to think that the old man that I new in the1960’s who lived in a council house in Hull, with outside toilets, and took me to the Park to feed the ducks, was designing jets before I was born.

      He certainly did not tell me that the Labour government had given the Russians the same jet engine that he was working on, as that used for the MIG 15.

         39 likes

      • Banquosghost says:

        I have a friend who was so disenfranchised by working for Rolls Royce he left to set up on his own. Within six weeks Rolls Royce tried to hire him back as they were getting short staffed due to engineers leaving due to so many enforced changes in their designs from, ahem, external departments.’

        He is now alternating between Germany and Ukraine designing wonderfully efficient combat engines for those countries whose Defence Departments tell interfering politicians to sod off!

           1 likes

  3. pounce says:

    The bBC mindset towards Global warming:
    free-speech.gif

       70 likes

  4. flexdream says:

    Question time introduced Vicky Price as having been imprisoned because she took her husband’s speeding points i.e. she was a victim. In fact she didn’t go to prison for that reason, she went to prison for perjury.

       78 likes

    • pounce says:

      But to the left, lying is good.:
      “We armed Saddam”
      “Maggie ruined the country”
      “Islam is a religion of peace”
      “Immigration is good for the Uk”

      To them telling the truth is a crime::
      “Russia,China and the EU armed Saddam”
      “The policies of the elft have ruined British industry”
      “Muslims have a penchant for murder,Rape,Crime”
      “Immigration over the past 9 years has done the UK no favours”

      I mean we can’t have Vicky Price being reported on as;
      “Her husband at the time left her for a lesbian”

         49 likes

      • Richard says:

        No, I haven’t heard it said that her husband was speeding at a time when he was employed by his party to tell the rest of us to use less energy either! He was “Climate Change Spokesman” or some such bollocks, wasn’t he? Nice work if you can get it.

           18 likes

  5. AsISeeIt says:

    Zo, vot brings you to ze psychiatrist, Mr Smith?

    Doctor, just lately, I seem to have developed a strange obsession…

    Zo, go on, please, do not be embarrassed

    Well, it’s like this… at any hour of the day – without warning and completely incongruously – I suddenly start to think about… about… women playing sports

    You have zeez images constantly popping into your head… of vimmin playing sports… how does zis make you feel?

    Well, at first it was just distracting and odd. But I can never seem to escape it… it seems as though to keep dwelling on it like this – over and over and over again – it’s just wrong

    Ahh jah! Mr Smith, zis obsession…. it ist not zo very strange. I have three similar cases zis week!

    Then there is some remedy, some therapy, you can recommend?

    You have a TV Licence, jah? You listen to BBC Radio?
    Yes doctor, how could you know? Of course – the BBC are the cause of this obsession – but what can I do about the BBC?

    Stop it!

       26 likes

  6. Sinniberg says:

    Yesterday(Friday) with Remembrance Sunday just two days away the BBC proudly announce with a headline that could hardly have been bigger that a British Marine has been found guilty of “murder”.

    This weekend and on Monday thousands of British men, women and children will stop to weep and remember the sons, daughters, fathers and mothers who are gone and who have left an aching, unfillable void in their lives.

    And yet, the BBC were more interested in the opportunity to “shame” a British soldier for “murder”.

       47 likes

    • Chris says:

      On what basis do you say ‘proudly’? How do you know the BBC’s attitude towards this story?

      A British soldier being found guilty of murder like this is big news whether you like it or not. The fact that it has happened now is nothing to do with the BBC. The story is no longer headline news (at least on the BBC News website), and where it is reported the emphasis is on Cameron’s urging not to besmirch the entire Marines.

      The BBC has not sshamed’ the British soldier – he did that himself by committing murder.

         14 likes

      • Ian Hills says:

        Why are your sympathies with the terrorists?
        Why do you expect different standards from them?
        Why do you hate our troops?
        Don’t you lefties want little girls to go to school?
        /sarc

           37 likes

      • Klaus says:

        Careful Chris, you’ve made a perfectly sensible comment there….prepare for the backlash!

           6 likes

      • mo says:

        Looking a the wider picture as everybody else does. the BBC chose not to and gave no context. It does this in a biased way.

           2 likes

    • Trevor says:

      Maybe they should’ve waited a few days then before reporting the verdict. Dumbass.

         1 likes

  7. GCooper says:

    Another Sunday – another Press Release from the Marxist ‘toff’ Milband’s spinners treated as if it were news:

    “Miliband: Ban children’s TV loan ads”
    Why don’t they just give up the pretence and run ‘Vote Labour’ as their headline?.

       43 likes

    • Pounce says:

      They air adverts on CBBC?

         5 likes

      • Pounce says:

        Just had a check on Ed his sons are 4 and 3 years of age.
        What kind of parent is he, allowing such young children unsupervised TV time?

           22 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      They give children payday loans? When the paper round money doesn’t stretch far enough?

         8 likes

      • Ian Hills says:

        Come on, Roland, if they didn’t then how could 10 year old chavs afford their own Special Brew? They’d have to pinch their parents’ cans.

        As for hinting that they should go up chimneys to deliver papers, well all I can say is thank God that Victorian values are now a thing of the past!

        Stand up to the Tory kutz! Or fall down if you’re a 10 year old chav.

           5 likes

      • London Calling says:

        A Paper Round delivering The Guardian wouldn’t pay very much at all, below subsistence level . Pocket-money day loans must be the way forward.

