START THE WEEK OPEN THREAD.

A fresh week and election fever is in the air. Can we rely on the BBC to provide the Nation with a balanced coverage of this most important of campaigns? Or might their left wing bias shine through? The floor is yours!

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258 Responses to START THE WEEK OPEN THREAD.

  1. NISA says:

    Odd change of news agenda from the BBC?
    At 1am, getting ready to face the brand new morn,the headline item was, as is often the case, the latest announcement of Labour policy. We were told by Labour grandee Tony Wright’s boy Ben that Ed Ball would today announce that a Labour government would spend just the right amount, unlike the back to the 30s Tories. (No Conservative defence of their spending plans or criticism of Balls’ plans was included).
    Only further down the bulletin were we told about the Tory plans for more free schools. Along with the necessary rebuttal of such plans by Labour’s claim of waste.
    By daylight Ed’s spending plans have disappeared from the bulletins. I wonder why?

       41 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      ‘By daylight Ed’s spending plans have disappeared from the bulletins. I wonder why? ‘

      The answer, my friend, was broadcast on the air – BBC 1 political commentator (wish I remembered which of the many – he seems to speak some truth) actually let slip (I paraphrase slightly) ‘…this Labour criticism of Osbourne may, in fact, bring more scrutiny of Labour’s own spending plans…’

         47 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      To be fair, it’s a little difficult for the Tories to be able to criticise something which hasn’t been announced. Not that that would stop them ! We all know that Labour might start off with the best of intentions, but, like Cameron’s immigrations promises things don’t always go to plan !

         5 likes

    • Englands Dreaming says:

      Yes on Beebs website, they have an article about how the Torys are planning “extreme cuts”

      http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-31790067

      But this isn’t news its just about a speech Balls will make, it might become news when Balls-up has made his speech, but now its just free advertising of Labour propaganda.

         51 likes

    • John Galt says:

      In fact it’s balls.

      And you got his name wrong;it’s spelt with an “s”.

         5 likes

  2. Virgin queen says:

    Well worth a few minutes of your time to watch. It appeared way down the previous open thread but I thought worth putting near the top of one

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/03/08/watch-a-drastic-warning-about-the-future-of-the-west/

       21 likes

    • George R says:

      Yes. Well worth a reprise-

      “WATCH YOU’VE BEEN WARNED:

      THE DARK FUTURE OF EUROPE, BY AN EXPERT ON MUSLIM RADICALISATION”

      -includes video clip of George Igler’s analysis
      (featured by Commenters on previous B-BBC ‘Weekend Open Thread’).

         14 likes

  3. George R says:

    “Why the BBC’s arrogance over TV debates could threaten its future.”

    By DOMINIC LAWSON,

    FOR THE DAILY MAIL.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2985744/DOMINIC-LAWSON-BBC-s-arrogance-TV-debates-threaten-future.html#ixzz3TsfOLWSy

       18 likes

    • Richard Pinder says:

      The BBC should send an invitation to all Tory MP’s. I am sure at least one of them would be brave enough to take up the invitation to stand in for Cameron. It would give a chance for pro-British patriots such as David Davis, who are not cowards afraid of Farage, to demolish Miliband.

         9 likes

  4. George R says:

    – Lawson-

    “To ‘empty chair’ the Prime Minister in such circumstances would be an unprecedentedly hostile act by any broadcaster, but especially by the BBC, with its particular obligation, as an organisation funded by a form of television poll tax, to behave impartially.

    “The BBC director charged with formulating the Corporation’s strategy in the run-up to the review of its Royal Charter next year, is James Purnell — previously a Labour Cabinet Minister. If Mr Purnell has his old political wits about him he will be concerned about the consequences of the outrageous threat by his colleagues to hold an election debate with an empty chair representing the Conservative Party.
    “If it is still in power after the election, having been treated with such contempt, it would make a renewal of the BBC’s charter — with the right to levy £145.50 on every TV set owner — very far from a formality.”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2985744/DOMINIC-LAWSON-BBC-s-arrogance-TV-debates-threaten-future.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

       28 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      The Conservatives have ignored the BBC shovelling shit in their direction for years. What makes him think they’ll suddenly grow a pair now?

         57 likes

  5. George R says:

    Islam Not BBC (INBBC):- Unrepentent in its empathetic coverage of Islamofascist barbarian, Mohammed Emwazi-

    “BBC defends coverage of unmasking of Islamic State terrorist Mohammed Emwazi”

    http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/content/bbc-defends-coverage-unmasking-islamic-state-terrorist-mohammed-emwazi?

       13 likes

  6. Aerfen says:

    5Live Adrian Chiles this morning gives platform to Dal babu retired police commander and beneficiary of race discirmination, to beat his favourite drum of calling for yet more discrimination in favour of minority ethnics!
    They were supposed to be discussing the ‘Prevent’ strategy but Babu was allowed to twist this into calling for discrimination to be extended beyond just the police but into social services as well.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21317806

       36 likes

    • Mike says:

      And the employment of more Muslims in the Prevent Quango – himself included to a high and well-remunerated role I suppose

         32 likes

    • Dave666 says:

      I’m always interested in how some people get to their lofty positions and why they left. From operation black vote: After 30 years in the police service, one of the most senior Asian officers in the UK has decided to throw in the towel, citing little progress in BME officers being adequately promoted.

      Dal Babu, himself was recently rejected for a promotion despite the fact that he speaks four languages, was awarded an OBE, holds a master’s degree, and has been hugely credited for the soaring public confidence ratings in the London borough of Harrow which he is responsible for.

         3 likes

      • Aerfen says:

        “Dal Babu, himself was recently rejected for a promotion despite the fact that he speaks four languages, was awarded an OBE, holds a master’s degree, and has been hugely credited for the soaring public confidence ratings in the London borough of Harrow which he is responsible for.”

        If youre going to quote the Guardian (LOL) then at least be honest enough to cite your quote!

        This article is also beating the drum for more discrimination against ethnic British police officers! If Babu was rejected for a promotion, given the fact there is already ‘positive discrimination’ , we can be 110% sure he was unsuitable!
        http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/feb/04/senior-asian-policeman-quits-met

        The comment below the article from a Muslim,
        perhaps provide the answer (as well as a clue to why Dave666 did NOT cite his quote):

        From what I have read about Dal Babu, he really seems to have been in the wrong job. He would have been perfectly suited in a communities based government role but we want more than just diversity from senior coppers.

        There are not many ACPO rank positions in the UK and only the select few get through, albeit with a bit of political know how and manoeuvring!

        Incidentally there is nothing smart about speaking four languages if you are brought up from childhood speaking them. As even the Guardian doesn’t state what these languages are, I think we can safely assume that to be the case, three Asian languages/local dialects (plus English of course).

           11 likes

    • JL63 says:

      Is he perhaps a bit late in efforts to secure new employment after retirement ?

         0 likes

  7. Umbongo says:

    A nasty little BBC habit is to note on its website – in this case the Today running list – that so-called “commissions” such as the Social Integration Commission are “charity, not government-initiated”. However, on air? Nothing. As far as the listeners to Today this morning at around 8:30 were concerned this “commission” and its tendentious report – gleefully leapt on by the BBC – are as official as the Treasury.
    It (almost) goes without saying that the “commission” is a bien pensant populated (including CINO and ostensibly apolitical beards), left-leaning outfit producing sub-marxist crapola beloved of the BBC “news” editors. Also, isn’t it about time (as well as being more accurate) that broadcasters referred to “affordable” housing by its clearly understandable name: “subsidised” housing.
    “Affordable” implies “within the affordable means” of whoever is benefitting from the money they themselves spend. Obviously the subsidised tenants of the “affordable” housing highlighted by Today could only “afford” the flats concerned because either the developer or the taxpayer was coughing up (or sacrificing) serious money. Do we ever hear this spelt out on the BBC? Of course not: it might offend somebody: Labour voters perhaps, or worse, the BBC’s Labour buddies.

