242 Responses to START THE WEEK OPEN THREAD

  1. Thoughtful says:

    Last nights Lord Levene interview is very interesting about the Political interference which might have gone on with the Co-op bank being the politically preferred bidder for the Lloyds branches.

    Levene claims he’s apolitical, but he has quite a history of Tory support, and he’s not a happy man. It’s hard to blame him when todays cynical slime balls simply follow political expediency rather than any kind of honour and morality. As Levene said people back in the Thatcher government told the truth, but Mark Hoban told him he had no meetings with the Co-op bank while he actually had 30 meetings with Flowers alone !

    It’s not as if there were unknown issues with Co-op bank at the time, most knew there were problems but they appear to have been ignored.

    Vince Cable might have dirty hands in this given his support for mutual, but apparently there was cross party support for the Co-op bid.

    I think that this story has the potential to grow and to damage the coalition, there wasn’t much criticism of Labour, but then they had no power or influence anyway. I expect that this first airing will be followed by a potential witch hunt on the Treasury who were open about the level of political interference in the banking sector.

       12 likes

    • Frank Words says:

      I think the whole relationship between Government and Banking over the last twenty years could do with investigations. One hand washes the other so far as those parties are concerned (but I bet the hands still remain pretty dirty).

      There are so many bodies buried in that field that it’s like a World War One cemetery.

         23 likes

  2. George R says:

    “Gateway to terror: British Islamic preacher Anjem Choudary ‘sent hundreds to join al-Qa’ida in Syria'”

    By IAN JOHNSTON , SOPHIE ROBEHMED.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/gateway-to-terror-british-islamic-preacher-anjem-choudary-sent-hundreds-to-join-alqaida-in-syria-8960883.html

    When will INBBC broadcast its typical, politically empathetic programme on the ‘journey’ of this Islamic jihadist enemy?

    We can expect guff such as ‘what is it about British society which radicalises such Muslims’, NOT ‘what is it about the tenets of Islam which makes jihadists.’

       53 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      We should all be very supportive of Choudary for getting rid of these idiots! Just so long as they never come back here again!

         40 likes

  3. Geoff says:

    Not bias, or maybe it is with the BBC with its pro women’s sports agenda, but how does someone with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication arts and French suddenly become an ‘expert’ on sport?

    That bloody Nugent woman on BBC Breakfast pisses me off with her so called authoritative view on the latest sports news, especially so with the faux concern this morning over Jonathan Trott leaving the Ashes squad.

    Pure placement is there no better qualified to read or present sport and sports news other than Nugent and Mr Balding?

       39 likes

    • Pat says:

      Speaking as a woman – all sports commentators should be men. Most sport is male orientated anyway. It is the blatant ‘pure placement’ bit that annoys me.

         6 likes

  4. Charlie says:

    Just wanted to say that we have had dealings with the NHS recently, concerning our daughter who is very precious to us and although it isn’t perfect, (what is?), she was treated with all due care and has returned home from hospital much better than when she went in. So it’s not all bad…..!!

       33 likes

    • Deborah says:

      No the NHS is not all bad but by time our state broadcaster has finished giving us all the bad news – which they blame on the present government (where are you Andy Burnham?) I have a mother in her 90s who will not ring her GP because she is terrified of being sent into hospital.

         45 likes

    • Span Ows says:

      Thanks Charlie: I too have had very good treatment this year for myself (two operations) and a few years ago excellent treatment of my daughter who has had various issues and a semi-rare heart problem. Needless to say the good news far outweighs the bad BUT those that get bad treatment cannot and should not be ignored.

         22 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        Does the good news outweigh the bad?

        My elderly mother-in-law received appalling nursing care before she died – her food and drink went untouched because no-one would help her and chronic bedsores went untreated.

        My daughter had major back surgery and on the day of her operation was made to get out of bed on her own to go for an x-ray – the nurse couldn’t help her as she (the nurse) might have injured her back if she did. This was at 10pm. The same nurse continually bullied and shouted at an elderly lady in the same ward, and on the Sunday night everyone in the ward was bedded down early because Sunday was the nurses’ ‘takeaway night’.

        Some good experiences too, but my point is I’m not sure by how much, if at all, the good outweighs the bad.

           17 likes

        • Llareggub says:

          I took one of my dogs to the vet today for a minor ailment. The vet was very gentle with him, gave him a few dog biscuits and an injection which was painless and patiently explained to me how to watch out for future symptoms. I left the surgery feeling like a human being

             11 likes

        • Chuckabrick says:

          Callousness and casual cruelty towards patients has been going on for around 20 years to my knowledge. My father was suffering from cancer and at one point his gums were severely swollen and painful. The nurses served him dry cornflakes for breakfast. He was very weak and couldn’t sit up. They left them with the milk in a jug at the end of the bed and he couldn’t reach them, even if he had been able to eat such stuff. Any complaint was greeted with an aggressive and threatening response.

          And in my case some seven years ago I was in a critical ward of maybe eight, but no-where nearly as ill as the others, indeed one patient died on one of the four nights I was there. Anyway the point is the nurses would come into the ward and instead of speaking to each individual, would stand in the centre of the room and shout, even when seeking individual views. Some of the patients were semi-conscious and in severe pain and too ill to respond but the nurses didn’t care.

             8 likes

  5. brett says:

    Did anyone see owen jones on bbc4 last night? I lasted ten minutes. Good god we really are in a mess if hes getting an hour to pump out his obvious driel.wonder when someone with opposite views shall be given an hour, ha ha

       73 likes

  6. brett says:

    For driel read drivel

       13 likes

    • Mat says:

      Brett where comrade Jones Minor is concerned !
      Dreil is a brilliant bit of irony , as it is a small town in Holland where the 1st Independent Polish Parachute Brigade’s men suffered .fought and died in Operation market garden !
      Polish people being killed for their homeland is something a commie like Owen [nkvd] Jones would revel in !

         26 likes

  7. Deborah says:

    I gave up on the Archers when Nigel fell off the roof, but on Sunday morning the radio was on briefly and there was Shula worrying about someone getting a home but they wouldn’t be able to because of the ‘bedroom tax’. Any chance of me returning to the Archers disappeared in a trice.

       64 likes

    • Mat says:

      ‘Nigel fell off the roof’ is now my favoured euphemism for all BBC programming !

         33 likes

      • Wild says:

        “worrying about someone getting a home but they wouldn’t be able to because of the ‘bedroom tax’.”

        Not subtle are they.

           53 likes

      • The General says:

        It was Nigel’s fault for being too posh and hideously heterosexual. However the rising stars, the Grundys, are far more to the liking of the production team.

           24 likes

        • Mat says:

          What have they become a family of Muslim lesbian liberals ethnic arty uber lurvies with left-wing academic revisionist tendency’s and a fondness for others peoples cash and children ?

             19 likes

        • johnnythefish says:

          The Archers has become a melting pot of every ethnic, regional and religious group in the UK.

          Amazing for a small market town in Wiltshire. In fact, so amazing it sounds more like a secret government experiment – like something Quatermass would have discovered in one of his excellent 1950s sci-fi episodes.

             14 likes

    • Alex says:

      The reference to “bedroom tax” was made by a fictional private landlord. Seems the BBC has changed the scope of the legislation.

         39 likes

      • Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

        Ah, that would be Labour’s “bedroom tax” then, introduced in 2008 for tenants of private landlords. Can someone remind the bBBC who was the governing party from 1997 to 2010?

           45 likes

  8. johnnythefish says:

    It’s about time the BBC sacked Evan Davis from the Today programme. His huffy defence of Labour when interviewing George Osborne this morning should have been an excruciating embarrassment for them, especially when contrasted with his kid gloves ‘cosy chat’ interview with Stella Creasey earlier. The BBC were at pains to make sure Labour are the ones getting the credit for tighter regulation of payday lenders, both in this interview and in the news bulletins. However, as usual, challenges to the Labour record on the same lenders and the horrific rise in personal borrowing when they were in power were nowhere to be seen.

    Yet another screamingly obvious example of shameless political partisanship from our ‘impartial’ national broadcaster. You are a disgrace, BBC.

       88 likes

    • Umbongo says:

      I didn’t hear the Creasey interview but, quite rightly, Evan showed up Osborne for the statist creep that he is. Evan’s questioning revealed that the cap on payday loan interest rates is purely a political interference in an already regulated market where the regulator has sufficient powers (if it deems necessaruy) to impose an identical cap. IMHO there was nothing to prevent Osborne (unofficially of course) leaning on the FCA to consider and then use its powers. Does anybody think that either Osborne would not do this or that the FCA would not – under such pressure – accede to Osborne’s request unless it had good reasons not to (ie the efficient provision by the market of a regulated legal product)?
      In this case, the BBC – through Evan – revealed yet another use of “legislation as PR” by the coalition which has learned the lesson of Labour’s use of the same technique only too well.

         7 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        Not only was his manner and his questioning distinctly more animated and hostile when interviewing Osborne (along with the trademark background sniggering), at the end he tried to nail him for his role in the Co-Op’s ambitions to take on 600 Lloyds branches.

