234 Responses to MIDWEEK OPEN THREAD…

  1. F*** the Beeb says:

    Happy birthday. Just be glad you didn’t need ‘permission’ from the Muslim Council to celebrate like we did at Christmas.

       34 likes

    • An English Gentleman says:

      I was not allowed to enjoy Christmas I was only allowed to celebrate the ‘Winter Celebrations’………..

         29 likes

      • Albaman says:

        Really?
        Any evidence to support these assertions?

        I certainly enjoyed Christmas with my family and did not require permission from “the Muslim Council” or anyone else.

           9 likes

        • Pounce says:

          But did you wife have a smile on her face?

             27 likes

        • johnnythefish says:

          Lighten up, Albaman, and whilst you’re at it you might try defending your beloved BBC against the avalanche of posts on here under which you seem to be buried most of the time.

             34 likes

          • Albaman says:

            Not so easy to find posts relating to the BBC when they are buried under “the avalanche of posts on here” that do not relate to the BBC or have only a very tenuous link.

               4 likes

            • johnnythefish says:

              What utter bollocks.

              For starters dig out the dozens on ‘climate change’ over the last few weeks which you have chosen to ignore, including one today.

              Look forward to your enlightening contribution……

                 47 likes

              • uncle bup says:

                let’s be honest – who cares whether West=Albania Man comments on a post or not.

                Although sure, his comments are usually good for a laugh.

                   16 likes

        • mo says:

          Alberman you are missing the point yet again

             2 likes

  2. Thoughtful says:

    http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jan/13/support-labour-shrinks-economic-recovery-icm-poll

    This guardian article surprises me somewhat, in that they are printing something which really goes against the grain.
    Never the less the left are going to have to come into line with what the people want if Labour are going to have a chance of winning the election.
    The way it looks however seems ever more certain that Millipede will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!

    He is unable to do anything about the state of the economy other than to say what he would do, and given the disastrous state of the French economy it’s not going to go down well.

    On immigration reports say that Millipede is bewildered and frustrated that if he wants to win he will not be able to reinstate mass immigration, so he is going to have to outline his immigration policy at sometime in the near future.

    If the BBC are going to assist Labour in winning the next election then they are going to have to either change peoples opinions, which is going to take a monumental effort and be completely obvious to any one watching – I think we can rule this out, or they are going to have to hope Millipede can move from his current position and then support him.
    If Millipede fails to say anything soon then he’s lost the election and there will be little the BBC can do except moan about horrible it all is.

    Make no mistake though, if the Tories do get in next time then unless you are VERY rich your life will be miserable. I expect unemployment to rise in real number, but not in statistics as Osborn’s stated intention to remove all welfare benefits will turn the UK into a third world country. Imagine shoeless kids begging in rags on the street while all the jobs are given to foreigners.
    Imagine one day you’re working the next unemployed with no money to feed yourself – your home seized by the state because you can’t afford the taxes imposed on it so the rich can pay less & less tax.

    Any student of economics will be able to tell you that the money in an economy is like the oil in a machine. If you remove a substantial amount of it then the machine seizes up. It might be the case that the country is living beyond its means and that living standards & expectations need to fall, but, the misery imposed in attempting to balance the budget at this stage of the economic cycle is not only irresponsible it’s unachievable without severe consequences.

    The fascists of the left have learned to ridicule – to shout down and to bully. They lost the ability to present even a strong case years ago, and now when they need to oppose these Tory plans they are completely ineffective.

    Woe betide all of us barring the rich if the Conservatives are elected next time.

       9 likes

    • #88 says:

      ‘…Make no mistake though, if the Tories do get in next time then unless you are VERY rich your life will be miserable…’

      ‘…If you remove a substantial amount of it then the machine seizes up…’

      Morning Mr Balls.

         29 likes

      • Old Timer says:

        You must have written that tongue in cheek surely Thoughtful?
        Or someone has usurped your moniker.

        When money is taken out of the economy by way of taxes to pay for benefits or state employees there is less to spend on development, capital investment, people or the wages of those people employed in the private/commercial sector. Overall there is therefore less opportunity, especially for the young and eventually the economy stagnates. This is of course what happens here every time the socialists get into power. They have had the same disastrous results in Europe and now even in America, where it is getting worse by the day due to the regime of The Great Socialist.

        Money is only generated in an economy when there is profit, it is impossible to tax a loss in a company. Any successful businessman will tell you “Cash is King” and that can come only from profit. I know that is a nasty concept for socialists but it is a fact.

        The only other way is of course to just keep printing cash but, I hope that even you would agree, that doesn’t work. Well it hasn’t anywhere in the world yet. The only place it works is in the minds of the wealth distributers, the socialists, the communists. The most successful economy in the world right now is China and they have the most aggressive, dog eat dog, capitalist system there has ever been. The fact that China is run by a committee of dictators does not make it communist.

        I do not suggest that we try to emulate the Chinese model of an economy but there does have to be a sensible balance in an economy between private enterprise and looking after those in society who need help. Unfortunately the Labour Party have never got that balance right. They have absolutely always sent us broke and as near to bankruptcy as an economy can get. Not just by employing too many state employees or dishing out too many benefits but by plain incompetence. Face facts the Labour Party people are not business people/accountants, they are social workers/agitators and not trained to manage anything let alone an economy. And that always ends up with the poor suffering the most.

        As for immigration making the economy better or worse, it is simple. The more people of working age in a country/economy the better off it will be. If managed properly. Whether we want this Island swamped with tens of millions more folks is another matter. And, bear in mind they can only take the jobs of people who won’t work because they are better off on benefits.

        Who you vote for is your business but don’t try to get me to vote for the Labour Disaster Party. I fell for that once (50 years or so ago) but never again.

           44 likes

        • Old Timer says:

          P.s David – Happy Birthday. It must be wonderful to be 21. (again)

             14 likes

        • Thoughtful says:

          “When money is taken out of the economy by way of taxes to pay for benefits or state employees there is less to spend on development, capital investment, people or the wages of those people employed in the private/commercial sector.”

          This is of course not true, it assumes that taxes will fall, which of course they will not and the Tories have given no indication that they are likely to do so. The reality is that taxes are likely to rise again to balance the budget, and it will not be the rich paying it.
          Companies which pay little or no tax in the UK like google, starbucks. amazon etc etc have done exactly the opposite of what you say, not investing in the UK not developing, and keeping wages as low as possible to maximise profit.

          Overall there is greater opportunity not less, the issue is that these jobs have nearly all been given to immigrants who will work for less.

          I never mentioned profit at all ! Only the cuts in spending and the consequences of attempting to achieve that. The point you raise is important though, because to get there might well need taxes on profit to be increased.

          Printing cash is exactly what Western economies have been doing ever since the war. The whole concept of quantitative easing is about printing cash, so why haven’t we seen rampant inflation? The answer lies in the amount of money lost by the banks. The printed government money has not yet come close to replacing what was lost, and here we come the full circle to the oil in the machine!

          If you re read my post you will see that I not only condemn the Tories, but Labour too! Feast (& go bust) or famine is what’s on offer, and no middle path between them !

          I never ever tried to get you or anyone to vote for the Labour party! It seems to me that when two political parties are attacked then the supporters are only capable of seeing the attack on the one they support whilst ignoring the rest!

          My point here is that Osbourn is going to go too far too fast and the consequences will be devastating. Some people here think staving kids are a great idea and starving adults begging on the streets even better! Forgive me if I disagree ! One day it might be you begging in rags on the streets, but most people don’t think like that.

          As for your support for mass immigration – why not invite the whole world? Your comment that British people won’t work is truly sickening & deluded – you should be ashamed of yourself! How can a young British person who wants to work be expected to get a job advertised in Poland in Polish with interviews in Poland ? That’s what London transport are doing and they’re not alone !

             6 likes

          • Old Timer says:

            It would help if you read for carefully what I said and did not miss quote me. I did not say “why not invite the whole world?” or that “British people won’t work”. I said that (immigrants) “can only take the jobs of people who won’t work because they are better off on benefits”. That is a fact and that is why companies are recruiting abroad. Experience has shown companies that those forced off of benefits are not good employees.

            It is not a happy situation for this country but expanding companies have no choice. Most immigrants come here from countries where there are no benefits and understand clearly that to eat they have to work. There are no food banks or welfare benefits in their own countries and as I said above looking after the less fortunate has to be balanced with what the country can afford. But, nor would I ever suggest that we should allow starving adults let alone children begging on the streets and I do not think Osborne is advocating that either. We really must stick to the facts exaggeration does not help.

            I also posed the question as to, “Whether we want this Island swamped with tens of millions more folks”? For the avoidance of doubt, I do not think we do.

            Also I cannot agree with your economic arguments but it will serve no purpose to debate that further. I have run enough companies to know that excessive taxes, in whatever form and there are plenty of them, undermine a company’s success. It is a fact that less tax will lead to higher employment and wages in the long run. Is that not what we all want?

            However, I do agree that companies such as Amazon should pay their fair share and apparently they are not. Sales made here in the UK by companies whose head office is abroad should be hammered PDQ. Making profits here and spending the cash on private jets and yachts made elsewhere is wrong, full stop. However, this cannot be just incompetence, I smell brown envelopes. As we know bureaucrats and politicians, of any party, are the first in line when billion pound companies need little favours. Just ask Tony.

            Have a nice evening Thoughtful.

               9 likes

            • Thoughtful says:

              I’m sorry but I don’t agree with your analysis Old Timer. The point I’m trying to make is that the attempt to reach a balanced budget 2 years from now is insane!
              The majority of the pain is to be visited on the poorest people. Particularly cruel when the government are considering the payment of multi million pound bonuses to those in the city.
              I have nothing against these bonuses for those who earn them, but when people with around £30 – 50 per week to live on are being told it’s too much then it sticks in my craw.
              60% of people in the survey believed that pensioners should not be exempt from the cuts, and I have to agree, as they are now comfortably off, and why shouldn’t they contribute to council tax, or be paying the ‘bedroom tax’.
              Herein lies the problem – trying to make a small number of people bear a wholly disproportionate level of cuts. To achieve it people are going to have to starve, and that for me is unacceptable.

                 0 likes

              • Old Timer says:

                We may beg to differ on economics and the depth or the timing of balancing the books but I think we do agree that life isn’t fair and that governments are run by fools. Of whatever party.

                Time for a snifter I think.
                Take care Thoughtful, I neither drive or write after partaking of the amber liquid.

                   8 likes

    • Dave s says:

      What puzzles me is where has all the fiat money created gone?
      Traditionally you create money you end up with inflation. I think we are in a pre inflation state. It will break . It has to otherwise reality is denied and you cannot do that long term.
      The other possible scenario is that the fiat money has delayed deflation. That would send us into a worse crisis as wages fall and prices fall and the government starts to run out of tax money. So I think inflation is the probable scenario.
      Either way the very rich are going to get even richer and the banks are going to limp on as zombies.
      Remember an economic crisis is often the catalyst for change and the ending of the liberal elite’s domination may well be a price worth paying however painful it is for the individual.

         6 likes

      • Gunn says:

        All signs point to deflation of the broad money supply, with the various tranches of QE expanding the monetary base but being overcome by falling velocity.