           12 likes

  8. George R says:

    “Wildlife presenter Chris Packham censured by the BBC for tweeting that those behind government’s badger cull were ‘brutalist thugs, liars and frauds.’
    “Presenter found to have breached voluntary code of conduct.
    “Investigation launched after Countryside Alliance complained.
    “Tweets were in breach as they were not politically neutral”
    By HAYLEY O’KEEFFE.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2496419/Wildlife-presenter-Chris-Packham-censured-BBC-tweeting-governments-badger-cull-brutalist-thugs-liars-frauds.html

       24 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      “He added: ‘Chris’ Twitter account was not managed or supported by the BBC and although it identifies Chris as a BBC presenter, this does not imply BBC endorsement of the views aired on the account.’
      —-
      So, still a massive BBC ‘views my own’ semantic, legal fudge that gets a stern wrist slap, which would have the BBC mounting an empire-wide assault upon if it was from a person working with an entity they did not approve of, with calls for positions to be considered and Stuart Hughes personally tweeting rock legends and discredited Lords to assist in driving up the schedules.
      The sheer hypocrisy of the BBC is astounding.

         20 likes

      • flexdream says:

        I like and admire Chris Packham, but he and the BBC have t to recognise that it is not acceptable to have a bias in the same area in which you are employed by the BBC. He does a good job on the TV, but needs to be strongly told by the BBC not to use his position as a platform.

           0 likes

    • Phil Ford says:

      Packham is another bland, CAGW-subscribing troll; I pay the man no attention whatsoever and avoid all of his programmes. He has nothing useful to tell me that won’t be infected with his vile climate propaganda. Just another ready-made ‘on-message’ drone for the Corporation.

         4 likes

  9. George R says:

    “Blair crony hired by the BBC on £295,000 gives key role to ex-colleague within weeks of his arrival.
    “James Purnell worked with Jean-Paul Petranca at Boston Consulting Group.
    “Alun Cairns MP said the appointment raised serious questions about the corporation’s employment practices.”
    By MILES GOSLETT.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2496473/Blair-crony-hired-BBC-295-000-gives-key-role-ex-colleague-weeks-arrival.html

       33 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      “Neither the BBC nor Mr Petranca’s company was willing to discuss the nature of his work for Mr Purnell, which is believed to be coming to an end after six months.”
      —-
      Feeling the restored trust and new levels of transparency yet?
      Me neither.
      Maybe Martin could give Lord Hall Hall a bell and tip him the wink that a Labour man hiring a Labour man hiring a Labour man (all on a nod and a wink) may not be the kind of ‘moving on’ that suckers anyone any more.
      Nor is trying to wave two out of 20,000 going to convince anyone of balance, no matter how stuffed up BBC maths is known to be.

         23 likes

    • uncle bup says:

      Aw c’mon, Purnell is doing a really fantastic job.

      How do we know this?

      Lord Tony Hall told us.

         11 likes

  10. Pounce says:

    A very interesting site which informs you just where your tax money is getting spent around the world.
    http://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk/

       12 likes

    • EmersonV says:

      Why are we giving money to Zimbabwee, India is bad enough but Zimbabwee I give up

         4 likes

      • David Kay says:

        Zimbabwee TV is hideously black. We should stop giving them money until it embraces multiculturalism. More whites on Zimbabwee TV. I wonder what Mugabe will think of that

           17 likes

      • Invicta 1066 says:

        We are not giving money away EmersonV; the site says we are ”Investing!”

        Thanks for the link Ponce

           7 likes

  11. George R says:

    “£1m payoff for shameless ex-BBC boss Mark Byford is just another rip-off for the taxpayer.

    “By refusing to pay back money he wasn’t entitled to he has proved to be just another greedy pig with his snout in the trough.”

    By Carole Malone.

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/night-copy/mark-byfords-1-million-bbc-2714303?

       29 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      So…. Carole gunning for a gig on the Daily Mail?
      Or the Mirror calling things as their readership sees it, rather than, say, ex-BBC pensioners who moved seamlessly from one bubble to another in Westminster without missing a beat.

         11 likes

  12. George R says:

    ‘Telegraph’ (£)-

    “A sense of entitlement at the top has damaged the BBC.
    “To restore lost trust, the BBC needs a dose of austerity, argues Martin Bell.”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/10437720/A-sense-of-entitlement-at-the-top-has-damaged-the-BBC.html

       22 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      A very odd piece, richocheting from admissions of abuse that would get any other organisation shut
      down (driven mostly by demands from media lead by the BBC) to bizarre excuses one might expect from an old flame who has some fond memories.
      He also uses a collection of lame excuses (Neil & Robinson represent ‘balance’) & appeals to emotion to see trust restored that are too predictable, too late.
      I also not that the actual audience that matters, the UK public, are only added as an afterthought much later.
      This group Martin, were lost a while ago; that you are moved only now by disquiet even in the dark side of The Farce speaks volumes.
      This piece may pour oil on consciences troubled enough to spoil Nottmg Hill parties for a while, but trust does not get regained by insincere apologies, platitudes and patronising pr mantras. It gets regained by not stuffing up, lacking integrity, and running a supposed neutral, professional broadcaster like a social manipulation department. Funded by a tithe on victims.
      So nice try. Good luck with that.

