We had a look at some of the hypocrisy of the Press now attacking Farage for his ‘racist’ position on immigration and Romanians, now attention turns to James O’Brien who interviewed Farage in what is called a ‘car crash’ interview…but who was it a ‘car crash’ for?

We ask what motivates him,  are his thoughts based on intelligent rationale or innate, ill-informed prejudice and is he really in a position to place himself on the moral highground and stand in judgement on the likes of Nigel Farage?

O’Brien tells us that perhaps those such as he can’t really be judge and jury…though that didn’t stop him smearing Farage……

At the risk of redrawing the parameters of understatement, it is clear that most of the British press has rarely been worse placed to sit in moral judgment on anybody else.

As attention inexorably focuses on the methods, underhand and otherwise, that journalists employ in pursuit of stories, it is crucial that we are not persuaded by attempts to police what actually constitutes a story.  It is not for lawyers, or publicists, or celebrities to determine what is and what is not a viable story. Only facts can do that. The journalist’s job is to find them, to publish them and to fight like cats in a sack against anyone who tries to stop us doing so.

He claims that only ‘facts’ should be allowed to decide what is or is not a ‘story’…well we might look at some of James O’Brien’s ‘facts’ in the next post.

Just how intelligent is O’Brien?  Can he do the maths?

Immigration is still massive…the numbers are astounding:

532,000 people immigrated to the UK in the year ending September 2013, compared to 497,000 the previous year, whilst 320,000 people emigrated from the UK compared to 343,000 the previous year.

The net immigration including UK nationals was 212,000…but the real net immigration, excluding UK nationals was an inward migration to the UK of around 270,000 non-UK nationals.

270,000 new arrivals with different languages, customs, religions and values…all wanting jobs, houses, benefits, to use the NHS, to send their kids to our schools, use their cars on the roads, use water resources and energy supplies.

So the maths is important.

Just how good is O’Brien at maths?  LBC tells us itself:

James O’Brien’s seven-year-old daughter asked for help with her maths homework – and he realised he had no idea how to do it.

So can you do a maths question aimed at a seven-year-old? Try the problem below…
Faye is trying to crack the code to open this safe in the wall. She has been given the following clues:

The code has four digits.
The first and second digits add up to make a multiple of 6.
The third and fourth digits add up to make the same multiple as above.
There is a difference of 6 between the first and second digits.
The third and fourth digits are the same.
There are no zeros in the code.
The first digit is the smallest of the four.

Can you work out what the code is?
Could you do it?

James O’Brien couldn’t do that simple problem….no wonder he has no problem with mass immigration….he just can’t work out what the problem is.

 
Whilst O’Brien is more than happy to fling casual accusations of racism at Farage he’s not so keen to be accused of it himself:

Accusations of anti-semitism shouldn’t really be filed alongside most of the above. They should, given the history of persecution, be much more carefully and judiciously employed.  But they aren’t. Quite the opposite. To accuse someone of it is, whether the accuser realises it or not, to posit the notion that the accused is somehow sympathetic to the perpetrators of the holocaust, prone to judge a human’s worth according to their ethnicity or origins, prejudiced to the point of blind hatred.

How heart-breakingly bizarre, then, to hear two apparently intelligent women accuse me of it today

O’Brien’s interview with Farage wasn’t a fact finding opportunity, O’Brien had already made up his mind.  O’Brien is pro-immigration, and pro-Labour….

And so it begins…
Posted by James O’Brien on July 03, 2013 at 13:40PM
With foreigners and the unemployed being successfully but fraudulently portrayed as the root of all our country’s ills, it’s time for the Tories to turn their attention to why Labour, who seem to have surrendered to this toxic narrative, won’t be able to fix things.
If Miliband & co are to mount a meaningful defence against what looks like a looming portrayal of unions as the root of all that’s wrong with Labour they will have to provide a proper answer to this question. It will, moreover, involve doing what they have abjectly, shamefully, tragically failed to do with welfare and immigration. They are going to have to contradict the Tory line, loudly and confidently, explain the reality until it breaks through the barriers to understanding erected by an almost exclusively anti-union media. They are going to have to tell the truth and shame the Devil, who for the purposes of this challenge is probably Lynton Crosby.

