240 Responses to SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND

  1. Pounce says:

    The bBC , the so called news org which champions the right to free speech (Wiki leaks, Snowden, anything against the UK.US or Israel etc) unless of course Islamic terrorists are doing the silencing and from the bBC…Silence.
    Liberal newspaper Express Tribune cowed into silence by Pakistani Taliban
    When it was launched four years ago, the Express Tribune set out to become the house newspaper of liberal-minded Pakistanis. A newcomer to a market dominated by conservative-inclined papers, it made a point of writing about everything from the relentless rise of religious extremism to gay rights. But in recent weeks the paper has been cowed into silence by an unusually blatant display of power by the Pakistani Taliban. The paper was forced to drastically tone down its coverage last month after three employees of the media group, which includes another newspaper and television channel, were killed in Karachi by men armed with pistols and silencers on 17 January.

    That is in today’s Guardian, but for some reason the bBC which has a habit of promoting stories in the Guaridan has so far left this one alone,

    Gee I wonder why the bBC hasn’t bothered speaking about the murders of 3 journalists from a Pakistani news paper which promotes free speech, Gay issues and Islamic extremism.

    The bBC, the traitors within our midst

       71 likes

  2. Mike says:

    I thought a migrant was a person who moved from A to B. An immigrant is someone who comes INTO a country; an emigrant is someone who LEAVES. So what on earth does the BBC et al mean by saying the number of migrants is increasing? Is it more leaving or more going? Yes, silly question I know but it appears that immigration is another of those words that have been banned by the BBC together with certain descriptors of foreign gentlemen who indulge in violence

       79 likes

    • David Brims says:

      I love that phrase ”net migration”, a slight of hand, smoke and mirrors, to make an analogy, if 50 million British people left the country and 50 million pygmies from Borneo entered, we would have zero net migration, but would it be the same nation ?

         83 likes

      • David Brims says:

        I specifically mentioned pygmies from Borneo because they don’t have an advocacy group, so I won’t be accused of ‘waaycism.’ I think I can just about get away with it.

           50 likes

        • Mike says:

          Never heard of the Borneo Union for Migrating Small people (BUMS), affiliated to NCCL and supported by BBC

             65 likes

        • Larry The Cable Guy says:

          Hell, if they ever DO come up with an advocacy group, I’m-a tell ya, I’m in a boatload o’ trouble over MY act.
          Lord forgive me and save all the pygmies, including Boobla Boobla…

             3 likes

    • Dick the Butcher says:

      PC newspeak is designed to make something nasty go away so that we all feel better, warmer inside and grateful to the chatterati who control these things.
      “Net migration” gives a headline number lower than that of “migration”.

      See also VD – STD -STI
      slum – inner city – deprived area
      etc…

         12 likes

  3. George R says:

    Not on BBC-NUJ ‘Education’ newspage, of course:-

    “UK MUSLIM SCHOOL BANS WOMEN FROM APPLYING FOR TEACHING JOB”

    http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/02/28/UK-Muslim-School-Bans-Women-from-Applying-for-Teaching-Job

       32 likes

    • George R says:

      Comment by Robert Spencer of ‘Jihadwatch’:-

      “Either Britain is going to allow gender-based discrimination or it isn’t. At a certain point, British authorities are going to have to decide whether they’re going to stand for British values or continue to capitulate to Sharia. This ad has been taken down, but does that mean that suddenly Sharia’s institutionalized discrimination of women no longer exists? Of course not. And Muslims are at some point going to insist that they must continue that discrimination without interference from the British government, because it is part of their religion and culture, and for the British to forbid it would be ‘Islamophobic.’ Then what will the dhimmi appeasers in the British government do?”

      http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/02/uk-muslim-boys-school-bans-women-from-applying-for-job-as-science-teacher

         45 likes

  4. Charlatans says:

    Saw the Daily politics today with Andrew Neil. I really like this guy. He is so head and shoulders above most other BBC political presenters. He has excellent analysis and researched facts always at his finger tips. The main reason I like him though, is because he implements the BBC unbiased public broadcasting remit treating all sides without fear or favour.

    I just heard him blast a Tory MEP, (did not get his name), for coming onto the Daily Politics and stating that the immigration policy and figures are going in the right direction. Andrew repeatedly told this ‘Goebels impersonator’ that there has just been a 60,000 increase last year, with net immigration reaching 212,000.

    http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_said_If_you_repeat_a_lie_often_enough_it_becomes_the_truth_Was_it_Goebbles

    This Tory MEP is a europhile ‘goon’ who really does not get it even though the facts were stabbing him in the eye on National TV.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb/broadcasts/2014/02

       58 likes

    • Old Timer says:

      WOW!!!!!!!!!
      BBC man (can’t remember his name) blasts a Tory.
      Whatever next?
      Pope says a prayer.

         23 likes

      • Maturecheese says:

        I think the point he is making is that Andrew Neil is more even handed than most of the Lefty automatons on the Beeb. The bloody Tories do need bringing to task on their dishonesty regarding the current levels of immigration. UKIP the only vote left for me.

           61 likes

        • Charlatans says:

          Thanks Maturecheese – you got my point dead right.

             28 likes

          • EmersonV says:

            Agree he is really the only bbc journalist / presenter who is even handed.

               22 likes

            • Bob Nelson says:

              I suspect he is an AGW sceptic, too. Another plus point for AN.

                 8 likes

              • Chop says:

                I think the best thing about AN is that he does not let his own political beliefs, whatever they may be, distort the debate.

                He will argue a point from either side of a political debate, in order to get at the thinking of the person who he is interviewing.

                That, is true journalism in my book.

                   6 likes

    • Purple Pemple says:

      Timothy Kirkhope. Good chap used to be our MP. Leeds NE.

         1 likes

  5. Mike says:

    A Scot, Derek Phin, admitted posting a threatening and abusive remark about Edinburgh Central Mosque on the social networking site in June last year and got 12 months in prison. I’m not at all condoning his actions and think he was definitely wrong to do what he did. But how does this compare with certain people who publically threaten to behead “non-believers” without any sanction and in the few cases where action is taken slapped wrists appear to be the standard punishment

       80 likes

  6. George R says:

    It is only a matter of time, it seems, before any criticism of Islam is made a criminal offence in U.K, endorsed, of course, by political class (inc INBBC).

       55 likes

  7. DB says:

    The right-on anguish of the leftie BBC business unit:

       43 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Views not just her own either. Refreshing lack of weasel if the rest seems pure hive.

         16 likes

      • Andy S. says:

        Are my eyes deceiving me or is Fritz’s avatar a photograph of herself standing in a BBC studio with the Corporation’s logo partially visible in the bottom left hand corner? Surely they can’t get away with the usual statement that comments are her own when the photo makes plain she works for the Beeb?

