Good to hear the BBC raising important issues that prick the social conscience of the nation and remind us of the callous indifference that the Tories have for the suffering of the poorest in society.

Last year Labour’s PCC, in Durham, Ron Hogg, launched a new scheme to help those forced into a life of crime by ‘Austerity Britain’:

Police going easy on skint shoplifting mums in Austerity Britain

Durham Police Commissioner Ron Hogg said Austerity Britain meant the force was adopting a more ‘humane’ approach to such crime.

As Tory cuts bite into benefits and hit the most vulnerable in society, cops are working with support agencies to prevent some offenders going to prison.

Today we learn it’s been a grand success:

Scheme to help women stealing food to feed families declared a success

Police across the region say food theft has increased in recent years due to pressure on family finances due to economic factors.

Products such as cheese and meat among the most stolen items, according to one report.

One report certainly did say that...but it was the more expensive, and resellable foodstuffs that were being nicked:

Meat and cheese. There is growing interest in the more expensive cheese such as parmesan.

Ron Hogg made an appearance on 5 Live today (19 mins 30 secs) where the presenter, Chris Warburton, introduced him as the PCC from Durham…forgetting to mention, several times,  that he was the Labour PCC from Durham….Warburton also stated that police in Northumbria, Derbyshire, North Wales and Devon and Cornwall were making similar noises about shoplifters….failing to mention that they were respectively..Labour, Labour, LibDem…oh and Devon and Cornwall has a Tory PCC…however the Chief Constable has been making a lot of political comments about cuts to his budget…wonder what caught the BBC eye?:

Devon and Cornwall police chief says gaps in funding are going to get worse

Labour’s Bob Jones, the police and crime commissioner for the West Midlands, also got in on the act when ‘last month suggested that the increase in shoplifting was partly caused by benefit cuts and job losses, which have pushed “desperate” Birmingham parents to steal food and nappies to feed and clothe their families

Hogg delighted in telling us that ‘Typically with welfare reforms and other such things [society is failing the vulnerable]…in an environment now where payday lenders are thriving, where loansharks are thriving, where foodbanks are thriving…this is in 20th century Britain and it ought not to be happening…and we have here a very unforgiving approach to welfare due to welfare reforms.’

Nothing at all political about this I’m sure…however as the British Retail Consortium tells us that 80% of offenders are at least second time offenders, and others suggest at least 60% may be stealing to feed drink and drug habits, and this scheme is for first time offenders who shoplift specifically for food because they don’t have enough money to eat you might suspect the offenders ‘rescued’ by Ron Hogg and his scheme might actually be far fewer than the impression he gives…no actual figures are mentioned…and there are no links to the police breakdown of the shoplifting figures which Hogg tells us that once you ‘drill down’ into them reveal this horrifying statistic about starving Briton’s forced to steal to live.

That lack of the data means we have absolutely no way of checking the claims made by PCCs whose politics may be colouring their statements to a very great extent.

How much of this rise in crime is due to retailers such as the Coop  and Asda who have become more proactive in catching and reporting shoplifters?

How much is the rise due to changes in police reporting procedures and a reclassification of each crime?…..‘For 2013, we estimate that Christmas losses in the UK in the six weeks from mid-November to end-December will be as high as £978 million. This figure is based on a new classification of crimes and a different source of data compared to last year.’

You have to ask why these police forces are highlighting food theft especially when food theft by people literally on the breadline is probably very limited….the biggest problem is organised gangs stealing high value products:

‘A key factor driving the upward trend in the cost of offences is thought to be the impact of organised crime gangs, who are systematically targeting higher value items. Half of fraud is thought to be committed by organised groups.’

You might conclude that the highlighting of food theft is politically motivated when much more serious theft crimes go unmentioned...both Labour politicians, and Police disgruntled with ‘Tory’ cuts, have a reason to keep this ball in the air as we approach an election….and it looks lke the BBC is quietly helping them out.

But should we trust the BBC to get it right?