       34 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      I heard the interview with Mr Taylor of the Social Integration Commission. He seemed very keen for social housing tenants to share the same door and lifts as those who had paid top dollar for their flats. I was hoping the interviewer would ask if this sort of set up caused any problems where he lives, but sadly the question never arose.

      One assumes Mr Taylor has overcome the problems sadly associated with some social housing tenants before expecting others to deal with the diversity? It would have been enlightening to know how he did so. He did sound like he might live in quite a nice area.

         35 likes

      • Umbongo says:

        There’s a surprise: it appears that Matthew Taylor, the Chairman of the Social Integration “Commission” is not just a Labour supporter, he was assistant general secretary of the Labour Party. Thus the BBC is broadcasting a Labour Party meme by a senior Labour Party member in the electoral interests of the Labour Party without so much as a nod of warning to its listeners.
        This is beyond a disgrace. Moreso, that the Conservatives won’t bleat a word – let alone submit a formal complaint – about this blatant contravention of statutory impartiality by the BBC.
        BTW if you’re interested in the way the left has inveigled its way into all aspects of British life and are “agents of influence” everywhere, just look at the various groups and organisations of which Taylor is a member/appointee and who publishes his agit-prop articles/papers.

           39 likes

        • Mustapha Sheikup al-Beebi says:

          To top it all off, “Thinking Allowed” on Radio 4 keeps up the drip drip drip of cultural Marxism from another member of the Taylor clan. “Comme père, comme fils” as they say in St Tropez!

          In this and other ways, Labour are always to some degree in power, even when technically out of office, e.g. up to 1997 and from 2010. Until the BBC is smashed into little pieces, this will continue across all poll tax funded national media.

          DELENDA EST BBC

             47 likes

      • Dave666 says:

        So would this be that: http://socialintegrationcommission.org.uk/index.php
        Sponsored by British Gas, you wouldn’t have thought they could afford to these days would you. And would this be related: http://jonyates.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/am-i-racist.html

           2 likes

    • Mat says:

      Lol oh the irony burns, that the BBC who has for years produced ‘Homes under the hammer’ about how to profiteer from the housing market has the dangles to push a lack of housing line !

         8 likes

      • Dave666 says:

        Ahh yes but they are mostly homes in disrepair, & of course money is probably injected into the local economy in the form of hiring builders and materials. But I think the main think with homes under the hammer is that it’s cheap. Two presenters a film crew & joe Public does everything else I assume gratis.

           4 likes

        • Mat says:

          Really cos most of the ones I have been subjected to [my partner likes it ] has developers with their own brought in crews and the other are almost all well off middle class types bored and wanting to make a big profit renting or selling on but as they do all the work themselves I fail to see how they stimulate anything in the local economy !

             2 likes

  8. Mr Glodstone says:

    This is only short and is well worth watching, it is very good – as is all his stuff:

       26 likes

  9. Dazed & Confused says:

    Well well well – who would have thought? – The BBC suppressed an enquiry into Jimmy Savile..

    http://www.newindianexpress.com/world/BBC-Banned-Investigative-Programme-that-Threw-Light-on-Sexual-Assault-by-Its-Own-Employee/2015/03/07/article2702538.ece

       25 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      The BBC has been camped out in India, and FaceBook, for some time now, and whilst crimes there are worthy of note and report, as with JonDoninOz I have noticed a few locals getting a wee bit weary of the rather particular tacks being taken.

      Especially when it comes to fingers pointing versus fingers stuck in ears.

      So this is a rather poetic piece of payback. Given the number of educated, proud ladies and gents from the sub-continent who can assemble a nifty argument, the BBC may come to regret prodding quite so hard, quite so often.

      ‘“Lord Patten’s threat to a democratically-elected Member of Parliament is almost reminiscent of something from the Soviet-era,” the Telegraph quoted Wilson. “It is chilling behaviour from the so-called public ‘guardian’ of this country’s dominant state broadcaster.”

      Meanwhile, closer to home (in all sorts of ways):

      http://isthebbcbiased.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/nick-cohen-on-bbcs-crackdown-on-dissent.html

      ‘The sinister treatment of dissent at the BBC’

      Chilling indeed.

         17 likes

    • Dave666 says:

      I would never have thought that the good old Auntie BBc would possibly cover something up, omit facts, bend the truth or lie. P.S. sorry this is in crayon but they don’t let sharp objects in here.

         11 likes

  10. AsISeeIt says:

    What is a mixed metaphor?

    A mixed metaphor is a succession of incongruous or ludicrous comparisons. When two or more metaphors (or cliches) are jumbled together, often illogically, we say that these comparisons are “mixed.”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30325448

    ‘Where will public spending ‘sledgehammer’ cuts fall?’
    By Tom Espiner Business reporter

    Of course we all know you make cuts with an axe and crack nuts with a sledgehammer. Although to illustrate the point the BBC provides us with a nice library picture of a scalpel.

    To be fair to our Tom the sledgehammer cuts quote comes from Frances O’Grady, TUC general secretary.

    There was a time when a trades union leader could be relied upon to know which tools were used for which jobs. One assumes our comrade Frances has rarely been required to open her tool box.

       32 likes

  11. Invicta 1066 says:

    R2 12o/clock. Jeremy Vine show, but where is Jeremy?
    I was expecting another scathing attack on tax dodging big corporations, with loads phoning in and e-mailing to condemn all those who practice tax avoidance, including 10 year old children Oh well perhaps another time!

       36 likes

    • Geoff says:

      I don’t recall him mentioning he was off this week, probably best!

      Maybe he’s away filming Eggheads and continuing to patronise the nice ‘proper posh ‘ Judith Keppel.

         26 likes

      • NISA says:

        Is that Vine, I thought it that other streak of p*ss, Dermot Murnaghan?

           5 likes

        • Geoff says:

          They both do it, champagne socialists that they are.

             13 likes

          • Nibor says:

            In The Godfather 3 the chief don hid some of his money by using his daughter as a front . She was well over ten though .

               0 likes

  12. Pounce says:

    I see the bBC has an article about a complex in London which has a rich door for rich people and a poor door for poor people, Yet the first person they interview says she is a student and she uses the……so called rich door.

    Yet also in London there are a raft of buildings where followers of a certain religion go to pray. Here is a photo of the front of one of those buildings notice the different doors for male and female. I wonder when class war and the bBC are going to bitch about that religiously mandated segregation of women on the streets of the UK.
    East_London_Mosque_Front_View.jpg

       58 likes

    • ROBERT BROWN says:

      I hope that one day this despicable building is turned into a pile of rubble…..as an Anglo-Saxon, i find it offensive and an insult to this country, this false religion has brought violence and despair to our shores, as it has done by force in so many previously civilised countries since AD832.

         32 likes

  13. Alan Larocka says:

    Puff piece on BBC Scotland at lunchtime about immigration and its affect on Scotland. Surprise surprise its a good thing and we would have had a massive skills shortage without it.
    Examples of immigrants were a Sikh and 3rd generation Italian businessman. No sign of the ROP.
    Tomorrow has a poll findings of Scots attitudes to immigration. Can’t wait.

       44 likes

    • David Brims says:

      The indigenous inhabitants, they’re so lazy, boring and er, um, white, while effniks are just so cool and hip !!

         13 likes

  14. Jeff Waters says:

    Ed Balls: Conservatives planning extreme spending cuts – http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31790067

    More austerity spin from the Labour party, but the BBC don’t ask critical questions such as:

    – Is this just scaremongering from Labour?

    – How much more would Labour spend than the Tories?

