Have to laugh at the way in which the BBC instantly turns on one of its more usual favourites, the pro EU CBI, the nano-second it take a view they oppose. In Scotland, the CBI has chosen to oppose Scotland leaving the UK and this has caused those quangos who belong to the Scottish Government and who are also members of the CBI, to resign from the BBC. Listen to the hard time the CBI D-G is given by Evan Davies at at 1.14mins into the programme today.

Wonder what you reckon to the interview that took place just after 7.34am on Today programme this morning? It relates into the investigation into those schools in Birmingham and the rampant Islamification that took place within them. The BBC, being fair and impartial, sought the views of Labour MP Khalid Mahmoud. And only Khalid Mahmoud. Guess what – Khalid thinks the investigation is confused. I wonder why Khalid never thought to raise the issue during those years it was happening – he was oblivious of it all this time but now he is suddenly an expert. Listen to John Humphyrs seek to excuse the proselytising of Wahhabism and do all he can to mock the notion of any plot.

God forbid a British Prime Minister should assert that this country has a clear CHRISTIAN heritage. The BBC were always going to jump all over this as Alan has already referenced. I caught Peter Tatchell being given free rein to attack Cameron and more importantly attack the idea that Britain is still at least nominally ‘Christian’. Isn’t this the same Peter Tatchell who is on record for urging that the age of consent be lowered to 14? Yes, I can see why the Comrades at the BBC turned to this fine upstanding person to diss over the Christians, esp at Easter. Of course, when ISLAM gets a hold, Tatchell, Dame Tuscany and the other secular zealots that write to the DT may find their options rather more limited. Christianity is an easy target and the BBC never miss a chance to rubbish it. I’m not saying any religion is above media critique but when I look at Islam, and how the BBC treat if with SUCH simpering reverence, it surely shows a massive double standard.

Here we go, a brand new week of BBC bias to nail! Off you go, what’s been annoying you!!!!

Islam has long been appeased, and now for different reasons, the Christians are having their turn as Cameron tries to smooth things over with the troublesome Bishops.

Cameron has decided to ‘Do God’….and Miliband, not a Christian, nor religious, also recently jumped on the band wagon with a trip to Israel and a sudden discovery that he is Jewish….making sure he got in the headlines at Easter when otherwise he had nothing to say.

But it is Cameron’s statement that Britain is a ‘Christian country’ that has stirred things up…so much so that 55 of our greatest and brightest have written to the Telegraph to tell him to shut up about religion in politics….

David Cameron fosters division by calling Britain a ‘Christian country’

All the more interesting because the lead signatory is the BBC’s Jim Al-Khalili who sounds Islamic but ‘doesn’t have a religious bone in his body’……..and good to see Prof. Steve Jones in there…considering he is a ‘believer’ in the new religion of climate change perhaps a bit of a cheek….though no surprise that he should seek to silence anybody he disagrees with.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili, President of the BHA
Phillip Pullman, author
Dan Snow, historian and broadcaster
Tim Minchin, musician and writer
Dr Simon Singh, science writer
Ken Follett, novelist
Dr Adam Rutherford, broadcaster and science writer
Sir John Sulston FRS, Nobel Prize-winning scientist
Sir David Smith FRS FRSE, eminent botanist
Professor Jonathan Glover, philosopher
Professor Anthony Grayling, philosopher
Nick Ross, broadcaster
CJ De Mooi, actor and professional quizzer
Virginia Ironside, writer
Professor Steven Rose, scientist and writer
Natalie Haynes, comedian and writer
Peter Tatchell, human rights campaigner
Professor Raymond Tallis FMedSci, physician, philosopher and author
Dr Iolo ap Gwynn FRMS, scientist and mountaineer
Stephen Volk, screenwriter and author
Professor Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics, science writer and broadcaster
Sir Terry Pratchett OBE, fantasy fiction author, satirist
Dr Evan Harris, former Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament and Vice President of the BHA
Dr Richard Bartle, Professor of Computer Game Design
Sian Berry, Green campaigner, politician and author
Professor John A Lee, consultant histopathologist and Professor of Pathology
Professor Richard Norman, philosopher
Zoe Margolis, author
Joan Smith, journalist and author
Michael Gore, CVO CBE
Derek McAuley, General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
Lorraine Barratt, former member of the Welsh Assembly
Dr Susan Blackmore, writer and broadcaster
Dr Harry Stopes-Roe, Vice President of the BHA
Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC (Hon), human rights lawyer
Adele Anderson, actor and singer
Dr Helena Cronin, co-director, Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science
Professor Alice Roberts, Professor of Public Engagement in Science, anatomist, author and broadcaster
Professor Chris French, Professor of Psychology, editor of The Skeptic
Sir Tom Blundell, scientist
Maureen Duffy, poet, playwright and novelist
Baroness Whitaker, Labour peer
Lord Avebury, Liberal Democrat peer
Richard Herring, writer and comedian
Martin Rowson, writer and cartoonist
Tony Hawks, comedian, writer, musician and philanthropist
Peter Cave, philosopher and author
Diane Munday, campaigner
Professor Norman MacLean, Emeritus Professor of Genetics, biologist
Sir Harold Kroto FRS, Nobel Prize winner, Professor of Chemistry
Sir Richard Dalton, former diplomat
Sir David Blatherwick, KCMG, OBE, diplomat and writer
Michael Rubenstein, writer and legal expert
Polly Toynbee, columnist and broadcaster
Lord O’Neill, Labour peer
Warren Lakin, entertainment producer and writer