O’Brien likes ‘real’ people…except of course when he actually meets one in the shape of Farage who represents the views of the majority of the people in this country, including many immigrants…..

I don’t like interviewing politicians. It’s not a party political position, I don’t like interviewing any of them.
They are so cossetted and insulated and briefed and adept at distraction and prone to waffle that, as a radio presenter ordinarily offered five or six minutes tops, it rarely seems worth my while to let them read their PR notes out loud, answer any questions but the ones I ask and glide glibly over any attempts to root the exchange in reality. And besides, I genuinely prefer talking to ‘real’ people.

Here is my adaption of one of O’Brien’s articles in the Mail, of all newspapers.  I think it is a fair representation of what might go on in his head regarding immigration:

 
The first line of attack on my part was to insist, full of bluster and slightly aggrieved, that we were simply not importing enough immigrants.
But I spent another few weeks with my head deep in the sand, ignoring the growing sense that something was wrong.
And then there was stress – one of the major obstacles to clear, intelligent thought. Just thinking about stopping immigration caused me untold stress. So, with impeccable male logic, I insisted that I shouldn’t think about it.
I can see now that all of these positions are ridiculous. Unsound, unfair and, in places, downright delusional.
At the time, though, I clung to them like a drowning man. Because, for media liberals, the prospect of not having a cheap Polish plumber or Latvian nanny is not really something you can talk to anyone about. It’s definitely not the sort of thing you can bring up with your mates.

An important lesson for O’Brien?:

As a radio phone-in host, I spend much of my working life arguing. The most important lesson you learn is to know when you have lost.

Finally what does Mumsnet think of O’Brien? 

Many thought him intelligent and witty….but others took a more realistic view of his interview technique….can’t say they are wrong having listened to his interview with Farage…you may think this is gratuitous abuse from them but listen to his interview with Farage and you’ll get the point:

James O’Brien LBC presenter a condescending twat

Am I the only one that finds LBC radio presenter James O’Brien infuriating. Whilst he has the face for radio he does not have the voice; but worse, I hate the way he patronises callers that are obviously less educated and less articulate than he is. He sounds like a patronising bully and it makes for uncomfortable listening. Unlike Nick Ferarri he has zero charisma.

It’s normally James O’Brien for me or radio 4 when he is not on.  [That one says it all]

I do like O’Brien. But he can be pretty obnoxious to callers who are concerned about certain areas. I am thinking about medical research (he was incredibly rude to a caller 2 weeks ago to the extent he had to issue an apology at the end of his show) or immigration issues.

He gets that dangerous and low tone when you can almost see him visibly puffing out his chest in righteous indignation. He just doesn’t listen or acknowledge. He just shuts them down.

I’m not talking about the racist twats and their twattery. But there is a growing tide of callers who can’t make their points without his moral compass getting all discombobulated.

ex pupil of mine did some work experience at LBC and said he wasn’t very friendly/jolly at all

Agree about James O’B, he is up his backside

I find him a patronising hypocritical bully:
He gets extremely aggressive- rather nasty actually – when anyone challenges him. He constantly belittles people who have an opinion contrary to his, in such an outrageous way I am amazed at his spitefulness !

I agree that JoB is up himself.

He does shut callers down if they successfully counter his point of view.

He does like showing off how well educated he is and he loves the sound of his own voice.

James O’Brien – certainly bright, but a real hypocrite, such a BULLY BOY to anyone who calls to put an contrary opinion to his . I am amazed how he seems to get away with it daily…

Htiler made a pact with Stalin…..it seems others are like-minded.