    If the answer is ‘not much’ then isn’t Labour’s choice of words dishonest?

    And if the answer is ‘a lot’, then won’t bond holders demand higher interest rates and drive Britain back into recession (or worse)?

    – Labour claimed five years ago that a Tory government would bring massive austerity, but that hasn’t happened. Why should we believe them this time?

    BTW, I seriously hope that Red Ed doesn’t become PM by entering into a deal with the SNP. The thought of two power hungry socialists running the country – one of whom wants to break up the UK – doesn’t bear thinking about!

       34 likes

    • Jeff Waters says:

      Just noticed something else:

      “The Conservatives are planning an overall budget surplus of £23bn by 2019-20. Labour would deliver a surplus only on the current budget and allow higher spending on investment.”

      I love the way the BBC apparently assumes that government spending = investment.

      For all the BBC know or care, that ‘investment’ will be spent on equalities officers, quangos or subsidizing degrees in non-vocational subjects. But as long as it’s government spending, it must be an investment that will benefit the country, right?

         38 likes

      • Mark says:

        Investment = wasting taxpayers’ money.

           25 likes

      • TigerOC says:

        Do none of the media remember when;
        Council Tax doubled in a decade. When pensioners were going to jail in protest because they would have to sell their house to pay their council tax. The civil service was employing 40% of the population and was still useless at everything they did.

           15 likes

  15. Pounce says:

    The bBC leads with:
    Tories plan ‘extreme cuts’ – Labour
    Labour has accused the Conservatives of planning “extreme” post-election public spending cuts of £70bn. Shadow chancellor Ed Balls made a speech unveiling Labour’s analysis of how Conservative plans would affect non-protected Whitehall departments. It comes less than two weeks before Chancellor George Osborne presents his final Budget before the election. Conservative chairman Grant Shapps said Mr Balls was “making this up on the back of an envelope”.

    and here is how the Daily Mail reports the same story:
    Ed Balls today admitted he did not believe his own warnings over the scale of cuts planned by the Tories after the election.
    The shadow chancellor said George Osborne’s spending plans will mean £70billion of cuts – more than double the amount admitted by David Cameron and George Osborne.
    He said if the Tories were to keep to their promises to protect spending on health, schools and overseas aid, this would mean the Foreign Office and Department for Transport being shut down altogether. But Mr Balls later admitted that he did not think that would actually happen…Asked why he made the startling warning if he did not believe it, Mr Balls said: ‘Because what the document says is if the government was to do those spending cuts, which are bigger in the next Parliament than in this Parliament, on the same basis as in this Parliament, that would mean closing the Foreign Office and the DWP. We don’t think they’ll do that.’

    The bBC, the leftwing schoolboy so called news agency which loves to suck labours Balls and gets the public to swallow what he ejaculates as facts.

       36 likes

  16. George R says:

    “BBC exec Alan Yentob tells court at least 16 Mirror journalists were involved
    in hacking his phone.”

    http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/bbc-exec-alan-yentob-tells-court-least-16-mirror-journalists-were-involved-hacking-his-phone?

       23 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Seems he was more of use for the people his BBC free promo card gave access to.

      That has to smart.

      As to the hyperbolic anguish superlatives, anyone would think he’d been forced to take a bog-standard minicab in Rotherham.

         11 likes

  17. George R says:

    Not INBBC TV:-

    “‘In this studio, I run the show’: Lebanese woman TV host stands up to sexist Islamist scholar after being told ‘it’s beneath me to be interviewed by you’ during live interview.”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2986066/Lebanese-TV-host-Rima-Karaki-stands-sexist-Islamist-scholar.html#ixzz3TtgsvCA9

       24 likes

  18. Jeff Waters says:

    This assumes that austerity actually exists, and isn’t just a left wing fiction. Otherwise, what would there be to ‘ease up’ on?

    Perhaps those who are convinced that there has been austerity could show me where on these charts it kicks in: http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/5326/economics/government-spending/

    And why is it his last chance? What’s to stop him changing course in a year’s time, if circumstances dictate such a move?

       36 likes

    • Richard Pinder says:

      Austerity is bringing economic prosperity to Britain, thanks to cuts, cuts and cuts.

      Three more cuts: (1) cuts in foreign aid. (2) cuts in EU payments. and (3) cuts in Taxation, will bring a spending and economic boom of unprecedented nature to the nation. But to better the Tories on taxation, vote UKIP for all three cuts.

         56 likes

  19. Guest Who says:

    BBC on FaceBook:

    BBC World News

    Tony Abbott: “I really think Australians are sick of being lectured to by the United Nations, particularly, given that we have stopped the boats and by stopping them, we have ended the deaths at sea.” http://bbc.in/1E4YMXu

    All the ‘robust’ comments JonDon could hope for.

    BBC World News

    The parents of the three UK schoolgirls missing in Syria have demanded an apology from the Metropolitan Police. http://bbc.in/1aWmaNp

    The Today Programme
    ·
    The government’s Prevent strategy aimed at stopping violent extremism has become “a toxic brand”, former senior Muslim police officer Dal Babu, has said.

    Here… not so much.

    I wonder which will be used via the medium of BBC Editorial Integrity, and which will not be news (c) A. Newsroom Tealady

       33 likes

    • Demon says:

      The British public should demand an apology from these parents for bringing up their daughters to be so evil.

         27 likes

  20. Umbongo says:

    On Radio 4 today’s 13:45 edition of “Promises, Promises: a History of Debt” informed a stunned audience (well a stunned Mrs U anyway) that Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” and paean to free markets was a rip-off of some 11th century Moslem sage. Apparently – according to the BBC – and setting aside, it seems to me, a little local difficulty concerning Sharia and debt – we owe everything underlying European civilisation to those good people from the Middle East and East Africa who have now settled among us to spread the benefit of their age-old wisdom. According to the programme blurb “David Graeber pays particular attention to Islamic attitudes towards interest and finance, revealing the surprising fact that Adam Smith’s free market ideology was heavily influenced by the work of medieval Islamic scholars.”
    BTW who is David Graeber? Read this if you can without throwing up violently. Graeber is an American anthropologist, author, anarchist and activist; Professor of Anthropology at LSE; an anti-capitalist intellectual thug and an inspiration of the “Occupy” movement. Just the kind of “unbiased” lefty academic the BBC can’t get enough of.

       48 likes

    • Mr Glodstone says:

      “Not a single scientific or philosophical idea of any merit came out of the Islamic world since the middle of the 11th Century; and the House of Islam has been gripped for almost a thousand years by an obscurantist theocracy which positively discourages scientific enquiry.”

         42 likes

    • Laska says:

      I heard that and was surprised how little evidence for the assertions that Islam had anticipated Adam Smith. The founder was a merchant who traded and liked trading and from that you get he anticipated the Invisible Hand! The latter has a number of rational steps regarding developing the rationality of the concept, the former is just saying let the merchant sell. Graeber argument didn’t need these dubious Islamic links, so his only purpose is ideological. And the proof of this is that many texts from Christianity that touch on these issues in a more nuanced manner but he ignored them. What is clear is that Islam has contributed precisely nothing to classical and modern economics. Just because somebody has a thought does not reach threshold unless it has the rational structure to explain it. A description is never analytic as Schumpeter demonstrates wonderfully in his History of Economic Analysis where Islamic sources scarcely get a footnote. Schumpters places Smith in his context and I see it as laziness when people go to him given that he was mainly an assembler and a compiler of the classical model, excellently as he does this. By the by, Graeber’s analysis of money was crap.