           12 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          Just to clarify… My comment was because in this case there is no disclaimer, unlike most BBC employee twitter banners littered with BBC logos & job titles. And, of course, corporation-lawyer disclaimer in place, also chock full of ‘views’ the BBC would tear any other corporation a new one for allowing.
          Be interesting to see if hers ever ‘evolves’ should her comments start to get a wee bit more tribal than unprofessional bandwagon-jump dissing of other media and private food outlets.
          Maybe she has shares in KFC?

             9 likes

    • ROBERT BROWN says:

      Sad, deluded bitch.

         17 likes

      • ROBERT BROWN says:

        Oh, something else. Anyone heard about the BBC considering chasing people who watch BBC stuff post broadcast, fine them? Will they get the broadband providers to snitch on their customers? Computer tax? 1984 has passed but still the state wants total control…..any nuggets about this latest outrage?

           26 likes

  8. Geoff says:

    A story in the Guardian suggests BBC4 could close, as the Guardian and the bBC are blood brothers, there could be some truth in this.

    Wouldn’t be surprised as the bBC hate anything highbrow, they prefer to feed us trash like BBC1, BBC3, Asian Network, Radio 1Xtra etc … Of course the nasty party would be blamed for budget cuts

    http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/feb/26/bbc-channel-extra-cuts-tony-hall

       36 likes

    • GCooper says:

      Oh, dear. The only BBC channel that ever has anything on it worth watching.

      Radio 3 had better speed-up its relentless downmarket plunge or that will be next for the chop!

         30 likes

      • Maturecheese says:

        BBC 3 is surplus to requirements unless you are addicted to trash. BBC 2 and 4 are just about the only channels on the beeb worth watching.

           24 likes

        • Dave666 says:

          BBc 3 why? Everytime I flick over It’s Family Guy or American dad for the millionth time. Or not funny comedy.

             11 likes

          • stewart says:

            BBC 4 started out with promise but now seems to be padded out with continual re-runs of the ‘old grey whistle test’ (tory cutz I suppose)Neither of them fulfil their promised function of providing an alternative ,as anything that gets more than two men and a dog watching it will migrate to to BBC 1 or 2 anyway ( especially true of BBC3).

               8 likes

            • Dave666 says:

              Ahh yes the Friday music aspect of BBc4. Or the same repeats from TOTP / OGWT. There must be thousands of hours of bands in the archives. Recently saw Lene Lovitch, The Doll and other bands I’d never seen on the re runs of TOTP as I didn’t see many of the late 1970’s early 80’s TOTP.But no, we get the same clips over and over. And if you missed it in the early evening never mind it’ll be along again later.

                 8 likes

              • stewart says:

                Art school anarchists re-visiting their imagined youth.

                   6 likes

                • Dave666 says:

                  I’ve noted this before and it doesn’t just apply to the music shows. Check out the date of births of the non-celebrity commenting. On more than a few occasions their age doesn’t ring true with what they are talking about. Or also making statements about events which in the context of the date are not very credible. On the year of 1979 TOTP presenter one of the talking heads was talking about every one phoning each other when some act was on TOTP. My recollection from that period was that telephones were not in every property. Even in the 1980’s friends of mine had party lines.

                     11 likes

                  • Geoff says:

                    Spot on, currently we have Sarah Cox presenting Radio 2’s Sounds Of The 80’s, yet she was only 14 when the decade ended! Its fascinating to her her recall her night club experiences, and she knows nothing of the music she plays.

                    Compare with Brian Matthew who presents Sounds Of The 60’s – he knows his stuff ‘cos he was there…

                    Auntie knows best …

                       12 likes

      • LeftyLoather says:

        Might be so that the bBC can finally afford +1 channels instead, like FREE ITV, FREE Channel4 and FREE Channel5 have FREELY had for ages now, with FREE Channel5 even now also having a FREE +24 channel.

           11 likes

        • GCooper says:

          Unfortunately, Channel 4 receives public money.

          Which probably explains why it is filled with unwatchable rubbish.

             5 likes

  9. DICK R says:

    The term NET MIGRATION tells you all you need to know , it is euphemism for the emigration of the indigenous population.
    In other words according to the traitors now in power it is no loss if the white population is replaced by third world ethnics !!

       37 likes

    • stewart says:

      They see it as a cause for celebration. The fulfilment of their innermost desire.

         24 likes

      • LeftyLoather says:

        Oh come on, chaps. I’m feeling particularly enriched today, aren’t you?

           16 likes

  10. John Anderson says:

    re. the latest immigration/emigration statistics – has anyone – anyone ? – heard the BBC report that the total who came in to Britain last year was 620,000, 100,000 more than 2012 ? (And that is the official figure, it does not count illicit/illegal arrivals)

    The scale of this influx is just awful – a total betrayal by Cameron. Partly because we have to adhere to the EU open borders policy, partly because there are huge numbers of “students” and “marriages” from South Asia and Africa.

    But the BBC covers it up as much as possible.

       52 likes

    • Maturecheese says:

      Spot on. Betrayal is the correct word and all three parties are in on it. If or when the situation changes it will be too little too late and that is what is so unforgivable. It really is a bitter pill to swallow.

         29 likes

    • bodo says:

      Cameron is discovering what has been known for quite a while about immigration, it is very easy to turn the tap on, almost impossible to turn it off.

      Labour opened the doors wide. They have created communities, e.g. Somali, that never existed before, but which now act as a future magnet attracting ever more people from Somalia. At the same time Ozzies and New Zealanders realise Britain is no longer a nice place to visit – their numbers have plummeted.

      I doubt any party can halt it – our descent into a 3rd world country is made inevitable by demographics. Once our institutions lose the majority native staff and Anglo Saxon protestant work ethic that kept them reasonably competent and honest then it will happen very quickly.

      Utterly tragic and was so predictable and avoidable.

         45 likes

      • thoughtful says:

        Oh dear the sad delusion that Cameron actually means the words which freely spill from his mouth! Do you not remember his lying over the Lee Rigby Murder? ‘There is nothing in the Qur’an to justify this murder’ ?

        The fact is that lefty Dave said the words about controlling immigration while having absolutely no intention of doing so. It has continued in much the same way as it did under Liebour.

        So where are the British people going? Certainly not to Europe as that doesn’t count, so it’s either Aus with it’s own Muslim problems or the USA which is also feeling the violence of the ‘religion of peace’.

           32 likes

      • LeftyLoather says:

        “Labour opened the doors wide”? Lifted and threw the doors off their feckin’ hinges more like!
        Short-memoried Labour voters next year – who’ll want Balls-up in charge of the economy – won’t so much need voting booths as seriously urgent bloody labotomies!