        Where was his questioning of Creasey on Labour’s sleazy ties with Flowers and the Co-Op? Absolutely nowhere.

        Davis asked your question about the regulator’s powers but (as we grew used to with Labour over 13 years) she answered a different question and he didn’t show any tenacity in pursuing it further. Anyway, I don’t think it’s a sign of Osborne’s statism, more that he needs to be seen to be doing something in the face of the relentless Labour propaganda onslaught (as opposed to policy) facilitated daily by the BBC.

           59 likes

        • Umbongo says:

          “he needs to be seen to be doing something”

          I agree that’s what happened but why doesn’t he grow a pair and take the fight to Labour and the BBC by saying that he won’t be doing anything because there are already laws and regulations in force which could do the “something” were it necessary?
          Osborne has no need to lie down in front of the BBC juggernaut. He (unlike you and me) can actually do something about the BBC. Unfortunately, he and his colleagues do effectively nothing. In fact they do rather worse: FFS they appointed Patten to head the BBC “Trust” and get covered in BBC shite 24 hours a day in return.
          As I’ve written before on this blog, the only satisfactory explanation for the Conservative tolerance of BBC bias is that they tend to agree with the BBC (and Labour) position on those things exercising the BBC (eg, climate change, Middle East, immigration etc etc).

             33 likes

          • johnnythefish says:

            I agree with most of what you say. The Tories have wanted to be seen as not stooping to the gutter level of politics we’ve come to expect from Labour since Blair took power. It’s not worked and the opinion polls prove it – Labour in the lead with bugger-all-squared of a policy on anything. Cameron and his team need to start taking the fight to Labour and the BBC, on the BBC, at every opportunity. At least Osborne wouldn’t take it lying down this morning – he made several points about Labour’s record, much to Davis’s discomfort (and provoking his shrill, Labour-defending reaction).

               12 likes

    • The General says:

      I could not hear what Osbourne was saying as Evan Davis was shouting over him the whole time. His nipple piercings must have been jingle jangling in his excitement.

         58 likes

  9. AsISeeIt says:

    BBC to Labour : Have you got a story, an example, that really brings home and underlines the point you are making?

    BBC News 24 this morning and the Coalition are bringing in curbs on the Payday Loan Industry. Naturally Labour are anxious not to be outflanked on this issue so….. the BBC run the story as the being criticism from Labour that the Government is don’t going far enough. Stella Creasey comes on and gives BBC man Simon McCoy(?) a large helping of Milibandism.

    But am I watching a media training exercise for the shadow spokesperson? Am I watching Labour Party TV?

    The BBC presenter not only enables the politician to get her message across in a very friendly and uncritical atmosphere – during the interview he actually gives advice on how to underline her point by providing a personalised shroud waving and unverifiable personal example.

    I’m so aghast at this bare-faced BBC co-operation with Labour that the details blurred somewhat – it went something like this…… A nurse borrowed £200 to pay for petrol to get to work and ended up owing £17,000.

    BBC: Tell us a story

    BBC : Gosh, it must be true.

       72 likes

  10. Umbongo says:

    There was a lot of publicity this morning on the BBC (and in the paper MSM) concerning Lord Stevens’ report on the police. Although Labour’s part in setting up this inquiry was mentioned in Evan’s (?) intro, there was no emphasis that this was a purely unofficial set-up. Rather, the impression was given that the commission had been created by a Labour government and not by the Labour Party as a stand-alone and partisan organisation. The “Independent” Police Commission comprises the usual shower of parasites including a disc-jockey. As usual with this kind of thing and in my experience of such activities, the slew of “commissioners” probably played little part in the proceedings but, more or less, just rubber-stamped a report prepared by a secretariat conveniently provided by the Labour Party.
    As with the “High Pay Commission” this is another example of a species of high-sounding ersatz unofficial inquiries set up by Labour and treated as “impartially” authoritative by the BBC (and, to be fair, the less than curious MSM). Not that an “official” inquiry would have been any better. After all, we’ve seen the “official” inquiries into the CAGW fraud nobbled through the choice of partial inquirers.
    To take this kind of politically motivated verbiage (particularly the use of pretentious and misleading descriptors such as “commissions”) at face-value rather than with due scepticism degrades public discourse. It’s another example of the Chomskeyan evasion of democratic debate whereby the foul product of bad drainage is endlessly pored over while the damaged drains are ignored.

       32 likes

    • Deborah says:

      Just heard the 1pm Radio 4 News. OK I was doing other things but I heard ‘Government Commission’, that its recommendations say that the Police Commissioners should be sacked, that Labour would do so (in quiet voice at the end ‘if they were elected’ and more and more quotes from Labour. Even when I have looked on the BBC website to write this post there is only mention that the Government doesn’t have to accept these findings – which I am not surprised about – as the recommendations appear to have been made with Labour and Union approval.

         33 likes

    • John de Melle says:

      I looked on the website and in the bottom right-hand corner was a message:-

      “The Labour Party will place cookies on your computer to help us make this website better.”

      “Independent”; – my foot!

         31 likes

  11. Thoughtful says:

    HA HA HA Will Self moaning about being stopped and questioned by Police on suspicion of being a kiddie fiddler – not unreasonable given his association with the BBC !

    http://www.theweek.co.uk/uk-news/54694/will-self-questioned-police-walking-holiday-his-son?utm_source=Outbrain&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=November

       54 likes

    • Deborah says:

      Apparently it was a set up – the security man at the college knew that Self was coming and the story was already prepared.

         21 likes

      • Stewart says:

        By self his self you mean?
        Much as I detest the junky ,I cant see what his motivation would be
        I did like this quote though
        “The insinuation that I might pose some sort of threat to young people”
        Yes will, he might have thought that ,without thinking your a nonce.

           10 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Not too sure what a ‘set up’ of this nature involves, but do trust it was the best use of official time all round. Dragging the police out on false pretences can get frowned on. That said, coppers telling possible miscreants who dobbed them in sounds unlikely… one hopes.
        ‘…no Englishman enjoying a ramble with his son should face examination by police’
        Surprised, for the purposes of a good yarn, that one didn’t get him Tasered. Englishman???!!!! That’s provocative talk. Lucky it wasn’t Pres.O with what may have looked like his son driving around the White House, as things may have taken a darker turn.

        I was wondering what a fuss might make on matters of precedent, as targeting a white male would surely be hard for the usual ‘ist-profiling brigades to get into much of a lather upon?
        Still, all’s well that ends well (even if it is a… very odd… spoof)…
        ‘..Luckily for the novelist, commonsense and celebrity came into play.’
        Even luckier for the novelist, to get on the BBC only the latter is often required. The other may be a problem in fact.
        And the last word, as always, must go to the complaints dept.:
        ‘…asking for an apology, but says senior staff “closed ranks” because, he posits, they feared a lawsuit if they admitted any [thing]’
        BBC CECUTT also noted for just this, no positing required.

           6 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Maybe he should blag one of his favoured students burquas next time-he`s well over 6 feet tall, smells of old dope and self-regard…and therefore just the kind of bloke that comes and goes with stolen diamonds as he pleases.
      And-as Brunels Wordw***kman knows…”if the actions of the police discouraged just ONE person from going to near the Moors with dodginess on his mind….well, it will have been worth it”.
      Thank you Selfie-we make no apology for putting the safety of kids first…it`s paramount to us and we`re pashunate about it.
      Soft Southern Jessie!

         16 likes

  12. Dave s says:

    I am puzzled as to why the story of electoral corruption and Dominic Grieve’s comments has all but vanished from public view across the media. It appears here and there but is not given any in depth analysis.
    Grieve has apologised for allegedly smearing the Pakistani community in this country.
    Are we to assume that he was making it up?
    That there is no corruption? That his whole speech was a lie?
    Now I have to assume that perhaps he,as a law officer, was actually trying to deal with a reality. That there is electoral corruption and it is greater in the Pakistani community.
    Does it exist or not? Listen to the liberal media and the answer is obscured by typically absurd liberal indignation over so called slurs. So there is no answer. Reality, if corruption exists, has to be subverted to serve the higher truths of liberal fantasyland.
    So we, the electorate, are no wiser. The liberal media and in particular the BBC has no intention of investigating.
    This is the way a country slides into chaos and abandons the rule of law.
    But then liberals are never too keen on the rule of law. That is unless first that law has been seen to serve the higher insanities of liberaldom .
    It is now impossible to listen to a Western liberal politician and work out if he is lying or not.
    So I assume they lie all the time about everything and their tame media lackeys are complicit in covering up for them.
    Come to think of it that just about sums up the situation in the US and in our country.
    A state of affairs that cannot last.

       76 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      You make a good point. If Grieve, as Attorney General, makes a slur on a particular immigrant community for which he is forced to apologise, there would normally be calls for his resignation.

      But, having extracted the apology, no more is said. It has become an uninterview. The sinner has recanted and the powers-that-be would really rather we forgot all about it and didn’t talk about it. Because they know there is a huge disconnect between BBC/Labour/Guardian and the public.