         16 likes

  13. Thoughtful says:

    A hideous piece of propaganda on behalf of the Somali Muslims in London, which ran along the same usual BBC lines (lies) that radicalisation is not the fault of Muslims, it’s the fault of white people!
    The usual crap about Al Shaabab not really representing Muslims and betraying Islam (yawn) but with no answers of how to deal with it, and certainly no action on their behalf at all.

       42 likes

  14. Thoughtful says:

    The Al Ahaabab promo piece is followed by an attack on the British army for recruiting soldiers at 16. There’s a deception that they are being ‘prepared for war’ and no matter how much the opposing interviewee points out they’re being given skills.
    It’s pointed out that the recruits cannot be deployed to combat zones but this is just batted away.

    On remembrance Sunday it is unbecoming to hold a discussion like this, but typical of the BBC.

       35 likes

  15. Techno says:

    Article attempting to play down Muslim acid attacks on women, by informing us that men are more likely to be victims and it’s nothing to do with Islam at all:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24835910

       28 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      The Russian ballet community has much to answer for.
      Apparently.
      When last this topic was raised, I think at the time of the attack on the lingerie store employee by a hard to identify attacker, the route taken was more that this was driven by the availability of corrosive liquids.
      Guessing soon there will be calls to have Kwik-fit shut down as a haven of males with access to batteries.
      The BBC has become a parody of a farce about a tragedy.

         17 likes

      • AsISeeIt says:

        Tom De Castella for BBC News Magazine,
        August 2013, asks ‘How many acid attacks are there?’

        http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23631395

        And brings us the priceless observation ‘The prevalence of attacks in South Asia can be explained by the easy availability of acid, suggests Shah’ (I say priceless in fact c£145pa)

        Not just a casual remark either, our Tom follows up with this…. ‘Acid can be sold for as little as a dollar or 50 cents a litre, says Jawad. ‘

        ‘In the developing world acid attacks cause greater damage. Water might be hard to come by for someone seeking to wash away the acid. Burns units are few and far between.’

        I guess if the third world weren’t poor and Acid wasn’t ‘widely used in the cotton, rubber and jewellery industries’ this stuff just wouldn’t happen – right?

           25 likes

    • When Somali-born terrorist-suspect M.A.Mohammed cut his tag and ran off in a burka from a Mosque in west London last week it wasn’t a “mosque” he was running from it was “community centre” according to BBC Radio 4 one morning last week (Wednesday?).

      Unfortunately for the BBC they are creating for themselves enormous problems with this twisting of the facts because it doesn’t support their political mantra. Once someone says “hold on that’s not right” when they hear or see an article that is distorted/twisted/facts-ignored/the blameless blamed to excuse vicious behaviour then the listener/viewer simply questions the Beeb’s integrity from that very point onwards.

         43 likes

    • Chingfordassociates says:

      …and of course no questions asked about the problem of ‘gang culture’ and how it has been able to take root here.

         22 likes

  16. AsISeeIt says:

    LBC Radio newspaper review acknowledges this report today

    http://www.express.co.uk/news/health/442188/Foreign-NHS-cheats-push-aside-cancer-patients-Fury-as-life-saving-ops-are-cancelled

    “It is so easy to breach the system. It is awful for me as a doctor to have to treat someone I know is ineligible,”

    BBC Radio? TV? On Line? Anywhere?

    Could it be that this report runs contra to someone’s corporate agenda?

    Quick call Brian Leveson and ask him to…. to… to… condemn the Express for publishing a story that causes distress in our illegal immigrant community?

       34 likes

  17. AsISeeIt says:

    Beyond Parody from the BBC episode 101….

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24867914

    ‘What India’s space scientists and street children have in common’

    By Justin Rowlatt BBC News, India

       25 likes

    • Ian Rushlow says:

      This is an ongoing theme in BBC programmes about India that life in the slums is better than fine, even something we in the West could learn from or even aspire to. Is there an agenda? Is it part of trying to prepare us for a dramatically reduced standard or living as the fantasy of global governance come crashing to Earth? As Eurabia comes about and sinks into a new Dark Age? As economic power shifts relentlessly to the East?

         18 likes

      • uncle bup says:

        ‘Is there an agenda? Is it part of trying to prepare us for a dramatically reduced standard or living as the fantasy of global governance come crashing to Earth?’

        Nah, probably not.

           4 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Absolutely beyond parody. Compare it to the unequivocal approval – through the absence of any challenge – the BBC always gives to the ‘vulnerable’ on benefits in the UK. Case in point last week when interviewing a young unemployed bloke (the hushed, caring, concerned tone of female interviewer was noted) when he claimed it was difficult for him to complete the Job Centre paperwork because it’s all computerised and he couldn’t get out to use the council’s PCs because of the ‘recent horrendous weather’. What? The same weather most people in his area managed to get to work in?

      Meanwhile in India the BBC reports:

      ‘Food is no problem,” Iqbal explains. “Lots of charities give out free food. I would spend the money I earned collecting rubbish playing video games in the backstreet arcades.”

      In fact, one of the biggest challenges for the Salaam Baalak Trust, and charities like it, is persuading the children to give up life on the streets to go and live in their shelters and homes.’

      So one BBC rule for the loveable and noble Indian ragamuffins and another for our welfare class?

      Compare and contrast, BBC?

      Nah, thought not.

         18 likes

  18. Milverton says:

    So, what’s the biggest political story of the week? The Iran nuclear talks? Syria? The power companies? Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

    According to Pienaar on Five Live, it’s Page Three, complete with a whining – is there any other – Harriet Harman.