           27 likes

    • Dave s says:

      Change the people change the country. But this was the liberal’s idea all along.
      Cameron is no different. A liberal leftie at heart. Just why is the BBc so hard on him? He is one of theirs.
      Of all crimes against a nation and a people betrayal is the worst. Never to be forgiven and never to be accepted.
      After over one thousand years the England of my ancestors and my people is being destroyed in front of my eyes.
      We should have been able to hand our land on to our grandchildren in good order as is our right.
      What the liberal left has done is so heinous a crime as to make the word treason redundant.
      I noticed at the demonstration at the Rigby killers sentencing the flag of old England. The standard of Alfred and Harold.
      This is the only flag we should now recognize. The rest are just bits of rag belonging to another people.

         35 likes

      • pah says:

        Cameron does not have a problem with immigration because he is sat, nice and comfy like, on the EU gravy train. When he loses the 2020 election he will simply do a Blair and earn even more cash off our backs. He doesn’t give a flying fetid fart for you nor me.

        What we need are politicians who value our country and culture. Here’s wishin’.

           6 likes

  11. Will all end in tears says:

    Five Live and usual leftie crap, this time espoused by Adrian “like a Toby jug full of warm piss” Chiles.

    Mention is made of UKIPs conference – great I thought, we might get a bit of decent insight into their policies, particularly in the light of yesterday’s 200k “net” immigration figures (and that’s not counting the illegals, natch).

    In fact, all we got was how UKIP have adopted the slogan “Love Britain. Vote UKIP” and how this was once a slogan used by the BNP.

    All school boy titters and smug guffawing between Chiles and his cohort – why didn’t Farage just Google it? – but the objective was fully achieved.

    Not a single mention of UKIP policy but managed to equate them with the BNP.

    The BBC – a bunch of fuckin tossers, the lot of ’em

       81 likes

    • Peter Thomas says:

      Worry not. I think it’s a great slogan and Nigel’s right to use it. Why should the words ‘Love Britain’ be appropriated by the BNP? Some try to suggest the BNP appropriated our national flag too, and infer it’s offensive for anyone else to fly it. I say sod the BNP. Well done, Nigel for saying, “it’s our slogan now. Not changing it. To hell with the BNP.” Most sensible people will see what the media, especially the BBC are up to, and this will translate into even more votes for UKIP. Bring on the Euro elections.

         46 likes

      • pah says:

        Farage missed a trick there. When asked about the BNP slogan he should have asked the Beeboid if the BBC loved Britain. If they said yes then surely the BBC love the BNP.

        That’d shut the feckers up.

           8 likes

    • OldBloke says:

      pretty much what you say has been spread around all of the BBC news output. Not a word about their policies. Pathetic.

         38 likes

      • EmersonV says:

        Just proves the left bbc don’t love Britain.

           38 likes

      • Bob Nelson says:

        The BBC’s continual sniping at UKIP is probably having the opposite effect to what they clearly would want. The hive mentality just cannot understand that the average Brit will see what is going on and react against it.
        UKIP will benefit, hopefully, and come out top in the European elections, thus setting up a very interesting year to the General election.

           11 likes

        • starfish says:

          I agree

          The bien pensants, luvvies, and meeja who live inside the M25 just don’t understand that it is UKIP which is in touch with the general opublic

             3 likes

    • flexdream says:

      So is the BBC’s idea that the phrase ‘Love Britain’ is now (c) the BNP? Most folk don’t give a stuff about this synthetic and manufactured ‘news’ item. Instead like me they’ll not refuse to love their country just because some hack thinks it’s a fascist slogan.

         36 likes

      • Lobster says:

        I seem to recall that “British jobs for British workers” was a BNP theme as well. I think someone else used that phrase – can’t think who off hand ……….. Was his name Gordon?

           43 likes

    • GCooper says:

      What a fantastic description of Chiles! Which genius came up with that?

         15 likes

      • Will all end in tears says:

        Would like to take credit GC but cannot.

        I recall hearing it several years ago and, like you, found it perfectly fitting and thus it has stuck with me.

        Alas I do not recall the source. Apologies

           10 likes

  12. #88 says:

    Over at the Speccie they’ve had a partial victory with an FOI request to demand that the secretive BBC disclose what EU money it receives. A partial victory because the BBC still refuses to detail how it is spent.

    Never a week goes by without the BBC crowing about how it has ‘obtained information through an FOI request to show that the nasty Tory led Government has;…..blah, blah, blah’.

    What ‘effing hypocrites they are.

    http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2014/02/the-millions-in-eu-funding-the-bbc-tried-to-hide/

       43 likes

    • Fred Bloggs says:

      Now is the bBC pro EU?

         7 likes

    • Number 7 says:

      This is absolute dynamite.

      Kate Hoey (Labour MP):-

      ‘Even Today in Parliament [on Radio 4] always tries to convey Tory splits on Europe, and this doesn’t help the perception of an EU bias. There are Labour MPs with strong views on Europe as well. It doesn’t help that the BBC very rarely reports these views.’

      Spectator:-

      “Viewers also had to watch as BBC news bulletins last October lapped up in the most excruciating fashion a European Commission-funded report denying the existence of ‘benefits tourism’, a phenomenon in which non-contributory benefits are available for the unemployed, thereby allowing those who have not paid into our system to make welfare claims in Britain even though unemployed Britons living in, for example, France or Spain, which are not party to this skewed arrangement, cannot make similar claims.”

      Well worth a read.

      Go for it Coffee Shop!

         35 likes

      • flexdream says:

        Kate Hoey is one of the good people and speaks sense – this from 2006 regarding the NI peace process,
        “Most recently, legislation to grant amnesty for those who are still on the run from the authorities in connection with crimes committed during the Troubles was bludgeoned through. Later, Mr Hain was forced into an embarrassing retreat and withdrew the legislation, but there is a core logic in operation. However unpalatable in the short-term, the calculation is that the “on the run” and parliamentary allowance legislation are necessary small steps towards progress on the big issues of devolution and power-sharing. The logic of this realpolitik is flawed. The Government is contributing to a public mood in Northern Ireland that is increasingly hostile to any sort of devolved power-sharing institutions.

        There are concerns about the moral sensibilities surrounding these issues and the existence of double standards. But the Government has also created the impression that the peace process is, in effect, a bilateral negotiation and a succession of “dirty deals” with the IRA. This has eroded the underlying principle of the Good Friday Agreement – the attempt to govern Northern Ireland through a stable consensus based on majority support from both communities. The effect of this new departure on the moderate parties in Northern Ireland has been devastating.”
        (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3622938/Bribing-the-IRA-is-no-way-to-win-peace.html)
        Prescient or what?