        What is even worse is that the banks that can access the QE funds are the only ones benefiting, and its even arguable that having access to those funds is reducing their desire to increase lending (whilst simultaneously fuelling their ability to engage in highly speculative prop trading activies through the free money made available to them).

        We are in a classical market failure scenario here, as price information is completely unavailable – in this type of environment, businesses cannot regain confidence to invest in long-term projects that yield positive ROI for shareholders, but must instead do whatever they can to pump up meaningless statistics such as EPS (meaningless because accountancy rules have been changed away from objective measures to subjective ones that allow companies to mark to model and to exclude ‘one-offs’ that recur from year to year).

        When the US bubble bursts, we’re going to see shock waves that make 2007 look like a picnic. Whilst I will find it amusing to watch the talking heads on the BBC and other mainstream media outlets at that time react in shock and horror with cries of ‘but no-one could see this coming’, I suspect that the mess that will be left will end western domination of the global economy.

           11 likes

      • Thoughtful says:

        There are two explanations for why the printed money has not caused rampant inflation.
        Perhaps the most important one was the amount which the banks and also their shareholders lost when they collapsed. The scale of the government bail out was enormous, but even that did not restore the banks balance sheets to what they once were. The effect of quantitative easing has been to merely put back some of what was lost, and that is why there hasn’t been rampant inflation.

        The other reason is that the government hasn’t simply printed money. It has ‘borrowed it’ from the bank of England to be repaid at a later date. The ‘interest’ it pays on this is in reality paid back to itself.

        It has as you fear delayed deflation, and that is why the Tory plan for a balanced budget is so dangerous, but you won’t see what you think. Wages are already falling, but it is more likely that prices will rise as more people in an ever increasing population chase the same amount of goods.
        The classic stagflation.

        And yes you are right that the very rich will become even richer while the poor are made absolutely destitute, to a level which Dickens could only fear.

        Not that Labour are any better – before the nutters descend

           4 likes

        • Dave s says:

          Does anyone know where the billions lost when the banks verged on collapse actually went. Did it ever really exist?
          Was it just paper assets and deriviatives.?
          Was anything real at all?
          Who really owns the Bank of England?
          Sometimes I think the current banking situation is insane. My son says it defies mathematic truths.
          What , in reality, is really going on?

             4 likes

          • Philip says:

            Ahh! the Golden age of real money! was when we discovered North Sea oil (and paying for housing and unemployement benefits). Since then UK Industry has gone down the pan whilst Brown (under Blair) sold the Gold assets held by the Bank of England (sold at it’s lowest price to Russia) which then immediately shot up in value. Brown’s Charities (as NGO’s) to distribute the Labour largesse of benefits and we had the National Lottery for gambling addicts. Gordon Brown thought money could be made by clever Banking. That led to the financial ruin we have now. In many ways the deregulation of Banks was at fault (except nobody wants to take the rap for that, Labour blame Thatcher and Conservatives blame Brown (and Ed Balls). Both are to blame for lax regulations set aside in the 1930s to avoid a repeat performance of what we have now. History and mistakes revisited.
            http://www.newyorker.com/…/austerity-and-the-mistaken-lessons-of-history.html

               5 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      ‘ If you remove a substantial amount of it then the machine seizes up. It might be the case that the country is living beyond its means and that living standards & expectations need to fall, but, the misery imposed in attempting to balance the budget at this stage of the economic cycle is not only irresponsible it’s unachievable without severe consequences.

      Wasn’t the case in Ireland, was it? Now they did go for austerity – REAL austerity. When I see the local council is no longer spending money on fripperies like ‘improving’ road junctions or a quarterly council free(propaganda)sheet, I’ll believe the country is starting to think about austerity – but only starting, mind.

         18 likes

      • Thoughtful says:

        I don’t believe that the Irish government are proposing to starve their citizens in the way Osbourn is.
        Do you actually know what he’s saying he will do? or is it just a knee jerk reaction of Tory good, regardless of what they propose?

           1 likes

    • Gunn says:

      My car was working sluggishly this morning, so I decided to apply quantitative easing and poured 40 litres of oil into it. It doesn’t work at all anymore, but at least there is liquidity in my garage now.

         30 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      “…unless you are VERY rich your life will be miserable…”

      At the risk of dragging this thread even further from the topic of BBC bias…

      I’m intrigued to know what you define as VERY rich below which we shall all be miserable?

         8 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      The effects of UKIP may well be felt in 2015 too, but first the testing ground will be the 2014 Euros.

         15 likes

    • Mark B says:

      I do not think it matters one jot who wins. I mean, what difference has their been in this Government from the last ?

         2 likes

  3. Pounce says:

    Has anybody else noticed how the bBC inserts Maggie Thatcher into any story they can in which to continue to disparage a woman who left power in 1991 and who died a year ago:
    1) India Golden Temple: UK investigates ‘SAS link’ to attack
    British PM David Cameron has ordered an investigation into an MP’s claim that the Thatcher government “colluded” with India on the deadly raid on the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984.

    Thatcher Government, don’t you mean the British government ,bBC. But then on reading the Guardian you read that the Indian government asked the British government for help and the British sent one man. yes one man, now if he went out and kileld 400 people we have have a story, but the facts at the moment state that India didn’t use that man so non-story. Yet the bBC uses it as a vehicle in which to continue the Evil Thatcher myth.

    2)Scargill used Thatcherite policy in bid to buy London flat
    Scargill used Thatcherite policy in bid to buy London flat
    The NUM flat was situated in Shakespeare Tower in London’s sought-after Barbican Estate development Scargill loses London flat case Former miners’ union leader Arthur Scargill tried to use laws introduced by Margaret Thatcher to buy a council flat in London, the BBC has found.In 1993 he applied to buy the flat on the prestigious Barbican estate under the right-to-buy scheme championed by Thatcher, his political enemy.

    Another non story, Maggie left office in 1991, and Scargill tried to buy a council flat in 1993 using a policy born in 1980. But it allows the bbC to continue the “Evil Maggie’ Agenda they promote to the young as News.

       67 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Albaman? Are you there Albaman??

         27 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      That second one strikes me less an attack on Maggie and more a commentary on Arthur’s hypocrisy, to be honest.

         7 likes

      • Pounce says:

        Roland wrote:
        “That second one strikes me less an attack on Maggie and more a commentary on Arthur’s hypocrisy, to be honest.

        I thought that at first, but on reading the story you find that the bBC allows scargill to defend himselkf by saying he would have handed the flat over to the NUM and that he would have saved them money. Now when was the last time you saw the bBC give such a angle to…Maggie. Nope, like little school boys they continue repeating the same joke, as it made somebody laugh 30 years ago.

           25 likes

      • pah says:

        The man has never been shy at looking in two directions at once. In the late ’70’s there was a story doing the rounds of how he tried to buy a bungalow in Dobcroft, one of the better areas of Sheffield. When the owners found out who their buyer was they told him to piss off as they didn’t want to subject their friends and neighbours to his malign presence.
        Suitably chastened Arthur bought a very nice property elsewhere but this time in the name of his future son-in-law who was, at the time, a penniless student.
        It wouldn’t do, after all, for everyone to see what a nice middle class life style he had would it?

           27 likes

    • Bron says:

      Actually the whole point of the story about Arthur Scargill trying to buy the council flat was that it was taking advantage of laws introduced by Thatcher.

      Surely that’s clear to anyone who reads the story? It wouldnt make much sense without mentioning Thatcher. Are the 39 who liked this really thick or is Alana doing a little tampering again?

         1 likes

      • Mat says:

        Alana? WTF? hmm bit rich to call out others as thick !

           6 likes

        • F*** the Beeb says:

          Funny as well how he thinks a site which is mostly centre- or right-leaning would need to tamper the responses. I’m sure though that he sees nothing fishy when Scott, Albaman, and the dozen+ aliases of CTC/Men in White Coats/Maurice etc all get between 4-6 likes within five minutes of posting one of their vapid, empty-headed personal attacks or irrelevant remarks.

          Then again, given Bron has a virtually identical typeset to the aforementioned troll in question, it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s yet another failed attempt at convincing us he’s a different person. Probably one of Scott’s obedient followers.

             14 likes

          • pah says:

            I always add a ‘like’ to Scott’s posts as I think he must be so lonely that he spends so much time here where he is not generally liked. They are pity likes, because, as a righty I feel sorry for lesser beings and want to cheer them up. 😉

               2 likes

        • Clamjouster says:

          Sorry Bron, I must have left every browser I own open on that comment and my 2 year old daughter Alana must have accidently liked it 39 times. I promise I won’t let it happen again.

          Meanwhile, back in the real world Arthur Scargill is the worst type of hypocrite.

             10 likes

    • Mark B says:

      I saw the first article and thought, “not Thatcher’s Government but Her Majesties.” since that is what it is.

      The second I just thought it ironic. They kicked Scargill out anyway, so non story really. But I guess they will continue to drag up stuff as the archives reveal more.

      Which reminds me, have they found those weapons of mass-destruction that Blair told us about ?

         3 likes

  4. Deborah says:

    Do people on this site remember the Today programme after May 1 1997? Every morning the BBC would start the programme with ‘Today, the Labour government will……’ It got so bad that we had to change the time on our radio alarm as it was not good for the blood pressure.

    Well we seem now to have a similar thing happen. 7a.m. Radio 4 now starts the news with ‘Labour will…… after the next election’. I like to know what is happening in the world in a little more detail than Classic FM provides (and even their news sometimes appears to be based on the BBC viewpoint) but I do need to know a little what is going on in the world before I come to this site but the BBC’s support for Labour becomes ever more apparent.

       50 likes

    • Frank Words says:

      Ah yes, I remember it well.

      As posted on this site a few weeks back, I gave up on Radio 4’s Today not long after 1 May 1997.

      I made the mistake of return to it circa 2007 when even the BBC were critical of Gordon Brown’s economic management. Then come the turn of 2010 with an election on the horizon suddenly the softly softly approach to Labour returned and the Tories were given a kicking at every opportunity.

      So, I gave up – again.

      The BBC will never change its institutionalised bias to the left.

         42 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      Thereby hangs the problem. If you want to hear about what is happening in the world in anything more than superficial detail, there is no alternative to the BBC.

      Any commercial alternative cannot get a foot in the door due to the overwhelming presence of the compulsorily-funded BBC.

         39 likes

      • Doublethinker says:

        Totally agree. The BBC is the equivalent of a Stalinist state broadcaster which brooks no competition. Which is why it is steadily undermining democracy in our country. It must be closed down at the earliest opportunity if we wish the UK to remain a democratic country.

           42 likes

        • thoughtful says:

          I disagree !
          I’d like to see the BBC channels, radio & TV sold and run privately.
          I wonder how long it would be before each separate channel went bust under top heavy management, and ridiculous high wages.

             9 likes

          • Mark B says:

            They would put on endless repeats and hope no one notices.

            A bit like last Christmas, but only every day.

               4 likes

  5. George R says:

    “BBC forced to pay £740m into pension scheme as deficit soars to £2bn.
    “Funds to plug hole will come from licence fee payers as corporation decides not to ask staff for increased contributions.”

    By Mark Sweney.

    http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jan/15/bbc-pension-scheme-deficit-licence-fee?