       26 likes

    • uncle bup says:

      Funny how Page Three (hint – a Murdoch newspaper) gets 100 times the flak that The Sport gets.

      Page Three has a couple of tits.

      The Sport has a girl with a short skirt, a tiny pair of knickers, facing away from the camera and bending over.

      Harriet never sees The Sport apparently.

         11 likes

  19. George R says:

    Is the following statement by Islam-appeasing U.K Government, mere words?

    And won’t the political ‘left’ ( inc INBBC and ‘Guardian’ shadow government) campaign for the ‘human rights’ of Al Qaeda-Al Shabaab Muslims?

    ‘Mail on Sunday’:-

    “May targets radical mosques in new terror clampdown after seven suspects go on run despite strict control laws.
    “Theresa May is set to target radical mosques in new terror crackdown.
    “Suspects being monitored under controversial control measures will be banned from worshipping.
    “They will also be moved away from their communities by police.
    “Seven terror suspects are currently on the run after evading control laws.”
    By DUNCAN GARDHAM and ROBERT VERKAIK.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2496175/Theresa-May-targets-radical-mosques-new-terror-clampdown-seven-suspects-run-despite-strict-control-laws.html

       11 likes

  20. Llareggub says:

    Two HYS discussions close. Of interest are the top comments on each, which are frozen and the first to be seen by readers. On one we find the claim that Iran’s nuclear weapons would bring peace to the ME. The second ends with a post comparing the Waffen SS to the British Army. I have noticed this trend on several occasions: the discussion usually ends with a statement dear to the BBC’s position, more reflective perhaps than the editor’s picks.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24877014
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24877081

       18 likes

  21. Bob Nelson says:

    ‘The BBC would like to apologize to the British public for misleading them with regard to the Typhoon Haiyan wind speeds. We now realise that wind speeds reported as mph were in fact kph. Therefore our over-excitement that winds were 200mph, gusting to 235mph was misplaced and that Haiyan, far from being the most powerful storm ever experienced by mankind, was category 4 (out of 5) with wind speeds of 145mph, gusting to 170mph. We would also like to state that we take no pleasure at all, however it may appear otherwise, that the death toll may be as many as 10,000.’

    I sincerely hope this last number is a dramatic overestimate.

       24 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      One thing you can guarantee: the BBC won’t give this storm any historical context that blows apart their Alarmist Extreme Weather Agenda.

      So here’s some from Watts Up With That, a website more noted for its science than its hyperbole:

      ‘Given the geography of the Pacific, most typhoons stay out at sea, or only hit land once they have weakened. But in total terms, the busiest typhoon season in recent decades was 1964, whilst the following year logged the highest number of super typhoons (which equate to Cat 3 +). Of the eleven super typhoons that year, eight were Category 5’s.’

      That’s right, 8 ‘super typhoons’ from that year alone that were in a higher category than this week’s.

      http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/11/09/super-typhoon-haiyanyolanda-another-overhyped-storm-that-didnt-match-early-reports/#more-97127

      Expect soon the BBC to interview a ‘climate expert’ who puts this week’s storm firmly in the camp of ‘warming oceans’.

         21 likes

      • uncle bup says:

        Wattsupwiththat a quality site.

        Never ever ever heard it even mentioned by the ‘world’s most trusted news organisation’.

        Funny that.

           14 likes

  22. Leha says:

    VD going to be reporting from “the spiritual home of football” – Brasil. Poor dear, I think she is confusing football with rainforests.

       23 likes

  23. Chris says:

    Fascinating interview with Farage on Sunday politics. Interviewer referred to Question Time audience and stated that surely the general opposition to Farage points to him not being representative of the general populace.
    Which to me confirms that the BBC are actively trying to lead opinion. Fill the audience with socialists and try and present the average person as being left wing liberal so that people with the opposite view feels like they are in the minority and will not talk openly in case of giving away that they are minority. Pretty horrific.

       57 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Thursday’s Question Time was more like a kangaroo court. The BBC made sure with its panel selection that Farage would be in a minority of one.

      As for him not being ‘representative’ – I wonder how the BBC has managed to keep itself oblivious to the opinion polls for God knows how many years?

      Leading opinion is right. Bastards.

         52 likes

      • chris says:

        Well…its very reminisent of the stasi isn’t it? Its the whole premise that you don’t know if you neighbour will rat you out if you are not “in line”.As a result you scare an entire populace with only a few “enforcers”. The enforcers today are the police. How many times have you seem stories of people being arrested for facebook posts which are not racist? Even Alan sugar got nabed.
        If people anti liberal realised the huge amount of lime minded then the spell would break. Which it is begin too. My only fear now is that now their soft power is failing, will they go for outright suppresion. A nunber of eu rules and the gov latest ASBO bill seem worrying in this regard.

           18 likes

    • Ian Hills says:

      Something to do with the threatened EU referendum, no doubt. If we leave then Eurobeeb’s grants and loans from Brussels will dry up.

         9 likes

  24. Chris says:

    Also, compare and contrast the BBC treatment of the British soldier with their coverage of the British armies enemy in Afghanistan, and with a Muslim “freedom” fighter eating a mans heart in Syria. (Muslim eating mans heart – “misunderstood”, British soldier shooting an injured not in uniform – bad.)
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23196438
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24464506
    How is this not treasonous?