           20 likes

        • GCooper says:

          I cannot express the depths of my contempt for Labour but the one exception would be Ms Hoey, an honourable, decent woman of high principles and integrity.

          All of which are reasons, no doubt, why she is scarcely seen on the BBC!

             12 likes

  13. David Kay says:

    Campaign: To Make Lee Rigby’s Mother A Baroness

    http://cigpapers.wordpress.com/2014/02/26/campaign-to-make-lee-rigbys-mother-a-baroness/

    Dear ( name of your MP/MEP)

    Doreen Delceita Lawrence is the mother of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence. She was awarded an OBE in 2003 and made a life peer (Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon) in 2013. £10 million was spent on the “Stephen Lawrence Community Centre” which opened in 2008 in Deptford, London. There has also been an e-petition to rename Heathrow Airport as “Stephen Lawrence Airport“. Baroness Lawrence is the Honorary President of anti-White race hate group the UAF which promotes racism, violence and intimidation across Britain.

    Lee Rigby was not a street thug like Stephen Lawrence, but was in fact a fine young man doing his duty in the British Army. I do not see any valid reason why his family, and in particular his mother, should receive less from the British Nation than Stephen Lawrence’s did. I therefore suggest that his mother is made a Baroness and awarded an OBE. I would also like £10 million to be spent on a “Lee Rigby Community Centre” and an e-petition organised to rename Manchester Airport as “Lee Rigby Airport”.

    As my elected representative I expect you to give this campaign your full support and public backing. Could you please clarify whether you will be supporting this campaign, or not, as that will clarify mine and my family’s voting intention.

       55 likes

    • thoughtful says:

      I think we should have a petition to change the name of the country to Great multiculti socialist land.
      That way it would more accurately reflect what it is, because it certainly isn’t Britain any more.

         25 likes

      • chrisH says:

        I prefer Scotland South myself!

           7 likes

      • ROBERT BROWN says:

        We need an English Parliament now, asap, start agitating for it now, kick out the Labour scots MPs’, shrug off the Leftist EU, re-assert our ‘English’ identity, watch as England takes off economically ……..is it too much to ask?

           24 likes

        • LeftyLoather says:

          Nope! Non-EU countries Norway and Switzerland do very nicely indeed and both have less than half – LESS THAN HALF! – the unemployment rate we’ve got here.
          Of course you never hear that spilled on the EU-adoring bBC though.

             14 likes

  14. Ron Todd says:

    With our spineless ruling class there is more chance the mother of Lewis Gill will get into the lords.

       18 likes

  15. Ron Todd says:

    Earlier in the week the BBC gave Max Hastings one hour to argue that we were right to go to war with Germany 100 years ago.

    Looking at tonights schedule Niall Ferguson gets one and a half hours to argue why it would have been better if Germany had won.

       28 likes

    • Old Timer says:

      I watched this, just to see what the BBC was up to, but Ferguson lost the argument completely. I did not hear anyone agree with his point of view not even any of the young students. To be fair he did point out that one of his assertions was made playfully. Not that that helped his cause much as he was reminded that WW1 was not a playful matter.

      One participant summed up the choices (as to whether or not we should have left Germany to it, or not) as not a choice between right and wrong but a choice between two evils. In that respect I got the impression that everyone agreed, despite the horrendous loss of life and financial cost, it was the right decision to fight Germany. After all, they were not a benevolent conquerer, where they had initially succeeded in in Belgium in 1914/15 they carried on to murder women and children or deported them off to labour camps.

      It is interesting that 100 years later, here we are again, with some talking of war over the problems in The Ukraine, particularly over what is happening in the Crimea. The European Union, America and Britain seem hell bent on supporting the unelected rabble and call them the ‘New Administration ‘. They did of course take over by force after encouragement by the West. History will determine that Gordon brown’s Foreign Affairs appointee to Europe, Baroness Ashton, will have a great deal to answer for.

      As things stand today one of the new ‘Administration’s so called ministers is threatening a nuclear build up to defend themselves against Russia, and they have the goodies to do it. Russia is sending in troops to defend its base at Sevastopol in the Crimea. And Barry the Cool is threatening Russia. The USA will of course wait it out again until a war is well underway and is attacked personally before joining in.

      Meanwhile the BBC and Sky are very concerned with the Oscars and Russian TV has given George Galloway a programme of his own to spout left wing rubbish. We need to wake up to the dangers here, they could be far worse than WW1 or WW2.

         9 likes

  16. DB says:

    Here’s a BBC Europe journalist who thinks Obama and the EU both deserved their Nobel Peace Prizes (not a joke):

    During the 2012 US election he also mocked Romney’s claim that Russia was America’s number one geopolitical foe:

    Who called that one right?

       23 likes

  17. DownBoy says:

    Any Questions tonight on R4 and we’ve had a question on immigration where all four panellists said it is a great thing. Nobody pointing out that we don’t control our own borders and no-one suggesting there may be quality of life issues for the powerless indigenous population.
    The panel contains a labour MP, a lib dem, Germaine Greer and an American who loves immigration. Disgraceful lack of balance.

       56 likes

    • Bonny says:

      Whether they perceive that immigration on that scale is a good thing they cannot fail to ignore the fact that infrastructures, schools, housing, roads, rail, multilingual teachers, police etc have not kept pace and cannot do at the current rate.

         35 likes

    • EmersonV says:

      Unbelievable lack of balance, this just proves how bias the bbc are.

      In balance they need a show with a UKIP MEP, Tory MP, J Clarkson and P Hitchens.

      Now that I would listen to.

         36 likes

    • flexdream says:

      Personally I think that managed immigration is a good thing, and that unmanaged immigration is a bad thing. I’m fed up of the BBC and its stooges telling me that my reasonable position is motivated by hate, fear and ignorance. Especially when they are happy to support an EU which itself is happy to keep out those mostly non-white non-EU folk.

         18 likes

  18. Arthur Penney says:

    The Ship of fools makes an (un)welcome return.

       15 likes

    • DownBoy says:

      He’s getting a right caning in the comments below the article.

         16 likes

      • chrisH says:

        Very pleasing!
        Maybe we should invite Turkey and his Ice bucket to the Somerset levels…that oaf will surely freeze it over for us, given his Freezo superpowers.
        Or else set up a Climate Change conference in Taunton…that ought to do it too, given the Copenhagen permafrost when last they discussed it in 2009.
        Skating circus assured as long as the global warming wallies insist of their Chicken Lickin` theories.

           12 likes

  19. flexdream says:

    R4 Question Time audience. Loud applause when the Labour person says she will soon be replacing the Lib-Dem person in government. Typical unbalanced audience. It’s getting to be a joke.