         2 likes

  21. Doublethinker says:

    I watched Michael Dobbs’s Weldon lecture yesterday and was disapponted. Whilst he did critcise the bias of the BBC on Europe and immigration he didn’t expand on these criticisms nor explained how these important issues were undermining democracy in the UK. He also diluted this criticism with lavish praise for much that the BBC does. He then became hyperbolic and suggested that the BBC and the World Service were key to the successful defence against Muslim extremism and its eventual defeat, because they projected our superior British values to the rest of world. Even if the BBC did project British values , which it certainly doesn’t, this would be a gross exaggeration.
    He seemed nervous whenever he was saying anything that the BBC might regard as criticism. It was as though he might get detention for speaking in class or a rap across the knuckles from auntie. If that is the best that a conservative politician can come up when given the chance to reflect for 45 minutes on UK Public Service Broadcasting in the 21st century we can expect the BBC to carry on as usual.
    Anyone who values democracy will see that having a BBC near monopoly of news and current affairs must undermine the very essence of democracy, which is plurality of views and open debate. Even if the BBC wasn’t so biased to the left, it is simply too big and over powering. I’m sure that all politicians know this to be true. Obviously the left love the BBC because it helps them so much. But as the Election Debates illustrate yet again , no matter how much the Tories try to move to an agenda acceptable to the BBC they will get no favours from the corporation.
    Basically in the UK today you can only govern with the consent of the BBC. To do anything which the BBC finds politically unacceptable requires the expenditure of so much political capital that it is scarcely worth doing and will cost millions of votes at subsequent elections. Lady Thatcher should have got rid of the BBC, she was the only person who could have fought and won the battle. The rest just quake in their boots if they even have to mutter mild criticism of the bloated, biased , arrogant, anti democratic state broadcaster.

       32 likes

    • GCooper says:

      Doublethinker writes: “Basically in the UK today you can only govern with the consent of the BBC. To do anything which the BBC finds politically unacceptable requires the expenditure of so much political capital that it is scarcely worth doing and will cost millions of votes at subsequent elections. ”

      That is the most astute comment made here for some time. It explains why Cameron was elevated from the ranks to his position – he was deemed the least offensive to the BBC. It explains why the Tories refuse to confront the BBC. Most of all, it shows the true size of the mountain faced by those who object to government by BBC.

         34 likes

      • imaynotalwaysloveyou says:

        Not if you get the army to occupy all their buildings, declare the entire workforce no longer required, and just switch their signal off.

           10 likes

    • stewart says:

      Doubleplusgood-
      However I do think it is possible to undermine the ministry of truths enforced Volksgemeinschaft

         8 likes

  22. AsISeeIt says:

    As we know the BBC loves anything out of ‘left field’

    This Nicky Campbell retweet just about takes the biscuit

    Nicky Campbell retweeted
    Sara Khan @SaraKhanInspire · Mar 5

    International Women’s Day 2015: Afghan men wear burqas to campaign for women’s rights http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/international-womens-day-2015-afghan-men-wear-burqas-to-campaign-for-womens-rights-10088743.html
    0 replies . 21 retweets 15 favourites

    What is supposed to be the attraction of this sort of twitter tosh? Is it a form of wishful thinking, a hopeful liberal projection onto those with other cultures? You could argue it is a mode of colonialist thinking which seems to say ‘Look, don’t be hard on these third world loons – even they can knock off FGM for a moment and catch onto International Wimmins Day – it’s not just homepage ident fodder for Gooogle you know – it’s a real thing? Just the one day, you ask… what is half of 365 anyway, and then there’s Leap Years – I bet an Islamic Scholar invented that in CE 14-or-other – there’s a thought for BBC on line Magazine’

       15 likes

    • Mark says:

      Leap years were invented by Julius Caesar’s court astronomer Sosigenes in Yr.708 of the foundation of Rome (44 BC in our reckoning, and, no, I don’t use this BCE/CE crap beloved by the academics).
      Most of the Muslim world still uses the lunar calendar of 354 days, so the Muslim seasons gain 11-12 days on ours each year.

         14 likes

    • Barlicker says:

      I’m in Thailand at the moment, so to lend my support to ‘International Women’s Day’ I had an oil massage with a beautiful and elegant Thai lady. I do so like “a happy ending”.

         4 likes

  23. AsISeeIt says:

    Now for the lastest in a new mini series we like to call

    “Meet the Beeboids”

    Introducing – Sheena Lahive (Hive Mind anyone?)

    Amoung her many accomplishments and skills our Sheena boasts of ‘Farsi (Conversational)’

    https://www.thetalentmanager.co.uk/people/2220/sheena-lahive

    Which is interesting (in light of the on going Sunnia-Shia kerfuffles which btw the BBC seems to think we should all know about) because she does like to sock it to those Saudis

    Sheena Lahive retweeted
    The Economist @TheEconomist · Jan 23

    When it comes to free speech in Saudi Arabia, Western governments tend to hold their tongues http://econ.st/1ClIidT
    Embedded image permalink

    And Iran, that paragon of free speach, I’m taking a wild guess, not so much criticism from our Sheena. I hope she will surprise me.

    But, with her clear interest in world affairs, who better to put a shout out for a BBC audience for a debate on immigration

    http://www.jcwi.org.uk/2010/01/06/is-immigration-destroying-britain-asks-bbc

    ‘The BBC1 programme The Big Questions is looking for audience members for Sunday’s debate titled “is immigration destroying British values? Anyone wishing to attend can contact Sheena Lahive via emai’

    And where better to put that shout out than the web site of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (Campaigning for justice in immigration, nationality & asylum law & policy since 1967)

    Well, I’m sure we can guess the opinion of people likely to respond, but come on, be fair our Sheena and her employer can be trusted to balance the audience in BBC debates – right?

    http://isthebbcbiased.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/rigged-bbc-audiences.html

    ‘Emails seen by The Sunday Times show a senior member of staff at Mentorn Media, which also produces Question Time, alerted a Better Together regional campaign organiser 10 days ago of forthcoming televised debates. A note from its producer, SHEENA LAHIVE, says this would give the organiser “a head start in spreading the word” to get supporters to apply to join the audiences in Stirling, Inverness, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. A Yes Scotland source said the nationalist campaign appeared to have received no comparable message.’

       12 likes

  24. Geoff says:

    “Call to tackle illegal taxis at Cheltenham Festival”

    ….I wonder who it is driving these taxi’s? Maybe bBC Gloucester could do an in depth report or interview a few licensed cabbies?

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-31798816?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_points_west&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=english_regions

       27 likes

  25. George R says:

    “David Cameron is right to stand firm on televised debates, argues Leo McKinstry.

    “Never ones to downplay their importance, the broadcasters are attempting to whip up public anger over the stalled negotiations for the TV debates in the run-up to the General Election.”

    [Excerpt]-

    “The BBC and Channel Four have an ingrained hostility to the values of the centreright, hence the relentless barrage of their propaganda, as reflected in programmes like the drama Ukip: the First 100 days on Channel Four or The Price of Inequality on Radio 4.

    “Even the BBC’s own Andrew Marr has admitted that the BBC ‘is not impartial or neutral’, since ‘it has a cultural liberal bias.’ Cameron is not ‘running away’ from debates. He is just challenging the broadcasters who think they should decide how we choose our next government.”

    http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/leo-mckinstry/562675/David-Cameron-is-right-to-refused-TV-debates-ahead-of-Election

       22 likes

    • noggin says:

      BS – isn t it George – they should stop covering up for him, Cameron is being his normal, slimy arrogant self … these crooks have it too easy, doctoring all and everything.
      I ve heard Lawson and the other bleating crony press

      Have the debates, if he doesn t turn up, “empty chair” him

         9 likes

  26. I Can See Clearly Now says:

    Mega connivance between the Tories and the BBC today. Big announcement by Cameron of 500 new ‘Free Schools’. Two hundred and seventy thousand places. Two hundred and seventy thousand places! What the??? The enormous, obvious question raised by this announcement is ‘Why do we need two hundred and seventy thousand more school places? But the Beeb isn’t asking that question. Instead; Beeboids and Tories dutifully do a little shadow boxing around the Free v State dogma. Started with Sarah Montague and Nicky Morgan on Today.