       30 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      Lord HawHaw would have been proud of today’s bbc.
      What a treacherous bunch of bastards infest the bbc.

         40 likes

    • Llareggub says:

      The BBC were very understanding regarding the poor man who (Allegedly as they say in the business) ate the heart of his enemy.
      Try this:

      It is possible that Abu Sakkar was mentally disturbed all along. Or perhaps the war made him this way. War damages men – and Syria is no different. As the poet W H Auden wrote: “Those to whom evil is done, do evil in return.”
      I asked the Free Syrian Army’s chief of staff, Gen Salim Idris, why Abu Sakkar hadn’t been arrested. His answer tells you a lot about the reality of how the war is being fought on the rebel side.
      “We condemn what he did,” said the general. “But why do our friends in the West focus on this when thousands are dying? We are a revolution not a structured army. If we were, we would have expelled Abu Sakkar. But he commands his own battalion, which he raised with his own money. Is the West asking me now to fight Abu Sakkar and force him out of the revolution? I beg for some understanding here.”

      enhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23190533.

         18 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Tonality is of course a fluid thing, and hard to measure, and so is extent, but it would be hard to see the reaction to war and what it does to those thrust into its vicious heart being ‘reported’ the same way here as recent descriptions of a stone killer devoid of emotion.
        Unless of course your moral compass is a bit skewed. That a desperate weekend warrior, defeaning Battle of the Bulge (replete with reenactment names) is being currently less than articulately staged on certain fronts comes as no surprise, if being wearily predictable.
        And in amongst it all there’s even a house monitor grabbing opportunity to make pompous points of order whilst making facile demands deserving but a single digit response… whilst again avoiding any actual point.
        Plus ca change.

           5 likes

  25. Cosmo says:

    Where’s ChrisH ?

       6 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Just back from Ireland sir!…thanks for asking.
      RTE is as venal and as bought up the the liberal agenda as our own despised BBC…which looks like a traitorous nest of vipers in a land that once boasted of having banished the snakes.
      Mind you-there WAS a good programme on last Monday “The Disappeared” which scorches Gerry Adams and his claims not to have murdered the likes of McConville and Armstrong.
      Bet you the the BBC won`t have told you much(if anything) about the great statesman and his roles in killing defenceless mothers and grandads to warn off anybody who saw through his evils.
      Nor will Liam Adams and his serial abuse of his kids be going anywhere with the BBC…I guess he would have been a BBC Ulster reporter at some time.
      “Children in Need”?….as long as the BBC are able to grease up Gerry, airbrush Liam and get a blarney stooge like Wogan to “not mention Savile”…the BBC will ensure that plenty children will always be in chronic need…and they`ll wring out a lace hankie by the cemetery gates as well.
      What`s Gaelic for “lying hypocritical traitorous scummers”?

         16 likes

    • Alan says:

      I’m confused…help us all out Klaus….I know you have many names, but are you saying David Vance is in fact Gerry Adams?

         26 likes

      • Albaman says:

        Alan, you have now proved that you have access to the email details we all provide when posting.

        Taking this into account perhaps you can now provide the evidence for your assertion (which you based on my email address) that I am a BBC employee. Failing which will you now publicly withdraw your accusation.

        Hint: a quick Google search on the first 10 digits of my email will repudiate your assertion.

           9 likes

      • Stewart says:

        I cant understand what his point is either,
        That hat clearly isn’t working, perhaps he should try papering his entire bedroom in tin foil

           6 likes

  26. Old Timer says:

    At the same time as the very first wreaths were being laid at the Cenotaph this morning, true to despicable form the BBC ran a ticker across the bottom of the screen saying that “Ed Milliband, if he ever got into power, would do something about pay day lenders”.

    They put Labour political propaganda on screen whilst millions of people are watching a Remembrance Service for fallen heroes.

    They have no shame, no respect, and certainly no love for this country. Never mind biased they are rotten traitors to the core.

    Will no one rid us of this evil corporation?

       41 likes

    • Span Ows says:

      I’m sure you’ve noticed but no matter what the news is Ed Milliband farts and it is headline news on the BBC all weekend (for the last 3 or 4 weekends): a concerted and coordinated effort.

         24 likes

      • Milverton says:

        Since Campbell returned to the Labour fold he’s reinstated the old New Labour tactic of hitting Sunday morning, a traditionally quiet time, with an policy to catch the headlines.

        It’s working well, even if the idea itself doesn’t make it to the end of the day without petering out, and the Tories need to combat it ASAP.

        The election campaign started some time ago.

           21 likes

        • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

          Tories combat it? Dont make me laugh, they are still trying to work out what was that grid thing that labour seemed to like so much.

             11 likes

    • J says:

      I think the ticker was on the BBC News channel rather than during the coverage on BBC1. Could be wrong.

         2 likes

    • chrisH says:

      I heard this trope on all BBC news bulletins on the radio this morning.
      And always preceded by that Tory who used expenses to heat up his stables for the horse…or whatever.
      The BBCs positioning of their stories that ensures maximum leverage for Labour..and their placement next to others that make the Tories look crap( as if we need to be told that) is probably well worth a Media Monkey Degree….but the Beeb are so obvious that it`s probably not worth too much.
      So transparently biased and venal-and the fact they reckon on us not knowing is equally contemptible,
      Gaelic for “F*** Off BBC” anybody-and is there a phrasebook to be had here…we need to say such things in many languages , so I find!