         49 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      Lets take a look at those convicted of electoral fraud
      Haroon Rashid
      Jamshed Khan
      Reis Khan
      Mohammed Sultan
      Mohammed Rafiq
      Alyas Khan
      Raja Khan
      Gul Nawaz Khan
      Mohammed Basharat Khan
      Arshad Raja
      Mahboob Khan
      Altaf Khan
      Shafaq Ahmed
      Shah Jahan
      Ayaz Khan
      Mohammed Islam
      Muhammed Afzal
      Mohammed Kazi

      Despite trying I have been unable to find a single European name amongst the convicted, and I’ve only posted a handful. One fraudster had a voting slip ‘factory’ set up, in another 500 votes were stolen & postmen have been held up to gain the voting slips.

      “There are strongly held views, based in particular on reported first-hand experience by some campaigners and elected representatives in particular, that electoral fraud is more likely to be committed by or in support of
      candidates standing for election in areas which are largely or predominately populated by some South Asian communities, specifically those with roots in
      parts of Pakistan or Bangladesh. These concerns reflect issues also highlighted by a small number of previous studies of political and electoral participation.
      These studies have suggested that extended family and community networks may have been mobilised to secure the support of large numbers of electors
      in some areas, effectively constituting a ‘block vote’ – although this does not necessarily involve electoral fraud. They also argue that the wider availability
      of postal voting in Great Britain since 2001 may have increased the risk of electoral fraud associated with this approach, as the greater safeguards of secrecy provided in polling stations are removed. ”

      Click to access Electoral-fraud-evidence-and-issues-paper-2013.pdf

      So that must mean that the Electoral commission are also ‘racist’ and must be forced to apologise for telling the truth.

         94 likes

      • John Anderson says:

        It is like a cancer – steadily growing.

        Time to rein back on postal voting except for special circumstances. Virtually ll this fraudulent voting tends in one direction – pro-Labour.

           57 likes

        • Geoff says:

          There are wards and constituencies where all three main parties field Muslim candidates, all three are one and the same anyway.

          It matters not what party they represent because come the tipping point mass defections will occur, how does the British Muslim Party, or British Sharia Party sound ?

             42 likes

      • Span Ows says:

        Excellent homework Thoughtful; where is that list from or was it gleaned from trawling the various news reports?

           25 likes

        • Thoughtful says:

          Oh just some previous research and some culled from the web page.

             16 likes

        • Span Ows says:

          Thanks Thoughtful (and ember2013, comment below) I have done some of my own homework and it is from the government website!

          http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN03667

          Download the pdf and from page 15 to 35 is a chronology of all cases from 2001 to 2009, there are dozens; some western names there including NI examples but overwhelmingly Pakistani names. I anyone has the time to sort though all of them it would be good to send to Dominic Grieves and ask him to take back his apology because he knows and we know he was telling the truth.

             36 likes

      • chrisH says:

        House of Lords…Baroness Udder and Lord Armpit( not their real names, might as well be though)?
        Jihad Seekers Allowance then c/o of the kuffar…a jizztax in effect.
        At least Choudhury and Hamza, Qutada etc are direct in saying so…these oiled eels of Labour privilege and Coalition consensus aren`t beave enough to do that…best to fumble in our pockets after dark…after Friday prayers too.

           23 likes

      • ember2013 says:

        Thoughtful – where did you find the list of people convicted of Electoral Fraud?

           2 likes

        • chrisH says:

          List of MPs sent to jail for same?
          Morley, Devine?…all Labour then?
          Give `em Huhne too…and there`s obviously a crime gene, bred into Lefties let loose in the sweet shop,
          Hartlepool Poly to research it for us?

             21 likes

        • Thoughtful says:

          I’m afraid it’s just down to finding the individual cases and the names reported upon conviction, then compiling a list. There isn’t such a list other than here so far as I’m aware as most people would be too scared of being called ‘waycist’.

             21 likes

      • Span Ows says:

        Thoughtful: I have done the work from the pdf I linked to earlier:

        There have been at least 42 convictions for electoral fraud in the UK in the period 2000–2007: 36 or so below:
        Mohammed Hussain
        Mohammed Choudhary
        Ahmad Ali
        Mozaquir Ali
        Manzoor Hussain
        Dessie Stewart
        Jamshed Khan
        Iftkhar Hussain
        Khurshid Ahmed
        Sajid Mehmood
        Mohammed Khan
        Naseem Akhtar
        Adeel Hanif
        Maqbool Hussein
        Tariq Mahmood
        Haroon Rashid
        Jamshed Khan
        Reis Khan
        Eshaq Khan
        Mohammed Anzal Anwar
        Norman Whitlock
        Mohammed Chaudhary Saghir
        Abdul Razaq
        Raja Akhtar
        Mohammed Khaliq
        John Hall
        Haroon Rashid (cleared)
        Nawaz Khan
        Eshaq Khan
        Ian Withers (…of Antrim was fined 1p; he had refused to give his national insurance number and was arrested for electoral fraud)
        Mahboob Khan
        Basharat Khan
        Arshad Raja
        Altaf Khan
        Gulnawaz Khan
        Anisur Rahman

        Here’s my BBC reporting on this serious issue:
        A special BBC report has found that electoral fraud is widespread throughout many communities: In Northern Ireland – which seems a particularly susceptible community – Ian Withers was fined heavily for his crimes and Dessie Stewart whose multiple postal vote fraud can expect a heavy sentence. Whilst in England, Conservative John Hall was also convicted.
        Do you know anyone who has been doing postal vote fraud? If so please call on…

           40 likes

        • Span Ows says:

          Stop press:

          Another Conservative, Norman Whitlock, was also arrested. Labour says this shows that the nasty party hasn’t gone away

          Apologies for putting Haroon Rashid and Eshaq Khan twice in that list…after a while all the Pakistani names just seem to flow into one another…

             25 likes

    • Dick the Butcher says:

      I heard of the Grieve statement and was sure that he was speaking sooth. I also felt sure that the inevitable howls of outrage from the usual lefties would lead to a pusillanimous apology.
      We are truly living in Orwellian/Kafkaesque times.

         26 likes

    • mo says:

      Well written Dave S. Excellent points

         5 likes

  13. Bill Wright says:

    I’ve just endured ‘Living with new welfare’ on R4. Essentially the programme blamed all the evils and problems of poverty onto the government’s new welfare reforms. It was beyond bias.

       54 likes

  14. Thoughtful says:

    Seema Katecha (Sp?) Doing a piece on homosexuality in the Middle East and finishing up with the conclusion it’s down to Islamic beliefs, but to add the lie that it’s also Christianity which teaches that gay people should be killed is just pure falsehood to protect the religion of peace.

       46 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      Who was the last homosexual to be publicly hoist at the end of a crane in the name of Christianity, I wonder?

         26 likes

      • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

        Any that were hanged, it has to be said, had nothing whatsoever to do with Islam, Dave ( it’s nothing to do with islam) told us.

           14 likes

        • Wild says:

          According to Wikipedia……

          Buggery Act 1533

          Piloted through Parliament by Thomas Cromwell, it was England’s first civil sodomy law, this offence having previously been dealt with by the ecclesiastical courts.

          Buggery remained a capital offence until 1861. The Act established punishment by hanging.

          A convicted sodomite’s possessions could be confiscated by the government, rather than going to their next of kin. Henry VIII used the law to execute monks and nuns (thanks to information his spies had gathered) and take their monastery lands — the same tactics used 200 years before by Philip IV of France against the Knights Templar.

          Nicholas Udall, a cleric, playwright, and Headmaster of Eton College, was the first to be charged with violation of the Act in 1541, for sexually abusing his pupils. In his case, the sentence was commuted to imprisonment and he was released in less than a year. Mervyn Tuchet, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven was beheaded because of his rank.

          Numerous prosecutions resulting in a sentence of hanging are recorded in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The last two Englishmen that were hanged for sodomy were executed in 1835. John Pratt and John Smith were executed in front of the Newgate Prison in London on the 27th of November of that year.

             11 likes

          • Wild says:

            It seems it was actually John Smith and James Pratt (not John Pratt) who were hanged outside Newgate Prison. “The grave will soon close over me,” Smith wrote to a friend before his hanging, “and my name [be] entirely forgotten.”

            As it happens his final hours were described by a young writer called Charles Dickens. Smith and Pratt appear in his ’Sketches by Boz, an 1836 compilation of London scenes, of which the most famous is “A Visit to Newgate”.

               9 likes

            • +james says:

              Nicholas Udall, a cleric, playwright, and Headmaster of Eton College, was the first to be charged with violation of the Act

              No change there then….

              The act was repealed under Bloody Mary, but reintroduced under Good Queen Bess.

                 4 likes

          • Thoughtful says:

            This might of course all be true, but it does not show that any of it is drawn from the teachings of the Bible. There is no direct comparator to the Qur’ans explicit instruction to murder male homosexuals and to whip lesbians.

            There are also many misinterpretations of the Bible, some of them deliberate to forces a round peg into a square hole.

               7 likes

            • Jezza says:

              Hello!?!?

              20:13 If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.