    Out of interest; does anyone know why we need two hundred and seventy thousand more school places? Answers on a postcard…

       25 likes

    • noggin says:

      I should imagine the very same reason we apparently need
      100, 000s of extra houses, all over the country every few months.
      My area,(all of our local small towns) are absolutely inundated with new housing estates, jobs are poor, wages abysmal, tin pot factory units go, some as quick as they set up. Local families, haven t suddenly acquired dozens of teenage children.
      … do the math… and don t believe the hype.

         15 likes

      • Essex Man says:

        All towns need more “Non hideously white” taxi drivers , there can`t be enough of them.

           7 likes

  27. George R says:

    INBBC: still euphemistic on Islamic jihad violence in LIBYA.

    Two headlines and reports on same phenomenon-

    1.) ‘Guardian’

    “Libya says Isis killed 8 guards and kidnapped 9 foreigners from oilfield.
    “Libyan guards beheaded and workers from Philippines, Austria, Czech Republic, Bangladesh and Ghana abducted; official says Isis is seeking control of Libya’s petroleum industry.”

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/09/foreigners-kidnapped-from-libyan-oil-field

    2.) INBBC-

    “Libya violence: Foreign oil workers ‘kidnapped'”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-31802393

       7 likes

    • Pounce says:

      Anybody else notice how when people are attacked, killed, raped by Muslims in foreign lands the bBC refers to them as…Foreigners.

      Yet when foreigners are the subject of conversation in the UK (Asylum seekers/terrorists in jail/ arrests etc..) the bBC refers to these people as…..British.

         36 likes

  28. Thoughtful says:

    Radio 4 PM has broadcast quite a lengthy piece on the phone hacking by Mirror Group Newspapers together with interviews with the ‘victims’.
    To give them their due they seem to have covered it fairly and in proportionate depth, given that the News Corp hacking was the first and the most shocking, and which prompted the Leveson enquiry.

       5 likes

  29. flexdream says:

    “The Conservatives said the Institute for Fiscal Studies had said the Conservative cuts would total £30bn, not £70bn.”
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31790067

    Could the BBC not be bothered to check what the IFS said, or would reporting that “The Institute for Fiscal Studies had said the Conservative cuts would total £30bn, not £70bn” have been ‘unhelpful’ to Labour?

       11 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      Wouldn’t be so bad if the IFS could make their mind up!
      According to their figures in December the cuts would have totalled £55 Billion and it just might be that the IFS haven’t actually said on the record that the cuts would be £30 billion?

      http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/autumn-statement-2014-tory-cuts-4750435

      I think the point which Balls is trying to make is that the Tories are promising the moon, and they won’t be able to deliver on those promises. The cuts are indeed savage, and will affect very many people – except that is pensioners who yet again have been left out of the swinging cuts.

         1 likes

      • flexdream says:

        My point is why can the BBC not contact the IFS. Are they not speaking? Instead the BBC makes it look like a Tory claim.

        I agree with you that pensioners are being exempted continually from cuts, in fact with the ‘triple lock’ and pensioner savings bond they are getting more money.

           0 likes

  30. Pounce says:

    Did the left’s ability to class anything as racist result in the death of this young man?
    Alex Peguero Sosa ‘murdered in racist attack’ in Devon
    A teenager was stabbed to death with a bottle after being racially abused at a taxi rank, a court has been told.Lee Dent, 42, from East Portlemouth near Salcombe, denies murdering Alex Peguero Sosa, 17, in Kingsbridge, Devon. Mr Dent used racist language when he later admitted the offence to another man, Plymouth Crown Court heard.

    Ok, 17 year old boy murdered by a racist. Lets read on:
    “The court heard Mr Dent and a group of friends had been drinking in Kingsbridge and former Plymouth Argyle youth squad player Mr Peguero Sosa had also been out socialising with friends…Both groups ended up by a taxi rank and one of Mr Dent’s friends, Claire Jarvis, referred to Mr Peguero Sosa’s hairstyle as being an “afro”. Prosecutor Simon Laws said: “Alex was of mixed race. Alex and his group took exception to this, saying that Claire Jarvis was being racist.”.

    So the dead teen took offence at a woman who referred to his hair do as an …Afro

    He in turn called Mr Dent a Racist and squared up to him in the street. Mr Dent Bottled him in the neck, a blow which resulted in the teens death. As he walked away he used a racist term to describe the teen.

    I’m sorry, yes somebody died, and both people should have walked away, Mr Dent is guilty of murder as at twice the age of the dead man he should have known better. Yet the fact remains this all happened over somebody finding offence in the term Afro over a fucking Afro hairstyle. Now if it is racist to say Afro can somebody explain this
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2/276-9101115-1216652?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=afro
    this
    https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=opera&q=Afro&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#q=Afro&tbm=shop
    this
    http://www.afro.com
    and this:
    http://www.loveafrocosmetics.com

    Help me here, is it now racist to call an Afro an Afro? If so why is the word in common usage?

    Did the the lefts penchant for finding fault in anything white when it comes to Coloured Black people result in the untimely death of a young man who had so much in front of him?

       17 likes

    • Aerfen says:

      This story is comparable to the recent Black man pushed away from train carriage.

      Of course this was awful behaviour by Chelsea fans in another country, but they had also pushed white people out of the carriage! The reason it got a bit more heated with the black man was because he challenged them, and even so he ONLY got pushed, not thumped not kicked, just pushed! No doubt hell get thousands in compenation from Chelsea.

         7 likes

  31. Jeff Waters says:

    Anyone know what this is about?!?

    I’d ask the lovely Yasmin myself, but she and I once got into a Twitter disagreement which resulted in her calling me a redneck (which I found a tad racist!).

       22 likes

    • Pounce says:

      Hodge tells Fairhead to resign – Full quote
      Here is the key exchange between Margaret Hodge and Rona Fairhead, when Hodge told Fairhead to resign as chair of the BBC Trust.

      MH: I want to come to you, Ms Fairhead, and I’m going to say something. It’s a bit unpleasant to say, and I’m just saying it as a licence fee payer. Having watched your performance this afternoon I’ve got to say this to you, that either you knew and you

      RF: I categorically deny that.

      MH: Or you didn’t know. And in that case you are either incredibly naive or totally incompetent. I don’t think that the record that you have shown in your performance here as a guardian of HSBC gives me the confidence that you should be the guardian of the BBC licence fee payers’ money. I reallly do think that you should consider your position and you should think about resigning and if not, I think the government should sack you.

         12 likes

      • Thoughtful says:

        If those standards were applied to the rest of the BBC then the whole of the senior management would be sacked !

           19 likes

      • #88 says:

        Hodge the Dodge grandstanding again.

        Why hasn’t she challenged her Labour colleagues on what they did when this became public knowledge (it was in the FT) in 2008.

        Hodge should consider her position. The BBC may love her but she is bringing the Committee into disrepute.

           23 likes

        • GCooper says:

          I would suggest that Mrs Hodge’s actions have bought the entire human race into disrepute. That the BBC continues to give this woman air time in any other sense than as the subject of a story exposing her past, is outrageous.

             12 likes

    • Jeff Waters says:

      Turns out it’s about this:

      Rona Fairhead should ‘resign or be sacked’ as head of BBC Trust –

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/bbc/11459910/Rona-Fairhead-should-resign-or-be-sacked-as-head-of-BBC-Trust.html

      It’s not often I find myself nodding in agreement with Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Margaret Hodge!