       31 likes

    • George R says:

      Supplementary.

      “Licence fee-payers to top up BBC’s £2bn pensions black hole: Deficit in scheme has almost doubled since 2010.
      “Corporation plans to use £740 million from licence fee to plug the gap.
      “Previous attempts to make staff pay led to strikes and cancelled shows.
      “Annual top-up comes to almost twice the cost of Radio 4.
      “Huge pension pots include one of £3.9 million to former director of radio.”
      By ALASDAIR GLENNIE.

      Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2539522/Licence-fee-payers-BBCs-2bn-pensions-black-hole-Deficit-scheme-doubled-2010.html#ixzz2qTHvC0f6

         23 likes

      • Gunn says:

        “Previous attempts to make staff pay led to strikes and cancelled shows.”

        Sounds like a win-win to me.

           43 likes

        • George R says:

          Beeboids adopting ‘Occupy’/Greenpeace undemocratic actions, on licencepayers’ money?

             16 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Sounds like what’s happened in the US, e.g. General Motors and Chrysler. The Obamessiah used taxpayer money to bail out the auto workers’ unions’ pensions, and screwed over the secured creditors in violation of contract law.

        The BBC loved it when He did that, and might see it as an example to follow. When will they start lobbying the government for a bailout?

           10 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘BBC forced to pay’
      A bit like the BBC Trust overseeing the BBC and finding the BBC gets it about right, the notion of the BBC being ‘forced’ by itself to pay itself yet more from from the BBC bottomless pit is, indeed, ‘unique’.

         24 likes

      • Doublethinker says:

        Has anyone heard from Lord Patten on this one?
        You know the chap who is supposed to look after the License Fee payer’s interests.

           28 likes

    • Framer says:

      The BBC wasn’t ‘forced’ to do anything. Their staff pension scheme could be left as is. It is not in danger of failing to pay staff pensions now or in the immediate future. Most such pension schemes in deficit are sitting tight and hoping their investment returns improve. (The BBC Pension Scheme pays fund managers some £50m. p.a. to churn the funds’ huge assets – obviously to no useful purpose beyond rewarding themselves.)
      Only new employees in the last two years are outside the final salary scheme which we are subsidising. People like George Entwhistle will be (is?) on an enormous pension and lump sum because he had an enormous salary on being sacked. He is sucking the pension fund dry.
      What the BBC does not tell us – and this was not deemed ‘news’ on its website, being posted to the in-house magazine, Ariel page, with a diversionary headline, -‘Pension scheme deficit up £2bn’ – is that the extra £400m. is being ADDED to the £900m. agreed on two years ago to go from programming to the pension fund – all out of the licence fee.
      This time the BBC says there will be no effect on programmes as it was ‘anticipated’.
      This can only mean they put £400m in a reserve outwith the programming budget to await this very day.
      How much more is in this reserve fund? Is this why there is nothing but repeats most days, alongside a few prestige dramas?
      You could not make it up. When the Guardian newspaper dies because its sales slump ever more due to the BBC’s ‘free’ news website, its readers can blame themselves for delusionary statism. But won’t.

         28 likes

      • uncle bup says:

        Only new employees in the last two years are outside the final salary scheme which we are subsidising
        ————————————————————–

        Amazing – out in the real world Final Salary schemes were being closed to new members 10-15 years ago when the cost of providing these became apparent.

        But the BBC kept shoveling staff into them in the full knowledge – full knowledge – that they would be coming to the licence-fee payer not so much cap-in-hand but with jail-threat in hand.

        It really is a disgusting organisation.

           25 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          ‘But the BBC kept shoveling staff into them in the full knowledge…’
          Seems like a unique version of ‘too big to fail’ based on deliberate, if not fraudulent policy.
          Maybe one for the next PAC?

             9 likes

  6. Ian Rushlow says:

    ‘Why Is 12 Years Hard to Watch?’ – briefly renamed for a while as ‘Don’t look away’ – is an article on the features section of the BBC website today (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25713841). It is a plug for the new movie “12 Years a Slave”, the story of a free black American sold into slavery, directed by British film director Steve McQueen (no, not the bloke from The Great Escape). It will come as a shock and surprise to readers that there was slavery in the United States a couple of centuries ago; I mean, they’ve kept that quiet haven’t they? The movie follows a tradition started by the semi-bogus Roots TV series of the 1970s, designed to promote a false sense of guilt in white people whilst simultaneously trying to promote grievousness in black people. In the BBC mindset, there is a continuum between slavery in the Americas, Nelson Mandela, Stephen Lawrence and even Mark Duggan. It’s all the same thing, right? They are victims. If some black kids do bad at school or riot or go around shooting each other it’s because of the legacy of slavery, innit? That’s presumably why there are no successful black CEOs, politicians, lawyers, actors or, er, film directors. Amazingly, Mr McQueen believes that slavery is not covered enough in British schools and more should be done. In a sense he is right – kids don’t learn anything about North African slave raids on Britain and Ireland during the 16th to 19th centuries, the scale of slavery in the Islamic world (longer and more extensive that the transatlantic trade) or the fact that British children could be sold and bought in this country for nearly 50 years after the supposed end of slavery.

       57 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      I wonder also if our school kids are aware of the Portuguese role in the massive slave trade to Brazil which preceded the introduction of African slaves to the Caribbean which preceded the use of slaves in the southern colonies of America?

      And like you say, Ian, I wonder if they are aware of the contemporaneous eastwards Muslim slavery of Africans – many of whom died because they didn’t survive having their balls cut off to be made eunuchs – or the role of the black African slave traders? Or the raiding of towns and villages across Europe by the Ottomans which began centuries earlier?

      ‘Although the slave markets were filled by peoples from many places, they were distinct from other slave markets because they also sold European slaves, acquired through pirate raids on shipping or coastal towns and villages. About 20,000 British and Irish captives were held in North Africa from the beginning of the 17th century to the middle of the 18th’.

      I would guess the answer is a big, fat ‘no’.

      But then I’m sure the ‘educating and informing’ BBC must have covered it – in the interests of balance, like.

         39 likes

      • George R says:

        A controversial site has:-

        “Black People Enslaved White People”

        http://violenceagainstwhites.wordpress.com/white-slaves/

           12 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        The BBC doesn’t care about any of that, johnny. Only the US is forever stained by slavery. Former BBC North America editor Justin Webb said, as he wiped the dust from the soles of his feet, the US is still kind of a Third World country which “has not got over the deep stain of slavery”.

        In fact, the US is more tainted by that than all of Europe and Russia and environs are for what they did to the Jews for centuries, never mind just the Holocaust (for which you can’t blame the Germans themselves anyway, since that was all just a Nazi aberration). No South American country can be tainted by slavery at all because that was started by Europeans who get counted as white for this purpose.

        A close second is, of course, the British Empire, which is tainted by its inherent racism.

        As for any African or Mohammedan country or group being tainted by their legacy of the slave trade, forget it. The BBC’s soft racism of lowered expectations is clear enough. Additionally, just as the BBC values human lives according to who kills them, so too do they set value according to who enslaved them.

           28 likes

    • George R says:

      “How dare anyone criticize Obama’s narcissism!
      Didn’t you see ’12 Years a Slave?'”

      [Opening excerpt]:-

      “With 12 Years a Slave petering out at the box office after a decent but unspectacular run (currently $34 million and losing screens), liberals are increasingly angry that the well-filmed, erratically-acted, and poorly-scripted biopic remake has failed to shut down criticism of the President. ”

      http://isteve.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/chait-how-dare-anyone-criticize-obama.html

         24 likes

      • George R says:

        From a critical review:-

        “The message behind the ongoing enshrinement of the rather amateurish ’12 Years a Slave’ is that the cultural whippings of white folk for the sins of their great-great-great-great-grandfathers will continue until morale improves.”

        http://isteve.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/12-years-slave.html

           21 likes

      • David Brims says:

        If a black person saw ” 12 years as a slave ” he would immediately hate white people and if a white person saw the film, he or she would be full of self loathing and hate white people too.

        Cui Bono ? I suspect there’s an agenda going on.

           19 likes

        • David Brims says:

          I saw an advert for ” 12 minutes as a slave, it said ” The best film ever made !!”

          Now they’re being just silly.

             20 likes

          • Pounce says:

            David wrote:
            “Now they’re being just silly.”

            And so they are, everybody knows ‘Spice girls the Movie holds that honour”

               12 likes

      • Joshaw says:

        “Didn’t you see ’12 Years a Slave?’”

        For me it was between that, Zulu and North West Frontier.

        12 Years a Slave lost.

           4 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      The BBC has done a feature on 12 Years? What took them so long? I’m surprised they haven’t mentioned it before.

         23 likes

      • George R says:

        And the black Steve McQueen is doing a series for BBC on blacks in Britain.

           17 likes

        • Doublethinker says:

          Not worth watching because we already know the script forwards, backwards and sideways. We are still pleading not guilty to enslaving the world 150 years ago and we refuse to pay any compensation or to say sorry.
          You have to admire their stamina though. Don’t the BBC folks ever get fed up with peddling the same old stuff year in year out. Surely there must be some well known law of propaganda which states that, ‘ Once you have tried for 40 years to convince someone of something with out success, any further attempts just make their views ever more entrenched’.
          BBC please note and move onto something fresh.

             32 likes

        • Geoff says:

          Of course that will be Diane Abbots version of British history, courtesy of the BBC…

          http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/dabbott_01.shtml

             11 likes

    • Doublethinker says:

      Thanks for that.I didn’t like the sound of the title and you have confirmed that a doze at home will be more rewarding than spending money going to see this liberal left tear jerker.

         14 likes

    • flexdream says:

      And how was whitey able to collect black slaves by simply dropping anchor in African ports and having goods and money to trade? How did those slaves get there?
      The African slave trade was evil, but slavery predated and postdated it.

         9 likes

  7. George R says:

    Will INBBC report this?:-

    “Libya announces timetable for Sharia implementation.”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/01/libya-announces-timetable-for-sharia-implementation.html

       21 likes

  8. John Alexander says:

    Here’s something the BBC have got right!

    Even if their own prescription is worse.

    Osborne’s recovery is an illusion. According to ONS numbers it’s 91% housing construction and consumption.

    There’s a great take on UKplc’s looming bankruptcy in: “Blowing Bubbles” at:

    http://john-moloney.blogspot.com/2014/01/blowing-bubbles.html

       6 likes

    • uncle bup says:

      … and of course the Bliar/ Brown ‘miracle’ was predicated on hard work, thrift, and Presbyterian values – as the BBC kept pointing out at the time.

         16 likes

  9. Mark II says:

    I see that the BBC are reporting that “A man and two teenage boys have been found guilty of a series of rapes and sexual assaults in Peterborough.”

    Terrible things these “men” and “boys” – the strange thing is that they all seem to have such culturally similar names – I suppose that he BBC being so wonderfully inclusive felt that we wouldtn’t be interested in such trivial details.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-25679982

       40 likes

    • Mark II says:

      By the way – Happy Birthday!