                 4 likes

  15. ember2013 says:

    At least the BBC are happy to put the belief system of the Lambeth slave masters on their main webpage headline. It seems that being a “Maoist” is okay and doesn’t require massaging, as a fact.
    (I suppose they would say there is a very low risk of British Maoists being attacked.)

       22 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Just heard Tessa Jowell give a parting toot on the old Labour bandwagon about her captive ladies of Lambeth.
      She says its slavery…but none of that usual type of thing that the unenlightened might still be thinking of…blacks in cargo ships, cotton fields, floggings and stuff.
      Not at all-this would be psychological…which as we all know in a sense is FAR worse than Tarantino, Lukes Kingdom, the Proposition, Roots and all that other physical evil…this was Maoist mind torture..and Maos Little Red Book may well be up in all their lofts,
      …but some lefties just take things too far eh?
      My point-Stockholm Syndrome breaks out in Dulwich …for wasn`t poor Tessie forced to ignore hubby Davids dealings with Silvio somewhere Tuscan?
      Whilst he stood trial over there, Tessie stated that she laft that kind of brown envelope stuff re hodrrid money an t`ing to the men…and she`d cry if you tried to dig deeper!
      No wonder she was deemed just the right person to keep accounts for the Olympics… and no surprise that it`s a fluorescent turkey our grandkids will ber paying for still.
      If only Tessa and Vickys cases could have waited until now…turns out that Maoist thoughts make you into Joyce McKinnons in female hands, and so the men are to blame after all…quelle surprise!
      Golden girls…group hugs all round…but still able to hoover up as long as it`s money…and not horrid things like dirt or real life!
      Shall we quote Revolution(Ch9) to them in song?…that hymn by St John the Lennon…it`s at the end of the Good Book( Giving Lefty the rulebook, and let them tell us at the BBC how to legislate and advocate `tll the Year 3000)

         23 likes

      • chrisH says:

        Just heard some crap about Uncle Toms Cabin on Radio 4…and absolutely NO irony intended or suggested…why would there be?
        This is the slavery we all know…whips, chains, whitey Trayvon, Rodney…and Martin Luher King described as an Uncle Tom by Malcolm X…the true black voice of BBC fantasy.
        Now Malcolm..from your infernal torment….remind me what faith those Zanzibar , Sudanese slave merchants and catchers were when you chundered on about the Nation of Islam?
        No wonder the BBC are schlepping down to Regents Park Mosque to get further clarification…

           18 likes

    • +james says:

      So the slavery ring turns out to be a communist cult. But isn’t that the essence of communism, working for free? The “slaves” or liberated proletariat as they would be described by Marxist theory probably didn’t realise that the Berlin Wall had fallen!

      There you go the fruits of socialism, I wonder if Comrade Bala knew Ed Miliband’s dad?

         21 likes

      • Thoughtful says:

        No now they are not ‘slaves’ well not by the definition that we would know slavery. There were no chains involved.

        The BBC has decided that this isn’t really how it was first reported now it knows the left were heavily involved.

           15 likes

        • Stewart says:

          Can you imagine the BBC’s response had it been a religious cult ( one religion excluded of course)?
          It would have been wall to wall references to David Koresh
          well maybe not Koresh , to many similarities to another. earlier, desert dwelling violent cult leader, with a penchant for young wives.
          Maybe Jim Jones then , no that won’t do either, he was a communist to.
          Scientology then , they could show John Sweeney losing it again ..er . I’m beginning to see why Al Beeb are having a bit of a problem reporting this

             15 likes

    • Framer says:

      BBC radio news spoke just of revolutionaries being involved but not that they were left wing revolutionaries.
      It is hard enough hiding facts when they are Asians as well.
      Is it instinctive or conscious?
      Perhaps the journalists are frightened as one wrong step in the racism department is the only certain way of getting sacked.

         22 likes

  16. Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

    More bBBC ‘news’ about their favourite subject – racism – with another concocted story about lynchings including Emmett Till in 1955.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25034438

       23 likes

  17. George R says:

    Would Beeboids dare use the epithet: ‘the NASTY Marxists’?:-

    “London slavery case: Suspects ‘former Maoist activists'”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-25084830

       26 likes

  18. George R says:

    At the risk of causing apolexy inside Islam Not BBC (INBBC):-

    “Angola Becomes ‘First Country to Ban Islam.’

    Southern African nation reportedly bans Islam and orders the demolition of mosques in the country.”

    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174445?

       46 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Just as Saudi Arabia allows no kuffar into Mecca or Medina.
      About time we could see the scientific method applied to compare how an Islam-free country can become prosperous and free.
      Well worth watching-and no EU schmucks to try and take them to court either!

         25 likes

    • Span Ows says:

      wow…that is an interesting development!

      Angolan Minister of Culture said the ban was necessary since Islam is “contradictory to the customs of Angola culture.”

      Some leaders have the will and the nerve…expect Angola to become a magnet after Syria calms down.

         9 likes

  19. Doublethinker says:

    Miliband’s 40 Days on a Desert Island was given another airing on the Daily Politics today and of course yesterday on the Sunday Politics. The BBC is trying everything to make him seem more acceptable as PM. Good use of LFP money if it helps them win the election for Labour. Then they can look forward to another bumper settlement and a massive hike in the LF to make up for all that austerity they have suffered in recent years.
    I am sure that the BBC is now on a war footing. In recent months their pro Labour propaganda has become even more blatant. They really make no attempt to pretend that they are impartial but openly allow Labour the freedom of the airwaves and attack the Tories at every opportunity.
    The next Tory government, or right of centre coalition, if we ever get either of these, must deal with the BBC . They are undermining our democracy and it won’t survive much longer unless someone takes them on and gets rid of them.

       51 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      Tory Government, a busted flush, utterly clueless about albeeba.
      Sleepwalking to oblivion.

         38 likes

    • GCooper says:

      Sadly, even if we have to suffer under another Tory government after the next election, nothing will be done about the BBC. As Umbongo pointed out earlier, most Tories today are TINOs (Tories In Name Only) and share the beliefs of the ‘progressive’ BBC.

      If we want rid of the BBC, we need to be rid of the Tory party as well.

         27 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      ‘They are undermining our democracy and it won’t survive much longer unless someone takes them on and gets rid of them.’

      Excellent point, DT. I’d go a step further and say the BBC are out of control with their political bias because they are counting on a Labour victory in 2015 which, with the BBC’s 70% (and growing) news and current affairs coverage in their favour, will then see them in permanent power. That’s without the help of the EU, Leveson, the faceless leftist activist groups and the countless left-wing so-called charities and think tanks that are endlessly spouting their crap across the BBC airwaves.

      The other parties don’t stand a chance.

         26 likes

  20. Guest Who says:

    If there are horses around, the BBC can usually be relied upon to mount the highest. Just saw this on my FB timeline:
    BBC News
    Amazon is employing 15,000 extra staff to cater for Christmas shopping. But a BBC investigation has discovered that staff risk their own physical and mental health in working there. An undercover worker was expected to collect orders every 33 seconds: http://bbc.in/18j1hK2
    Amazon was always due to be under BBC spotlight due to that norty tax dodging only BBC contractors are allowed to carry out, but if matters of health and safety are at issue I can only applaud the concern, though who they wheel out as an expert these days to assess things may be a worry.
    Not sure the FB crowd is getting the real angst to the story, mind. Top rated:
    Tom Cooper Isn’t this where they put the Ark of the Covenant at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark?
    They may need to sift far and wide before dragging this one onto the 6 O’clock theadlines.
    And if Amazon is smart, they’ll refuse to send anyone, and offer a ‘spokesperson’ to waffle a bit, claim treasure status and carry on. A bit like… who now?
    Had to smile at this one from one of Aunty’s 8,000 stong flower bed of jounalism…
    ‘”We don’t think for ourselves, maybe they don’t trust us to think for ourselves as human beings, I don’t know.”
    You have read Pollard & Rose, one can suppose, Adam?

       12 likes

    • Dave666 says:

      About a decade ago I worked for several years in a distribution centre for a well know chain, not Amazon, The managers there used to sit at in front of a computer screen if your pick rate fell below the set level, they would come onto the floor and advise you of that. So nothing new and I don’t recall the BBc running a story on that then.

         10 likes

  21. Pounce says:

    The bBC, its love affair with all things red and always half the story.
    Analysis: Risk of conflict in East China Sea
    The above is supposed to be an analysis by the bBCs diplomatic editor. This he starts with the following:
    “China’s declaration of an “air-defence identification zone” that extends over disputed islands in the East China Sea is just the latest step in Beijing’s effort to assert its claims over the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.”

    And here is a very salient snippet of information the bBC leaves out of the above analysis. The Islands have been in Japanese hands since 1895, until then they were unoccupied. (Ok they were in US hands from 1945 to 1972) However instead of gravitating towards the aggressive bellicose nature of China (Have a look at its territorial claims, which the bBCs diplomatic editor, diplomatically leaves out of his article) which since the 1st Jan 2013 has been backed up by direct intimidation by China of the following countries :Vietnam, Philippines, Japan , Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia . So what we have is a nation which is bullying the neighbours into handing over their territory. You’d think the champions of free speech and equality would be rushing to point out the Imperial nature of the Chinese, but they don’t.
    Instead the bBC digresses about now America may be taught a lesson by China if they stick their noses in. Wow its as if a couple of Marxists living in 1970s London waiting for the Chinese to invade and take over the country on finding that their dream hasn’t come true, enslave 2 women to do their bidding for the next 30 years and the bBC playing the racist card in which to excuse the behaviour of the Lambeth Popular front. (And we all thought it was a comedy at the time.)
    The bBC, the leftwing news orq which only reports the news with a leftwing bent.