         17 likes

  27. Klaus says:

    David Vance repeatedly claims BBC Northern Ireland is biased in favour of Republicans and refusesto ask Sinn Fein difficult questions about IRA activities during the Troubles.

    BBC NI (&RTE), and BBC4 showed ‘The Disappeared’ this week. Its a major talking point in NI . The allegations were put to Gerry Adams again on Radio Ulster’s Sunday Sequence (a former Vance haunt) today.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-24765480

    Not a word from Mr Vance yet……

       4 likes

    • Framer says:

      The IRA killed over 1,000 soldiers and police officers. How many programmes did the BBC ever make investigating their deaths? How many times did they lead on those murders as they do in relation to Afghanistan and earlier in Iraq?

         23 likes

    • +James says:

      Then why did the BBC give Gerry Adams so much air time? Why did they go straight to him when Margaret Thatcher died? Why wait till now, when everyone knew he was IRA?

      Think about how much air time Adams got in the 90s. When Thatcher tried to deny him the Oxygen of publicity.

      The BBC must have known what this man was like, so why did they aid and a bet this terrorist who comes from a family of paedophiles.

         17 likes

  28. Guest Who says:

    Two new shares on the Byzantine machinations within the machine…
    http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/aiuto.html
    Already mentioned here of course, but I was amused by this: ‘…the first stage of an expensive, if initially cagey, journey towards a new BBC Charter.’
    ‘Expensive’ is, of course, taken as read, but the notion of a new BBC Charter, created by the BBC, of the BBC, for the BBC, is quaint, given they seldom have observed the last much beyond the breach.
    Then we have more packing the whispering corridors with yet more for whom only a rattling bottle of Bolly makes any sense…
    http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/gatherers.html
    Again, a sentence stands out: ‘Newsgathering’s budget for the year has been drained by several major, fruitless, large-scale deployments to South Africa’.
    His passing will be news of course, but maybe in times of austerity, sending half the BBC there to stand outside a hospital to ‘report’ on some fairly basic physiological facts suggests too many staff have been hired to fill too many pointless roles to in turn fill too much empty space.
    Those media operating on less unique funding models do of course have the same imperatives, but seem able to haunt foreign climes with fewer, and more cheaply, to achieve the exact same level of insight on an old man’s health and eventual passing.

       9 likes

  29. Dave s says:

    Listening to the BBCR4 commentary from the Cenotaph I distinctly heard the commentator refer to the obviously important fact that Ed Milleband was wearing a black tie as apparently he usually does on such occasions.
    Why tell us this other than to suggest that Milleband is a true patriotic Englishman? Such comments were deemed unnecesary for any other politician.
    These orders to the pods must go out from PC ( work it out beeboids).
    Much like the mass wearing, on cue, of poppies by the political and media pods. Many of these same pods are no friends of England , it’s history and customs in any way.
    They do not fool me

       19 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Anybody else notice any efforts by the BBC to promote the Atheist Day of Remembrance, that was announced by the usual suspects…Dawkins, Polly Pullman, Marcus, Sadi and all those BBC luvvies that are so edgy and so rad in such matters.
      Dan Snow( son of Peter, hubby of Lady Grosvenor wot wot!) was due to be MC…and the Conway Hall website promised plenty cake…yummiscrum, where`s Jo Brand etc. etc?
      I hope to be drawing up the set list(sorry Order of Service) for 2014…
      so can you help?
      Song`s I`m offering are
      Oh dear , what can the matter be?
      Imagine
      Don`t worry , Be happy
      Always look on the Bright side of life
      and -to close-this one from the Reverend Benjamin Hill from 1971…which, in a real sense, is no worse that Thought for the Day

      Any other “hymns” will be welcomed!

         11 likes

  30. Chris says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24888304
    If we did this in the UK we would be labeled racist, xenophobes, imperialist scum etc etc

       6 likes

    • Stewart says:

      If this had happened in any European country, like Greece for instance, the BBC would have run it as the top story on the 10 o’clock news not on page 95 of the parish journal

         7 likes

  31. Teddy Bear says:

    The BBC describe Dan Snow as their ‘History Man’. Clearly most of his productions have been for the BBC.

    Now whether he is employed directly by the BBC, or works regularly for them on a freelance basis, there should be safeguards in place to maintain the impartiality element of their charter.

    So the news that ‘TV historian Dan Snow and the National Secular Society said the Church of England should no longer have a formal role in the traditional wreath-laying ceremony at the Cenotaph in Whitehall because Britain was now a secular country’ is clearly breaching the charter.

    It is no secret, as we have often seen here, that the BBC seek to diminish the power of the Church, and replace any teachings religion might have to offer with their own propaganda. It is no surprise that most within the BBC runnings are part of that mindset, and we are used to the usual insidious manner that the BBC uses to impart it to the public. But to actually use Remembrance Day, and have one of their people to make it a public issue is reprehensible.

    When one considers that most all of the Allies who fought and died in WW1 did so out of a desire to protect the values and qualities inherent in the society at the time. Without a doubt, those qualities were derived from Christianity. The freedom we enjoy today is because of all those who gave their lives, and for the faith and vision that they had. To now want to take that completely out of the equation has nothing to do with remembering and honouring them, but using that as a subterfuge for this group and mindset to gain power in the future.

    They make me sick!

