193 Responses to MIDWEEK OPEN THREAD…

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  1. #88 says:
    May 15, 2014 at 5:50 pm

    Back to the Mo Ansar business and in particular to the Speccie feature on someone who has turned out to be a fantasist. (linked re-posted below).

    It occurs to me that in days gone by, when journalistic standards were higher (and there was an absence of activists infiltrating organisations, trying to influence opinion), anyone putting a fake contributor in front of the viewer or listener would have been out on their ear in the blink of an eye.

    Reading some of the testimony in the Speccie, it certainly looks like Ansar is a fraud.

    Having given this man a platform on numerous occasions, the BBC have some explaining to do. There should be an investigation and heads should roll.

       9 likes

  2. Geoff says:
    May 15, 2014 at 8:15 pm

    Any one else finding it hard to access the site? Looks like Sky is blocking it.

       3 likes

  3. thoughtful says:
    May 15, 2014 at 8:38 pm

    Interesting piece on the state of play of the parties prior to the general election by James Landale.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27421754

    Not biased so far as I can tell, shows what can be done when they try!

    An interesting comment about the Newark by election potentially blowing up in the Tories faces if UKIP carry their Euro election success forward, and the way the Tories might use the by election to maintain party unity following a shocking defeat in the Euro’s.

       2 likes

  4. Jeff Waters says:
    May 15, 2014 at 8:45 pm

    Eurosceptics are ‘deeply unpatriotic’, says Nick Clegg – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27422707

    A Lib Dem party political broadcast brought to you by the BBC.

    Jeff

       8 likes

    • thoughtful says:
      May 15, 2014 at 9:21 pm

      You should have a listen, Clegg made a right ass of himself, and Humphries just kept feeding him questions which he kept reinforcing the impression he was a man with more than a few mental health issues.

      Humphries savaged him, it was a party political broadcast against the Lib Dems if anything !

         5 likes

  5. tom atkins says:
    May 15, 2014 at 11:16 pm

    so Question Time, from Coventry, has no UKIP speaker (2.5 million votes 16.9%, 2nd overall in 2009)
    it does have a Scotish Nationalist (321,000 votes, 2.1% 7th overall in 2009)

    seems fair??

       10 likes

    • Merched Becca says:
      May 15, 2014 at 11:49 pm

      “So Question Time, from Coventry, has no UKIP speaker”?
      Its because the very Amateur Broadcasting Corporation have learnt from their past mistakes and are trying another angle – no publicity is bad publicity.

         13 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      May 16, 2014 at 9:05 am

      They really have created a rod for their own agenda-manipulating backs.
      Ladling in UKIP spokespeople to be pilloried backfired, so now they are trying to blank them?
      And if the panel and audience can’t resist a dig, having removed those denied right of reply, the backlash will be massive.
      It amazes me how inept the politico-media establishment is proving to be in its efforts to rig free speech and democratic process. And how the public is reacting to such blatant manipulation.
      Almost reassuring.

         3 likes

  6. All Seeing Eye says:
    May 15, 2014 at 11:31 pm

    “oldbob” – you left a comment via the Technical Contact page.

    Unfortunately a typo in your return email address means that my response is bouncing.

    If you see this could you please use the form again to send me a working reply-to email addy, ta.

       1 likes

  7. Reed says:
    May 16, 2014 at 2:56 am

    Harry and Paul – the only UK comedy partnership worth watching.

    BBC in fresh race row as Harry Enfield blacks up and pokes fun at girl in a burka in his latest comedy sketch show

    -Comedian mocks young Muslim girl in a burka in latest BBC show
    -Enfield also covers his face in dark make-up in another controversial sketch
    -Artist and comedy partner Paul Whitehouse accused of being ‘crass’
    -Risque show Harry & Paul: The Story Of The Twos will be shown later this month as part of BBC’s 50th anniversary

    I’ll be tuning in, anyway. 🙂

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2629870/BBC-fresh-race-row-Harry-Enfield-blacks-pokes-fun-girl-burka-latest-comedy-sketch-show.html

       6 likes

    • noggin says:
      May 16, 2014 at 12:15 pm

      In the past they have poked fun at all sorts.
      why not at the most absurd, deliberately divisive
      desert attire being donned here … perfect choice
      I ll enjoy laughing at those queuing up to be “offended”
      with po faces … just as much.
      more please … much more