I just caught the end of a Today programme interview (08:32) on this, quick off the mark when they want to be as the letter was only published last night. Jack Straw and a member from the MCB were the talking heads.

Straw told us that of course it was only a small minority (ala the BBC’s Phil Mackie) who held strong beliefs about Islam and wanted to practice them [!?]….he claimed that those who said non-Muslims were ‘infidels’ or didn’t think women were the equal of men were extremists and unacceptable…the MCB guy agreed wholeheartedly.

Problem…such beliefs are at the heart of Islam, and indeed many religions.  To have the MCB representative nod along and be allowed to get away with that was ridiculouos…the MCB is at the centre of the ‘Trojan Horse’ plot…..they may not have written that letter but the values expressed in it are the values that the MCB wants to impose upon schools and society.

As shown before the MCB introduced its ‘guidance’ to schools in 2007:

Meeting the needs of Muslim pupils in state schools
Towards Greater Understanding

Essentially pleading that Muslims will only be able to integrate if they don’t actually have to integrate and are allowed to live by their own laws and practices.

It was readily taken up by local authorities….in other words the Islamic principles criticised by Straw and now creating such a furore in Birmingham were openly recommended by the MCB and taken up by the Establishment and recommended as ‘best practice’.

A weak establishment is letting Islamists threaten British freedoms

All Islamist schools of thought are hostile to democracy

It is odd that the BBC brings in the MCB, well known as ‘extremist’ in its views, as representative of the community…….which we heard was so ‘diverse’.

A contradiction there…..if extremists (those who actually follow their religion apparently)  are only a ‘small minority’ how is it that the ‘extremist’ MCB represents the whole Muslim community on the BBC?

Surely the ‘extremist’ MCB only represents ‘a small minority’ then... with er… ‘strongly held religious beliefs‘ and not any other Muslim.

As for the Humanist letter writers…Humanism is just an ideology the same as any religion….democracy, freedom of thought, expression and speech, tolerance and human rights……they want to impose those upon all……and yet deny others the right to differ.

In other words it’s OK to impose that for the common good but not Christianity…..depending on what you think the common good is…and they have decided their version of life is the best and should be triumphant.

In other words their claim that ‘We are a plural society with citizens with a range of perspectives, and we are a largely non-religious society.‘ is bunk….they pay lip service to that then impose their ‘one law for all’.

One law for all is their message regardless what others think…does that ‘ foster alienation and division in our society.‘?  Muslims constantly claim it does….insisting they can only ‘integrate’, ironically, by not integrating and living by their own rules.

Bit of a muddle from all……the letter writers are in fact expressing the BBC world view….and being equally confused….don’t impose one ideology in order to not alienate the ‘other’ but do impose the ‘others’ religion upon everyone else turning them into ‘virtual Muslims’ by default.

The letter says: ‘Although it is right to recognise the contribution made by many Christians to social action, it is wrong to try to exceptionalise their contribution when it is equalled by British people of different beliefs.’

So your own culture and values are worth no more than any other and therefore anyone coming into the country can live by their own rules?

That is the line taken by Islamists like Tariq Ramadan, a BBC favourite:

“But we have to also ask our fellow citizens [to remove the ghettos] by recognising European society has changed. We have to get rid of this idea that there is this homogenous European culture that Islam threatens.”

In other words there’s no such thing as ‘Western Society and culture’ that needs ‘defending’….

‘Ramadan does not see Muslim identity and European identity as mutually exclusive. He claims that today Muslims are already Europeans and calls indigenous people “just older immigrants,” ‘

This from the man who utters prayers such as this:
“Allah we ask you because you are Allah, strengthen the faith of our brothers and sisters in Palestine, Allah strengthen their faith in Palestine and make them triumphant over the enemy, Your enemy, the enemy of the religion (Islam) with your mercy, oh, Generous one. Allah strengthen their faith in Palestine, in Chechnya, Afghanistan, in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, in Egypt, Sudan, Kashmir and in every land and on every battlefield. Allah, strike our enemies, Your enemies, the enemies of the religion (Islam). “

This is from the MCB …’In 2008, Mr Alam publicly argued “against advocating that desegregation [in schools] should be actively pursued” and stressed the “obligatory nature” of the hijab for Muslim women and girls.…written by Tahir Alam…one of the people  at the centre of the Trojan Horse allegations…..note his statements about the obligatory nature of Islamic practices….