Peter Hitchens says:

Last Wednesday, the insider magazine Private Eye also claimed that the Leftist  daily The Guardian had  made a secret deal with the Tory Party, which claims to  be conservative.

The Tories, it was alleged, had promised the favourite newspaper of the liberal elite a steady supply of damaging stories about UKIP candidates saying daft things (Tories, of course, never say daft things). In return, the newspaper had promised to avoid identifying the source.

Such stories are immediately picked up by BBC radio and TV news channels, which view The Guardian as sacred text. Asked about the allegation,  The Guardian drew itself up  to its full height and snapped: ‘The Guardian does not disclose its sources.’ (A  certain Sarah Tisdall, who went to prison 30 years ago after The Guardian handed over documents that disclosed her as its source, might disagree.)

Well, there you have it. The Tory Party and The Guardian (and the BBC) are all united against UKIP. That would seem the best possible reason to vote UKIP. It also tells you who and what the Conservative Party really is.

In light of LBC’s James O’Brien’s hatchet job on Farage let’s have a warm up look at what other parties have been saying about immigration, race and our values before we fisk O’Brien and his smear:

‘We’re importing a crime wave from Romania and Bulgaria’: Tory MPs round on ministers as immigration curbs are lifted

Conservative MP Philip Hollobone: ‘We are importing a wave of crime from Romania and Bulgaria.’
He warned that crime among Romanians in England was ‘really quite startling’, adding: ‘Romanians are seven times more likely to be arrested in London than a British national.
‘Romanians account for more than 11 per cent of all foreign offenders, despite making up, at the moment, just a tiny proportion of residents.

From the Telegraph (Now so anti-Farage):

Up to one in three Romanians arrested, figures show
Up to one in three Romanian migrants have been arrested, figures have showed, as the country ranked second in a list of foreigners held over serious offences.
Some 27,725 Romanians were arrested for offences in London over the past five years, Scotland Yard said, including 10 for murder and more than 140 for rape.
The figures, published under the Freedom of Information Act, will fuel fears of a crime wave when restrictions on workers from Romania and Bulgaria are lifted in January next year.
Romanians came second only to Poles, who accounted for 34,905 arrests, including 84 for murder and almost 130 for rape.
However, there were some 587,000 migrants born in Poland living in the UK in 2011, estimates from the Office for National Statistics showed, compared with 87,000 Romanians.
Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the pressure group Migration Watch UK, said: “The extent of this Romanian criminality is a real concern for the ending of all immigration controls on Romanians and Bulgarians next year.”

Romanians top UK crime list

Police experts predicted a fresh “wave of crime” as the country already struggles with an influx of foreign crooks.
Shock figures reveal that the eastern Europeans already topped crime league tables before Britain opened its borders to millions from the two countries today.
Almost 1,000 Romanians were detained by police in just one county alone over the past three years.
Staffordshire Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis is demanding urgent talks with Home Secretary Theresa May.

Romanians ‘started crime spree’ 24 hours after arriving in West Bromwich

David Blunkett riot fear over Roma migrant tensions

Tensions between local people and Roma migrants could escalate into rioting unless action is taken to improve integration, David Blunkett has warned.
The former home secretary fears a repeat of race riots that hit northern cities in 2001.
His concerns centre on the Page Hall area of Sheffield, where Roma migrants from Slovakia have set up home.
But he also accused the government of “burying their head in the sand” over the scale of Roma settlement in the UK.
In an interview with BBC Radio Sheffield, he said the Roma community had to make more of an effort to fit in with British culture.
“We have got to change the behaviour and the culture of the incoming community, the Roma community, because there’s going to be an explosion otherwise. We all know that.”

Ed Miliband ‘won’t turn back on immigration concerns’

Labour leader Ed Miliband has said immigration will be a big issue at the general election in 2015.
Speaking on Radio 4’s World at One programme, Mr Miliband said he could understand why voters were concerned.
Mr Miliband also said his party would not turn its back on voters’ concerns – unlike the last Labour government.