      PS Pounce – you beat me to it. 🙂 Cheers.

         12 likes

  32. noggin says:

    “Charlie Hebdo has been named 2015 International Islamophobe of the year …
    despite many of its staff having been killed by Jihadists in January.
    The annual ‘award’ was given by Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), a British group that claims to campaign against terrorism
    According to the Muslim website 5Pillars the award was given to Charlie Hebdo because of its “continual stoking of Islamophobic sentiment by caricaturing Muslims as terrorists”

    So a “magazine” is an Islamafauxbe?
    sooo, that means anyone there deserved to be killed then?
    this from the erm … Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC),
    … that name!, 😀 is a very sick joke surely,

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/03/09/murdered-charlie-hebdo-staff-named-international-islamophobe-of-the-year/

       31 likes

    • DownBoy says:

      I observe that any organisation using the title ‘Human Rights’ to describe themselves is invariably a bunch of sh*tstirrers out to protect evildoers.
      That goes for lawyers too, Mrs Clooney.

         22 likes

  33. chrisH says:

    I see Ed Balls godawfuk speech has shrivelled in his pants then?
    The BBC were full of his coming spurt from the geyser early this morning.
    Now it`s been ignored by anybody but the Labour shillers at the BBC-and you can tell it`s a dead bird to them.
    No flushed at the gills exuberance-and even the Libs carping about free schools is getting more press.
    Oh well-same shit Sherlock from the Labour Danger.
    Been a bad few days for the Dead Red Party-Milibands idea to make TV debates legally binding didn`t even get Prescott, Jones or Bryant to get to BH yesterday….that stupid then!
    And the Mirror gets pasted in private…but the BBC and Labour hope we`re not noticing their Cyclops crap.
    Sense the BBC and Labour are slowly dying day by day-they surely can`t keep sucking Haribos in their party frocks `til May 7th can they?

       20 likes

  34. I Can See Clearly Now says:

    After a week of stirring by channel 4, there is unrest at an immigration detention centre today – and C4 is using a helicopter to film the protest. You couldn’t make it up.

       26 likes

  35. Jeff says:

    I hear that yet more members of the RoP are a tad miffed again. Last week it was the organisation, CAGE, that tearfully informed us just what a kind, sensitive and “beautiful boy” young Jihadi Mohamed really was. That is until those awful beasts from MI5 got hold of him and bullied the poor boy until he had a complete breakdown and (understandably) began cutting people’s heads off with a carving knife. When they put it like that you just know it could happen to anyone…
    This week it’s the parents of the three vile little sla…. oh sorry what I mean to say is, the three innocent young ladies who happen to have found themselves heading towards Syria to do all they possibly can to bring peace to the area. Apparently the reason they’ve gone missing is all the fault of the police (I thought it would be) who should have informed their loving parents what their daughters were up to. So, it’s certainly not the fault of the parents or the Muslim community in any way shape or form. I really do hope you’ve got that.
    And now another Muslim, a former policeman, has criticised the Met for, and I don’t think you’ll believe this, not knowing the difference between Sunni and Shia ragheads. I mean how is such ignorance possible in this day and age? it’s unforgivable, isn’t it?
    I’m beginning to think that it won’t be long before we hear that several thousand under age white girls are being blamed for getting themselves groomed and raped and getting those poor defenceless Muslim lads into a lot of trouble.
    It’s dawning on me that we really don’t deserve to have this wonderful sophisticated culture living amongst us in such a brutal, Islamophobic and Godless land. If we’re not careful they might decide to depart from these shores.
    And then where would we be?

       54 likes

  36. Geoff says:

    Obviously not much going on in the West country tonight, Points West leads with the reopening of a case originally thrown out by the CPS, that of a hunt saboteur knocked over by a hunt horse and air lifted to hospital.

    Cue concerned looks on the beeboid presenters faces, video footage of the incident clearly shows it was an accident. No questions asked as to why they were on private land and plenty of time given to the protesters and animal welfare types to justify the reopening of the case. The hunt were not doing anything illegal.

    I wonder if the inbBC would be so supportive of these people if they were protesting outside of a halal slaughter house, which IMO opinion is a much more worthy cause and one worth reporting rather than this complete non story.

       33 likes

    • Mr Glodstone says:

      They would never protest outside a halal horror house – they haven’t the guts.

         32 likes

      • Mr Glodstone says:

        The same reason feminists raise merry hell about Page 3, but are stone silent about FGM: they know protesting about Page 3 wont mean you might have acid thrown in your face or your throat slit.

           41 likes

      • Mark says:

        Here’s hoping our jihadist soldiers will be having their guts splattered all over the battlefields of Iraq.

        (Sorry, Kinnocchio).

           7 likes

  37. Teddy Bear says:

    I don’t know if you have ever thought about just who should decide which politicians and political party should run our country, or for that matter, any free society.

    Seems to me there are a few basics that would determine how successful we are going to be at providing a secure and beneficial future. I know that ‘democracy’ is taken for granted in its present form, and few really think about whether it works in the best way for what our needs are.
    Perhaps it’s time to rethink our ‘democracy’.
    Who should be voting on our nation’s future?

    I’ll make a few suggestions and any one who wishes to add anything or disagree can feel free to do so.

    1. They should be those who support the infrastructure that provides the money that creates the services we enjoy.
    2. They should have been in full employment, paying taxes, for at least 5 years.
    3. Only those working for private companies, based in this country, should be eligible. Since they are the ones paying for all the service organisations, it is up to them how these organisations will be funded, and what services are required.
    4. They should have perfect command of the language.
    5. They must have been full citizens for at least 10 years.

    I think this is a good foundation to start from in making sure that only those who contribute to society, and its future, would decide how it will move forward. What benefits should be in place to support the infrastructure. How much should be paid and for how long, What policing, health service, school systems, etc. needs to be in place. It might be worth considering adding a half-vote to public service workers, since they also pay taxes, but they should definitely not have equal status to private workers.

    With these basics in place, we can see that many who are now able to vote will lose their right. But hopefully, with the more intelligent and productive, integrated citizens deciding on the future of this country, it should be able to develop a lot more than it is now.

    Who on earth would wish for 16 year olds, those who have no experience yet of the real world, to have a vote?
    Frankly, only those politicians who need to rely on propaganda and bullshit to push their policies. In this case Labour.
    Few will be surprised that they are pushing for this.

    As if this wasn’t bad enough, the director general of our ‘fair, balanced, and impartial BBC has also launched into this debate, and is supporting this Labour proposal.

    Why do you think that is?
    What do you think is the future of this country?
    shit-emoticon.gif
    BBC’s director general backs lowering voting age to 16

       28 likes

    • Angrymanupnorth says:

      To Teddy Bear. 9/3/15

      WARNING. Constitutional Anorak Opinionated Ramble Alert.

      I think there is merit in the hypothesis that “No taxation without representation and no representation without taxation” would successfully achieve more effective governance. I think it is a play on this concept that you are suggesting. However, proposing a system where those who pay tax may have no vote,seems to be designing in a fundamental injustice. We do however have a significant problem with the size of our state, and the numbers employed within its institutions skewing the vote along an unsustainable, expansionist, socialist, stateist direction. Removing votes from public sector workers would improve governance and the ethical case could be made, but would be completely unsellable.

      For what its worth, I think that each adult having a vote (excepting particular cases [dementia, insanity, imprisonment etc]) is the least worst option considering our lack of social cohesion and poorly educated,egocentric electorate. A problem appears to be the growing public misconception that democracy implies everyone having an equal say in all decisions, rather than an equal say in selecting a representative, and the expectation that the government should do what is popular (i.e.mob rule). This may be a symptom of the paucity of real leadership from honourable Brits with vision in the traditional LabCon parties. (Come on Nigel, Douglas. You can be those men!)