         7 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Nothing to see here, move along. The BBC’s tame Young Conservative has already told you “the truth” that immigration is a net benefit, and the real issue is jobs and contributions to industry, along with some vague notion of people feeling like their neighborhood’s identity is changing. This sort of thing is so unimportant, such a negligible concern that Nick Robinson didn’t even mention it as a reason why the immigration issue was hotter than ever. Don’t worry, it’s only a mere 5% of your population. It must surely be doubly beneficial since, as Robinson told you, that population has doubled in the last decade.

      The convicted men barely speak English despite having lived in Britain for a long time? Probably due to pie-eating local racists who wouldn’t let them integrate properly.

         37 likes

    • dave1east says:

      more `Lincolnshire men`

         12 likes

  10. Geoff says:

    Radio Two 3pm news reports on the DLT trial yet strangely omits the fact that it happened in the Radio 4 studio, or indeed even on BBC premises.

    Plenty of time given to the 7 interested listeners that the MOD are the most improved GAY employers, sure my 89 old old Mother would be most pleased to hear about that….

       27 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Noted that William Roach got top billing at the BBC re his abuse allegations on PM yesterday.
      Maybe because he didn`t knowingly use BBC facilities and was therefore safe to touch(pardon the phrase).
      No mention on Womans Hour about DLT enriching the culture there at any stage…you`d have thought Jenni and Jane would be trawling Salfords Netto for “vulnerable women in need of a chance to disclose”
      But no…
      Imagine Aung San Syu Kii will be getting bumped from that DLT connection for a while yet…bloody chrysanthmum queen gets binned-can the Beeb suggest house arrest and electronic tagging once again, until DLT leaves the ITV websites?

         13 likes

      • Geoff says:

        On the subject of BBC DJ’s I note that Gambaccini is still missing from the BBC schedules, are we expect more revelations ?

           15 likes

    • Philip says:

      That’s a relief for MOD, we really are in ‘safe hands’ when you can’t trust your own side – whilst they checkout facebook on ‘gay rights’ in battle. British Standing Army prepares to be laughed at on parade. And of course they can adopt a rabbit to pass the time.

         7 likes

  11. noggin says:

    yep! happy birthday David
    happy … unless that is, you happen to be part of the latest
    growing throwback “trend” to “enrich” us.

    the missing girls … illegal abortions, just another national scandal
    http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article9060067.ece/ALTERNATES/w80/i20140115.png

       8 likes

    • uncle bup says:

      I can’t get too concerned about the ‘missing girls’ story.

      185,000 abortions/ baby murders in England and Wales in 2012. Not too many of the women concerned had an ‘excuse’ that stacked up any better than, ‘We want a boy’.

      Room 7 in the hospital all the resources of the NHS are being drawn on to save a premature baby born at twenty weeks.

      Meanwhile two doors down another poor twenty week old mite is getting an injection in the heart, decapitated (belt ‘n’ braces), hoovered out, bagged up and dumped in the incinerator.

      Anyway Victoria, there’s a programme there…Victoria…VICTORIAAAAAA.

      Meh thought not.

         22 likes

      • A says:

        I’m assuming that you are recycling an anti choice info film there.
        Speaking as someone who participates in both of the activities you have inaccurately described….
        Current policy is to resuscitate babies born after 24/40 or 23/40 in exceptional circumstances after discussion between medical staff and parents.
        Feticide is performed to ensure that a fetus does not suffer during the immensely stressful process of labour, delivery and struggling to adapt to an ex utero environment. The only case of destruction I am personally aware of is an unfortunate baby who had massive brain abnormalities and therefore had a head approaching the size of a 10yr child. In order to allow delivery the skull was decompressed after feticide had occured.
        I am sure that you are aware that the overwhelming majority (91% in 2012) of terminations occur at less than 13/40.

           2 likes

        • flexdream says:

          So you’re saying each year there are about 20 000 abortions in England & Wales after 13 weeks?

             2 likes

        • Dave s says:

          Chilling use of language.
          Termination is my least favourite word in this context.
          I take a simple view on the subject of abortion merely to point out that any society that practices it in the numbers currently common in this country cannot survive long term.
          Something to do with the way of the world and reality.

             3 likes

        • uncle bup says:

          A says:
          January 15, 2014 at 9:16 pm
          I’m assuming that you are recycling an anti choice info film there
          ———————————————————

          I’m not recycling anything – now and again I think for myself.

          ‘Choice’ ah yes that word.

          Don’t suppose the poor baby sorry fetus has much ‘choice’ in the matter. Nobody’s looking out for that poor wee mite.

             7 likes

          • Buggy says:

            I shouldn’t worry , uncle, as it appears we have a shiny new troll posting under various guises this evening. It’ll probably turn into a moby at some point, but until then is not worth fretting too much over.

               6 likes

            • A says:

              Not a troll, just someone who only occasionally posts if I feel that I have information relevant to the discussion.
              Just because I don’t agree with the original comment, don’t assume that there are not other things where contributors are bang on.

                 2 likes

              • Teddy Bear says:

                If it’s any consolation A I don’t think you’re a troll, you use far more reasoning than that. You’re certainly welcome to post your views.

                   1 likes

  12. Charlatans says:

    Just posted the following complaint to BBC:
    Complaint category:
    Bias

    Complaint title:
    Public Broadcasting Remit Political Reporting
    Complaint description:
    I am writing an academic article to be submitted to a Parliamentary Committee mainly about Taxes, but including Public Broadcasting Remit and broadcasting cover of Political appointments. including Police Commissioners. I would please like to ask you why the BBC appears to announce Political affiliations for any Conservative misdemeanor but does not do the same for Labour? Could you please explain why? Examples: Conservative or Tory mentioned 4 times:
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-23060176
    Omission Labour not mentioned:
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-25728143

       40 likes

    • TPO says:

      In your first link the PPC in question was drawing a similarity between Nazis and socialists.
      She’s spot on isn’t she? The Nazis were National Socialists were they not? Not much room for doubt there I’d have thought.
      The Nazis were socialists and labour are socialists.

      Oh, and don’t forget that the Fabians went in for eugenics in a big way in the thirties. Hitler merely emulated their viewpoints.

      Yes, she’s definitely spot on in her comparison.

      Case closed M’Lud.

         10 likes

    • You're no academic says:

      Both articles mention the party.

      Thanks for wasting public funds.

         2 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        ‘Thanks for wasting public funds.’
        Your letters to ’em over DMI the payoffs, etc, must have been a hoot.
        Assuming any were sent.
        Do share.

           6 likes

        • Charlatans says:

          Guest who – assume you are the troll in the comment above you “You’re no academic” that also got it wrong and is wasting time on here.

          – so I am not going to waste my time with a detailed answer to you. Tata

             1 likes

          • Guest Who says:

            ‘assume you are the troll in the comment above you’
            Still trying to work that one out, but best not to assume anything and if in doubt, ask.
            FWIW, I was rather presuming YNA was trolling you and seeking their clarification. Hence my citing their text and my comment being off theirs in the thread.
            If so, that rather hands him the last laugh I guess. Pity.
            Tata backatcha.

               1 likes

      • Charlatans says:

        You’re no academic – thanks for your comment but….you are wasting my time.

        YOU ARE WRONG.

        I copied the webpage AND THE BBC ALTERED it after my complaint, (copied to check if the BBC would alter it): It has now been changed:

        This is A COPY AND PASTE OF WHAT IT SAID PRIOR TO MY COMPLAINT today:

        PCC Olly Martins admitted passing on information about the investigation to a member of the Home Office.

        THIS IS WHAT IT SAYS AFTER MY COMPLAINT today:

        Labour PCC Olly Martins admitted passing on information about the investigation to a Home Office worker.

           12 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          ‘I copied the webpage AND THE BBC ALTERED it after my complaint’
          Can happen.
          Which is why it’s always wise to keep a page capture as even newsniffer can miss out.
          Maybe that’s what seekers of truth such as YNA get confused before hitting the keyboard?
          Worked out well though.
          Look forward to CECUTT’s replies.
          With luck they won’t try the same route initially as YNA as that may make things even worse for them.

             7 likes

        • #88 says:

          Interesting isn’t it?

          The BBC repeatedly, on both National and Local reports, regularly omit to annotate Labour indiscretions. One omission might be an oversight, but regular examples of the type you mention can only be deliberate.

          Conversely, when the Tory head of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, Andrew Tyrie, set about the bankers last year (a report they obviously approved of), they this time forgot to mention he was a Conservative. They were quick though to caption their other interviewee…’John Mann (Labour)’.

          It looks as though the BBC are happy to continue to play this game…only needing to change their copy when they get caught.

             17 likes

  13. Will all end in tears says:

    From 5Live and the BBC News site we learn that Zdeno Mirga, 18, Hassan Abdulla, 33, and three boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were convicted at the Old Bailey for raping children.

    Disgusting, thought I, but I felt sure the Beeb would be getting a few “community” (innit) leaders on to voice their own disgust and castigate the perps.

    You know, like they did when the St Mark of Duggan verdict was disclosed?

    Or that we’d just get an outcry – maybe from the Muslim Council of Britain? Maybe the Quillam Foundation?

    You know, like we’ve had when all the other exponents of the Religion of Peace have recently been found guilty of raping children.

    Still waiting…….the silence is deafening

       55 likes

  14. joeb says:

    Has the BBC News (either national or London) mentioned yet that the world’s biggest terrorist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, has opened an office at World Media Services, 113, Cricklewood Broadway, London, NW2 3JG? At least we now know that ‘World Media Services’ is a Muslim Brotherhood front-group…will BBC London report on this?

       28 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Addresses to conjure with.
      From 221b Baker St (government-sanitised wet work to the gentry) to 113 Cricklewood Broadway (above the Flame House kebabery?)
      Tony Hancock would be tickled pink.

         7 likes

    • Colonel Blimp says:

      A shufty on Google Maps is revealing – above the door of a dodgy kebab shop there’s a tiny sign revealing the office of WMS…

         4 likes

  15. TPO says:

    Given the BBC’s more than enthusiastic approach to all things environmental you’d think that, at the very least, they could find room for this in their “local area” on their website:

    “Fishery bailiff kicked to the ground and stabbed after challenging poachers who had a dead pike in a carrier bag”

    “John Anderson, 53, was set upon with a Stanley knife after he challenged two men he had spotted with a dead pike in a carrier bag on the riverbank.
    He was also slashed with the knife on the sleeve of one of two jackets he was wearing.
    Police are now investigating the assault at Branston Water Park near Burton, Staffordshire.”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2539825/Fishery-bailiff-kicked-ground-stabbed-challenging-poachers-dead-pike-carrier-bag.html

    “It is believed the two men – described as Eastern European – had caught and killed the pike and were planning to cook it.”

    Oh well, perhaps not.

       29 likes

  16. Doublethinker says:

    On the media show this afternoon there was a piece on the future of the BBC. hey had an ex BBC senior manager on who spent a good 5 minutes saying how essential the BBC is , what good value it is , how it must be protected from politicians.
    He didn’t seem to recognise that a) the politicians are our elected representatives and b) that we are compelled to pay for the BBC whether we wish to or not. Typical of the arrogance of the BBC who believe that they are an elite that the rest of us should pay for unquestioningly and be grateful for their output.
    However, there were some other contributions which were much more interesting, viz. that the BBC should have at least some of its services on a subscription basis. Of course I would prefer if all its services were subscription based, but the above would be a step in the right direction.