       42 likes

  20. SilentMajority says:

    Another attempted hatchet job on Newsnight, juxtaposing concerns about the far-right (always ‘far’ aren’t they?) nationalists taking over in Ukraine with a report on the UKIP conference.
    Using an ex-BNP slogan; Godfrey Bloom swatting that prat Crick; was Neil ‘cash for questions’ Hamilton a back-room boy or not; blah blah blah.
    It’s going to get almost unbearable as the Euro Elections get nearer.
    I would sacrifice one of my testicles for UKIP to wipe the smiles off the faces of those smug gits at the Beeb.

       48 likes

    • Dave666 says:

      Much as I have some severe doubts about UKIP, Like all the other political parties The more the BBc and the rest of the media slag them the more attractive they are becoming for me as a protest vote for the European elections. It would probably worth it just to see the faces of the BBc election team if they did get a big enough percentage of the vote.

         31 likes

      • Oldbob says:

        Same here, and what those morons simply don’t get is that they are creating thousands of us who simply want to send them and the Brussels and Westminster Mafia a clear and unmistakable message that we have had enough of their progressive, socialist, liberal, AGW crap.

           26 likes

      • pah says:

        The more the BBc and the rest of the media slag them the more attractive they are becoming for me as a protest vote for the European elections

        Which is why they do it, to convince people like you to vote UKIP and split the right-wing vote.

        A vote for UKIP is a vote for a Labour government.

           1 likes

    • Dave s says:

      Conflating the far right in the Ukraine with UKIP was so obvious and not very clever. These people on Newsnight are pathetic.
      Also the segment on Russia and the Crimea. A statement of the bleedin obvious. What did they think Putin was going to do?
      Russia will take over the Crimea. As certain a certainty as I can think of. Why the surprise Newsnight? And we pay them for this stunnning insight.

         27 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Maybe we need to warn out respective UKIP operations just what the BBC/Channel 4 are up to…they seem a bit naive at best.
      Farage made a fool of himself at the Press Conference-surely he should have cut his teeth on them first and THEN speak to his people!
      And does no-one there check whether a Crick should be anywhere near them?…the man is walking health risk…

         1 likes

  21. EmersonV says:

    Typical anti UKIP reporting on newsnight.

    I wonder if red Ed will be asked awkward questions about Harmon or mcshane.

       31 likes

  22. George R says:

    Arrested Muslim, Moazzam BEGG.

    We know this about him, the Guardianistas know this about him, as do his Beeboid political chums:-

    “GITMO DETAINEE ARRESTED ON TERROR CHARGES WAS ‘GUARDIAN’ CONTRIBUTOR”

    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2014/02/26/Gitmo-Detainee-Arrested-On-Terror-Charges-Was-Guardian-Contributor?utm_source=contentsharing&utm_medium=linkexchange&utm_term=postion4&utm_content=Gitmo-Detainee-Arrested-On-Terror-Charges-Was-Guardian-Contributor&utm_campaign=foxnews

       23 likes

    • George R says:

      Islam Not BBC, as ‘Guardian’, and Chakrabarti’s ‘Liberty’ will continue to politically support the arrested Islamic jihadist, Moazzam BEGG, unconditionally.

         25 likes

    • Framer says:

      BBC Radio news this Saturday morning makes Beg’s charging second or this headline but adds emphatically within the headline remarks that this is the first time he has ever been charged. Why is it so important to be told this?

         7 likes

  23. Dave666 says:

    BBc Not advertising 12 years a slave again on the 10 o’clock news. Also the Russian Army amusing me by pissing off the BBc in the Crimea. Who would have thought that would have been the case back in the 1970’s when I was with British Army On the Rhine.

       29 likes

  24. sirus says:

    http://www.leftfootforward.org/2014/02/no-moazzam-begg-is-not-david-miranda/…even some on the left did not fall for the conman moazamm beggs bullcrap.cop at look at some of beggs supporters in this article,oh dear he has just been charged with terrorism offences

       17 likes

    • noggin says:

      Mozzam Begg, with a BBC photo, like some gangsta rapper, is charged .
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26395066
      The BBC s fave die hard “poor me” Taliban supporter eh!
      pity it isn t back to Gitmo? for you my boy,
      V Drearybyshire could get 5Live propaganda visits

         11 likes

  25. Bill says:

    The lies the BBC tells our children!
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/aqa_pre_2011/rocks/fuelsrev4.shtml
    Apart from many other errors/lies this page shows power station cooling towers emitting steam, but the caption is “Clouds of smoke…”

       23 likes

    • Joshaw says:

      And “sulfur dioxide”.

      Phive out of ten for spelling.

         15 likes

      • GCooper says:

        It’s the US spelling. Lord knows why.

           4 likes

        • Joshaw says:

          Sloppy copying and pasting or trying to sound American, alternative and cool?

             7 likes

          • therealguyfaux says:

            “Sulfur” = Royal Society of Chemistry and International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry preferred spelling. Don’t ask me why. “Sulphur” is the traditional and apparently non-scientific-context spelling, and, if the truth were known, probably just as well used in the US as elsewhere, if we were to go by place names like “Sulphur Springs, Indiana” and the like.

               2 likes

    • Arthur Penney says:

      It’s very true,as they say, that water can be harmful. I understand that tests show that if one immerses one’s head into water for an extended period asphyxiation nearly always occurs.

      I also understand that the UK and EU store vast quantities of this substance for a range of purposes and that millions of people are under direct threat should it escape.

      Maybe the BBC ‘scientists’ could do the experiment on themselves in a programme (preferably with hands pushing the head under water to ensure complete immersion.)

         7 likes

  26. Reed says:

    It starts…

    Tony Hall: extend licence fee to cover BBC iPlayer

    Director general says households without TVs that watch corporation programmes on-demand should also be paying fee.

    Far from the licence fee being abolished, as some critics have argued, Hall said it should be extended to take account of the different ways in which people consume TV and radio in the digital age, on their computer, iPad or smartphone.

    http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/feb/26/tony-hall-extend-licence-fee-bbc-iplayer

       21 likes

  27. DownBoy says:

    Two headlines from bbc news this morning on political parties;
    1) Labour set to back Milliband reforms (Milliband on ‘historic step’)
    2) Who rattled Farage at UKIP conference?

    No agenda from the bbc as usual.

       34 likes

    • Old Goat says:

      That shithole Michael Crick was rattling everyone at the UKIP conference yesterday.