The Centre For Retail Research thinks perhaps not:

The BBC claimed this:

‘Research by retail consultants Global Retail Theft Barometer and Checkpoint Systems has suggested a new wave of middle-class shoplifter is targeting high-end delicacies from supermarkets in order to maintain a lifestyle they could no longer afford.’

When in fact:

‘Nothing irritates us at the Centre more than hearing that we believe that shoplifting by the middle classes is now a significant problem driving retail theft upwards.

The most recent claim about our alleged views on the criminality of the middle classes when they enter a shop can be found on the BBC website page entitled Why Do Well-off People Shoplift? (found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16469928).

This references our findings in the Global Retail Theft Barometer (GRTB), which of course we produce every year.

There are many other press articles referring to our findings on middle class shoplifting.

In fact we have never researched whether the middle classes are stealing more.

We have never ever published anything stating that middle-class crime is driving retail crime, or that prosperous people are shoplifting much more than they did before.

We assume that middle-class crime is on the rise as is crime by other sectors of the community. We do not know and we never have stated that middle-class criminals have become a much bigger problem for retailers than a few years ago.

The story about our alleged opinions started in 2009 as a result of publicity for the GRTB. What we actually said in the 2009 edition of the GRTB (page 25) is shown here:

That is our only reference to middle class shoplifting.’

The decapitation of US journalist James Foley has caused a stirring at the BBC. I was on BBC London this morning and asked if I though the fact that the man who murdered Mr Foley spoke with a London accent was shocking. I said no, and am surprised anyone could be surprised at this. Last year, in LONDON, we saw the virtual decapitation of Lee Rigby by two “British” Muslims so why are we shocked when they travel abroad and do the same thing? It’s a bit like ISIL. The BBC are now rowing in behind the new US position that this Jihad cancer has to be tackled in Syria AS WELL as Iraq. Obama continues to lead from behind and yet the BBC compliantly present this as ground breaking initiatives from President Narcissus. Look, of COURSE ISIL need tackled in Syria but the West was too busy arming them to do that. Of course the UK exports Jihad.  No one can be shocked at these things although we can be disgusted and angered and outraged. But in the salons of the chattering classes, it seems to cause at least a murmur that Islamists can be savage. Did they sleep through 9/11 and every subsequent year?

Here you go and it’s on time. Please detail the bias here. Keep it polite and on topic. The floor is yours…

Jon Donnison gets ever more bizarre:

Still relying on children to get people to look at his ‘journalism’ though….

He’s so popular that he has to limit those who want to read  and respond to his schtick:

Some unfortunately he can’t block…the truth is out there…just not on Donnison’s Twitter feed:

Always tickles me how numbnuts Israel hating Donnison doesn’t have a clue what is going on in Gaza and yet keeps bluffing it like he does……claiming Hamas didn’t kidnap the Israeli teens….

Who is the Plitnick Donnison links to?…..a lefty peacenik:

Mitchell Plitnick is the former Director of the US Office of B’Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories and was previously the Director of Education and Policy for Jewish Voice for Peace.

Why not listen to Hamas and the terrorists themselves?:

A longer video of Hamas commander al Arouri’s speech – as broadcast on Al Jazeera – can be seen here courtesy of MEMRI.

“Our goal was to ignite an intifada in the West Bank and Jerusalem as well as within the 1948 borders [Israel]. The activity of the people has broadened to include all the occupied land, reaching its peak in the heroic operation, carried out by the Al-Qassam Brigades, in which three settlers were captured in Hebron. There has been a lot of confusion regarding this operation. Some said that this was a conspiracy of the occupation [Israel]. That’s not true. Your brothers in the Al-Qassam Brigades carried out this operation to support their imprisoned brothers who were on hunger strike.”

Al Qassam being the military wing of Hamas.

The terrorist killers of the three teenagers admit it was a Hamas operation:

Hossam Kawasmeh, arrested on July 11, admitted to leading cell which abducted and murdered Gil-Ad Schaer, Eyal Yifrach, and Naftali Frenkel; He received funds from Hamas.

Kawasmeh received funding for the terror attack from Hamas members in the Gaza Strip. He was arrested by Yamam, an elite counter-terror unit, following a tip from the Shin Bet.