       18 likes

    • Pounce says:

      Isn’t the internet a wonderful tool:
      On the Closure of the Mao Zedong Memorial Centre by the British Fascist State
      BELOVED CHAIRMAN MAO WILL LIVE FOREVER!
      DEATH TO THE TWO SUPERPOWERS!
      DEATH TO THE BRITISH FASCIST STATE!
      UPHOLD THE COMMUNIST SPRIIT OF SELF-SACRIFICE OF THE 6 WOMEN COMRADES!

      At 5:30 in the morning of March 22, 1978 the British fascist state sent well over 200 police, especially the Special Patrol Group (SPG), to close down the Mao Zedong Memorial Centre at 140 Acre Lane in Brixton, London. Having sealed off the whole area the fascist police made a raid on the Centre with riot shields and dogs under the pretext of searching for drugs and arrested all the comrades in the building. Of the nine people arrested that day[1] the struggles of six women comrades merits attention. From the time of the raid to the time they were brought ,to the fascist court five hours later, these six women comrades were subjected by the police to the, type of fascist brutality that one hears about through the British mass media as happening “out there” in Iran, South Africa, Chile or Northern Ireland. They were physically assaulted many times, their heads being banged against the wall. Arrested in their night clothes they were “strip searched” by male policemen, while “rape” threats and other sexual taunts were made against them. They were called “nigger lovers” while they were being hit, their arms and legs were twisted to torture them and terrorise them. Our comrades kept denouncing and exposing this fascism and singing “The Internationale” and “East Is Red”. One of the fascist police criminals, aghast at the fighting spirit of the women communists, spoke for the rest of his cohorts by openly boasting: “I am perfectly within my rights to break your arm. This is a fascist state! I am a member of the National Front!”

      See that encapsulated [1] here is what is what it points to:

      In all fourteen people were arrested in two raids. On March 4, 1978 the fascist police raided the Centre and arrested five people on trumped-up charges. They included Comrade Bala, the Secretary of the Workers’ Institute and his close comrade and wife Comrade Chanda. They were both physically assaulted and charged with causing “actual bodily harm” to the police! They both refused to recognise the fascist courts and upheld the authority of our Party, and were sentenced to six and three months in jail respectively. This is the sixth time that Comrade Bala has been likewise politically detained since 1971 in Britain. Comrade Chanda who went through her second political detention, the first time being in 1971, nearly lost her right eye through the injury caused by the brutality of the fascist police during their attack on the Centre on March 4, 1978. Comrade Chanda is a member of our Party Committee.

      I wonder how (and why) the hundreds of office drones at the bBC couldn’t unearth the above article.

         18 likes

      • Pounce says:

        and here is what the Daily Mail has to say about the above:
        The couple accused of keeping three women as slaves for more than 30 years ran a bizarre Communist sect said to have inspired the TV sitcom Citizen Smith….The group came to broader attention when a diarist in The Times newspaper began reprinting some of their material to amuse his readers.

        It’s believed this exposure led to the party being an influence on the fictional Tooting Popular Front featured in Citizen Smith and starring Robert Lindsay as its self-proclaimed leader Wolfie Smith.

        You couldn’t make it up if you tried.

           22 likes

      • Beeboidal says:

        They both refused to recognise the fascist courts

        In contrast, I have no doubt that the comrade recognised the fascist state’s dole money, its fascist council house and now its fascist pension credits.

        From the comrade’s writings in 1977

        Poverty stalks the land. The standard of living of the people has been reduced so drastically in so short a time. Eight to nine million low-paid workers are in dire straits. Nine million pensioners are living far below subsistence level. Already in 1975 it was estimated that five million people in Britain had less than £1.60 a week each to spend on food and that two million parents went to bed hungry so that their children could be fed. These are the raw facts of Britain – facts which are adding fuel to the indomitable fighting spirit of the people of Britain. No con-trick of the British fascist state or their agents within the working-class movement can restrain them now!

        Sounds like Red Ed and the BBC right now. What’s the difference between the BBC and a Marxist nutter? An extorted £3.5 billion.

           3 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      This is why one needs a professional, impartial news provider of integrity.
      This is clearly a complex issue, and in any argument there will be two sides.
      However, it seems pretty clear there is a ‘Because we can; what are you going to do about it?’ attitude prevailing with one set of protagonists. One can see how that may appeal to the BBC mindset.
      However, as an educator and informer, leaving stuff out, no matter how ‘diplomatically’, places them firmly in the censorship sector of propaganda.
      Certainly the BBC stance with China can often err on the ‘understanding’ when they feel so moved, and it’s not even like they are covering up to make nice around an Olympics jolly any more.
      Reading the ‘analysis’, much seems made of the US being moved to ‘act’.
      Uh-huh.
      Like that would happen with Pres.O working on his handicap and Kerry picking up every bar of soap dropped in front of him.
      And the Chinese may have noticed this.

         9 likes

      • Pounce says:

        I pointed out this fact almost a year ago when China rebanded part of its navy as,,,a coast guard. These boats are now used to intimidate the locals. This hasn’t gone unnoticed which is why there is a huge arms race in the region. Everybody and anybody is buying up weapons.
        (Have to admit I do like what Vietnam has bought) Malaysia on the otherhand has simply given up and has publicly stated that it won’t contest Chinese claims . But get this while the bbC is more than happy to quote the Chinese version, “Get off my land” they refuse to criticise the red dragon for anything and simply blur the facts in which to keep the reader in the dark.

           16 likes

  22. Olly boy says:

    Had the misfortune of listening to old Bacon on Five Dead this afternoon who was at some sh*t hole school in south London. It was basically a two hour promotion of the free school meals policy despite it being a monumental waste of £600m of taxpayers money. The only other argument I heard against the policy was a lone female (whose name escapes me) who was quickly dismissed. Bacon’s love for Henry Dimblebore (the author of this groundbreaking report) was sickening. He wasn’t challenged at all and was soft balled throughout. Then came an interview with one of the parents at the school who told us how beneficial it was for her kids to attend a school which had many pupils speaking various languages not to mention the different cultures. Not sure how long it took the BBC to find her but most parents I know (including me) think the complete opposite. Shameless promotion of the BBC’s left wing visions and values.

       39 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Henry Dimblebore?
      Surely no relation to the Captain Birdseye one with a gay tattoo…and nothing to do with Prince Charles stoolgrooms and eggy soldiers platoons…the wind turbine moneybagged one?
      Nah…a privilege ponce like our `enery would surely have sold the publishing company and moved to Mile End,, not cutting vol-au-vont posturings in choux in Richmond…surely!
      And after the BBC say that not enough plebs get into the media and school canteens, them`s being stymied by the sons of toffs and Eton quality.
      Cue shuffling and look down to smart brogues Quentin…let a servant kick the tumbleweed into the long hempish grass!
      Worraprik!

         10 likes

  23. Dave666 says:

    Another crap fest on North west tonight , tonight. Whoop whoop release the balloons Halewood has built it’s millionth vehicle. Yes who owns Jaguar Land Rover oh yes that Indian company. And what is the accent of that employee they are interviewing I though it was Eastern European but I could be mistaken. Whoop whoop.

       14 likes

  24. Pounce says:

    For those of you who wish to read up a little on the Chinese issue as not reported by the bBC here are a few short articles which get right to the point:
    Chinese Soft Power: Another Typhoon Haiyan Victim

    The Promise and Peril of China’s New Coast Guard

    Japan’s New (Defensive) Attack Force

    Philippines and Vietnam in the South China Sea

       5 likes

  25. OldBloke says:

    “I’m sorry, I haven’t a clue?” Oh dear. How sad. This was/is one of my delights into the workings of the BBC comedy slot on Radio 4 Monday evenings at 6.30. This is a new series and into their second show. Even this programme has been taken over by the Lefty wit. Last week it was Mr Gove of the Tory party getting a slapping, tonight it was the Daily Mail with the word *Racist* very neatly slipped in to make a point about the Daily Mail. Very clever Victoria Wood, who was your script writer? There really is no let up is there? It is like a virus.

       37 likes

    • chrisH says:

      How depressing to hear that.
      Victoria Wood was a genuinely funny woman in her own right, and would not have read any script so lame surely.
      Reckon it was that Victorians series she did that turned `er `ead!
      Don`t tell me Barry Cryer is enslaved in the BBCs mirthless mausoleum too!…say it ain`t so oldbloke!

         15 likes

      • OldBloke says:

        Unfortunately chrisH, they were all party to it. The sketch was so forced and so deliberate, it didn’t leave one with any doubts. I look forward to a week where the Labour party or Left wing politics get in the spotlight with derogatory remarks.