       20 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘…prefer if all its services were subscription based’
      The detail of alternatives is vast and not to be ignored (such as who benefits from the ‘sale’, given the public have paid for it all upfront), but this seems already in ‘little bit pregnant’ territory.
      Which ones on sub?
      News for sure, so you can be fed 24/7 Al Gore’s Planet Earth Beach House Volleyball or Anjem’s Half Hour to your heart’s opt-in content. But what’s ‘off limits’?
      Spooks? Sherlock? Still free to find baddies to suit and odd mixed standards on who is or can be executed by whom?
      Ceebeebies? Horrible Histories? Where revisionism is Ki.. Que.. Joker?
      World, where the need to score a nod from the nice folk in those lucrative markets means running docos on gold bar soaps or puff pieces with autocrats who can shut down airspace to get their message across?
      Compromise is not always the least worst option.

         4 likes

    • John Snow says:

      ‘He didn’t seem to recognise that a) the politicians are our elected representatives’

      I don’t expect you make the same argument when it comes to Leveson do you?

         0 likes

  17. Doublethinker says:

    The disgusting abuse case in Peterborough was reported in some depth on PM .But what was completely ignored is that the wildly disproportionate % of the cases over the past 5 or 10 years that have been perpetrated by immigrants. They may well behave like this in their own countries and cultures, so it isn’t really so surprising that they continue to follow those values when the arrive in the UK.
    Surely once again we have cast iron proof that mass immigration has terrible consequences for us indigenous Brits. If you don’t believe this you must be blinded by the multicultural Utopian vision of the liberal left ,so vividly painted by the BBC year after year.

       45 likes

  18. Mr Cobb says:

    Leith, North Dakota, the perfect new home for Biased BBC:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25646954

       4 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      A town that thwarted Neo-Nazis? Sound like quite a community.
      Anyhoo. I was scrolling down the article and must say that as I arrived at that ‘White hate’ map it initially gave me quite the wrong impression. I wonder if the BBC has done any for London boroughs?
      http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/18/muslim-patrol-vigilante-guilty-assault
      If anything can be, this was funny: ‘Self-proclaimed skinhead Kynan Dutton’ I guess he was wearing a hat at the time?
      Anyway, he & Mr. Cobb (the other one) seem headed for chokey, though there are of course consequences…
      ‘…Henderson was the last remaining Cobb ally in Leith until she recently left the town.

      The BBC spoke to her shortly before she moved away.

      As she stood sobbing outside Cobb’s dilapidated home, where she was living with her three young daughters, she cut a lonely figure.
      A single Mum now? Speaking of Tower Hamlets maybe get Allegra Stratton to channel her inner Mishal and interview Ms. H for Newsnight here in the UK too? That always works out well for the BBC, especially when they are a bit iffy on narrative heroes and villains.
      http://politicalscrapbook.net/2012/06/newsnight-allegra-stratton-exposed-shanene-thorpe/
      Oh dear indeed.

         7 likes

  19. Alex says:

    Hi folks. I’ve been following the BBC’s reporting on immigration now for a few weeks and have noticed something which in fact is nothing more than atrocious propaganda. It’s this: whenever there is a program, report or interview concerning immigration the bBC always shows the ‘success’ stories, you know, the Polish immigrant who owns a few salami shops, the Somali Muslim who sells his wood sculptures at the market, or the Romanian who is running a consultancy for, yes you guessed it, more Romanian immigrants. They’re all smartly dressed, well educated and very nice. However, the figures for crime, terrorism and general lazy dole scrounging would tell a somewhat different story. In other words, the BBC try to give the impression that immigrants are all successful contributers to society, thus patronizing us and treating us like brain-dead infants, when in fact we al know that the majority of Romanians who come here end up playing the Godfather theme on the accordion in the local shopping mall, whilst many Poles gut fish in the local factory sending their wages back home to his family, whilst many North African Muslims come here claim the bacon roll, get big houses for their families in nice areas of London and become isolated in their own communities. Click ‘like’ if you think I’m right. .

       54 likes

  20. Will all end in tears says:

    Is it me or is it a little fortuitous that on the day (another) ROP gang is found guilty of raping children the news at 6 leads with how children in the Philippines are being sexually abused to order by British men? – and, yep you guessed, the main perp of this “epidemic of abuse” is a big fat whitey.

    Now don’t get me wrong, anyone involved in such practices deserve to be strung up by the balls with piano wire. But it’s almost as if the item was “file” story that could have been broadcast at anytime.

    Can it possibly be that the Beeb were deliberately deflecting away from the “epidemic of abuse” that has gone on and goes on under our very noses in this country?

    The guilty verdict did not even make it into the top five stories – as usual, a fuckin disgrace

       45 likes

    • Ian Rushlow says:

      No, it’s not you – it is precisely a story designed to lead people away from the events in Peterborough and the trial of the BBC’s very own Dave Lee Travis on similar business. It is something they’ve been sitting on for several years and drip feeding from time to time (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24818769 and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12597245). The BBC do bias, but they don’t do coincidence.

         28 likes

      • chrisH says:

        And Sue Berlowitz said nothing of note about what the children went through, nor what the pervs did…and no mention of Muslims…just a side glance at Roma…
        It was all about her, the smug adults that acquiesced and did F888all…and , in general; zippo to worry about!
        And SHE`S the States idea of a Guardian for Children?
        Al-Savile will be very happy!

           11 likes

  21. onlyne says:

    I’ve just been listening to the 6 pm news on Radio 4. Towards the end was an item on stolen artworks during the Nazi period in Germany. Apparently some Jewish people are trying to claim them. The BBc reporter said (and I still can’t believe I really heard this) “This was a time when Jews displeased the Nazis”. Just think about that. Jews “displeased” the Nazis? I despair.

       40 likes

  22. Teddy Bear says:

    Here’s a perfect contrast to highlight how the BBC has complete disregard for the fate of Christians suffering under the Islamic mindset.
    Anybody who has followed Raymond Ibrahim’s monthly accounts will be well aware of the murders and persecution of Christians in Nigeria. Not only does the BBC avoid reporting it in its true context, but will actually try to diminish the real damage. An example is this article: Are there really 100,000 new Christian martyrs every year? in which they do their best to minimise the goings on against Christians throughout the Muslim world.

    At the very end of this article they write: “The truth is two thirds of the 2.3 billion Christians in the world today live… in dangerous neighbourhoods. They are often poor. They often belong to ethnic, linguistic and cultural minorities. And they are often at risk.

    “And ultimately I think making that point is more important than being precise about the death toll.”

    So nothing to do with Muslims. 🙄

    So today I read this story in the Jihad Watch daily account Sharia in action in Nigeria: Dozens arrested for being gay
    A sense that if I searched the BBC website I would be sure to find reference to it. I mean Christian suffering is no problem for the BBC, but GAYS? 👿

    So I ran a search on the BBC website of ‘Nigeria Gays’, and for contrast ‘Nigeria Christians’. Compare them yourself, and read the sentence below the headline.
    Just this alone shows the real agenda and mindset of the BBC

    ao2xcw.png

    2pzacnr.png

       20 likes

    • Philip says:

      I wonder if Trevor Philips has found ‘work’at the BBC World Service. It is his handiwork for sure. He hates Black Christians (he understated that fact in an News interview) before being booted off Labour ‘Equality commision. For discrimination. No racism there. ‘I come from that kind of community. We like our faith strong and pretty undiluted. If you come from an Afro-Caribbean Christian background the attitudes to homosexuality are unambiguous, they are undiluted, they are nasty and in some cases homicidal.’ *Baroness Onora O’Neill was announced as the Government’s preferred successor to Trevor Phillips, 58, whose nine-year reign as chairman of the body has been dogged by controversy and internal rows.
      http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/baroness-onora-oneill-set-to-become-head-of-equality-and-human-rights-commission-8195796.html

         10 likes

  23. Guest Who says:

    In other news, hot on the heels of those lovely pensions…
    http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/predictable.html?
    (with correction)
    http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/dannys-aunt.html?
    Seems a twitter resource to look forward to.
    http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/where-do-you-fancy-working.html?
    ‘Some questions’
    Good luck with those, Bub.
    I wonder if any will emerge to be shared?

       5 likes

  24. Phil green says:

    Look what’s nicely tucked away on the US Canada Page – not surprised it is not on the main page as it’s is critical of the chosen one – May turn up later

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25748245

       5 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      The BBC will not be telling you what’s missing from this and why it’s half a whitewash. Nor will they point out that the report flatly contradicts the testimony of Adm. Mullen and Gregory Hicks that there was indeed a “stand down/hold” order given to a Special Forces team in Tripoli.

      Why was security lacking, then? President-in-waiting Hillary has already “taken responsibility” there. No consequences came of it, of course, only her continued elevation by the media and our elites.

      The BBC even uses this as an opportunity to push the White House talking point that budget cuts (Republicans’ fault) are harming security now. Good lapdogs.

      Much more important: this shows that the President was informed almost immediately (not immediately, as we still don’t know where He was when the 3am call came in) that this was a planned attack of some kind and that the whole video story was a deliberate lie. Sec. of Defense Panetta knew right away, and then political operatives worked for the rest of the day to massage the CIAs talking points to shift blame away from the Administration and onto that video. The President lied to the public, Susan Rice lied to the public several times, and President-in-waiting Hillary lied to the families of the victims.

      Lied. Not spoke based on erroneous information. Lied. The BBC knows he lied, but works to defend Him anyway. So the article offers the cover story from the NY Times – as predicted, that’s what the NY Times always intended – that some of the attackers were angry about the video anyway. Again, this contradicts the very report the BBC is reporting on, but they don’t care. They completely believe in the President and Hillary, and are convinced there is nothing here. They’re just going along with the whitewash and the MSM palace guard. They don’t dare point out that this report proves that the President was lying. He didn’t know about the NY Times report two years ago, so how is that a defense at all?

      What has mostly convinced the BBC that there was never any problem here is what Mark Mardell has admitted: the wrong sort of people were saying there’s a problem. Their judgment was colored not by facts but by their personal ideological opinions about the messengers.

      Notice how the focus is all on the possibility of a cover-up, as if that was the only element of the scandal, whereas the loudest concerns have really been about the video lies and where the President was. It’s the same tactic they use with ObamaCare. In that case, the focus is entirely on the website, so low enrollment numbers and any problems people face this year will be excused by website problems and no blame will be placed on the disastrous law itself.

      This is far from over, no matter how hard Sen. Feinstein and the media try to draw a line under this.

         18 likes

  25. chrisH says:

    A few of the comments above say this, but it needs saying.
    Eddie Mair on PM talking to Sue Berlowitz-Deputy Childrens Commisioners about the Peterborough case.
    Q…does this case have anything in common with others like Rochdale etc?
    A, The children targeted were all vulnerable.

    Any other contenders?…the white girls in “Council Care”…”Labour Councils”…”all gangs convicted are immigrants by one definition or another”…and all Muslim(albeit with exceptions, we`re talking about the overwhelming % , are we?)?
    So many questions-so many bleeding obvious parallels..and that obvious Islamic one-but Eddie and Sue sure as hell won`t be asking them.
    Ten nationalities apparently, how many faiths are represented?
    Sue of course has form…Rochdale?…Muslim men?…childrens homes with white girls and no parents or Council staff giving a rats arse?
    According to Sue-her team, the State all dun brill!
    No further questions then Sue!…Eddie has a Boris to taunt!