Here Donnison tries to tell us Hamas is not like ISIS….

Trouble is, in essence it is true……their aims are the same and they work together indirectly…ISIS has few if any direct links with Hamas but it is an offshoot of Al Qaeda which is in Gaza….

Here is what a senior Hamas member said in 2007:

Zahar went on about the inevitability of Islamic rule in Gaza, the West Bank and across the Arab world.
“We believe that this is the era of change, that the coming decades will see Islamic rule in Arab countries,” he said. “I am not speaking about hopes here. I am just reading the reality. Today, even the thief, before he commits his crime, asks god to help him.”
“In a few years [Islam] can gather supreme power in the form of money, power, armies, human beings… from Morocco to Indonesia.”
“How are we going to manage the relationship between the West and Islam? If we are going to see each other as enemies we will see world war IV.”

…..and Hamas works hand in hand with Al Qaeda terrorists of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades:

Abdullah Azzam Brigades launches rocket attacks from Gaza

The Abdullah Azzam Brigades, which is named after al Qaeda’s co-founder and Osama bin Laden’s mentor, was formed by Saleh al Qarawi sometime after 2004 as an offshoot of al Qaeda in Iraq, and was tasked with hitting targets in the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and the Palestinian Territories) and throughout the Middle East.

And here is Al Qaeda expressing its brotherhood and solidarity with ISIS:

“We announce solidarity with our Muslim brothers in Iraq against the crusade. Their blood and injuries are ours and we will surely support them……We stand by the side of our Muslim brothers in Iraq against the American and Iranian conspiracy and their agents of the apostate Gulf rulers.”

Sickeningly Donnison tries to hijack the Holocaust to defend his own anti-Israel stance against allegations that reporting such as his is responsible in part for a rise in anti-Semitism:

Donnison then links to a BBC article that is trying to play down anti-Semitism around the world….because it is implicated in its rise with coverage from the likes of…guess who…Jon Donnison….

Despite ‘The UK Association of Chief Police Officers, which has released statistics on hate crime since 2009, has talked of a “significant rise” in anti-Semitism since the latest fighting began in Gaza in early July’  apparently we’re, and they are, mistaken…..it’s not so much a rise in anti-Semitism…. it’s only an increased awareness of it…our perceptions distorted by a few eye catching, high profile mass killings…difficult to identify a trend…the picture is mixed…the questions asked in polls fail to adequately identify if it really is anti-Semitism….it could all be based on criticism of the Israeli government…and anyway….“We have many surveys, even before 1990. What they show is a decline in prejudice towards minorities, and especially towards Jews. Actually Jews are the best accepted minority in France….the Jews remain the most accepted group in France. We see the same thing in Europe.”

Ultimately it’s all in the Jew’s own little minds….’While the overall trends are harder to discern, the current nature and level of anti-Semitic incidents are enough to make some Jewish people feel afraid.’

Shame the BBC doesn’t ask a particular community how they feel about Jews….Kinda think wouldn’t then be ‘the most accepted group in Europe’ for that group.

Perhaps the BBC should also be asking who is carrying out the most anti-Semitic attacks.

Finally we have this from Donnison…..ironic considering Donnison’s exploitation of dead and injured women and children to peddle his support for Hamas:

So just how well did Donnison do?

He’s wrong about Hamas not kidnapping the Israeli teens.

He’s wrong about Hamas/ISIS not being alike.

He’s wrong about there being little anti-Semitism…which is the not so subtle drift of the BBC article he links to.

He relies on pictures of dead and injured women and children to get any interest in his stuff…and that interest is going to be mostly from pro-Hamas people praising his ‘journalism’.

He doesn’t like criticism of his ‘journalism’.  Which must be difficult for him all considered.

Suggest he go walk-about in Oz and stay away from Twitter and the porn.

The BBC tells us that….

US President Barack Obama has said the beheading of US journalist James Foley is “an act of violence that shocks the conscience of the entire world”.

Mr Obama compared Islamic State (IS), the group which made a video of Mr Foley’s killing, to a “cancer” and said its ideology was “bankrupt”.