      Someone should take that little squirt up a dark street and tell him his fortune…

         28 likes

      • chrisH says:

        Stupid of UKIP to give this queasy self-publicist a press pass and a chance to pose by a Fawlty Towers poster.
        Mind you, when Crick referred to Sir William as “You People”…that should stand as the BBCs final verdict on any of us out here on planet earth.
        Did Crick have a CRB check?…something about his like, and Jay Rayners too?
        UKIP need to “join the big boys”, and ensure the likes of Crick stay on Hampstead Heath…not able to wind up a Bloom or a Dartmouth…

           9 likes

  28. AsISeeIt says:

    Another load of old cossacks from the BBC

    Certain BBC voices have – albeit guardly and grudgingly – admitted that in retrospect they dropped a bit of a clanger over the so-called Arab Spring. Any common sense equipped neutral observer at the time could easily have seen that the BBC failed us in their reporting by (a) not seeing any hint of coming events (b) mistaking the outbreak of muslim civil wars, internal power struggles and sectarian conflicts for a practically non-existant (though obviously much desired on the part of the BBC) phantom liberal groundswell (c) failing to highlight the dangers to international peace in the breaking of the previous status quo.

    Just like a snotty self-righteous well-known former civil rights lawyer now sitting at the pinnacle of the liberal elite the BBC is unwilling and seemingly unable to actually admit the extent of her past failings – that would mean changing her core attitudes and we can’t have that.

    So the BBC is doomed to fail us again. Already the reporting of events in the Ukraine are a case in point. Firstly despite huge resources (remind me how many attended Mandela’s funeral?) the BBC gave us no hint that things could blow up down there on the Dnieper.

    Then the BBC wades in with the usual tired biases. I recall the tale of the ex-BBC man asking his editor for the background on a story and being handed The Guardian with the advice ‘Just read this, it’s all in there’.

    So obviously we get ‘pro-EU’ protesters as the good guys. From very early on at the point when I saw the first pictures I wondered how come the BBC’s ‘peaceful protesters’ were wearing steel helmets and quasi-military garb. But of course through the BBC rose-tints they were singing cumbaya.

    No wonder the president over there turned chicken Kiev and went missing – last seen in Balaklava. Those ‘peaceful protesters’ eh!

    Then we get the looting of the presidential palace and again the BBC are down with the kids glorying in the ‘just look how the other half live’ reportage. Do the BBC evr question EU excess and wastage? – Not often.

    But be reasonable, Putin doesn’t like the gays – so he’s the bad guy, right?

    You can see why the BBC picked the side they picked.

    However once the BBC had plimsoles on the ground out there the cheerful protesters started to look a little ugly close up. ‘Right-wing nationalists’ grrrrrr – scary.

    Who can save the BBC from itself?

    Mark Urban of Newsight yesterday did homage to the BBC’s favourite president (our leader across the pond) and tells us his speech was ‘strong’. In fact the US is completely and utterly powerless to influence events in the Russian sphere. BBC double-think.

       31 likes

    • Deborah says:

      I do so agree with AsISeeIt, the joy in Justin Webb’s voice (or was it Evan?) as they first reported on Today the fall of the Ukraine government. I asked myself had they learnt nothing from the Arab Spring. The BBC news is too quick to take sides without analysing the situation beyond their next headline. There was an excellent piece in the Telegraph giving a good explanation of what was happening and explaining that it is possible that the ‘unrest’ could spread and draw a lot of countries into a East/West war. anything like this on the BBC? 5 minutes of analysis on the 10pm news is not enough. Maybe the BBC should have spent less time on gay rights and more on Russia looking west. And today’s headline re Obama’s posturing didn’t fill me with any confidence, isn’t it the same threat he made Syria? And why the BBC thinks every conflict is made up of a good guy and a bad guy and they have to support one side just isn’t very grown up. But maybe it is the only was Fiona Bruce can deliver the news, as though her audience are usually watching Ceebeebies. Sorry rant over.

         12 likes

  29. Dr Llareggub says:

    An evil attack with no justification. But the BBC offer an excuse for the Taliban – polio teams are a cover for espionage – say the heroic fighters for Allah.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26397602

       15 likes

  30. Umbongo says:

    Grant Shapps asserted on Today this morning that a perverse outcome of the Labour membership “reforms” was to make the union leaders more rather than less powerful within the Labour Party. This was, to a great extent, on the basis that more political funds could be disbursed at union leaders’ discretion than hitherto. It’s a fair point – if accurate. Humphrys interviewed Chuka about 20 minutes later, mentioned Shapps’s point and, whadya know, Chuka didn’t answer the point and went off on a riff about Conservative Party funding and related problems for Shapps. Did Humphrys press Chuka to answer the question? Is the Pope a Hindu?
    Here was a simple assertion by Shapps ie that the union bosses have more discretion concerning the totality of political funds flowing through the unions than they do now: true or false? I won’t say it’s completely a “yes or no” matter; it’s rather more nuanced than that but, even so, the outcome of the “reforms” is, in this aspect, more or less predictable. In fact the “reforms” have an even more corrupting effect (on top of the finance angle) since the unions will increase their share of the vote for party leader from 1/3 to just under 1/2. But Humphrys chuckled and either agreed – or made the point (I don’t exactly recall, such was the bonhomie of this discussion) – that Shapps “would say that wouldn’t he” and the chat went elsewhere.
    This exchange was as good an example as any of the BBC’s – and Humphrys’ – crap journalism. It might not necessarily have been fuelled by bias but, if it wasn’t, it had the same effects: it avoided any embarrassment to Labour and it left the listener with the impression that Shapps’s observations were inaccurate and merely mischievous.

       27 likes

    • George R says:

      “Eight in ten Labour target seats will be fought by union candidates, Tory analysis shows.
      “78% of candidates in Labour’s 106 target seats have union links.
      “Nearly half are directly connected to Unite, Tory analysis found.
      “Will undermine Milibands’ attempts to reform party links with unions.”
      By JAMES CHAPMAN.

      Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2570673/8-10-Labour-target-seats-fought-union-candidates.html#ixzz2uhnuE9Ch

         14 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      And why were Labour forced into these ‘reforms’ in the first place? Answer: the Falkirk scandal.

      Was the oleagenous Umunna, heir to slimeball Mandelson, challenged by Humphrys about Falkirk? Answer: no.

      Do we know why? Answer: yes – the BBC have protected Labour on Falkirk since the day the story broke.

      But of course if you relied on the BBC for your news – as many people must do – you wouldn’t know about Falkirk anyway, so you wouldn’t detect the BBC’s screaming pro-Labour bias in this morning’s little item.

      Ah well, if Labour don’t win the next election with a landslide at least the BBC will have failed.

         25 likes

  31. Jeff Waters says:

    The BBC news website tells us that:

    ‘Labour leader Ed Miliband’s plans to change the party’s historic links with the trade unions are to be put to members ‘ From http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26381922

    ‘Historic’ has romantic connotations, e.g. ‘an historic castle’. A neutral term like ‘long-standing’ would have been better.

