212 Responses to WEEKEND OPEN THREAD…

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  1. OldBloke says:
    June 15, 2014 at 10:07 pm

    Guernsey Met Office have produced their review of 2013 and in the summary article at the start of their annual summary, gives some interesting facts that the BBC seem to have missed. (Thank you to my aviation friends in Guernsey who read this forum)

       4 likes

  2. Charlatans says:
    June 15, 2014 at 10:18 pm

    Amazing – BBC allowing comments on Blair’s insane intervention today; click top rated comments and it is quite obvious the chickens coming home to roost now.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27852832

    Plenty more on Guido Fawkes as well:

    http://order-order.com/2014/06/15/sketch-tony-blair-peace-envoy/#comments

    Wonder if this is going to delay Chilcot further, in-as-much as that inquiry report might want to wait to see how this disastrous Caliphate pans out.
    I despair for the future for our country what other consequences might materialise from the 2 million plus Muslims Labour imported into the UK. They really know how to rub our noses into it.

       8 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      June 15, 2014 at 10:24 pm

      ‘Allowed’ from 13 to 9 hours ago.
      That does not look like the greatest of windows.

         2 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      June 16, 2014 at 10:47 am

      ‘Amazing – BBC allowing comments’
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27852832
      Beyond the 4 hr window, just popped back to find that the entire last page of comments has this:
      ‘This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. ‘
      Impressive shock and awe moderation, even by BBC standards.
      Sure they had their reasons.
      But imagine if the site owners here did that to any not staying within the commenting bounds?

         2 likes

  3. Alex says:
    June 16, 2014 at 7:10 am

    The BBC just love to use those scare quotes in their report titles… especially if that report involves Muslim terrorists:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-27862510

       3 likes

  4. Guest Who says:
    June 16, 2014 at 7:41 am

    http://mothership.sg/2014/06/ex-st-reporter-can-write-more-freely-about-the-spore-govt-now-that-shes-at-bbc/
    Beyond applauding her new found freedoms, Mrs Merton may also ponder what first attracted the BBC to bring her into the fold.

       3 likes

  5. Thoughtful says:
    June 16, 2014 at 8:09 am

    I would suggest that more than half the bias of the BBC is not contained in the broadcasts it makes, but rather the ones it doesn’t.

    Yesterday they broadcast a tale which ticked all the boxes. Two Indian men both vegetarian, who decided to walk to each of the nuclear capitals, Moscow, Paris, London, & Washington, to protest for ‘peace’

    The set off without any money relying on peoples generosity to keep them fed and housed.

    Lovely !

    What they never broadcast is the infiltration of the CND movement by Russian Communists, turning what started off as a dewy eyed peace movement into something very sinister indeed. Nor has there ever been an examination of the similar infiltration of the trade union movement.

    It is the refusal of the BBC to cover anything which shows the left in a bad light which is more telling than anything else in their bias.

       8 likes

  6. Thoughtful says:
    June 16, 2014 at 8:17 am

    Listening to William Hague this morning on ‘Today’ made me laugh out loud.

    Totally ignorant and out of touch, he just came out with a load of gobbled gook & psycho babble, words such as come together – its a bit late for that! and ‘stabilise the situation’ – Yeah because the Iraqi government haven’t been trying that !

    Makes you wonder what our politicians do with their time, because one thing is certain, they don’t spend it cluing themselves up with the facts !

       5 likes

  7. Dave666 says:
    June 16, 2014 at 8:29 am

    Forced marriages are now illegal in England and Wales BBc Breakfast informs us. So what part of the community would be involved in forced marriages? Nope. It’s a mystery.

       9 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:
      June 16, 2014 at 8:35 am

      Errrr…Welsh Baptists?

         9 likes

    • Thoughtful says:
      June 16, 2014 at 8:39 am

      They said South Asian on Radio 4, although what Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Singapore, and Borneo, have to do with this I’m at a loss !