I’m not sure why suddenly, when a journalist is killed, this behaviour from ISIS is suddenly ‘an  act of violence that shocks the world’s conscience’ when ISIS is well known for beheading people, never mind crucifying them or burying them alive, and at the end of July released a video showing the mass murder of hundreds of Iraqi men tied up and bussed out to the desert just as James Foley was….where was the ‘shocked conscience of the world’ then?

Indeed the BBC’s Frank Gardner admits as much:

Shocking as it is, the video of James Foley being beheaded by a masked jihadist is not without precedent.

But he goes on…..

Pursuing an extreme form of Sunni Islam, IS has persecuted non-Muslims such as Yazidis and Christians, as well as Shia Muslims, whom it regards as heretics.

These grisly murder videos are abhorrent to most Muslims and non-Muslims alike and they’ve even been discouraged by Osama Bin Laden’s successor as a “vote loser”.

“It (ISIS) attracts the worst kind of psychopaths,” he said. “This is not about religion. It’s not even about territory.”

Gardner plays down the religious aspect to all this….which is in fact, obviously,  central to everything ISIS does….Gardner is making a claim that ISIS carries out everything it does for no reason other than they are ‘psycopaths’,  thus Gardner tries to separate their actions from the ideology of Islam.

Unfortunately what ISIS is doing is like a full colour, live action replay of history, the history of Islam when Muhammed first swept across the Middle East introducing Islam to the world at the point of a sword taking advantage of the weakness of the Roman and Persian empires just as ISIS exploits Obama’s reluctance to stand and fight for Western values at a time when the rest of the Arab world is in turmoil…..Muhammed slaughtered whole people’s, beheading the men and enslaving the women and children….sound familiar?

This has everything to do with religion and territory….hence ISIS proclaim an Islamic Caliphate.

And as for Al Qaeda distancing itself from the extreme violence of ISIS as the BBC constantly tells us…..maybe not so much:

“We announce solidarity with our Muslim brothers in Iraq against the crusade. Their blood and injuries are ours and we will surely support them……We stand by the side of our Muslim brothers in Iraq against the American and Iranian conspiracy and their agents of the apostate Gulf rulers.”

Other than those issues Frank Gardner is totally correct.

The BBC goes on to explore the intention behind the release of the video and the possible political fallout from it.

James Foley: Extremists battle with social media

PJ Crowley: James Foley video not intended for US

The BBC looks at the use of social media and the uploading of violent images and pictures of dead Muslims as propaganda intended to shock and recruit new ISIS members to ‘defend Islam’.

The BBC tells of urgent attempts to close down such propaganda.

Which you might think was more than a little ironic when the BBC itself has spent a great deal of time and effort broadcasting similar propaganda for Jihadists.

Only today the BBC was telling us every 20 minutes or so that the Israelis had killed the wife and daughter of a Hamas member, clearly intended by the BBC to incite a negative reaction to Israeli military actions in Gaza…in other words pro-Hamas, pro-terrorist propaganda exploiting  the deaths of a girl and her mother.

Recently the BBC has been encouraging a positive image of the ‘Caliphate‘….a questionable approach when establishing a ‘Caliphate’ is a prime motivation of ISIS.

The BBC rounded up its discussion, in which 90% of the comments were pro-Caliphate, by saying that ‘For many Muslims the Caliphate is something to aspire to, to unite the community and provide a sense of security…the idea of the Caliphate’s resurrection is not forgotten.’

No kidding!

Then of course we have the output from the various BBC journalists in Gaza whose preferred choice of report centres around dead and dying children and women, blown up hospitals and schools.  There is little about Hamas, its fighters and their real intentions.

The BBC’s choice of image and tone is hardly different from that which ISIS might choose to utilise in its own propaganda.

It is therefore something of an irony that the BBC reports with a straight face the outrage at ISIS’ exploitation of social media and its shockingly violent and graphic videos that are intended to grab world Media’s attention when the BBC itself indulges in a not too dissimilar course of action.

The BBC explains why this sort of propaganda is a problem….