Tahir Alam    Muslim Council of Britain   
Recommendation VI Para 1.
On desegregation strategies:  I would caution against advocating that desegregation should be  “actively pursued”. This in the main may not be possible nor desirable by minority communities or by indigenous majorities communities. Segregation in schools in the main results from segregational residential housing rather schooling choices. Such advocacy would therefore be not relevant in too many cases where it is impossible to relocate and or compel tens of thousands of people to move or be bussed to different schools!!!!

 
Recommendation VI  para 4.

Rephrase this as follows:

“In relation to the right to manifest religion in schools or educational institutions; Special instruments……between religious minorities and educational institutions that serve them with the view to better understanding  and accommodating their religious needs within schools.”

(The word “secular” should not be used as a category as this is inaccurate and incorrect for education systems in many country)

The word religious “preferences”  seems to diminish the obligatory nature of many religious practices such as wearing of head headscarfs, praying the five daily prayers or Modesty -values of covering ones body (dress code), fasting during Ramadan etc.

“Religious symbols”   Again wearing headscarf for example is not a symbolic act but a matter of  modesty, dignity, religious obligation and duty to God. Reducing it to “religious symbol” is to negate the obligatory nature of its importance to those that decide to wear it.

Chickens coming home to roost…thanks to George R:

The Frightened Arts

In the new edition of Standpoint, out this week, NCF director Peter Whittle writes that far from being cutting-edge, the British cultural establishment ignores the biggest threat to artistic freedom: radical Islam

It is indeed the increasing presence of Islam, and a fear of Islamism, which more than anything else has exposed the claims of the arts apologists to be seriously at the forefront of anything.

Over the past decade people in the arts have caved in and censored themselves at the prospect of Islamist reaction, sometimes out of fear of violence, other times a politically correct desire not to give offence, or because in some skewed way they feel their job is to stand up for those their dogma tells them are “victims”.

Grayson Perry should perhaps get the last word. In 2007 he declared in a statement which some admired for its honesty but others might have seen as depressing evidence of how meek our arts had become, that when it came to his own work, he had “not gone all out attacking Islamism because I feel the real fear that someone will slit my throat”.

All that time spent praising the Islamic ‘Golden Age’ and the ‘Religion of Peace’ and this is how they repay you….living in fear that uttering a wrong word will get your throat slit.

The long pause in global warming is known to be caused by…..what?  No one knows.

The recent floods….caused by a global warming that hasn’t happened for over 16 years?  No  one knows.

Extreme weather is increasing…due to global warming?  Actually it’s not increasing.

CO2 is driving global warming?  There’s absolutely no proof of that…the ‘proof’ in fact says any warming causes the release of CO2 rather than the other way round.

Global warming is man-made?  There’s no proof of that….no direct link at all.

Global warming is catastrophic?  Not so far…quite the opposite.

Islands sinking under rising seas?  Kiribati?  Maldives?  No.

Arctic ice loss will be disastrous?  Greenland is called Greenland because it wasn’t always covered in ice…and that wasn’t  so long ago.

The Medieval Warm Period was just as warm as today’s temperatures……did the world end?  No.

The Roman warm period ditto.

In 100 years time we know exactly what the climate will be?  Do me a favour.

So the ‘science’ is settled.

No, it is.  How do I know?  The BBC says conclusively that the debate is over...via Bishop Hill:

The BBC’s Feedback programme decided that environmentalist dismay at Lord Lawson’s appearance on the Today programme needed a bit of an airing. Alex Cull has prepared a transcript here.

Jamie Angus: The BBC’s reviewed its coverage of climate change and climate science, and it’s set out some admirably clear guidelines for us to follow. We are able to put on air people who take a differing view from the majority view of climate science. However, that coverage should be proportional, and I think that any reasonable listener who listened to Today’s coverage of climate change, across the past three months, would probably find that Lord Lawson was the only climate sceptic, if you like, who’d appeared in that period. And I think, you know, when Justin and I and the programme team discussed that interview, we thought we’d allowed it to drift too much into a straight yes-no argument about the science. And of course the settled view of the expert scientists is just that – settled, and I believe that our coverage reflects that, over the long term.

So the BBC has only had one climate sceptic on in 3 months?  The BBC has clearly decided that journalism is no longer required of it and will solely be providing hype, propaganda and free publicity for the climate lobbyists regardless of the science, or lack of.