      If ‘ democracy’ continues to ‘develop’, as currently, towards a populist “everyone has a say about everything” end, then the inevitable result will be dogs dinner decisions – “Sodom and Gomorrah” cultural,economic and social decilne.

      Democracy, the worst system of government except for all the other systems? The US would just about have it right, if their politicians hadn’t/didn’t contravene their Constitution.

      Might I also add, that when considering “A good foundation to start from” it is always best to bear in mind that the starting point is the reality of the present. “Universal suffrage” is a reality and if an evolution rather than revolution can be achieved, universal suffrage will continue.

      Oh. And Vote UKIP GE2015 🙂

         14 likes

      • Teddy Bear says:

        Excellent post AMUN 🙂
        The vision behind my proposals is designed to address the shortfalls we see in our society today.
        The objective is:
        1. To get rid of the stupid bullshit politicians and replace them with knowledgeable experienced people that will have to be intelligent to attract votes by similarly intelligent voters. The debates would have to appeal to a far greater logic and reason then we see used today.

        2. I believe a society wherein most can trust those with the vote to use it to build a solid fair positive foundation for themselves and family is far more valuable than a system where just everyone has an equal voice. Some are more equal than others and this should be reflected.

        3. Naturally we must not be dictated to by other nations or ethnic groups as to what laws or qualities we choose to adhere to.

        As I believe you infer, if we take as an example of the demography of current birth rates, along with the existing benefit system, any values remaining of a free society are destined to end, and any form of democracy with it. Whatever happens it needs to be redefined to save it, and build a better society.

           5 likes

    • Richard Pinder says:

      UKIP Policies on improving democracy.

      (1). Get Britain out of the European Union
      (7). Give the people the ability to “recall” their MPs, without parliamentary or MP approval
      (15). Overcoming the unfairness of MPs from devolved nations voting on English laws
      (29). Local referenda for large-scale development, if triggered by 5% of electorate
      (30). Introducing the ability for citizens to initiate national referenda
      (57). Introducing more power for parents: OFSTED to investigate schools on petition signed by 25% of parents or governors
      (67). Replacing bureaucratic watchdogs with locally elected health boards for more transparency

         18 likes

      • Teddy Bear says:

        All seem intelligent proposals, and given the hostile and minimal airtime given to them, probably as much as they can put forward that will be readily understood than many others they also might want to see introduced.

           2 likes

  38. noggin says:

    “Ch Supt Dal Babu told BBC News many of his colleagues just “don’t get it”.
    “Ch Supt Babu – who is of Indian heritage and helped found the National Association of Muslim Police”

    What is this joker bleating about … how can insidious entities like
    the MCB be trusted?,
    how can he with such (usual) Islamic weasel words?
    Who else eh? … Mo Ansar? … how about Mehdi Hasan?
    CAGE? 😀 how about the ahem … Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC),
    How can any Islamic entity be trusted?, they are both political/in denial and overtly protectionist … and you always know what its endgame is, more Islam.

    Toady 2hrs 10 mins
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b054pj6w

    “Prevent” needs to sharpen up, be target specific, and no nonsense or ship out.

       16 likes

  39. thoughtful says:

    Currently the Labour Party in the North West are in something of a spat about the announcement by George Osbourn that Manchester would receive it’s NHS budget to administer itself.

    I posted a few days ago that Shadow Health Secretary, and MP for Leigh Andy Burnham was allegedly furious at being kept in the dark about a matter which should have been of the highest concern for him, the BBC reported nothing about it.
    Today the North West Labour MPs are having what one has described as a crisis meeting, again the BBC have reported nothing.

    “Despite local council colleagues having negotiated the deal, several MPs reacted with fury – questioning its democratic accountability.

    Some were said to be angry at being kept in the dark.

    Andy Burnham, shadow health secretary and Leigh MP, Wigan’s Lisa Nandy, Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Debbie Abrahams and Denton and Reddish MP Andrew Gwynne, all raised concerns in public.

    Now all 22 of the region’s Labour MPs have been invited to meet its eight Labour council leaders at Manchester town hall on Friday in bid to build bridges.

    It will be a ‘private discussion’ to ‘avoid further potential disagreements’, according to the invitation, although one MP called it a ‘crisis meeting’.”

    This should be news of national interest but for some reason the BBC just don’t seem to want to know.

    http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/devolution-nhs-cash-deal-labour-8805334

       20 likes

  40. I Can See Clearly Now says:

    Last week, the Torygraph and the Independent both had articles from not-usual-suspect writers on immigration. These were not detached analyses, but earnest pleas that immigration has to be stopped.

    Yesterday, the Sunday Times had an article by the heavy-hitter Camilla Cavendish: ‘Britain and Europe must slam the brakes on mass immigration’. It was powerful stuff.

    Even a UKIP optimist can’t see an outcome where Farage can gain power in time to stop us being totally swamped – it’s maybe lost already. But if enough top journalists start to address reality, then maybe – just maybe – whoever is in power will have to take notice.

       36 likes

    • Truthdoctor says:

      The BBC is desperate to distract us from this big election issue. They want us to talk about “empty chairing cameron”, NHS, spending cuts etc. anything except immigration and the fear we’re being colonised by islam.

      But there needs to be a big, honest, open national debate about it. It’s deeply wrong and undemocratic that the BBC is permitted to use its enormous power and our money to stiffle debate and try to set a completely different agenda to the one most of us want.

      I want to hear our political leaders talking about muslim child rape gangs and what they’re going to do about it, the failure of multicultural policies etc. The BBC has other ideas.

         37 likes

      • #88 says:

        Cuts, cuts, cuts.

        This is what the BBC want the public to focus on, on behalf of Labour.

        It’s as though it is 2010…and 2005…and 2001 all over again.

           16 likes

    • Mr Glodstone says:

      “I do not believe that the solution is simply to elect the right people. The important thing is to establish a political climate of opinion which will make it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing. Unless it is politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing, the right people will not do the right thing either, or if they try, they will shortly be out of office.” Milton Friedman

         13 likes

      • thoughtful says:

        And the influence of Middle Eastern potentates with sufficient funds to turn the heads of some insatiably greedy Western politicians?
        Why exactly did the Emir of Kuwait give Tony BLiar £27 million ? and why did nearly all of BLiars riches come from Muslim countries ?

           26 likes

    • dave s says:

      It has amazed me that it has taken so long for our commentators and others ( politicians are still in denial) to work out that immigration on the scale of the last 15 years has probably permanantly destabalized an ancient and cohesive nation.
      It was always obvious. There is no historical precedent anywhere for such a demographic change occuring without chaos and civil strife. Yet even to utter this truth is to risk the vitriol of an insane elite and their deluded followers.
      It is nothing to do with anything other than the reality of human beings and how they live in this world. Once a long settled people perceive an existential threat to the future of their culture and their ability to hand that on intact then something happens. It is not rational but it is human. The liberal fantasy was that somehow this reality could be legislated or wished away.
      A conservative knows better. Liberals have threatened the future of my descendants in their country where endless generations of us have lived. No greater crime against a people can be imagined. How this will play out is beyond my abilities to see but the omens are not good.
      It is impossible to vote for any party other than UKIP and if UKIP are perceived as moving towards real power then the BBC should back right off along with the rest of the liberal elite. Any other course will be disastrous for them. Change when it comes will be swift and unexpected.

         38 likes

      • Mustapha Sheikup al-Beebi says:

        This is one of my biggest criticisms of the BBC: that its correspondents refused to pursue the logic of mass immigration post-1997 to its obvious conclusion, i.e. in the medium term, displacement of the indigenous White British from some parts of their homeland and, in the long term, the risk of their marginalization within all or most of it.