    Coincidentally, just 3 days ago Dan Snow was involved in another complaint to the BBC, this time as a result of one his documentary’s distorting facts about Israel. Needless to say, on the BBC it wasn’t favourable towards Israel. BBC Watch picked up on it back in March when it was first broadcast. Apparently despite initial rejections by the BBC of complaints concerning the distortions relayed in this documentary, they were eventually upheld.

    The BBC now admits and details Snow’s transgressions in this article. The strange thing is that because the documentary concerned Syria and Israel the obvious place to make people aware of the distortions would have been in the Middle East section. The BBC decided to bury it somewhere in their Entertainment and Arts section. I wouldn’t have found it but for Googling information about Dan Snow. I doubt if this transgression appeared at all on the main page, and it certainly doesn’t now.

    Anti Israel, and anti-Church, it’s clear why Snow is the BBC’s History Man.

    Quote:
    Church of England hits out at ‘misguided’ calls to axe prayers from Cenotaph ceremony on Remembrance Sunday

    TV historian Dan Snow and National Secular Society say Christian prayers have no place in wreath-laying because Britain is now a secular country
    Church leaders blasted them for using the emotive event to their own ends

       23 likes

    • The Beebinator says:

      Maybe Dan Snow would like to spend some of the millions he’s taken from the tax payer to remove the crosses from our dead soldiers graves. What a fuckin scumbag he is

      dsc01640.jpg

         19 likes

    • Milverton says:

      I avoid Dan Snow whenever possible, but I did see him on a recent HIGNFY, where he came across as an arrogant, unfunny prick.

      His history programmes are the least authoratitive expositions I’ve seen for a long time. The first thing I look for in my TV experts is whether they are appealing characters. Snow is not fit to lace the boots of Richard Holmes, David Starkey and others. He’s a dilettante.

         4 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        The thinking behind such ‘guests’ is intriguing.
        HIGNFY always has one at least to lampoon, either too thick or too greedy to turn down the opportunity to be on par with the reality blonde they wheel out for Sean Lock ir Jimmy Carr to taunt on ‘8 out of 10 cats’.
        I find it crincheworthy.
        Politicians are the worst. They sit there grinning 99% the time and then open their mouths to show that they should indeed stick to the day job, except for the further damage to the country.
        And as to when they actually make them telepromptchair tubbies…
        If Prescott is ever billed as being on I give it as pass, as he really is a hole from which no empathy can escape, much less humour.
        Still, the BBC seem to like him.

           2 likes

  32. George R says:

    Will INBBC report this, or does Islam trump journalistic freedom?:-
    “UK: Reporters distributing photos of jihad terror suspect arrested for ‘racially aggravated public disorder'”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/11/uk-reporters-distributing-photos-of-jihad-terror-suspect-arrested-for-racially-aggravated-public-dis.html

       11 likes

  33. CCE says:

    I’m not sure if this is bias so much as illustrating the abject insanity of 21st century attitude towards life….

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-24873153

    “A small Hebridean island is to get its first proper children’s play park.

    The Isle of Rum Community Trust has been given £9,500 from the Big Lottery Fund towards the cost of creating a safe, enclosed play area”

    1) The entire island is a paradise for children who like to run and play.
    2) “Safe” and “enclosed” seem synonymous to the BBC –
    3)Rum doesn’t really suffer from the issues associated with ‘urban’ britain – it is as far from ‘urban’ as it is possible to be in Britain
    4) It will not be used – (the kids will find better things to do if they are allowed to by the state)
    5) Does anybody at the BBC understand the phrase “complete and utter waste of money”?

       10 likes

  34. flexdream says:

    Watching Question Time, and I can only imagine the editors didn’t realise the Eastern European audience member was going to speak in support of Nigel Farage. A home goal of sorts I guess. Generally though where do they get these audiences from? It’s becoming a bear pit and an embarassment.

       7 likes

    • Geoff says:

      Are you talking about the suited guy, if so I think he was Italian?

      One thing is for sure, the audience wasn’t your average Bostonian.

         7 likes

  35. Thoughtful says:

    The ‘Prophet’ Mohammed.

    Not being a Muslim I do not believe that Mohammed was the ‘prophet of God’. In fact I believe that Mohammed was a schizophrenic paedophile whose visions were a result of his illness.

    One of the first steps on the journey to conversion to Islam is the acceptance of Mohammed as a prophet, and I therefore pose the question why it is that the BBC states with absolute certainty and acceptance that Mohammed is a ‘Prophet’?

    There are many ways they could name him without causing offence – such as the Muslims prophet, so it has nothing to do with causing offence. It certainly causes offence to me, but then as a white Christian I count for nothing in the eyes of the fascist left.

       7 likes

    • Span Ows says:

      Do they the Prophet Jesus? Or Jesus the Son of God? NO, so they shouldn’t say the Prophet Mohammed.

      As well as schizophrenic paedophile you could add murdering, blood-thirsty, moon worshiping hermit turned psycho, all of which ties in with the real history so cannot be condemned as racist Islamophoic lies or something.

         5 likes

  36. Pounce says:

    With the Islamic and bBC predisposition towards little girls and boys I would have thought that the correct nomenclature would be:
    The Paedophile Mohammed”

       5 likes

  37. Geoff says:

    In what purports to be a ‘Children In Need Special’ tonights Only Connect on BBC4 is in fact a Diversity/Guardian special, we have…

    Mrs & Mrs Balding (Claire Balding and her wife/husband Alice Arnold)
    Konnie Huq (Muslim and wife of Guardian columnist Charlie Brooker)
    Sir Simon Jenkins (Guardian columnist and chairman of the National Trust)
    John Finnemore comedian and regular on Radio 4’s Now Show…

    And all this is presented by Victoria Coren Mitchell, yes you’ve guessed it – Guardian columnist.