Frank Gardner, the BBC’s security correspondent, said the video could encourage people to join IS.

Ever wonder just how many British Jihadi recruits were ‘encouraged to join’ by the BBC’s acceptance of the extremist’s narrative that foreign policy was to blame for the ills of the Muslim world and that Muslims, both in the UK and worldwide, are oppressed by non-Muslims?

..the BBC goes on….

The Metropolitan Police said it was investigating video footage posted online showing Mr Foley being killed.

It warned that “viewing, downloading or disseminating” the video may be an offence under terrorism legislation.

Perhaps the likes of the BBC’s Jon Donnison will get their collars felt for promoting a narrative favourable to Hamas terrorists?

The BBC also tells us….

Sunday Times photographer Paul Conroy, who worked alongside Mr Foley in 2011, said: “Without him… these tyrants will get away with things without people probing and pushing to show people what’s really happening in these war zones.”

Perhaps the BBC would like to show us where they have ‘probed and pushed to show people what’s really happening in a Gaza controlled by the ‘tyrants’ of Hamas.’

I know this was posted on a previous thread but it is so apt, and so sums up the willingness of those such as the BBC to believe the Pallywood productions in their quest to demonise Israel. Hamas – they can bring the dead back to life but the BBC manage to miss that.

Here you go, a new Open Thread for you to detail bias on the BBC. Keep it to the point and keep it polite! Thanks.

Nazi flag flown by Palestinians from a Mosque in Beit Omar

The BBC have a great reluctance to mention anything to do with *****….as mentioned earlier they concentrate on other things that set the anti-Israel tone for the viewer, listener or reader.

And again, look at the BBC’s MIddle East page and these are some of its top stories:

• Protest at Israel interfaith wedding

• UK’s Jewish Chronicle apology for Gaza ad

• Man returns Israel medal over Gaza

No sign of this day old report though on the BBC [via BBC Watch):

Israel says it foiled Hamas plan for massive attacks on Israel, coup against PA

93 arrests made, Shin Bet says, thwarting Hamas preparations for third intifada; Abbas says revelation a threat to Palestinian unity

Absolutely astonishing that the BBC ignores this massive story considering what is going on in Gaza and the fact that Fatah and ***** have recently formed a Unity government.

Can it possibly be that once again when a report comes out that shows ***** in a bad light the BBC looks to cover up for them?

Listening to the World Service the preferred term to describe Israel’s ‘opponent’ is ‘Palestinian factions’. …still no mention of *****.

Babysitting, Hamas style

Fascinating what the BBC concentrates on in the Gaza conflict…not the fighting, or the reasons for it but the buildings turned to rubble, the children injured and the infrastrucutre damaged….all reports designed to make the audience react in a way sympathetic to the Palestinians and angry towards the Israelis….note all the sub-headlines….all about the damage, Israel, the blockade…but no ‘Hamas’…

And what of that headline…Israel hits Gaza after new rockets?

What….did Israel get a new delivery of rockets and decide to launch them at Gaza?

Funny how when Hamas & Co launch attacks on Israel and Israel responds the BBC always reports that ‘Israel strikes Gaza…..after rockets’

It’s never ‘Hamas launches unprovoked attack on Israel and Israel strikes Hamas’ military locations.’

The BBC’s preferred narrative when reporting from Ferguson, a town they’d never heard of before but are now expert in its racial profile and dynamics, is that this  was a racially motivated killing by a white cop in a town divided by race with community tensions on a knife edge.  That is the thrust of their reporting on this event with little time given over to the police version of events.

The BBC gets ever more irresponsible in the manner it reports news events.  Look at the way it chased the story about Cliff Richard…..desperate for a scoop they acted like a ‘sensationalist tabloid’ blackmailing the police, or as one media pundit coyly put it, exerted ‘overmuch pressure’, so that they could get in on the story…otherwise, apparently, they threatened to ‘go to press’ regardless of what stage the police investigation was at.