       35 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      What else did the cases have in common? All the victims were abused. That’s the BBC being “accurate”.

         18 likes

  26. IsItMe? says:

    Can anyone even begin to imagine the outcry if groups of white Christian men specifically targeted black or Asian girls for similar treatment?

       31 likes

    • Ned says:

      The groups of white Christian men were too busy targetting vulnerable young white boys.

         3 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Weird how the BBC didn’t blame the victims or society for that one, or decide that the common factor was something about the victims rather than about the perpetrators. Can’t image why.

           11 likes

      • LurkerDroneNumber141 says:

        There was a time when the BBC was able to field three or four drive-by trolls from its astroturf squad. Now we just get this poor sap and his ever changing moniker.
        Must be due to the Tori-kutz.

           15 likes

      • Mat says:

        The groups of white BBC talent men were too busy targeting vulnerable young white boys.
        There fixed that for you !
        But Ned as a BBC supporter if you are affected by any of the threads on here please call 0800 BBC unnatural urges !

           6 likes

  27. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Still waiting for the BBC to report that the ObamaCare architects are so racist that they didn’t even hire Spanish-speaking people to build the Spanish language version of the exchange website. Apparently many Hispanics are offended because it looks like somebody copied the English version and put it through Google translate.

    Hispanic ObamaCare Website Called ‘Insulting’ for Its Use of ‘Spanglish’

       16 likes

  28. ember2013 says:

    I’ve just browsed to BBC News website and here we have, as second news billing:

    A Labour government would tell regulators to investigate whether there is adequate competition between High Street banks, the BBC understands

    Thus planting in the minds of readers that Labour is a government in waiting.

    The article itself is here

    Oh let’s see what the BBC has to report:

    Ed Miliband is due to say on Friday that the authorities should look into whether breaking up banks would benefit customers.

    It comes amid a growing row over whether the government should intervene over bonuses at Royal Bank of Scotland.

    On Tuesday the prime minister defended the government’s position on bank pay.

    BBC business editor Robert Peston said that Mr Miliband will address competition in banking during at speech on business and economy on Friday.

    So not news, but in fact the BBC and Labour promoting an upcoming event. Two days ahead so that the article doesn’t require any counter arguments from government source – because they can’t!

       19 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      This is one of Peston’s pet issues as well. Although I thought he was shifting over to Economics editor after “Two Eds” Flanders left?

         12 likes

    • Patrick55 says:

      Even the BBC will find it awkward if the competition review of the banks wanted by Millipede recommends changes at Lloyds Banking Group. You know the large bank which was created by the last Labour government of which Millipede was a minister.

         15 likes

    • Lynette says:

      By the way, his speech was headline news on Radio 4 early on Friday morning. Most thinking people would agree that this is not news headline material !

         1 likes

  29. Dinsdale Oblong says:

    BBC last week : “Sugar is evil, evil, EVIL I tell you”

    BBC this week : 4 consecutive nights of cake making in one of our “Bake Off” derivatives, this time ironically for Sport Relief.

    Gosh, I’m confused.

       20 likes

    • Uncle Bup says:

      Yerrrr and do you realise just how much sugar there is in fruit 🙁

      Yes, droids, I do. Apparently that’s what makes it sweet.

      News just in, no-one got to twenty-seven stone by eating too many apples.

      Now effin grow up.

         10 likes

  30. thoughtful says:

    http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/glasgow-yob-jailed-after-facebook-6511896

    A shocking story of the removal or freedom of speech and not just prosecution but imprisonment as a result.

    Now I don’t think there’s any possible way anyone could condone what was said, but that’s the whole point of freedom, allowing those views which are totally unacceptable to be aired without the intervention of the state.

    I don’t believe that the point of my post is in allowing what was said any particular import, it is the principle, because these laws have a habit of being stretched to encompass much more reasonable speech.

    This is Nu Liebours doing, and the politicos are still at it today, attempting to pass laws which restrict our freedoms such as the recent ‘causing annoyance in a public place’ or section 5 of the public order act.

    We must all resist those calls for an elected house of lords which the politicians and their parties can control and use to pass oppressive legislation. At the moment it’s all that’s standing between us and some very unpleasant powers being given to people who should not have them.

       16 likes

  31. thoughtful says:

    The trial of William Roche is in prominent positions on the BBC Home page and the England one as well. In stark contrast is the absence of Dave Lee Travis who probably has more serious allegations to answer. No mention of Rolf Harris either.

    Is this the BBC trying to deflect attention from it’s dirty past or a chance for them to have a go at a rival or a bit of both in some kind of proportion?

       20 likes

    • Philip says:

      I am with you Thoughful. The BBC has history (as they say at Scotland yard) on a litany of child sexual offences (usually boys) but also pretty BBC staff temps (who have to leave or get molested by Radio or TV presenters. Although operation Yewtree has stopped, the BBC indifference will continue as they campaign for younger and younger victims (abolishing the age of consent completly is their aim if they’ve manged to avoid arrest).

         12 likes

  32. Beeboidal says:

    On the Victoria Derbyshire segment of Radio Labour today, there was this exchange.

    Caller : Why aren’t we doing something about rent controls?

    Victoria : Well that is an area that…you know you just have a feeling that maybe that’s the next area that will be scrutinised. Whether it’s by journalists or politicians, who knows? You just feel that there might be some momentum towards that, or I do anyway.

    You have a feeling that you have just heard a preview of what BBC/Labour will be pushing next, or I do anyway. Time will tell.

       33 likes

  33. Patrick55 says:

    Has Labour supporter Emily Maitlis been demoted on Newsnight? I ask this as I have watched it for years but I did note that she seemed to be discussing a new role on twitter.

       10 likes

    • Uncle Bup says:

      Yerrr, being replaced by the utterly utterly dreadful Victoria Fuckingawfulshire.

      Interviewing on Newsnight a female victim of child sex Dreadfulshire turned it into a Mumsnet mawkfest.

      I know the Droids management have to try and convince their failed presenters that there is life beyond the 5 Live sink estate. But there isn’t. They’ve been dumped there for a reason, the reason being that they’re shite.

      Leave them there.

         7 likes

  34. Julio says:

    I would like to ask the commenters and bloggers here a question. If a live chat site were to be developed, how many of you would join the fun slagging the Beeb off on a Thursday evening for Question Time, or for other political events covered by the BBC, such as election nights?

       6 likes

    • Deborah says:

      Julio – there used to be one on this site – I think it was DB that arranged it. Not sure why it stopped.

         2 likes

      • Number 7 says:

        The same reason that Guido dropped it for PMQs – the software company wanted too much money.

           2 likes

      • Julio says:

        Yes there was one on this site, set up by David Vance. It then moved to kebabtime.blogspot.com but the numbers dwindled and now I think Billy at Kebabtime has given up on it. He had problems with CoverItLive (the chat software plug in) as well.

           1 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      I would.

         1 likes

  35. Ian Rushlow says:

    That elephant walks through the room again… An article on the BBC website about the wonders of Oslo (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25722053) by “Maddy Savage” (can it be a real name? why not just “Mad Savage”?). We learn that it is has a superb new opera house, is Europe’s fastest growing capital and that Norway was recently voted the best place in the world for young architects to find work. Of course this is the BBC so the agenda quickly starts to filter through. For instance, “Two years after Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people in Oslo and on the island of Utoya, the anti-immigration party he used to support entered government, as part of a coalition under new Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg.” Reading between the lines: anti-immigration and terrorism linked, remind VD and Newsnight of need for more anti-UKIP material. And then it’s full flow: Norway becoming multi-cultural, but most new immigrants from Poland. The key word there is “new”, as there are also a lot of “old” immigrants, from places such as Pakistan, Somalia, Iran, Vietnamese and elsewhere. And some of these immigrants are busy enriching Oslo, such that it is now called “the rape capital of Scandinavia”. There have been reports that the majority of these rapes are carried out by “people not born in Norway”. Apparently the burglary rate in Oslo is now four times that of New York city. Strangely enough the BBC is a bit quiet on this side of things – I wonder why that is?

       36 likes

    • Joshaw says:

      “old” immigrants ?

      So after 2000 years of progress, the Vikings are going back to rape and pillage?

         0 likes

    • Dave s says:

      There is something wrong with the Scandinavian countries. We moan about our liberal orthodoxy they seem to have given up being nations or people or anything at all. Sad really.
      I used to want to go there but now what is the point?
      Nice countryside . That is about it.
      Are we looking at the fate of England? I hope not.

         10 likes

      • Joshaw says:

        I’m a bit confused, Dave S. What are we doing that is different? Their populations are small and therefore more vulnerable but, apart from that, most of W Europe seems to have a cultural death wish.

           7 likes

        • Dave s says:

          Our liberal elite is just as bad as in Scandinavia.
          I just hope that we, the ordinary English and Welsh, are made of sterner stuff.
          We have always been a fine people badly ruled. Except on those rare occasions when men and women of real talent were in charge.
          Last one was Mrs T. Which is why the elite loathe her so much.
          There is nothing the liberal elite value so much as mediocrity.

             10 likes

          • Joshaw says:

            “I just hope that we, the ordinary English and Welsh, are made of sterner stuff.”

            So do I.

            “..badly ruled”

            And the current trend of professional politicians with no real skills other than PR has made it worse.

               6 likes

      • Andy S. says:

        Didn’t Sweden have the highest suicide rate in Europe? It would be interesting to see what the suicide rate is in the other “progressive” countries of Scandinavia.

           3 likes

  36. Dave666 says:

    Breakfast running the story on pedos involved in webcasts from the Phillipines but no mention of this? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2540061/Child-sex-gang-guilty-series-rapes-against-five-vulnerable-girls-including-one-just-12-years-old.html
    Any ideas why?
    Also gout it can be caused by alcohol and bad diet. So there you go.

       19 likes

    • Joshaw says:

      The Phillipines story was covered for “balance”. In other words, we’re still worse than “they” are.

         14 likes

    • +james says:

      The Beeb mentioned them on the news last night after a long report on the paedos in the Philippines. Strangely those two were not described as paedos but as child sex abusers (your’e only labelled a paedo if you are white).

      But the BBC did have the courtesy to mention that at the trial one of the “men” had to have the proceedings translated into his native language of Roma, though the Beeb did describe him as “charismatic”.

         17 likes

      • Joshaw says:

        Is “charismatic” the new “vibrant”?

           14 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Once he gets ‘daring’ & ‘audacious’ accorded him, he gets a free pardon and the keys to the BBC Radio carpark.

           7 likes

      • Uncle Bup says:

        Who can forget Gameshow Nikki when asked to describe Osama Bin Laden in one word chose…

        ‘Charismatic’.

        Describe Gameshow Nikki in one word…

        ‘Wanker’.