    Bias, what bias?

       13 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      ‘Children in Need Special’ or BBC Guardianistas at play?

      By the way, any sign of that Panorama investigation into Comic Relief?

         12 likes

    • Geoff says:

      Oh forgot, Coren’s husband, that great (t)wit David Mitchell also writes for the Guardian…

         2 likes

  38. Umbongo says:

    After John Major’s remarks over the weekend Today had Harry Mount of the Telegraph, and Owen Jones of the Independent “debated” if going to a fee-paying school has an impact on your standing in society.
    Mount said very early on in the discussion that the solution to social immobility (as well as the deteriorating standard of education in the state sector) was to bring back grammar schools. At that point Mount effectively disappeared from the airwaves as Jones was given the freedom – unchallenged by Mount or Justin/Evan (?) – to broadcast ignorant chippiness leavened by a heavy dose of class-based prejudice to a stunned nation.
    BTW for those too young to remember, at the time of his premiership it was more or less agreed that Major was the worst PM since Lord North. In the “worst PM” stakes Major has, of course, been outshone by Blair, Brown and the present incumbent. Major’s dismal record has been forgotten and forgiven at Broadcasting House and his revival as a distinguished commentator owes more to his quotability in favour of the BBC/Labour line (more power to the state, stay in the EU, penalise utility companies, kill the educated relatively prosperous middle class, reduce the non-middle class to an uneducated lumpen-proletariat etc etc) than any deeper analysis of his comments. To be fair though, the BBC “news” at 8:00 am did concede that his remarks might have been a criticism of Labour’s educational/social mobility record. However, the BBC view – also delivered as part of the “news” service – was that the remarks were more probably an attack on the backgrounds of the present PM and his pals.
    BTW this is not to say that the rest of the MSM doesn’t give completely unwarranted coverage to Major’s comments. But, as readers of this blog appreciate, unlike the paper press the BBC is there to provide an impartial unbiased analysis of public life, not to pick and choose and consequently publicise which bits of public discourse best serve to illustrate the BBC chosen political line. Major’s contribution to public life should be a period of silence interrupted only by a public apology for – among other things – signing the Maastricht Treaty.

       5 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      It is a measure of what a wet rag the Indy is that it employs an ignorant young creep like Shouty Owen.

      It can’t afford proper journalists.

      And it is a measure of the BBC’s absurd bias that it turns so often for comments from an ignorant little creep like Owen.

         8 likes

  39. John Anderson says:

    The EU and the Government gives OUR money or imposes taxes and extra costs on us to support “Green energy” and to pay for a huge amount of “research” into “climate change”. Just one big gravy-train for the alarmists and the Greens. All endorsed by every programme possible by OUR BBC.

    Here are some figures about the scale of this skewed expenditure in the US – an entire industry built on public money, huge incentives to distort “research” to keep the gravy-train rolling. Billions and billions and billions of dollars – every year !

    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/11/why-does-the-global-warming-hoax-persist.php

       6 likes

  40. Pounce says:

    Just for the record can people post how people around them respected the 2 minutes silence?

       1 likes

    • Span Ows says:

      I can’t as I was on my own preparing for a meeting: what I did do was bow my head and think about the sacrifices etc, always brings tears to my eyes.

         4 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Walking the dog with the missus. We were monitoring the time but seems our town has decided to mark it with a rocket burst so no doubts on that count.
      Quite touching to look around at a bunch of folk standing still and silent in the surrounding area. Young and old.
      I usually reflect on my Dad and what he and his generation faced, but now my thoughts have extended to those serving, in many ways under much worse circumstances, now.

         3 likes

      • Geoff says:

        “I usually reflect on my Dad and what he and his generation faced”

        Me too, and the my father never really knew, an Old Contemptible.
        Maybe not the time or place, but I do wonder what they would have thought of the diversity at the Cenotaph memorial yesterday, namely the cross bearer and those following directly behind. I just hope they were chosen on merit and for no other reason.

           3 likes

    • Milverton says:

      I was in WH Smith and the staff just stopped, with no public announcement. Few patrons observed it, and fewer still wore poppies, perhaps thinking it all ended yesterday at the Cenotaph, rather than today at 11.

      Just standing there stock still with people milling around is a slightly strange experience.

      How much longer is WH Smith going to manage to keep going, by the way? My local branches are complete dumps and the staff look like they’d rather strangle you. Like Ryanair but without the wings.

      Five Live did their annual be nice to the military phone-in today. Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.

         4 likes

  41. Thoughtful says:

    Well it’s coming the time of year for the Dutch version of Christmas, and unfortunately because this vibrant example of a cultural event does not fit what the fascists approve of, it’s under attack and might not survive in its present form.

    That’s not to say that anyone who is unaware of just how ‘unusual’ this festival is would not find it strange.

    The Dutch celebrate their festival earlier than the rest of Europe on 5th December so expect to see the usual self righteous anger from the fascists over something many of them are trying to ban.

    Here is a comedy sketch which explains it all, and it is all rather amusing.

       0 likes