Miliband said that immigration is undercutting wages for the poorest….one of the biggest issues this country faces…inequality….linked to immigration of cheap labour….not getting a fair shake, a fair chance.
Immigration is a class issue….and most of all….working class people saying ‘my wages are being under cut’.

Mr Straw, who is a Christian himself, said he did not accept this analysis.
“There has to be a clear understanding that this is the UK and there are a set of values, some of which I would say to the letter writers are indeed Christian-based, whether they like it or not, which permeate our sense of citizenship,” insisted the MP for Blackburn.

David Cameron: It’s time that we revived Christian values

In a speech to celebrate the 400th birthday of the King James Bible, he said the New Testament had helped give our country “a set of values and morals which make Britain what it is today”.
He said we should “actively stand up and defend” these Christian values.
Mr Cameron also criticised the notions that by “standing up for Christian values we somehow do down other faiths” or that it was offensive to pass judgment on other people’s behaviour. “I think these arguments are profoundly wrong,” he said.
“And being clear on this is absolutely fundamental to who we are as a people, what we stand for and the kind of society we want to build.
“We are a Christian country. And we should not be afraid to say so.”

David Cameron Christianity claim

Writing for the Church Times earlier this month, Mr Cameron said: “Crucially, the Christian values of responsibility, hard work, charity, compassion, humility, and love are shared by people of every faith and none – and we should be confident in standing up to defend them.”
This did not mean “doing down” other religions, he said.
The prime minister also spoke of his faith in his Easter message, saying he found “peace” in Christianity.
Stand up for our Christianity, David Cameron tells UK

So Blunkett is concerned about Roma neighbours, as is Cameron, and jack Straw, in a general sense that we must stand up against those who don’t have our values, and Miliband agrees immigrants are taking the jobs of British workers.

If Farage is racist…….what about that lot?  And isn’t Farage absolutely correct about the Romanian crime rate?

Monday morning arrives and with it comes this brand new Open Thread for your completion! The floor is yours….

Bishop Hill reports:

Simon Buckle of the Grantham Institute at Imperial has penned some nice thoughts about the Bengtsson affair:

‘Professor Lennart Bengtsson’s resignation from the GWPF Academic Advisory Council has received wide coverage and raises important issues.’

‘received wide coverage’?…..but not from one of the world’s biggest and best resourced news organisations.

And a matter that ‘raises important issues’…….so important that one of the world’s biggest and best resourced news organisations deliberately ignores them.

Proof positive that the BBC is engaged in a cover up and is manipulating climate coverage to hide ‘inconvenient truths’.

The climate lobby is intimidating and threatening other scientists to remain silent about their doubts on the ‘science’……threatening their careers and sometimes threatening the very lives of anyone who dares to raise a sceptical question.

It was the BBC’s very own Harrabin who wanted to punch the sceptical Christopher Booker for ‘spreading  lies and disinformation’….or good common sense, truth and reason to you and me.

No doubt who is helping to foster the atmosphere of bullying and threats then.

Buckle from the Grantham Institute went on:

It is regrettable that perceived political stances on the climate issue are apparently so affecting academic activity.  The Grantham Institute at Imperial has always opposed such behaviour, believing that scientific progress requires an open society.  We try to engage with a wide range of figures, some with radically different views on climate change.

Sorry but his boss, who stumps up the cash for these people says different.

Grantham’s aim is to silence the critics with a bombardment of propaganda:

The misinformation machine is brilliant. As a propagandist myself [he has previously described himself as GMO’s “chief of propaganda” in reference to his official title of “chief investment strategist”], I have nothing but admiration for their propaganda. [Laughs.] But the difference is that we have the facts behind our propaganda. They’re in the “screaming loudly” rather than the “fact based” part of the exercise, because they don’t have the facts. They are masters at manufacturing doubt. What I have noticed on the blogs and in the comments section under articles is that over several years, as the scientific evidence for climate change gets stronger, the tone of the sceptics is getting shriller and more vicious and nastier all the time.