Rather at odds with this:

The BBC’s great confidence trick

The Australian Attorney General George Brandis, a confirmed upholder of the climate change consensus, has lashed out at the large numbers of his fellow-travellers who seek to silence dissenters.

He said one of the main motivators for his passionate defence of free speech has been the “deplorable” way climate change has been debated and he was “really shocked by the sheer authoritarianism of those who would have excluded from the debate the point of view of people who were climate-change deniers”.

“One side [has] the orthodoxy on its side and delegitimises the views of those who disagree, rather than engaging with them intellectually and showing them why they are wrong,” he said.

He referred to [Opposition leader Penny Wong] as standing up in the Senate and saying the science is settled as an example of climate change believers trying to shut down the debate.

“In other words, ‘I am not even going to engage in a debate with you.’ It was ignorant, it was medieval, the approach of these true believers in climate change,” he said.

Happily we were spared the righteous sermons from the ‘Whispering Worthy’, Reverend Richard Coles,  this Saturday on ‘Saturday Live’.…in the hot seat instead were Anita Anand and Andrea Catherwood…..however not so different really in approach and values….plug and play, pop up priggishness and prurient prejudice.

That is a bit of a problem for the BBC, and an audience force fed a diet of sanitised, sermonising,  earnest and pious do-gooders educated at Oxbridge who get their news and views from the Guardian and Independent.

Time for some new blood?

Lenny Henry & Co are getting hot under the collar because there just aren’t enough Black faces on TV.

The BBC loves the art world, the intelligentsia, the chatterati.  It loves especially garnering their views on the world, politics and everything and laps it all up with relish only to regurgitate their ruminations in the form of a ‘settled science’ for us lesser mortals to learn from,  just as they do with climate science…these guys are so intellgent, thoughtful, incisive, humane and caring that they just couldn’t be wrong…and anyway it all sounds as if it should be true.

Radio 4’s Zeitgeisters takes a look at:

Theaster Gates

BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz meets the cultural entrepreneurs whose aesthetic sense infects and influences our daily lives… who know what we want, even when we do not… the men and women whose impact goes beyond mere commerce, it shapes contemporary culture.

Will Gompertz travels to Chicago to meet the the artist who is using collectors’ desire for his artworks (they sell for anything upwards of several hundred thousand dollars each) to transform the rundown Southside where he now lives.

Now Theaster Gates is in fact no ‘pretender’, he literally puts the riches he earns where his mouth is…..unlike so many in the art/media world who take the millions and run.

Gates  sells his art for large sums of money and use that to renovate run down property in poor communities.

But what is interesting is what Gompertz says during the programme about artists and their ilk….made all the more apposite because of what another BBC employee, Michael Rosen, ranted about recently, castigating the new culture secretary for daring to have made a living from banking:

You’re an ex-banker who made millions during the fatal bubble of the early 21st century; you were at a bank that has been fined for rate-fixing. You know all about this kind of money. The fact that people like you got up to all sorts of greedy lending and fiddling is why we’re in the crisis.

…..you are someone who benefited from the false boom, the very same boom that caused the crash, and to continue the chain, which is what has given your party the excuse to slash public services and cut waged and unwaged people’s standard of living, and further enrich the mega-rich.

Gompertz, nail on the head, said that ‘Art is a hustle’.

Artists can flog their creations for millions…quite happy to take the dirty money off those self same gullible bankers that Rosen railed against.

We have ‘Blood Diamonds’ perhaps Rosen would like to pen a poem about ‘Blood Art’….art funded by money made by the ‘ greedy lending and fiddling‘ that ruined so many lives according to …Rosen.

Gompertz also said that ‘Artists are enormously privileged and are able to say things that others can’t.’

How true.

Part of that is of course because they have the other side of the Arts’ world, the Media, giving them easy access to a vast platform to spout their stuff which the man in the street doesn’t have….the artists bringing us their unique ‘aesthetic sense which infects and influences our daily lives.’ that us plebs just can’t possibly create for ourselves.

When the Coalition held back on regulating cigarette packaging the BBC launched a broadside against the Tories with relentless suggestions that the Tory advisor, Lynton Crosby, was behind the reluctance to bring in plain packaging because he had links to tobacco firms.

How different, and lacking, is the BBC’s rigour and investigative ardour when Miliband’s new advisor is known to have had links to energy companies creating adverts that made spurious justifications for price rises…something the BBC has been rather energetic in investigating here in the UK…but not now.

The BBC has maintained radio silence about Axelrod’s ‘previous’…..all the more intriguing because it is in direct oppostion to his new master’s policy of price freezes.

From the Telegraph:

New Ed Miliband adviser David Axelrod helped campaign for energy price hikes