           22 likes

  26. Pounce says:

    The bBC and how it promotes the Islamic victim culture as news
    Calls to tackle online abuse against Muslims
    The police are failing to investigate hundreds of cases of anti-Muslim hate messages on the internet, according to a government-funded monitoring group.Tell Mama, which records anti-Muslim attacks, said that it recorded 1,432 cases of abuse in the last 22 months.Shy, a 25-year-old Muslim woman from the South of England told BBC Radio 5 live Investigates: “They said my head should be chopped off and boiled in pig’s fat… It was horrible.”

    Yes it is horrible, but hang on, how many Muslims have had their heads chopped off in the Uk as a hate crime.. Err that would be none. Now how many Non Muslims have had their heads chopped off this past year?

    How many times have we seen Muslims parade on British streets demanding that those who disrespect Islam be beheaded?

    How many times have we have of Pakistani Muslims wanting to blow up British Slags, Why how many Islamic gangs have we heard about guilty of grooming little girls, lets not forget how since 1985 not one person has been arrested (never minded charged) over FGM

    and the bBC allows a discredited NGO to play the victim card for Islam.

    Here’s a question for the books:
    In the UK whom do Islamic women have more to fear from:

    Internet banter or Islam?

    The bBC, the traitors within our Midst

       49 likes

  27. Chilli says:

    Attrocious BBC attack piece on Amazon on BBC one at the moment. Unbelievably sympathising with a warehouse picker complaining about having to walk around and pick items all day and how on one occasion, one of the energy-saving lights didn’t come on.

       15 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      “sympathising with a warehouse picker”
      —-
      If the same one I came across on FB earlier, actually a BBC ‘undercover reporter’ from the cubicle flower bed channeling his inner Woodward & Bernstein. Deep dire, as Stanley Unwin might have said.

         7 likes

      • +james says:

        Had to laugh at their undercover worker skiving and throwing a sickie deliberately.

           11 likes

      • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

        In the fundemold ! Deep joy, deep joy in the fundemold!

           6 likes

        • chrisH says:

          How come we`ve never had another Stanley Unwin?
          He`d have wiped the floor with any current crop of BBC Radio comedians…and their telly ones for that matter!
          Deep joy in the fundemold….funny!

             8 likes

  28. Tom Atkins says:

    Its amazing how the soft left label to avoid the use of the word “left” with bad things
    The extream left wingers who have been practicing slavery in east London for 30 years have been labeled
    “Former Moaist activists”, not “marxists” or “left wingers” or communists
    Moa died in 1976, few people know that monster or even associate “Moaist” with him, Marx or left wing politics.
    Genius

       18 likes

  29. +james says:

    Noticed on the advert for the Ten O Clock News, Hugh Edwards mentioned the communist slaver story. He described the them as a “hardline political group”.

    Hmmm, funny how the BBC will describe certain groups as “right wing extremists”. But when it comes to a group that is to the left of Joseph Stalin they are described as a “”hardline political group”.

       32 likes

    • Dee says:

      I watched the BBC O’clock news just waiting to hear them use the words “extreme left wing” but no, they tied themselves in knots referring to “former Maoists”, a “revolutionary cult” and other variations to avoid using the word “left” in any form.

      Yet, somehow the words “extreme right wing” are never far from any mention of UKIP or the Daily Mail.

         27 likes

      • +james says:

        Oh my, Tom Symonds used the phrase “left wing extremists” in his report. That must be a first.

        Though Hugh just stuck with Maoist.

           14 likes

        • Dee says:

          Good grief. I didn’t see that. It was on the One O’clock news I heard him. Wonders will never cease.

             3 likes

  30. Geoff says:

    Just seconds past the watershed and BBC1 going for a bit more indoctrination of our young, two blokes post coital naked in bed together (Ripper Street).

    Won’t be watching the program, but I bet they’ll either be the heroes or ‘victims’ we’ll be made to feel sorry for…

       22 likes

    • Joshaw says:

      I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve given BBC drama the benefit of the doubt, only to switch off after the tone of the programme becomes clear.

      Drip drip drip, the same old messages. They’re always there, somewhere. It never ends.

         26 likes

      • GCooper says:

        BBC ‘drama’ has been highly suspect since the 1960s but is now unwatchable unless you are somewhere to the Left of Tony Benn. It is just dull, plodding, unimaginative agitprop, almost without exception,

           31 likes

    • Andy S. says:

      Never watched Ripper Street after the opening episode of the first series. What a load of anachronistic tripe!!!

      That first episode, set in 1888, was about a some toff using a cine camera, which looked like it was made from veneered chipboard with a bloody great piece of MDF filigreed radiator panelling in the side, to make snuff movies. This a good seven years BEFORE the Lumiere brothers premiered their first moving film in Paris!

      Totally unbelievable and showed a total contempt for its audience. That this garbage was popular enough to have made it to a second series shows how undiscerning the viewing public have become.

         22 likes

  31. George R says:

    Two contrasting reports on Islamic jihad activity in Bradford.

    1.) ‘Jihad Watch’:-

    “UK: Two Muslims admit to collecting jihad terror manuals”
    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/11/uk-two-muslims-admit-to-collecting-jihad-terror-manuals.html

    2.) INBBC, on its Yorkshire online news page:-

    “Bradford brothers admit possessing terrorist material”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-25094719

       18 likes

  32. David Kay says:

    The Government has said it will act swiftly over the three women freed from a couple’s house after 30 years

    The couple will be now charged bedroom tax from tomorrow !

       18 likes

  33. thoughtful says:

    Well if there’s a good side to the Iranian deal, oil prices fell yesterday on the expectation that they will begin pumping oil again soon and Iran has the largest proven natural gas fields in the world, so expect your government to make up for any price falls with extra stealth taxes

       7 likes

  34. An English Gentleman says:

    please read……..

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-25084830

    I just wonder how the bbbc will deal with this? No doubt we will all enter into an intellectual discussion about the history and beliefs of whatever the said cult is and the minority justification of it and how this is an unfortunate example of when things ‘go wrong’ but also seamlessly somehow move away from the usual facts that the people are NOT English and if we hadn’t let given them passports we wouldn’t have the problem.

    I am still very suspicious about the fact that they have been bailed by police……..Has a crime been committed I wonder?

       14 likes

  35. frk says:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2513383/Missing-Adam-Dugmore-safe-well.html..why are the bbc and the media ignoring this racial injustice against this young white lad

       16 likes

    • David Kay says:

      nah, he’s the wrong colour

      “Adam’s brother (who committed suicide) was being tormented by an Asian gang of bullies at his new school because he was white.”

         27 likes

    • Dave s says:

      Only whites can be racist. We all know that. Incidents like this hasten the balkanisation of England. Which every day looks more and more likely.
      But to the liberal it is a non event which does not require thought or action.
      The liberal hhas much to atone for.

         13 likes

  36. phil says:

    Anyone hear Richard Bacon broadcasting from a primary school in deprived Rotherhithe on Monday?

    He was in raptures about how wonderful the school was, with its 41 languages spoken and it abundance of cultural influences.

    He mentioned his own 2 year old child.

    What’s the chance that Richard will enrol him at that Rotherhithe school when the boy is 5?

    Nil.

       50 likes

    • Dont Kill Bill Kill Aunty says:

      there should only be 1 language spoken at school… ENGLISH!!!

      And class A druggies should have their kids taken off them and put in care

         30 likes

    • Milverton says:

      Years ago some acquaintances of mine, both extremely liberal, both social workers, sent their blonde, blue eyed daughter to their local primary and spent the following months in paroxysms of joy about the cultural diversity she was enjoying.

      The daughter was in fact the diverse one, as well over 90% of her fellow pupils were from the Subcontinent. The following year they moved her to another school. My wife, knowing my views, warned me not to mention it as they moved her because she was picking up a regional accent not traditionally associated with East Reading.

      Many years later, before the 2010 World Cup, BBC South visited the school which by now had almost thirty languages. The reporter, live from the playground, told us that these children were rooting for England, and to prove the fact lined up ten of them in the playground to tell us. He went down the line and asked who they were supporting. “South Africa”, “Poland”, “Nigeria”, “Portugal”, “Brazil”, “Algeria”, “Ghana”, etc.

      England never got a mention. Sheepish reporter handed back to the studio.

         48 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      The perceived contribution of Mr. Bacon at the BBC seems to be well in excess of delivery.
      Having boycotted the last HIGNFY as a Brand/Prescott was a skin crawl too far, the latest on iPlayer was actually also tense affair either at his expense or instigation.
      The former was usually apposite and funny; the latter simply embarrassing. Paul Merton spent most of the time inspecting the spotlight gantry.
      Mr. Bacon epitomises all the BBC is reduced to. Long may they continue to place him to the fore, in defiance of any sensible agent or manager’s wishes.

         25 likes

      • Alan Larocka says:

        Bacon looked totally out of his depth on HIGNY – no-one laughed at his jokes and he looked very uncomfortable as the show went on and resorted to personal attacks on Janet Street Porter to get a laugh. What a wank.