    The article also pulls on the old heart strings by telling us that:

    John Smith’s widow, Baroness Elizabeth Smith, writing in the Guardian, said her husband would have backed Mr Miliband’s plan for one member, one vote.

    Jeff

       17 likes

  32. noggin says:

    Yet another No 10 traitor to Britain .. on BBCs propaganda wing last night … Any Questions
    “slimy”, Simon Hughes, asked a overtly PC question about benefits of immigration, nothing to be afraid of etc.
    didn t catch him using any of this speech … ow queer!.

    A cabinet full of grasping, and grossly incompetent liars
    and Britain s main media the same … not good, not good at all

       27 likes

    • noggin says:

         15 likes

      • EmersonV says:

        Very dangerous more of the left/ bbc alliance that is selling the people of this country down the river.

           21 likes

        • Geoff says:

          Yes, yet the bBC portray this odious character and his like as paragons of virtue and Farage and the Daily Mail to he hated, despised and ridiculed.

          It makes me laugh whenever the Daily Mail is mentioned in a negative way on Question Time is will be followed by rapturous applause, this gives us a good indication of the make up of the audience, as the Mail outsells the Guardian something like 9 to 1. It appears the audience is made up of the reverse proportion….

             44 likes

          • chrisH says:

            Farage and UKIP were stitched up like “Kippers” on both Channel 4 and the BBC.
            The running narrative of the UKIP event in Torquay from News 24 and the BBcwas equally nasty.
            Will any of us tell UKIP that Channel 4(Crick) and BBC liberal ponies like Newsnight will NOT cover them fairly, and basic “news management” is needed.
            Was amazed how gauche they were at UKIP…do any of them come to this site, where they might learn something.

               23 likes

      • $£%&* says:

        Some tell him they don’t like pufters.

           9 likes

      • DICK R says:

        UKIP should use this video as a party political broad cast , they would probably need no more !

           7 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Bob Mellish?…Harriet Harman? Tessa Jowell, Margaret Hodge, Peter Tatchell…and Simon Hughes?
      Something was very fishy down South East London way in the early 80s was it not?
      Worth an investigation…a Damilola Taylor Commission maybe?

         21 likes

  33. Pounce says:

    So the poster boy for the bBC,Amnesty International, The Guardian and the other left wing orgs regards the West’s war on Terror , (which they see as nothing more than an attack ) on..Islam. Has been remanded in Jail on charges on being a….Terrorist.

    Just like the case with Harman and PIE. Will the shit now hit the fan over how all of the above have not only defended Begg but have gone out of their way in which to make him the victim.

    Here’s a few things the bBC kindly leaves out of their articles about the Islamic Terrorist:
    1) He was arrested in 1994 and 2000 and found to be in the possession of night goggles, bullet proof vest and extremist Islamic literature. He claimed he was just collecting them for a hobby and the courts believed him
    2) While the bBC say he moved to Afganstan in which to search for a new life and then I quote:
    “He is a British citizen who moved to Afghanistan with his family in 2001, before moving again to Pakistan in 2002 when the Afghanistan War started.”
    What the bBC don’t tell you, is moved their after his latest arrest (in 2000) and when the Yanks went in, he on his own retreated with his AL Q mates to Tora Bora, while his family had to make their own way to…Pakistan.
    3) In 2010 the British Government paid out Millions to everybody who went to Guantanamo becasue their lawyers (Including the bBC,AI and the rest) said they would drag out course cases against the British Government thus costing the tax payer even more.
    4) In 2010 the head of Amnesty International’s gender unit Gita Sahgal was forced to leave under pressure (after first been suspended) after she questioned their motive in paying Mozam Begg as an ambassador for human rights.
    5) The bBC has paid Mozam Begg numerous times in which to appear on their shows as a foil against……British Anti-terrorism laws.

    In light of all of the above will somebody now ensure that all the supporters of Mozam Begg will now be exposed for the traitors they are and sacked from any Government paid (funded) work. Also can MB be stripped of the £1 million he was given because the left demanded we pay him for his wrongful incarceration which it has now been proved (But which we all knew at the time) to be a sham
    The bBC the traitors within our midst.

       31 likes

  34. Pounce says:

    When was the last time you saw the bBC publish a story about a revamped church/School/Hospital opening?
    Revamped Gillingham mosque opens its doors

       12 likes

  35. Geoff says:

    I could be wrong, there may well be more than one Mosque in Gillingham (don’t really care) but isn’t the fanfare because Gillingham Mosque was attacked post Woolwich, and its reopening a sort of statement? The story does say that one has stood on this site for 30 years (not this one).

    http://www.kentonline.co.uk/medway_messenger/news/Reports-of-mosque-attack-1063/

       8 likes

  36. EmersonV says:

    Bbc showing their support for their beloved Taliban.

    Viewpoint: Taliban gaining upper hand in Afghanistan and Pakistan
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-26064230

       10 likes

  37. pah says:

    Friday club is that you? ;p

       5 likes

  38. Andy S. says:

    I’ve got the golden ticket. I’ve got the golden ticket.

    hat tip, Eric Cartmen.

       0 likes

    • Andy S. says:

      Some trolling twat is using my name to post nonesensical comments. Other regulars beware!

         6 likes

  39. chrisH says:

    As in Lenin in the mausoleum you mean?

       14 likes

  40. Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

    Still trying to work out what has changed in my life.

    I sit at the telebox, actually glowing with pride at the images of Russian soldiers controlling strategic points in the Crimea.
    The thought of the bbc’s favoured rebellious class ( ya know the type: it’s kicking off everywhere) having to take on some real opposition has really made my day.
    I never thought the day would come when I’d be wishing WE had a Putin, in place of tne spineless gutless bastards that infest our 3 main parties and the lefty islam loving scum of the bbc.
    Here then sits an agnostic, actually thinking, ya know, msybe there is a god after all?

       29 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      And also wishing he could spell proper.

         7 likes

    • Flawedlogic says:

      A pity that a valid issue with BBC bias has allowed you to find the actions of the Russians acceptable.

      Perhaps you should first consider the wishes of the majority of Ukrainians who detest the Russians and would rather they left the Ukrainians deal with their own internal problems rather than start a civil war.

      Another observation you might wish to think over is the majority of Ukrainians just like many other Eastern European countries detest the Russians for their barbaric reign of terror that lasted 40+ long years. And of course for the Ukrainians the pain lasted a lot longer beginning in the twenties with the genocide that killed millions of Ukrainians.

      It is my belief that in this instance you and the 17 people who have recommended your post are morally wrong, and if you want further proof of this take a look at some of the English language versions of Polish, Ukrainian, Czech etc newspapers / websites where you will find an overwhelmingly opinion which supports the Ukrainians and opposes the disgraceful behaviour of the Russians.