The sceptics are getting angrier and more vicious every year despite the more storms we have, and the more mad crazy weather we have…
One of the problems is that typically you are not dealing with the facts. Putting in more facts makes the sceptics more angry. They have profound beliefs – as opposed to knowledge – that they are willing to protect by all manner of psychological tricks.

Ironically he says…….

If you’re saying something that people don’t want to hear or accept, a significant proportion of them will reply with hostility. Not because they know the facts, or because they have researched it themselves, but because they’re so psychologically involved in believing good news that they will oppose it with a reflex.

Could be talking of the climate fanatic’s response to any scepticism couldn’t he?

Grantham suggests the climate lobby is all sweetness and light despite the relentless, nasty attacks of the sceptics:

The equivalent on the other side is a weary resignation, sorrow and frustration and amazement that people on the other side can’t look at the facts.

We can try to bypass them on one level and we try to contest the political power of the sceptics. They are using money as well as propaganda to influence the politicians, particularly in America.

That from a man who coughs up £165 million to fund his climate propaganda.

So concerned is Grantham, 70, over this issue that he has set up the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, endowed with £165m of his own money, to fund environmental research and campaigns. From it he is funding the LSE and Imperial donations, and other grants to American groups such as the Environmental Defense Fund.

Grantham is hoping the sceptics will all die off…the sooner the better:

Changing people’s minds is almost impossible, even among scientists. Max Planck said, to paraphrase, that science advances one funeral at a time. You could add that economics advances the same way. You have to wait to get rid of the people who have career investment in a topic before a new generation can see the light.

Where Grantham’s real loyalties lie…..

Our first responsibility is to make money for our clients….and nothing is more important than oil.

The director of television wants to send out a “powerful message” about giving less experienced employees a louder voice in the organisation, including a stake in some of the BBC’s biggest recruitment decisions.

Cohen outlined his idea, which he has picked up from studying US new media companies, to staff last week. It will conceivably change the way channel controllers and genre commissioners are appointed. “The US companies have very open, collaborative structures, where people can talk, embrace ideas and challenge. I want more of a culture where people are able to challenge, and speak up,” Cohen told Broadcast.

Perhaps if the BBC had some outsiders, from outside the ‘Bubble’, sitting in on the interviews, or indeed actually being interviewed for the jobs, it might make a difference to the homogenous, monotone make-up of the BBC staff profile.

‘Is the BBC biased’ notes this comment from Rod Liddle about Newsnight:

I don’t think Rod Liddle was very impressed with last night’s Newsnight. “It was bad on a whole new level of badness”, he said.

Presented by an Afghan-Australian woman called Yalda Kasem, of whom I had never heard. Yalda was hampered in her presentational debut by being unable to string a sentence together; nor did she have the knowledge or acuity to ask interesting questions of her guests.

Mind you, she’s quite fit. And yes, that would be a sexist observation were it not for the fact that I cannot fathom any other reason the lass was presenting the BBC’s premiere news and current affairs show. Well, ok, I can think of one, but let’s not go there.

Liddle possibly just putting the stats into words….the stats being:

Newsnight ratings fall 5%

The figures come after the programme pulled in its lowest audience in more than a year last Thursday.

Newsnight registered an overnight rating of 320,000 (2.5%) after inheriting a below-par audience from documentary Blurred Lines: The New Battle of the Sexes.

Ian Katz faces an uphill battle to improve Newsnight’s ratings after its audience fell 5% since he took over as editor in September last year, according to data compiled by Broadcast.

But it appears that the efforts are yet to convince viewers.

Newsnight has recorded an average consolidated audience of 590,100 (3.98%) from 2 September 2013 (Katz’s first episode) to 30 April 2014, compared with 623,300 (4.05%) over the same period in 2012/13.