           25 likes

        • Milverton says:

          I couldn’t watch it. He’s appalling. There have been some awful guests in recent series.

             18 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          While the rictus grin on his face as even his brain grasped how this was also going down, literally, amongst the most loyal of acolytes was amusing, I for the life of me cannot fathom why the producers invite such no marks (celeb, pol or ‘celeb pol’) on.
          They really drag the whole vibe, and show flow, down. While Merton & Hislop know what keeps chekkie coming, they and the entertainment pros also know about timing and delivery. And they are at least bright.
          BoJo is about the only one to carry it off, as guest or chair. JSP is a close call, but she seems to get away with it on self-mockery and being also as batty as a belfry. The more pompously self-aware they are (and Mr. Bacon tops that list), the worse the fall is.
          While hapless goofs like Snow, Livingstone, Opik, Wiidicombe… any number of hapless BBC readerouterttes… simply sit there like Linda Mcartney waiting for her one concert note using the tambourine, and then when it comes miss the cue.

             11 likes

          • chrisH says:

            The dog with wings eh?
            I broke a tooth on one of her bloody sausages(albeit left by my veggie kid before going back to uni…and found at the bottom of the freezer).
            Still-not all Beatly Broads caan be as talented as Yoko(When I write Imagine with John) Ono…`er again!
            One day aimless sonic screeches to no effect will be fashionable…I use her to keep kids from gathering around my shop!
            Paint a grapefruit black…see her smiling.
            Chekkie please!

               5 likes

  37. Milverton says:

    Nicky Campbell, Five Live 08.10.

    An SNP guy was introduced as being tipped to be the first Scottish President. I missed his name and it wasn’t repeated at the end.

    It began with a cheery Campbell opening gambit of “Mr. President!”, which was met by the response of “Good morning, Nicky! I’m still waiting for that book you promised to send me.” A heartbeats pause followed by Campbell saying “That doesn’t mean we’re friends.” before a very, very cosy chat between the two.

    Next up Eleanor Oldroyd reads the headlines, telling the nation that the Scottish Secretary was Alistair Campbell, not Alistair Carmichael.

    Five Live are clearly fully in the yes camp.

       30 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      Happily I’ve given up on BBC 5 Live. My boycott is still in place.

      I’m sure, deep down in their hearts, the 5 Live bias as regards the Scotland issue is more anti-English than pro-Scots.

      Afterall in BBC world nationality is just somewhere you happen to be living. (Overseas nations excluded). Tony Livesey told us we are ‘English by default’.

      After a recent bad night of test cricket a 5 Live presenter suggested ‘5 Live Extra will replay the full coverage for Aussies and those in the UK who would enjoy it’

      5 Live know their audience. And for now that’s not me.

         17 likes

      • Milverton says:

        “I’m sure, deep down in their hearts, the 5 Live bias as regards the Scotland issue is more anti-English than pro-Scots.”

        I’m sure you’re right, but what are the implications for the BBC if Scotland gains independence? The end of BBC Scotland, the local radio stations, BBC Alba, and a concomitant reduction in the licence fee for the rest of us?

        I’ll stop paying my licence fee immediately if those services continue, even with a name change.

           12 likes

        • graphene fedora says:

          And what of Albacadabraman? Will he disappear into the Caledonian mists, like the Roman IXth Legion, never to be heard of again? A loss too appalling to contemplate.

             8 likes

          • Roland Deschain says:

            I will probably be stuck with him on Biased SBC. Arguing about the hideous bias to be found on comedy gems such as Dear Green Place.

               5 likes

    • Alan Larocka says:

      Very interestingly Channel 4 did a ‘what if’ scenario if Scotland voted Yes. They concluded that with Labour MP’s in Scotland removed, there would be little chance of a Labour majority government for years to come. Sounds like the best reason to vote Yes then move to England.

         28 likes

      • Milverton says:

        Of course if the yes campaign really wanted independence they’d ask the English, not the Scots, but putting that to one side…

        Nick Robinson in Glasgow last night on the Ten trailing todays independence document with the words “What might be Europe’s newest, brightest, shiniest nation.”

        In what way is that a balanced view? Excise the “brightest, shiniest” and it would be scrupulously even handed. Add them and it is pure opinion.

           18 likes

  38. Thoughtful says:

    So readers, what do you make of this:

    http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/crime-rates-rising-greater-manchester-6341094

    With the comments made I have no doubt that it will be picked up by the BBC especially as there’s criticism of government cuts, and also a quasi official group with an authoritative sounding name.

    “Crime and Policing Monitoring Group at the Association of Chief Police Officers”

    So we have blame apportioned as so:

    “The worry is that a lot of the changes to benefits are only just coming in and are only just hitting people.”

    “some forces are reporting an increase in shoplifting of food”

    ” a change in government policy, which has led to prolific offenders who breach the terms of their licence being returned to custody for just 28 days,”

    So no direct blame on cuts to Police, but there’s a sting in the tail:

    ‘Reports of burglary have increased 5.3 pc and household burglary by 5.4pc. Shoplifting is also up 10.7pc.

    Separate figures show there has been a 5.9 per cent reduction in the number of frontline police officers in the GMP force since 2010.’

    An attempt to make a direct correlation between the figures.

    How long before this is picked up on and run with gusto ?

       10 likes

  39. Ian Rushlow says:

    Elephant storms through room… A report on the BBC website (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25090896) about shocking evidence of “children sexually abusing other children”. We learn that “the problem was prevalent in every area of England, and was not restricted just to low-income, inner-city neighbourhoods but in every type of neighbourhood, rural, urban, deprived, not deprived “. Meaning of course that although it may occur anywhere it is primarily a problem in low-income, inner-city neighbourhoods. These neighbourhoods have – how shall we put it delicately? – a certain ethnic mix. There is of course no mention of race on the BBC report, although the people who have been affected by or committed these crimes on various TV reports all seem to be members of it. An earlier version of the report carried on the BBC website helpfully carried a photograph of a white child, just to put you off the track if you’re thick enough to fall for it. In fairness, it is not just the state broadcaster doing this – the Daily Mail and the Huffington Post also have intentionally misleading photographs.

       24 likes

    • Geoff says:

      Sue Berelowitz, Deputy Children’s Commissioner for England WTF?

      All these so called bloody ‘expert’ wimin all have a generic Common Purpose, lesbian, Marxist lefty look (Joyce Thacker anyone?) and are always common ‘guests’ on BBC News giving their twisted and distorted views with no reproach.

      How the ***k do they get these jobs?

         31 likes

      • DICK R says:

        How do they get those jobs ??
        BLAIR

           21 likes

      • Ian Rushlow says:

        Poster in BBC staff room (probably): http://angel.ap.teacup.com/gamenotatsujin/img/1303191228.gif

           7 likes

      • chrisH says:

        Be well worth a look to see if and when the networkers like Joyce Thacker, Sharon Showsmith, Sue Berkowitz( prefer that!), Sue Akers, Cynthia Bowers, Sue Slipman, Suzie Leather, Liz Forgan, Jay Hunt etc managed to cross-pollinate in “multi-disciplinary scenarios” so as to prevent “silo thinking”.
        Scientologists without even a vestigial scientific thought in their capacious handbags….but a Cherie-like willingness to dash about the charity sector sweeping up as many free baubles and beanos as poss.
        Maybe Paul Flowers could be “Paula” for a week or so, seeing as it seems to work for Bloody Bradley-Chelsea(BBC).
        Vicky Pryce-Tag seems to be doing OK out of it…that bloke on Huhnes arm these days in that Tory MEP who none of us could imagine was once a bloke..could we?

           14 likes

      • Cosmo says:

        It’s a whole industry, very well paid, very well patronised by most of the MSN. But don’t even think of applying if your white, male and not left of centre ( and I’m not talking how you wear your pants ).

           4 likes

    • DICK R says:

      The BBC news only has to mention ‘ children ‘ to cut away to a blurred clip of small feet running in a school playground, or mention energy prices and immediately we see a kettle being put on a hob.
      No doubt some of the ‘children’ doing most of the abusing will be aged 17 or 18 and their victims will be small english girls of 12 or 13!

         18 likes

    • bannerman says:

      Somehow they want us to picture in our minds a gang of “Just William” types gone feral.

         14 likes

  40. Mark II says:

    If the BBC is determined to run the Scottish independence story from now until November 2014 then I think that I will just have to stop listening to them completely.
    I know that Today has a peculiarly Scottish bent to it and perhaps they like the sound of Nicola Sturgeon’s voice but personally I find it more grating than fingernails dragging across a blackboard.

       18 likes

  41. Bonzo says:

    Today. Yawn. Yawn.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25086963

    I wonder if they read the open letter (2009) to President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives from Nils-Axel Mörner, PhD (Sea Level Changes and Climate), Emeritus Professor of Paleogeophysics & Geodynamics, Stockholm University.

    He said:
    “You have recently held an undersea Cabinet meeting to raise awareness of the idea that global sea level is rising and hence threatens to drown the Maldives. This proposition is not founded in observational facts and true scientific judgments.”