           15 likes

    • Rtd Colonel says:

      From Guido: Very interesting – still a wacky conspiracy theory? Guilty as charged

      John Bellingham says:
      January 16, 2014 at 9:18 am

      I have been following the progress of this. The Phillipines pa’edo story was actually published in the Guardian and elsewhere last November. The main character was arrested in March 2012 and convicted in November 2013. Although the “new” story seems to emanate from the Child Protection agency as of yesterday, it appears to contain nothing new from previous reports. Interestingly the Police force in the UK who led the local investigation is Northamptonshire constabulary–the same one that let the Peterborough Roma gang to operate for so long.
      Someone is good at playing the internet game here. As of 6.00pm on 15th (yesterday) when the BBC led with the item on the main TV news bulletin, Google threw up two references–the BBC website and the Child Protection Agency. By 6.00am on 16th (today) there were hundreds of repeats as the press release was picked up by newspapers world-wide, so much that the original story is now hard to find–but it is still there.
      Herr Goebbels and Winston Smith would have been proud of this coup!

         22 likes

  37. Joshaw says:

    Worth a read:

    BBC smothers reports of Iran’s “moderate” president rubbishing Geneva nuclear deal

    The comment near the end: “The BBC is not a news organisation when it comes to places such as Iran and the wider Middle East, it is an activist group with a highly charged ideological agenda.” is spot on.

       15 likes

  38. AsISeeIt says:

    The best Newsnight debate in ages.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/01/15/newsnight-alex-crawford-kelvin-mackenzie_n_4605147.html

    How on earth could this subject have got through the BBC censors ?

    ‘The conversation went from South Sudan to Hillsborough to African tribes “eating each other”, with the always garrulous MacKenzie concluding by accusing Crawford’s coverage of “killing TV news”

    Mr MacKenzie, Sir, you are a star.

    And, although the bon pensant Guardianista Alex Crawford happens to cash pay cheques drawn on Sky at present, it was obvious that she was put in to bat for team Bowen, Douset, Simpson et al

       15 likes

    • Uncle Bup says:

      Had to turn that off.

      The bint’s howling was popping the fillings out of my teeth.

      Calm down, dearie

         4 likes

  39. Old Goat says:

    More drivel this morning about the poor, misunderstood community portrayed in “Benefits Street” – you know, the people who Channel 4 allegedly conned into appearing on telly without even mentioning the word “benefit”.

    They are apparently up in arms about this (aided and abetted, of course, by their champions, the BBC), protesting that they’d been told that the programme was merely about their “community”, innit, and there’d be no mention of benefits, anywhere, at all, ever. They emphatically denied that the Channel 4 people had said it was going to be all about benefits, and consequently the whole street had earned their reputation as benefits scroungers become, er, tarnished, ‘wrongly’ with the epithet of benefits cheats.

    In view of the fact that those taking part were being purely themselves, and not acting, their entire way of life of stealing, cheating, drug-taking, and engaging in other nefarious small-time (and large-time!) crime, It’s seems to me to be very hard to believe them now, particularly considering the sensible, and reasoned explanation put forward by the producer of the show in the BBC interview (when he could get a word in edgeways, or finish his sentence).

    Poor dears. never mind, the liberal hand-wringing BBC are on their side – that should make all the difference.

       27 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Luvvie on luvvie media incidents are interesting, and often entertaining.
      That the BBC is going down the route of aggrieved subjects misled by ratings-hungry ‘news’ remoras is … ‘brave’… given the Newsnight/BIJ/McAlpine source handling, plus of course…
      http://politicalscrapbook.net/2012/06/newsnight-allegra-stratton-exposed-shanene-thorpe/
      Maybe it was a different time.

         6 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Please to see that the Daily Mail is particularly good in a foil sandwich should you wish to avoid detection for liberating capitalist stuff from shops and stores…Chavez hoped for little else.
      You`d have thought that owen, Polly and the BBC would be pleased at Venezuala Street being flaggd up on telly.
      Assange in Ecuador Towers too…ooh, let`s go Latin Evan!
      Drugs…barrios, and the new Nicaragua!
      Thank you BBC!,,,might save on the foreign correspondents we indulge over there(see Kelvin McKenzie on Newsnight…splendid stuff!)

         6 likes

  40. Old Goat says:

    Just listened to Melvin Bragg, discussing the battle of Tours. Being resident in France, I found it very interesting.

    However, when one of the guests was describing the Frankish armies “standing like a northern glacier”, adding that they were slow moving, like a glacier, quick as a flash in jumps Bragg with “they’re not any more”.

    Ho, ho ho – badoom-tish!! One up to the warmists!

       16 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Where do I start with this one?
      Braggs “In Our Time” was a complete cave-in to the PC brigade.
      Note the nervous laughter and glottal stops when it comes to the …er” massive expansion of energy by our Muslim partners ” for that 100 years after Muhammads death.
      Wonder how they did it?…scorched earth, slavery, scuttling, hideous tortures and barbarisms, making vassals dependent on making sand sculptures for a living?
      Nah, shared their figs, got bored, went home to get their jumpers 100 miles from Paris.
      Mere expeditionary forces and scouting parties getting lost , and searching for the flamenco music score to “Ebony and Ivory” in the original Arabic!
      Now I know who`s writing history, and what they`re telling their “students”…and if this lot aren`t waving autograph books and algebra notation at the coming Islam jihadis by the time THEY`RE finally due to convert the student loan to sharia-complaint jizya?…then my names not Salman Rushdie!
      Craven…deceitful, partial and sucking Turkish Delights in our so called RedBrick(ing it ) Universities!
      Birkbeck…SOAS…and the vipers nest of Sheikh Yabooty that is the LMEI contained therein…your boys aren`t circumcised…so how much are you paying them to spout this geyzer of salty yogurt ?
      And all we`ve got by way of defence is a Sybil-Thorndike nelly from Cambridge and Melvyn crushed like a flat fig!
      Bill Warner-political Islam…Robert Spencer and Stephen Lennon please-and quick!…you`ll get far more historical truth form them three than with Mels moochers as evidenced this morning.
      And at least Billy Bragg has been to Brick lane and Barking-so he`ll know that his bellicose quack isn`t long for the Beeb if Islam comes to town. He could have done a better job that his smarty-pants bruvver today!
      See if I`m right…or not.

         11 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Think he said that they were melting didn`t he?
      Same shit Sherlock mind.
      I can imagine Harrabin prowling round Salford in his penguin suit listening out for favourable nods to weeping glaciers…and decidedly bad body language if it doesn`t get a mention.
      D`ya think Eurovision(Global Melting Battalion) pay him by results to shill for the IPCC/Common Purpose?

         6 likes

      • Old Goat says:

        No, if he had and Bragg had jumped in with his merry quip, its intended meaning would have been completely reversed – and one up to the sceptics…

        …he definitely said slow moving.

           3 likes

  41. noggin says:

    OT but,
    give this a read

    http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/16/us/politics/us-to-expand-rules-limiting-use-of-profiling-by-federal-agents.html?from=homepage

    and weep.
    Justice Department to prohibit agents from considering religion in counter terror investigations?
    … I mean after only 22,260 Islamic terror atrocities since 9/11 … “prohibit agents from considering religion”
    I mean … pah! what could go wrong 😀

    and … really weep because folks … it won t be long

    well that said, I suppose its one way to end “a war on terror” …
    by surrendering

       16 likes

  42. SilentMajority says:

    Obvious lack of irony at the Beeb.
    According to the “Top Stories” on the Ariel in-house magazine website “Radio 1 to have a feminine feel”, followed by “Woman ‘in panic at Travis groping’…”

       19 likes

  43. Guest Who says:

    If mentioned before apols, as it looks like it was launched over a week ago, but I have only just learned of the following, which complements neatly the recent threads here on the BBC’s odd notion on ‘choice’ when it suits and not if trialing tribal chums’ punts and then finding the blowback is too great…
    http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/culture-media-and-sport-committee/inquiries/parliament-2010/future-of-the-bbc/?type=Written#pnlPublicationFilter
    It seems that Parliamentary doo-dad many were interested in a few months ago has actually garnered some feedback and is now in process of publishing it.
    Ironically/unfortunately, the very nature of such a thing is that there was likely to be a vast number of submissions and there will, surely, have been some selection process by parties unknown before, one presumes, passing on to the committee(s).
    But it does at least seem to have happened. However there is even so a lot to chew on.
    Plus there may be more? There appear to be various publication dates listed as ‘ordered published’, ranging from the 7th to the 18th (by the BBC… there to view on the 15th?)
    Even if just this bunch, that’s a fair old collection. Where on earth to start?
    Just skimming through there appear a mix of folk, from individuals to bodies to pressure groups, and from varying corners, pro and con.
    If the BBC refers to any at all, it will be interesting to see whose feedback is selected and whose they deem, FOI-excluded, (c) A. Journalist, ‘not news’, if mostly because it doesn’t fit their narrative. There may of course be criticisms pounced on by those less BBC-philic in genetic makeup, assuming this even rates a mention anywhere.
    I hope it does. It seems a serious effort by the country’s elected legislature about a vast unaccountable public and policy-swaying media monopoly that has no public ballot checks or balances, so it should.
    Going to take a time to sift through, and I hope some of you may feel the urge to do so.
    Pleading time-poverty (the BBC has on staff, uniquely funded by the licence fee payer, unlimited PR resources to ‘handle’ this in detail and via attrition, so get ready for a rocky ride as the Flokkers get a boost) I of course skipped straight to the end in case there was a conclusion or summary, but simply found Aunty’s efforts. Skimming these I am stuck already with their reliance on tired cliches, and waffle on ‘beliefs’ the BBC holds about the BBC, which would make Mandy Rice Davies double over.
    Woefully shy on tangibles, or truly independent sources in reference. They still seem to be assuming them saying they get it about right means everyone just accepts that.
    In contrast, a few others dipped into are forensic filleting, often awash with links and back-up sources and substance, with real-time, real-world examples I am not sure the BBC can ‘wish away’ as this is no longer the CECUTT secret internal labyrinth; this is full public domain disclosure with the eyes of some heavy hitters on them.
    The BBC has brushed off bad… very bad before though. And is still doing so, if cack-handedly.
    But how they ‘handle’ this too will be fascinating if they really have to answer, not FoI-excluded, or their little secret, or via expediting-suppression, the points the public are raising here. There’s no ugly open forum for them to do so as usual, so no opportunity now for ‘Daily Mail reader’ snarks, strawmen, low-hanging fruit or ad homs. Just the facts, under spotlight, to be answered. They are being held to account under the spotlight by those who they are supposed to serve; let’s see how they cope.
    I am keeping fingers crossed a bit of popcorn being laid in could be a worthy investment.

       6 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Had a slightly more in-depth look over a cuppa.
      If this is the full extent, intriguing.
      Certainly a mix of pros & cons, with a few I tucked to one side such as rival broadcasters, professional bodies, etc.
      Not many individuals, and of those pro there seemed a fair few touting their honours (Prof., OBE..) which would be fine but for the fact that mostly their submissions were long on wind and short on substance.
      The funniest were the naked pitches: ‘The BBC is great as that’s how we make a killing… keep the ££££ flowing!’.
      Not sure that will sway too many looking at service delivery standards, accuracy, objectivity & integrity.
      The BBC also seemed to get, or took, a lot more space to make its submission, and rather blew it. One was just to a link. On another there was a column of numbers for points but no points.
      Impressive. Not.
      What did impress were those that were well referenced with tangible examples to illustrate points.
      TV Watch especially has the initial page grabs before stealth mode, and the BBC cannot magic those away any more.