      Why the BBC and others on the Fascist left have to disguise the language to protect their precious brown eyed boys is anyone’s guess.

      The problem is with Central Western Asians, not the South!

         11 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      June 16, 2014 at 8:42 am

      Titanic legal deck chair shuffling.
      Like many offences, it will be interesting when the police/courts decide to impose the full force of the law and when they back off having been warned there’ll be trouble.
      Makes a nice headline though if, as you say, the BBC seems shy of the full analysis they can so often bring to a story.

         4 likes

    • DICK R says:
      June 16, 2014 at 9:07 am

      It was unimaginable not so many years ago the the law would have to be changed as a result of mass immigration.
      No mention of just why this has happened ,I never realised that forced marriage was ever problem in this country.

         11 likes

  8. Dave666 says:
    June 16, 2014 at 8:56 am

    Breakfast gives some free publicity to Citizens UK, wonder why. No I’ve never heard of them either. Losing a deposit near you soon ..http://www.citizensuk.org/

       2 likes

  9. ROBERT JONES says:
    June 16, 2014 at 9:34 am

    BBC Radio 2 News this morning. The headlines:

    1/ Forced Marriages to be Illegal.

    2/ Troubled Schools to face more inspections.

    3/ Iraqi Government forces worse than ISIS

    4/ Don’t wash chicken before cooking experts say.

    I rest my case, M’Lud.

       6 likes

  10. Mat says:
    June 16, 2014 at 10:04 am

    Wow the BBC really pushed the boat out for Rik Mayall ! one episode of Bottom then a hour on how the BBC created all comedy with a couple of small sound bites from Rik , but some lovely insights into BBC thinking !
    One BBC was handed a great idea by Mr Mayall then binned it but suddenly decided make it because they found out Mayall was working with channel 4 on ‘Comic strip ‘ for C4’s opening night ! so the BBC only made the ‘young ones’ to try to strangle C4’s audience at birth !
    Two the man who likes to take all the credit for the ‘young ones ‘ cannot even remember his favorite sketch but still name drops BAFTA award that he didn’t earn into every sentence ?
    Three the look of disgust by one of the writers that many in the police service loved the you ones and so did many older people as it was in BBC thinks for ‘ young adults ‘ she actually thought that Rik did comedy purely to hurt Thatch ? funny but I thought he did comedy for normal people his Tory in ‘New statesmen’ was loved by many conservatives but he didn’t suck up to the elitist lefty establishment which is why the BBC dumped him like he had the plague!

       10 likes

  11. Fred Bloggs says:
    June 16, 2014 at 10:38 am

    This article does not mention the bBC, but can you see them being left out, or had they been fully infiltrated already.
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/9633379/Gordon-Browns-secret-army-could-defeat-the-Coalitions-welfare-and-education-reforms.html

       3 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      June 16, 2014 at 11:03 am

      ‘…but it could carry on the fight through charities, quangos and think tanks’
      True, but really even these would need constant, high profile, uncritical access in a coordinated way through some kind of pervasive media monopoly to see their advocacy have enough impact to sway national policy.
      And it would also need to be astoundingly uncurious on motivations or context to the point of… oh…

         3 likes

      • Guest Who says:
        June 16, 2014 at 1:27 pm

        Credit where due, or possibly knowing when not to get in a bunfight that the public seems less than impressed by (OXFAM’s £100kpa PR guys and directors may be looking at reduced bonusses this year) already…
        http://order-order.com/2014/06/16/more-tory-mps-attack-oxfam/
        What seems extraordinary is there has been no reporting on this, factual or the more typical ‘analysis’, with attendant Spokesweasel Directors or chatterati or celeb gobs for hire, at least online.
        The nearest I can discover is this:
        http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27795075
        This seems unusually reticent of the BBC to the point of blanking.
        The letter is surely news as a fact.
        Going into full watertight oversight, unless the hope is social media or HIGNFY jokes will offer one degree of separation coverage as with UKIP obsessions, seems odd.