         3 likes

  8. Ian Rushlow says:
    May 16, 2014 at 6:43 am

    A new alarmist report by the Global Sustainability Institute being plugged by the BBC makes the extraordinary claim that the “UK’s oil, coal and gas ‘gone in five years'” (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27435624). And, of course, it goes without saying that “there should be a ‘Europe-wide drive’ towards wind, tidal, solar and other sources of renewable power” so solve the problem. But the claims – which go unchallenged – seem to be fantasy of the highest order. For instance, most sources estimate that there there are a good 30 years of oil left in the British part of the North Sea. Here’s an article from the BBC this February making such a claim – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-26326117. Why such a disparity in 3 months? Because the first article is a plug for Scottish independence and the new article is a plug for Europe and a dig at the coalition. For those worried that it is all going to come to an end in 5 years time – don’t worry. There may be enough coal to last us for several centuries (see http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/drilling-date-set-north-seas-6896191), ditto for gas (see http://www.thegwpf.org/britain-holds-biggest-shale-basin-world/). Britain’s energy problems and interdependence on other countries are, like so many problems, largely manufactured.

       8 likes

  9. Peter Grimes says:
    May 16, 2014 at 7:11 am

    Well would you believe it!!

    From the Times-

    “Research which heaped doubt on the rate of global warming was deliberately suppressed by scientists because it was “less than helpful” to their cause, it was claimed last night.
    In an echo of the infamous “Climategate” scandal at the University of East Anglia, one of the world’s top academic journals rejected the work of five experts after a reviewer privately denounced it as “harmful”.
    Lennart Bengtsson, a research fellow at the University of Reading and one of the authors of the study, said he suspected that intolerance of dis- senting views on climate science was preventing his paper from being published. “The problem we now have in the climate community is that some scientists are mixing up their scientific role with that of a climate activist,” he added.
    Professor Bengtsson’s paper challenged the finding of the UN’s Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that the global average temperature would rise by up to 4.5C if greenhouse gases in the atmosphere were allowed to double.
    It suggested that the climate might be much less sensitive to greenhouse gases than had been claimed by the IPCC in its report last September, and recommended that more work be carried out “to reduce the underlying uncertainty”.

       8 likes

  10. Jeff Waters says:
    May 16, 2014 at 9:10 am

    ‘UKIP is dedicated to abolishing the European Parliament’ –

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26994777

    Does anyone know if this is correct?

    I thought all UKIP wants to do is give the people a vote on whether they want Britain to remain in the EU, which is different to wanting to destroy the EU.

    If the BBC have got this wrong, they owe UKIP an apology.

       7 likes

    • John Anderson says:
      May 16, 2014 at 9:21 am

      If UKIP wins lots of MEP seats – along with other “independence” parties in Europe – the intention, I believe, is to block legislation being pushed through the European Parliament. eg more onerous regulations, taxes, interference with national sovereignty.

      That is NOT “abolishing” the European Parliament. The BBC has it wrong. As usual.

         8 likes

      • Guest Who says:
        May 16, 2014 at 10:17 am

        If true (apologies for the caveat. Given more than ample evidence, the BBC’s track record is not good, along with most of the MSM on this topic sadly, so getting to ‘truth’ is often a journey rather than a destination. But until confirmed I do have equivocate) as Jeff suggests an apology, or indeed much more serious consequences to a supposed accurate, objective ‘news’ propaganda monopoly, may well be in order.

           4 likes

  11. Beness says:
    May 16, 2014 at 11:33 am

    Nigel farrage on LBC being interviewed by James O’Brian now.

       1 likes

  12. Beness says:
    May 16, 2014 at 12:06 pm

    Lasted 20 mins and O’Brian did most of the talking. He harried and constantly interrupted Farrage. Now O’Brian is taking calls about his interview.

       3 likes

  13. noggin says:
    May 16, 2014 at 12:40 pm

    Rise of polio in the Pak “basket case” … 5live loves relaying
    blame on the CIA, the US finding Bin Laden, Drone attacks, distrust of the west, and other conspiracy theories.
    Apparently from tribal militant areas … “tribal militants?”
    and its now emerging from Syria too, (tribal militants?).
    5Live speaks to a Pashtun, she says she fears “a western plot to make us infertile” … (paranoid tribal militants?).
    The Taliban have already murdered some Dr s and immunisation workers, to terrify locals, and use propaganda, (mass murdering, paranoid, “tribal militants”).

    All this melee of obfuscation eh!
    …… yep! its “screw loose” Islam again!

       1 likes

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