         2 likes

    • Andy S. says:

      Our current political class are totally ignorant about history and, as the old saying goes, are condemned to re-live it.

      The Russian political class have always wanted to influence adjacent countries to act as buffer states to prevent any perceived enemies from attacking the “Mother Country”. This policy goes back centuries. Obviously being invaded by Hitler’s Wermacht in 1941 increased Russia’s paranoia and embedded itself in the country’s psyche. The E.U.’s expansion eastwards and its gobbling up of the old Warsaw Pact countries clearly exacerbated the feeling that the West creeping up to Russia’s borders. The EU’s tacit support of the ousting of the Ukraine’s elected government in order to absorb it into the “union” was always going to provoke the action we are now seeing by Putin and his military. Vlad is just protecting Russia’s borders from Western expansion.

      Think how the US would have reacted during the days of the Cold War if Mexico or Puerto Rico had gone Communist and wanted help from Russia.

      We should keep out of this EU created mess, but with political pygmies like Cameron and Hague, along with those anti-democrats of Brussels who like to big themselves up on the world stage, things could well become a lot messier.

         9 likes

  41. Jeff Waters says:

    Farage brands Hamilton ‘backroom boy’ at UKIP conference – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26394979

    If what Neil Hamilton’s alleged transgressions 25 years ago are a big deal for the BBC, I hope they ask Ed Milliband plenty of searching questions about the Harpersons and Patricia Hewitt at the next Labour conference…

    Jeff

       20 likes

  42. George R says:

    Are Beeboid metro media types aware, or interested in reporting this consequence of mass immigration?:-

    “Counter-terror clampdown as 25% of organised criminals in London are foreign”

    http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/counterterror-clampdown-as-25-of-organised-criminals-in-london-are-foreign-9160893.html

       16 likes

  43. S## the Lot Of Them says:

    Newsnight last night ended the piece about UKIP with the most grotesque library photo they could find of Farage .

       16 likes

  44. EmersonV says:

    Unbelievable, attack UKIP, what about all the skeletons in the Labour Party, maybe they should have had a form for a certain deputy leader.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26385178

       19 likes

  45. George R says:

    Censored by BBC-NUJ, for political reasons –

    “EU policy: WWF on the gravy train.”

    http://eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=84752

       13 likes

  46. johnnythefish says:

    BBC news this morning: ‘The first time Moazzem Begg has been charged with terrorist offences’.

    Up until which point, obviously, he was a perfectly splendid chap who was well-qualified to speak out about Western oppression of Muslims, as his many BBC appearances testify.

    So as it is the first time he has been charged, what do we conclude? Probably innocent, eh?

       13 likes

    • noggin says:

      now come on,
      he a well known apologist for terrorists?,
      arrogant diehard Taliban supporter?,
      now with terrorism charges re Syria?
      got Gita Sahgal out of Liberty
      traitor to this country?
      what s not to like?.

         8 likes

  47. Betty Swollocks says:

    The picture of Millipede on the BBC News website…He looks crazy, a cross between Bugs Bunny and Wallace,this man has as much gravitas as a baked bean.

       15 likes

  48. deegee says:

    The dreaded scare quotes return. Israelis shoot dead ‘mentally ill’ woman near Gaza barrier So much to object to here.
    Israelis because that is what Israelis do. Other nationalities knit sweaters or play football. Israelis shoot people. Just how offensive this is can be seen by using the same in another context. If four robbers from Glasgow rob a bank would the BBC write Scots rob bank? British rob bank? It conflates the actions of a few (possibly one IDF soldier) with a nation, something

    dead why would anyone shoot a dead woman? This is just sloppy. Surely the verb shoot is sufficient? Does the BBC assume merely wounding might be understood? How often does the BBC report a wounding?

    ‘mentally ill’ perhaps she wasn’t, I suppose. The BBC almost certainly didn’t check. The implication is that the Jews are gunning down the weak and innocent. One should ask how a soldier is expected to make a diagnosis of mental illness from presumably more than 50 metres away, even in the extremely unlikely case the soldier was competent to make a psychological diagnosis?

    Just what she was doing there isn’t explained. The story claims (in BBC speak ‘The Israeli military said’) she was part of a group that ignored orders to leave the area so her mental state was presumably irrelevant to her being shot. But being part of a group would suggest her being there was not just the case of her wandering off.

    near or on the border at the fence? Khan Younis is roughly six kilometres from the barrier fence at its closest point. Near Khan Younis is clearly a very subjective description.

    In sadly typical BBC fashion the story ends with a paragraph that is irrelevant to the headline On Friday the Israeli military said one of its aircraft had struck a site in Gaza used to launch rockets into Israel. No casualties were reported. although it could explain why Israel doesn’t allow anyone from Gaza to approach too closely.

    I wonder if there is anywhere else, outside perhaps the UK, where the death of a single previously unknown person warrants a BBC article? The death of ‘only’ one person is a good day in Syria.

       12 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      It of course goes without saying that any death through violent means is regrettable, but the fog of the moment can often in time with context and investigation shine a spotlight on immediate ‘reporting’ stances adopted.
      I hark back to when a mentally ill woman (established by more than the say-so of locals) sadly tested the defensive perimeter to the Obama White house with tragic results. This seemed to be ‘handled’ by many media quite sensitively and quickly avoiding much connection with, for reasons one can only guess at, the person in charge to the composition of his guards.
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24392014

      Police chase in Washington ends in shooting and crash

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24393775

      US police launch inquiry after deadly car chase
      Factually circumspect to the point of restraint one could feel.
      Maybe it was a different time?

         7 likes

    • Teddy Bear says:

      Excellently expressed Deegee
      A more humorous way of putting it:
      A guy in London saw a pit bull attacking a toddler.
      He killed the pit bull and saved the child’s life.
      A BBC reporters approached the fellow.
      “Tell us! What’s your name? All London will love you! Tomorrow’s headline will be: “London Hero Saves Girl from Vicious Dog!”
      The guy says, “But I’m not from London.
      “Reporter: “That’s OK. Then the whole of Britain will love you and tomorrow’s headline will read: ‘British Hero Saves Girl from Vicious Dog!'”
      The guy says, “I’m not from Britain, either.”
      Reporter: “That’s OK also. All Europe will love you. Tomorrow’s headlines will shout: ‘European Hero Saves Girl from Vicious Dog!'”
      The guy says, “I’m not from Europe, either.
      “Reporter: “So, where ARE you from?
      The guy says, “I’m from Israel.
      “Reporter: “OK. Then tomorrow’s headlines will proclaim to the world:
      ‘Israeli Kills Girl’s Dog!'”

         11 likes

  49. deegee says:

    It conflates the actions of a few (possibly one IDF soldier) with a nation, something should continue something universally considered offensive.

       2 likes