The BBC’s ever present glorifying of Islamist terror and ideology…its apologist reporting on 7/7, its support for Moazzem Begg and the BBC recently suggesting that the ‘Caliphate’ now being imposed by the violent and extreme ISIS might be a good thing, never mind its support for the terrorists of Hamas…. is highly dangerous and the BBC’s narrative feeds directly into the radical’s recruitment drive encouraging Muslims to feel they have a legitimate grievance against the West.

It has long adopted a similar approach to the Black community, the BBC’s aim seemingly to foster a feeling amongst them that they have always been ‘victims’ of White oppression and that they still are….’whitey’ can’t be trusted.

The BBC doesn’t just limit itself to inflaming tensions in the UK, it is happy to contribute to stirring up racial conflict in all white areas of the world…#BBCtrending: The racist video that’s shocked Australia (no ‘shocked’ reports of black people abusing whites on trains?) and elsewhere is more than happy to label white Americans as racist, no doubt aiming to keep this narrative of global white racism current in the minds of all Black or ethnic minority people home and abroad.

With respect to that the BBC seems to have imposed a bit of a blackout on the news with regard to the shooting of Michael Brown….or rather a blackout of news that might suggest all is not as the ‘witnesses’, the ones used by the BBC, say it is.

Facts and relevant new information are thin on the ground if you listen to the BBC, the BBC prefering to stick with the racist, politicised speculation of those seeking to whip up a riot. The BBC has a habit of being very, very slow with its reporting of certain information but all too ready to report pure speculation or obviously partial claims that fit a particular agenda.

I have heard several BBC reports over the last few days and none have mentioned that the Police officer was assaulted and injured or that Brown ‘bum rushed’ him in an attempt to assault him again.

Victoria Derbyshire had a look at the events but from a very, very one sided approach…..all we got was ‘racism’, ‘execution’ and ‘police brutality’.

That’s despite a clear reported version of what happened, one that seems to be corroborated more each day….and yet the BBC fails to fully outline that version of events.

I heard almost from the start that the police officer tried to detain Brown but Brown struck the officer who was then injured.  Brown ran off, then stopped, turned and rushed at the officer who shot him.  Brown was near 300lbs and the officer was reportedly responding to a call that Brown had committed a robbery…though the BBC reports Brown was merely stopped for walking in the street.

Here the BBC have a very limited report on events…limited from the police point of view…the witnesses claiming a police ‘execution’  and the family’s forensic experts get plenty of space:

Ferguson protests: What we know about Michael Brown’s last minutes

The BBC merely refers to a ‘scuffle’ between Brown and the police officer, no mention of an injury, and goes on to suggest Brown may have been shot with his hands raised, there is no mention that he rushed at the officer…..“Michael jerks his body as if he’s hit and he turns around and faces the officer with his hands up,” she said. “And the officer continues to shoot him until he goes down to the ground.”

The BBC gives us this very short description of the Authorities’ version of events:

What have the authorities said so far?

The day after the shooting, St Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar told reporters that Mr Brown or Mr Johnson allegedly pushed Officer Wilson back into his car as he was trying to get out, and proceeded to physically assault the officer. At some point, they struggled over Mr Wilson’s weapon. A shot was fired in the car, at which point the officer got out of vehicle, and shot Mr Brown.

H/T  Llareggub

It now seems that the officer suffered a serious injury to his face:

BREAKING REPORT: Officer Darren Wilson Suffered “Orbital Blowout Fracture to Eye Socket” During Mike Brown Attack

Posted by Jim Hoft on Tuesday, August 19, 2014, 10:00 AM

The Gateway Pundit can now confirm from two local St. Louis sources that police Officer Darren Wilson suffered facial fractures during his confrontation with deceased 18 year-old Michael Brown. Officer Wilson clearly feared for his life during the incident that led to the shooting death of Brown. This was after Michael Brown and his accomplice Dorian Johnson robbed a local Ferguson convenience store.

It also seems that witnesses back up the police version….as outlined in the audio on the video we looked at yesterday:

Nothing from the BBC on these revelations.

An irony that the ‘protestors’ are now shooting innocent bystanders as they ‘protest’ about the shooting of an ‘innocent’ man.