The BBC’s defence and its proudest moments?:

“Since Ian Katz took over last year the programme has produced a string of much talked TV moments including Jeremy Paxman’s encounter with Russell Brand, which has now been viewed over 10m times on YouTube, and an interview with Harriet Harman where she talks exclusively about the Paedophile Information Exchange.”

So….Newsnight’s glorious peaks were a farcial interview with an intellectually incoherent comedian and an interview with Harman about PIE…..on the very revelations in the Mail that the BBC had been stubbornly ignoring for weeks.

All brought to us by the ‘BBC2’s flagship current affairs brand’….’current affairs’?….so current it was weeks behind the times…and decades behind the times in bringing to us Brand’s revolutionary ideas…news in 1917.

Extraordinary…not a peep out of the BBC about this story…despite a great deal of coverage  by most of the other media outlets.

Here’s the BBC’s best effort……

Sorry, there are no results for ‘Lennart Bengtsson’ in the category ‘News’.

Guess it is not only climate scientists who are engaged in a cover-up.

It’s almost certain that everyone reading this has heard of ‘manufacturing of consent’, if you haven’t, read on for the perfect example of this in action which has surfaced from Labour’s very own ‘think tank’ the IPPR…..always curious how the IPPR is a ‘think tank’ whilst Migration Watch is a ‘pressure group’ in BBCspeak.

The IPPR has produced a classic of its kind.  You can see the cogs spinning hard as the machine churns out the blueprint for a persuasive plan of action that is designed to manipulate the Public into accepting a course of action that a particular pressure group wishes to have implemented by politicians.

In this case the IPPR is manoeuvring to change the way vehicles are taxed.

The IPPR starts from the premise that the Public will be resistant to any changes…to overcome this resistance the ‘plan’ is put into action…approaching the issue indirectly...essentially tricking the Public:

• The first problem is how to get the Public interested and primed to accept behaviour change…to do this you have to create a ‘problem’ that must then be ‘solved’, one that is urgent, compelling and personal….in this case they chose  ‘air pollution’…a problem that you can easily make alarmist and exaggerated claims about having serious and detrimental effects upon the Public…especially their children….and all headline grabbing, so guaranteed Media coverage.

• Once you have created a ‘problem’ and alarm about that ‘problem’ you can go on to suggest the solution….the ‘solution’ that is in fact the one you were really wanting to implement regardless of the amount of air pollution ….in this case to tax vehicles in a radically new way….with the rich paying vastly more to travel.

• So now you have a ‘problem’ and a ‘solution’…all you need to do is persuade the politicians to buy in…which is easy as if the Public have bought in they will be demanding action, or rather ‘they’ in the shape of the pressure groups on their ‘behalf’….assuring politicians that there are votes to be won.

• The politicians legislate for the new tax measures. …to er…cut air pollution.   Job done.

You wanted to change the taxation and you succeeded, not by raising dry, boring technical issues about vehicle taxation but by a subterfuge….pretending the issue you were looking to solve was air pollution.…and it ‘just so happens’ changing the vehicle tax was a good method to do this.

There are other details that add impact to the plan and either bring more arm twisting pressure to bear or add ‘credibility’ to it.

• You might like to get the endorsement of credible and authoritative organisations…in this case ‘Liberty’.

• Get local authorities on board who will use their resources and even legal powers to engineer the changes.

• Present this as a local issue, spin it so that the problems and the benefits of reform will be felt locally, effecting people’s own families, and not on a national, impersonal level.

• Use health and safety legislation to bypass any barriers to implementation….H&S trumps all these days.

• Avoid referendums….don’t give people time to think and other alternatives to your favoured solution.

• Put a cost onto the ‘problem’ that you have conjured up…possibly a financial cost or health or quality of life….if people can be persuaded that the ‘probelm’ costs them money they are likely to be happier to pay, or be inconvenienced, to change things…encourage the idea that reform is cost neutral….any costs will be mitigated by savings.