        Enoch Powell had already pointed the way, extrapolating forward from the figures he had seen in the 1950s and 1960s; even at 30,000 to 60,000 per annum, we would be adding half a million new citizens within a decade or so, to say nothing of their higher birthrates. Over several decades, this would have a notable effect, so he called for immigration controls.

        If Powell could arguably have been said to be exaggerating somewhat in 1968, sound though his general conclusions were, his warnings took on more urgent importance after 1997. The increase to > 500,000 gross every year from 2003 to 2010, and even the latest official nett figure of still nearly 300,000, mean that things are likely to be worse than he foresaw – and much sooner.

        The BBC was always sceptical about the Thatcher economic policies in the 1980s, which was better than slavish loyalty to them I suppose, because the other side of the argument (social cost) was put. Similarly, the BBC should willy nilly have questioned all the optimistic assumptions about immigration and the supposed economic and cultural benefits, balancing the New Labour line with reporting on the immediate bad effects on some native Britons and the long-term consequences for them.

        For this reason alone, i.e. the lazy, sentimental, liberal/Leftist group-think on mass immigration, the BBC should be disbanded, for it has utterly failed those who pay for it in the most serious way. Maybe the expression “genocidal treason” is too strong; but it may not be, even if I won’t be around to see. For me this trumps all the other numerous failings detailed on this site, including general Left-wing bias, huge waste of money on IT and obscene salaries, pro-EU bias, lack of balance on climate change reporting, near-total lack of accountability, etc.

        D E B

           37 likes

  41. George R says:

    A non-Beeboid interview with Nigel FARAGE-

    “‘I’M TAKING ON THE ESTABLISHMENT, AND THEY HATE ME FOR IT.’
    “Nigel Farage on consensus, conformism and the virtue of dissent.”

    By BRENDAN O’NEILL,
    EDITOR.

    http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/im-taking-on-the-establishment-and-they-hate-me-for-it/16758#.VP4WJXysW9Y

       33 likes

    • D1004 says:

      Very good read, explains a lot of our current problems. If you read through the comments on the article you will find a little nugget of information which was apparently obtained by the CIA’s economic intelligence unit via Wikileaks that only 35% of Muslims and Blacks between 16 and 64 are economically active as against 86% of the Polish arrivals. When is the bbc going to tell us little revelation from that Australian chappie who lives in a foreign embassy ?

         20 likes

  42. Guest Who says:

    OT, but a tweet that does raise that odd segment of ‘news’ BBC editorial integrity appears to so far steered of:

    @HappytobeTommy
    Still haven’t heard @johnprescott criticise or resign from @DailyMirror despite his disgust at phone hacking. Everyone has a price #bbcnews

    Maybe tomorrow?

       19 likes

  43. Wild says:

    Labour Party supporter Mariella Frostrup is given a platform on the BBC (called Panorama) to argue that the State should ramp up the debt by building more houses. No discussion. No mention of immigration. Just Thatcher and “Right to Buy” was a disaster, plus a clip showing Ed promising that if you vote Labour the State will build more houses.

    Alternative opinions next week? No just more of the same. The Labour Party bias of the BBC is just desperate.

       46 likes

    • Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

      I only watched part-way through before having to go to find a sick-bag, or even a bucket. But it was noticeable that all the young people who were working hard to try to afford a flat in London were white, while those who expected ‘the guvmnt’ to provide for them were lazy half-castes.

         34 likes

      • Bodo says:

        Yes, last night Panorama. Probably the most blatant example of BBC left-wing bias I have ever seen. Disgusting. And all in the run-up to the general election. Pure labour propaganda, presented by a Labour supporter, featuring an endless stream of left-wingers criticising the Tories and supporting labour.

        http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t14n

           13 likes

  44. Flexdream says:

    http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sIluqUQehwQ&feature=youtu.be

    Nigel Farage going down a storm. Clearly not a BBC audience!

       20 likes

  45. Flexdream says:

    http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sIluqUQehwQ&feature=youtu.be

    Nigel Farage going down a storm. Clearly not a BBC audience!

       17 likes

    • Steve Jones says:

      This is why the BBC will do everything it can to keep Nigel Farage off air. They seek to demonize Farage and UKIP and can’t allow the public to see the truth for themselves.
      The BBC is making a watertight case in the run up to this GE for it to be broken up.

         8 likes

      • Mustapha Sheikup al-Beebi says:

        Meanwhile, Justine (Mrs E Miliband) was on ‘PM’ and other BBC so-called news saying how she expected nasty personal attacks on poor, dear, sensitive, decent Ed. Well Justine, perhaps things like, let’s say, Labour’s Sion Simon joking on video about Cameron offering his wife for sex to show himself as a cool ordinary guy, are part of the nasty world of politics? Oh, and will the BBC be interviewing Mrs Farage about the vilification of her husband? I await with interest …

           5 likes

  46. Guest Who says:

    @BBC_WHS
    Watch @jondonnisonbbc in #Sydney #Australia look ahead to special programmes on #asylum & #terror #auspol http://t.co/PfI7VDYNoj

    Go on, #you #know #you #want to (think they had enough hashtags?)

    In any case, you are paying no matter what.

       8 likes

    • flexdream says:

      As a legal non-licence payer who uses the radio and internet, at least none of my money is being wasted – apart from my contribution to the EU grant money the BBC gets.

         7 likes

  47. Miss Dominique du Slap says:

    The BBC has a cheek to even write reports like this…

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31647271

    I loathe the BBC. They’re the worst Islamic extremist grovellers of the lot!

       23 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Ah, but one is sure she leaves her politics at the bedroom door.

      A BBC spokesperson is doubtless soon to say. Often.

      Maybe time to get Jasmine back to the front line? You know.. for balance?

         8 likes

    • flexdream says:

      I’d trust LBC to run a radio debate. Otherwise I think the idea of a useful, balanced debate is farcical. It’ll all be about spin and sound bites.

         5 likes

  48. Guest Who says:

    What is ‘news’ vs. ‘Not news’ ((c) A. Newsroom Tealady) always intrigues, and not just here.

    http://isthebbcbiased.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/a-few-of-their-favourite-things.html

    Of course what does or does not make the cut is down to BBC Editorial integrity, hence in secret and anyway highly subjective, therefore hardly worth running by BBC CECUTT for comment.

    I have also just recently learned that the BBC editorial complaints service may be even more unique than suspected.

       6 likes

  49. flexdream says:

    R4 Today programme campaigning this morning in support of a Sierra Leonian athelete who is seeking asylum following the Commonwealth games as he says his family in Sierra Leone have now died from ebola.
    He may or may not have a case, and is being considered and has been well treated. However it is not ‘newsworthy’ and it is not the role of the BBC to promote an individual’s case on national radio.

       28 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Maybe he could share a bunk with Evan’s new chum and recent cause?

         12 likes

    • Old Goat says:

      Yes, I wondered about that when I heard this bloke wittering on, and on, and on…

         12 likes

    • ManchesterLad says:

      Yes I heard this 5 minutes of prime time radio propaganda too.

      Yes, very sad, but his case seems to be that he does not ‘want’ to go home. This is not asylum seeking.

      Asylum is for rescuing people who are in real danger of persecution if they return home. I agree we should provide asylum for people who are in danger.

      I’m sorry, he is not an asylum seeker and it was absolutely ridiculous that the BBC should allocate an absolute prime-time slot to advocate for someone who has no case for asylum whatsoever.

         25 likes

      • thoughtful says:

        Asylum has to have a ‘well founded fear of persecution’ for the seeker to be a refugee. A fear of a disease is not persecution!

           3 likes

    • Pounce says:

      The Guardian had a CIF on him and the vast majority of posts all demanded he be deported. Didn’t go down well with the ethical latte drinkers

         15 likes