         4 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      I noticed one submission included some very good, familiar items. There’s one item in particular I hope to heaven at least somebody involved reads through it.

      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      I wish I had known that individuals could submit a sort of amicus brief. I might have been able to work up something damning about their entire US operation.

         5 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        That is a pity as it would have been a fine complement to a few of the well referenced ones.
        Interestingly, if there was a selection made, of those citing areas of concern, there does seem to have been a measure of categorisation… bizarre editorial, inaccuracy, complaints, TVL/Capita, etc. And a few flagging this coy new bunch of market rates ‘working’ on what to do as more and more people exercise their right to cease unique funding legally and embrace online like the rest of the planet has, does and will without a meter and filter being stuck on the wire.
        Given the commercial thirst the BBC has for the US market, (what World News is doing on/via FaceBook is beyond credulity), your insights on how they are already offering a professional and unethical disservice there would have been awesome on top.
        But you never know; a diligent committee member may have found themselves flagged this way anyway.
        My only concern is this is a complex subject and too many now hide behind time poverty and accept bite-sized summaries without bothering to check if they are being fed what filter minions think they need to know.
        I include a large chunk of Westminster in that.
        The BBC board and Trust are already on record (Pollard) as freely admitting that’s how they operate, like well paid oversight mushrooms, without grasping that self-created ignorance is poor excuse on any basis.

           4 likes

  44. Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

    Oh good, the bBBC has fabricatedfound another story about white racists.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/25755552

       13 likes

  45. Dave s says:

    I have to get this straight. Whites are now forbidden to portray any other ethnicity.
    Can non whites portray whites?
    Can I even ask this question any more?
    What about all those old movies? Will they now just have to vanish forever?
    Now this show in question and the allleged racist actors obviously had no intention of appearing racist. It is the USA media after all.
    In todays liberal insanity driven world intention no longer counts. Offence is everything and let us be clear you can always find somebody offended by anything.
    I am offended on a daily basis by the liberal media but I just get on with my life.
    The world is very odd. This is how cultures eventually implode and end. They becoome too stupid to survive and just give up.
    Cultural Darwinism.

       17 likes

    • Geoff says:

      O course non whites are already playing whites in BBC dramas, I cite Nancy in Oliver Twist and Guinevere in Merlin, there have been others which I can’t recall right now.

         8 likes

      • Joshaw says:

        The usual defence seems to be that these are fictitious characters, so it doesn’t matter. The other justification is to search historical records for the rare black person, and to extrapolate or extend this to the whole population

        It’s not confined to the BBC of course. There was the Olympics opening ceremony, the regular Otello/Othello argument, and quite a few stage plays (eg: War Horse).

        I think Colin Firth would have made a very good Nelson Mandela.

           6 likes

        • feargal the cat says:

          Harry Enfield has surely sealed that deal, with his tour de force performances in the ‘Harry and Paul Show’?

             7 likes

  46. will says:

    Trigger’s death being discussed on BBC News, the desk person interrupts the fellow Beeboid’s eulogy to say in reverential tones “he went to Bedale’s School didn’t he?”

    (Per Wiki – Bedales continues to be one of the most expensive public schools in the UK. For the school year 2012/2013, boarders’ fees are £10,310 per term, a similar figure to that charged by Harrow (£11,095),[1] Eton (£11,090)[2] and Westminster (£10,450).[3]

    Bedales is renowned for its liberal ethos, relaxed attitude, fashionable parents and famous alumni. The Tatler Schools Guide used to cite Bedales as “a bohemian idyll with bite”

    It would seem that beeboids’ feigned hatred of elitism & privilege can be outed by a fashionable name.

       16 likes

    • F*** the Beeb says:

      With no disrespect to Roger Lloyd-Pack, a fine actor and seemingly a nice man, I have to wonder if the BBC would have spent AS long eulogising him (and written such a long online article) if he hadn’t been in two of their most popular sitcoms. Nor, for that matter, if he hadn’t been actively involved in left-wing politics and was, as the BBC described him, “a committed socialist.”

      I might be wrong of course, but I’m sure I’ve seen actors with similar or grander reputations get far less fanfare from the BBC. It seems they’re often biased either by nepotism or by political allegiance.

         14 likes

      • F*** the Beeb says:

        As I said though, none of that is an indictment of Lloyd Pack himself and obviously sincere condolences go to his friends and family.

           10 likes

  47. Gunn says:

    Military cuts mean ‘no US partnership’, Robert Gates warns Britain

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25754870

    This is a slightly difficult story for the BBC I imagine, because on the one hand they’re not particularly pro-American, but on the other hand its a cheap way for them to paint Cameron as a failure on the world stage.

    Why a British broadcaster would willingly accept the ridiculous frame adopted by Robert Gates is a bit of a mystery (e.g. I can’t image Russia Today taking a similar tone on a story about Russia say) – if Gates is serious in his comment that the UK cannot be a ‘full partner’ it begs the question who exactly can; I don’t see China or Russia rushing to be ‘full partners’ with America, which leaves the UK, Japan, France, Saudi Arabia, India and Germany with military budgets >$40bn ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures ).

    Of those countries, Japan and Saudi Arabia will never be ‘full partners’, while France and Germany are generally sceptical about US policy; meanwhile, the US appears to be doing what it can to piss India off diplomatically.

    So the real story here is that the US is increasingly standing isolated on the world stage, against PRC and Russia both of whom are actively looking to reduce its sphere of influence in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

    In this context, Gates’s comments should be seen for what they are – the desperate plea of a US General who recognises that the UK is perhaps the only country that could have and has been standing with the US when it comes to military operations.

    But that slant on the story would make Cameron look stronger, so of course its a no-no as far as the BBC is concerned. They even have a quote from Labour, ‘Shadow defence secretary Vernon Coaker said the prime minister should be worried about the concerns of “Britain’s strongest ally”.’ This is risible considering Labour is seen as much weaker on defence than the Conservatives, but why not stick in that comment when you know no-ones going to call you on it, eh Beeb?

       11 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      This just might be a case where the Beeboids are reporting from a perspective at odds with their personal ideology. As you say, it’s a chance to show Cameron in a bad light, meaning they can portray it in a way that makes the patriotic public angry. But we know that most BBC journalists are of the anti-war persuasion, except when they pose as caring about humanitarian intervention when appropriate.

      The current crowd at the BBC certainly don’t want Britain doing anything militarily anywhere, not even when it concerns British territory, like the Falklands or even Gibraltar, never mind Afghanistan or some African hell hole. So behind closed doors, I bet not a single BBC journalist would shed a tear over defense cuts. But they are doing their duty as journalists for a change and not letting their personal ideology color their reporting.

      They get the pleasure of damaging Cameron while they’re at it.

      I know this seems like a case of damned if they do, damned if they don’t, nobody likes journalists, etc. But the Beeboids have only themselves to blame for giving cause to such thinking.

         7 likes

      • ember2013 says:

        The Beeboids know the cuts at the MoD are coming anyway (and are happy) but can enjoy stirring things up for Cameron.

           5 likes

        • Philip says:

          MOD cuts ‘Britain may have to follow the example of the Netherlands and reduce its range of military capabilities if defense spending takes a significant hit after the 2015 election..’ says Philip Hammond. But by my reckoning reducing the BBC is far more cost effective. i.e. BBC License is 4.8 Bn annual (x10 years = 48 Bn) on political haemmorroid cream v MoD keeping the nation ‘free’ from the likes of the totalitarian BBC regime. Are we more ‘safe’ from the BBC (or less)? They are the enemy within without doubt.

             1 likes

  48. AsISeeIt says:

    Why is 12 Months a Licence Payer hard to watch?

    Starring Lord Tony Fastbucker, Loopy Ol’FattyPang and A’hundredand Fortifive

    12 Months a Licence Payer has opened at the top of the UK pox office, knocking European Hustle into second place.

    Steve McQueen’s slavery drama stars A’hundredand Fortifive as a man kidnapped and forced to work for a brutal slave master, played by Lord Tony Fastbucker.

    The BBC pissed away £million over the weekend while European Hustle, starring Christians Mightaswell-Bailout, and Baroness Jennifer Lowrent took away £million in her handbag.

    Trust Sodditt on 12 Months a Licence Payer : ‘The camera does look away’

    12 Months a Licence Payer doesn’t give its audience an easy ride, Trust Sodditt its cinematographer, talks about shooting the film’s most uncomfortable actors.

    Lexus-driver Trust Sodditt has had a busy couple of years. In 2013, his films included Taking The Place Beyond the Piss, Everyday, Byzantine Complaints System and Oldboy Network.

    But it is his work on Steve McQueen’s harrowing historical drama 12 Months a Licence Payer that is getting most attention.

    Last week Sodditt earned himself a Woofta nomination, and on Thursday he’ll learn if he’ll be off to the Oscar Wildes too.

    The film stars A’hundredand Fortifive as Sawand Hardup, a free black man from Africa, who is distracted and buys into slavery in London in 2014.

    “As we were shooting 12 Months there was a feeling that we were doing something a bit different,” says Sodditt, who is based in Britain (whatever that means?).

    “It has certainly gotten people speaking and is developing a life far greater than anything we could have possibly imagined.”

    Sodditt has worked with the motor-cycle-riding Great Escapee Steve McQueen for some 13 years. He started out on McQueen’s art installations and short cons, and was director of photography on feature films Food Bank Hunger and Tory Shame.

    On 12 Months a Licence Payer, McQueen and Sodditt took the key decision to “keep it simple”.
    “We didn’t need any more trickery because we had the BBC,” he says. “The audience never knows what’s going to happen. They are with Sawand Hardup and see it as he sees it.

    “It’s not a documentary, or a gritty drama, and the reality is that Salford is not a beautiful place. We didn’t want to deny that. And we embrace that as part of the pretence.

    Here, Sodditt talks through a scene from the con that audiences and critics have found most uncomfortable to watch. (The following interview may contain spoilers for people who have never looked out of the window).

    After Sawand Hardup attacks a TV Licence Inspector he is punished by being hung from a tree with his toes just touching the ground to prevent him from being strangled entirely. As he hangs all day, the other Licence Payers go about their work as if nothing unusual is happening.

    Sodditt: When I first read the script, that was, to me, the pivotal scene because of where it comes in the film and also because of what it says.
    It really drives home the fact that he belongs to someone else. No-one else can touch him. His fate is in the hand of another man [a BBC manager played by Benedict Cucumberpatch].

    His life was not his own. That was the first beat of it. The second beat was that life goes on around him. Everyone has been so oppressed and hardened by the dumbing-down that they pay no attention to it. They know if they try to do anything they might themselves be visited by the Inspectors.

    Those two points epitomise the horror of the BBC and as such it was important to get that scene to work absolutely. And so Steve and I spent lot of time finding the exact location – Salford.

    The number of repeats is determined in the edit, but part of the idea was to make the audience feel what it’s like to hang from a tree for a whole day. Although the management payoffs seem excruciatingly large they are not really. It’s just the context and the circumstance.

    We are uncomfortable because East Enders is endless.

    What I’ve heard is that people actually get up and start to make a cup of tea. Other people just turn off.

       13 likes