• Use euphemisms to add glamour and mystery to your project…or to hide unpleasantness….such as  ‘active travel’….what is ‘active travel’?   Walking and cycling…but, the plan says…only in the summer.  Enjoy that bike ride to work.

• Raise awareness of how the ‘problem’ impacts on quality of life and the safety of families.

Relevant to the BBC?

Firstly the proposal to change vehicle taxation methods bears a similarity to proposals to change the BBC’s licence funding…any changes are complex and involve a ‘subscription’ method….pay by the mile for cars and pay by view for TV.

If it can be done for vehicles, which would in fact be more complicated, it can be done for the BBC…..and just as the present vehicle taxation regime is untenable long term, so is the BBC licence levy.

Secondly the IPPR has produced a scheme that is a classic of its kind…..one that the BBC has already adopted and adapted to present climate change to us and persuade us to accept the claim that there is an apocalyptic problem and that it is man made, to accept the idea that we are going to burn, to accept the need for action, to accept the need to close down CO2 producing industry and other CO2 generating methods such as travel.

The BBC is at the heart of the climate change lobbying industry, without it providing such heavyweight propagandaand authority it would be difficult for the climate lobby to make such headway…it already struggles against mere bloggers and a few ‘maverick’ scientists who stick their heads above the parapet.

Who is the Svenagli that is leading the BBC by the nose down the road to ruin for us all?  Roger Harrabin.

Harrabin was at the centre of the plot to cajole, coax and convert the BBC to the Green agenda.  His CMEP seminars were designed to bring together all the editors, news heads, programme commissioners, producers, writers and performers and persuade and convince them to make climate change a major part of their programming…either as news and documentaries or inserted into dramas, comedies and children’s programming as almost subliminal messaging for viewers.

Quality of life issues, cost to the planet, danger to your own families and guilt about how our actions are supposedly effecting poor nations are all emotional, logical or shaming strategies deployed to prompt us into accepting the green agenda by the BBC….as well as relentless disaster scenarios and tales of how successfully other nations are adopting renewable energy….to make it seem ‘normal’ and that we are being left behind.

However whilst the planet has certainly warmed there is no proof as to the cause…just speculation and the constant reference to ‘risk’…what if we do nothing and it is real?

The Science is far from ‘settled’.

The costs of doing nothing are unknown in reality but the costs of doing something are known and ever increasing.

You could say Roger Harrabin is the man to blame when your energy bill goes up due to the enormous cost of subsidising renewables or you aren’t allowed to drive your car anymore and you have to take up ‘active travel’ instead.

Roger Harrabin….history will be the judge….and I don’t think it will look back too kindly on him….or the BBC for not living up to its mandate to provide impartial and accurate news and information.

When the story broke that Gary Barlow had been avoiding tax what was the one feature that the BBC emphasised first and foremost?

That David Cameron didn’t think Barlow should lose his OBE.

This line led every report on this throughout the day and I thought at the time that it was probably a less than subtle attempt to link Cameron to the super rich and suggest he is siding with them…..a line also spun by Labour’s Ed Milliband….coincidentally….and here by Hodge the Dodge….

Take That star Gary Barlow should keep OBE – Cameron

David Cameron has rejected calls for Take That singer Gary Barlow to hand back his OBE after it emerged he had put money into a scheme ruled to be set up for tax avoidance purposes.

The chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee Margaret Hodge had suggested Barlow “might show a bit of contrition by giving back his OBE”.

I was reminded of that when the Daily Mail published this today:

Will tax dodger Gary Barlow’s support for the Tories backfire on his chum Dave?

I don’t think it was an accident that the BBC were highlighting Cameron’s thoughts on every bulletin throughout the day and a reasonable case could be made that they were deliberately trying to stir things up and make Cameron look as if he is indeed only looking after the interests of the rich.

It’s Friday and time for the final OPEN THREAD of the week. Has the BBC been annoying you? If so, share your pain here!