    Read more at:

    http://www.climatescienceinternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=14:text&id=240:morner-letter-21-10-09

       20 likes

  42. hadda says:

    BBC reveals festive TV highlights
    Usual yawn-fest.
    “Other offerings include Top of the Pops Christmas,”
    Is there anyone left to host it?
    “Brilliant Christmas telly across drama, factual, comedy, entertainment and religion is something licence-fee payers rightly expect from the BBC,” said Danny Cohen, the corporation’s director of television.
    My arse.

       20 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Methinks Danny Boy is getting in his ‘tell it often enough’ attempt early for Xmas.
      A Dr. Who special (He takes out Santa coming to land, in a G-class quarry outside Cardiff? Again) on the books, plus Sherlock and…. that’s it.
      For a compelled £4Bpa, not too festive, value-wise, and watching a channel dedicated to Byford’s pension counter, Yentob’s salary duplications or the market rate corridor Bolly order staff increments may cause discomfort in the masses.
      Their Christmas ‘religion’ may be interesting if the head of programming gets any more ‘creative’, or rope.

         11 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        I’m just wondering which comedy special will have gratuitous swearing or other inappropriate content and which BBC national treasure people will be complaining about this year for being all over the airwaves during the holiday. It’s become a BBC Christmas tradition.

           6 likes

        • hadda says:

          I’ve just noticed one startling omission in the list of usual programming and retreads that have been tarted up with a bit of tawdry tinsel and called a ‘Christmas Special’: where is Citizen Khan? Surely it’s divisive and discriminatory to exclude our minority enrichers.

             13 likes

          • David Preiser (USA) says:

            A special Christmas episode of Citizen Khan would make so many heads explode on both sides of the issue it would be worth it just to witness the carnage.

               10 likes

        • Adorable says:

          Well it’s certainly a Daily Mail tradition to try and whip something up.

             2 likes

          • David Preiser (USA) says:

            Yeah, the BBC never does that, right? Which one is the official national broadcaster which has infinitely more influence that everyone is forced to pay for again?

               10 likes

    • Geoff says:

      Deep joy, endless cookery, dancing and the return of a comedy that first saw the light of day 40 years ago.

      quote:
      “Religious programming will include the First Eucharist of Christmas live from Westminster Abbey on Christmas Eve, along with Carols from King’s”

      All of course highly diversified with the ethnic protagonists pushed to the foreground ….

         17 likes

  43. chrisH says:

    Oh come on now!
    Enjoy Peter Powell, Mike Smith and Bruno Brooks while you can!
    Where were you when Mel and Kim and 5Star took the nation by storm?
    Hopefully not in a BBC studio…and certainly not Manchester, Londons Wood Lane or the Outside Broadcast Unit for “Summmer Specials” with Smiley Miley in the 70s!
    Still-note a few of the old suspects are braving things to do their pantos and annual shindig revival tours, so maybe the heat is off…can you put lights on a Yewtree?
    Notice though that there`s massive numbers of talentless old bands being bundled together this year in those revue shows.
    Safety in Numbers I expect…accept no sweets when they throw them out there from the stage kiddies!

       9 likes

  44. George R says:

    Beeboid Naughtie’s profound and politically biased ‘World at One’ slot:
    -Salmond is being positive about voting ‘yes’ to Scottish Independence, and his opponents are being negative in saying no.

       12 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Naughtie and Salmond, Sturgeon and Wark…a total carve up of culture down here by these poltroons and vultures.
      No surprise then that the BBC will be retained by the Scots if they get that independence vote through.
      Course they would-the easiest, most pliant and Tartan suckup in “communicating truths to themselves”…our odious cringing BBC.
      Brave in the face of Tory cuts…a rollover for those cuts as planned by our Muslim Friends…but they`d have to find them first..and probably need a saw for their heads, a hacksaw for the brass necks.
      Muslim, EU and Scottish tools and stools…WTF do we pay for `em!
      Can we at least boot Jim out of the Royal Box at Covent Garden if the Scots Do vote to scoot?…might get more balanced coverage if we did that to him and the shortbread men and their hens( is there a gay word for the Beautiful People up there yet?..the Scots usually have a good turn of phrase for such plinths as Wee Jims like).
      Funnily enough Laurie Taylor has yet to tell us !

         3 likes

  45. George R says:

    Beeboid Hampstead HARRABIN is annoyed with stop to the massive coastal wind-farm scheme: a colossally expensive white elephant scheme, and a blot on the landscape, if ever there was one.

    Note how Harrabin uses his words carefully so as to criticise Government, but to praise Labour Party.

    “Atlantic Array wind farm dropped by developer”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-25095868

       9 likes

  46. George R says:

    For information:-

    “Lords to hear from BBC Trust and Secretary of State on plurality.”

    http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/lords-select/communications-committee/news/plurality-bbc-sos/?

       3 likes

  47. Barlicker says:

    BBC News is reporting the Office of National Statistics’ figure of 31,000 ‘excess winter deaths’ of the elderly during the winter of 2012/13. A clear link was made to the (so-called) cost of living crisis and, of course, high energy costs. A spokesman for a public health group described those who died as “the victims of energy prices”. I don’t want to underestimate the problems that winter can cause for the elderly, but no mention was made of: the Winter Fuel Payment, £200 for all over 60’s; Cold Weather Payments, £25 per week when the average temperature is zero or below (of which, there were at least 3 last winter); or the Warm Home Discount of £135 on electricity bills for pensioners on low incomes. Therefore, most pensioners on low incomes would have received up to £410 help with fuel bills, an average of over £100 a month over the four most severe months.
    There have also been no comparisons with other years. For example, the AgeUK website informs us that there were “36,700 such deaths in 2008/09”. And “using ONS data… under the 1997-2010 Labour governments, there were 385,270 excess winter deaths.” (Strategic Society Centre). So it seems to be mainly down to the severity of the winter, rather than the severity of the government.

       12 likes

    • David Kay says:

      my god. Over 30,000 people dying because of they cant afford to keep warm in winter. The nazi bombings of our cities caused 12,500 a year to die

      no wonder environmentalists are called green nazis. Moonbats like Harrabin should be tried in court for their crimes and hanged

         11 likes

    • Span Ows says:

      Sorry, didn’t see this before: please see graph below. What they say is bollocks (but admittedly ALL the media are misreporting so not specific bias). There was a bigger spike in 2008 and you could say that in 1997 to 99 there was a 120% increase…don’t recall those headlines about evil New Labour….mind you they had a long honeymoon period, long enough to kill thousands of the blue rinse Conservative voters.

         4 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      So why did the BBC censor the bit criticizing green energy policies from Mervyn King’s statement?

         6 likes

  48. George R says:

    ‘Slavery’ and Marxist-Leninist-Maoists’-

    ‘Daily Mail’:-

    “Leftist poison, Comrade Bala and Mrs Busy Bee: Revealed, Maoist sect led by couple in house of slaves inquiry.
    Aravindan Balakrishnan, 73, and his wife Chanda, ran Maoist sect.
    Accused couple ‘were jailed for assaulting a Met officer’ in 1978.
    Their base was a converted bookshop in Brixton, South London
    Bala’s group was the inspiration for the comedy series Citizen Smith.”
    By PAUL HARRIS.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2513535/Leftist-poison-Comrade-Bala-Mrs-Busy-Bee-Revealed-Maoist-sect-led-couple-house-slaves-inquiry.html

    Richard Littlejohn:-

    “Wolfie Smith and the mysterious case of slavery”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2513516/Wolfie-Smith-mysterious-case-slavery-RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN.html

    BBC-NUJ has:-

    “Suspects in slavery case named”

    (inc video clip).

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25095944

       7 likes

  49. Span Ows says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25100497

    “Steep rise in winter deaths”…”There was a big rise in the number of winter deaths last year, official figures for England and Wales show.”

    In their defence, all the media are reporting it as such…HOWEVER, look at the graph and it tells a different story: a downward and constant trend for decades:
    EnglandandWaleswinterdeaths_zps45e245e4.jpg

       11 likes

    • Arthur Penney says:

      And remember that the population of the UK has been increasing substantially and the number of old people is increasing even more.

         7 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      When we buy almost anything these days we are told how well it will perform. We know the power of kettles, the efficiency of domestic appliances, and we know the insulating value of building materials. We know the insulating value of quilts measured in Togs! what we do not know, and what the EU should be making law is an insulating value for our clothes.

      For certain cheap acrylic material will not keep you warm in the same way wool is going to, but there are some amazing technical synthetic materials which perform very well.

      It doesn’t matter how much you pay for a garment, nor how chunky a knit they are it is no indicator of how warm it is going to keep you.

      However it is almost certain that cheap clothes are a killer as far as keeping you warm outside goes. Buying a Primark jumper is going to cost you more in extra heating than buying a decent woollen sweater. Having said that, because we don’t know what the insulating value of the fabrics are we will never know !

         5 likes

  50. Geoff says:

    Those up thread asked for it and yes its happening…

    A Christmas special of Citizen Khan…

    http://www.tvwise.co.uk/2013/05/bbc-ones-citizen-khan-gets-christmas-special/

    Apparently a Jim Davidson Ramadan special is also being made, maybe not…

       15 likes