           0 likes

  12. John Anderson says:
    June 16, 2014 at 11:14 am

    This morning John Humphrys was vehemently attacking the US/UK invasion of Iraq. Yes the whole invasion issue is very debateable – but should a BBC presenter be intruding his own views so forcefully ?

    At the end of all the ranting it was being argued to Humphrys that the real cause of the present ISIS resurgence is that the US pulled out too soon in 2011 – after the success of the surge. It sounded as though the discussion was cut very short – not once was Obama’s name mentioned.

    There is ample evidence that Obama threw the whole position away. The fights in the Sunni areas against insurgents costs many US and British lives – but in the end the insurgents were quelled, the Sunni tribes were most;ly cooperative. In Germany, Korea, Japan etc the US left troops on site for decades, to help keep the peace and cosolidate the move towards democracy. Obama unilaterally decided this sage course was not for him, he wanted complete withdrawal.

    Here is some more evidence – which the BBC keeps hiding from us – that the present crisis is largely due to Obama’s misguided policy. “If you broke it – you own it”.

    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/06/why-obama-owns-iraq.php

       7 likes

  13. Thoughtful says:
    June 16, 2014 at 11:20 am

    Interesting article on Radio 4 about the Polish community in the UK.

    So bad are they finding the NHS that private Polish clinics are being established all over the UK. It seems that even the BBC are finding the NHS has lost its gloss. No doubt they will soon be telling us it’s the fault of the Tories !

       3 likes

  14. Scribblingscribe says:
    June 16, 2014 at 1:40 pm

    Martha Kearney on world at one interviewing Jack Straw re ISIS invasion of Iraq

    Martha clearly believes that the removal of Saddam Hussein has made the situation worse in Iraq adding ‘many people would think’ it has. The overly cautious Jack Straw tiptoed his way through his answer, that the over throw of Saddam hadn’t made it worse, though matters could have been better handled after he was overthrown. Martha finishes with words along the lines of ‘well many people would disagree with you,’ before ending the conversation.

    Of course many would disagree. Those who believe the attacks on New York, Somalia, Paris, in fact all over the world, took place AFTER the invasion would believe that the invasion has made Jihad worse. However many people know that Jihad was growing all over the world and especially in the middle east, throughout the 1980s and 90s, i.e. before the invasion.

    Would Martha have finished any other discussion with the words ‘many would disagree’? Because surely many would disagree with everything said by anyone on the World At One .

       6 likes

    • John Anderson says:
      June 16, 2014 at 1:48 pm

      It should be a disciplinary offence for any BBC presenter to intrude their own views on an interview – especially when given at the end of an interview.

      An interview on the BBC should be juts that. A succession of questions followed by answers – maybe with supplementary questions. No commentary by the interviewer. “Just the facts, ma’am”

         6 likes

  15. Leha says:
    June 16, 2014 at 1:55 pm

    some new bint, Victoria something on bBC business news informing me that the pound “also known as sterling” holy sheet, thought i was watching newsround for a minute there.

       6 likes

  16. Porphyrogenitos says:
    June 16, 2014 at 2:18 pm

    Saw this article called ‘Somalis sent back home in fear of al-Shabab’ on the beebs website about failed Somali asylum seekers being deported back to their homeland.

    The article seeks to convey that Somalis are being deported en masse to their homeland from Europe.

    The man from the UK is one of a growing number of Somalis being forcibly removed to Somalia from Europe, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Kenya.

    It then uses emotive language to convey the impression that Somalis are in real danger of persecution. Does it then cite instances of returned Somalis being so persecuted, no all it does is cite the fears of the ONLY Somali who has being so returned from the UK. Yes only one Somali has being actually deported from the UK, from a total of precisely 7 from the whole of Europe. None have been known to have been killed or otherwise actually persecuted from the report. Most Somalis who have been actually returned to their homeland have come from Kenya and KSA.

       4 likes

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