349 Responses to START THE WEEK OPEN THREAD

  1. taffman says:

    The petition on immigration was debated ……………..
    http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/2d2e5038-cbf0-4a43-bfc3-6a6deb279c4d

       7 likes

  2. nofanofpoliticians says:

    What is uncontrolled immigration doing to Sweden?

    I don’t expect our beloved national broadcaster will inform us in any unbiased way, but this provides some insight

    http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6697/sweden-collapse#.ViYEm_QZGPI.

       17 likes

  3. Thoughtful says:

    Tata Steel cuts 720 jobs blaming UK’s ‘cripplingly high electricity costs’

    http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jul/16/tata-cuts-720-jobs-strong-pound-high-energy-costs

    The BBC therefore know that their Green idiocy is causing this, and they are ignoring that fact, or deliberately keeping quiet about it.
    The UK is a hostile place for heavy industry, which simply cannot compete with other world sources which aren’t crippled by stealth taxes, levies, and carbon levies.
    The backlash from the people made redundant against the green lunacy would not sit well with the BBC so much easier to lie by omission.

       45 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘Tata Steel cuts 720 jobs blaming UK’s ‘cripplingly high electricity costs’’

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34578119#%22

      ‘The industry blames cheap Chinese imports for a collapse in steel prices’

      Odd who the BBC quotes usually, and then doesn’t. That ‘the ‘industry’ is ncie and vague, ins’t it.

      They really have given up any pretence of being objective. Pure propaganda backed by censorship.

      ‘Educate and inform’ my shiny steel !@#$.

         28 likes

      • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

        Right, I’m never afraid to say the king hasnt got any clothes…right….
        So, who can tell me, how it is that china can dump its underpriced steel into the EU and kill off our own industry?
        Thats supposed to be a protected trade bloc of the EU…?

           30 likes

  4. seismicboy says:

    The BBC are so condescending and simplistic with their science items that you wonder if you’ve tuned in to CBeebies by mistake or if they have relaunched Blue Peter. I was searching for the name of one particular culprit who always gets my goat and who works on the One Show (Marty Jopson as it turns out) . However, in the process, I stumbled across this
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/presenters/
    Can you guess who it is yet?
    Ahh, halcyon days.

       12 likes

  5. chrisH says:

    You`ll not need me to tell you that the BBC have constantly piggy-backed their “British Steel” story of job losses with that of the visit of the Chinese Head of State.
    You know-so we can see their subtle linkage, such a clever daisy chain that makes us want to boycott all buying of soy sauce.
    You know-send a signal, show your virtue, let their inner China Girls feel loved up-and not in their Savile meaning of that term.
    I`ve been to China-it`s no future that I`d want-but the BBC normally do…Olympic Global Festivals, lots of Pocahontas stuff to sell and an arched eyebrow as the folk memory of Tianamnen floats off down the Yangtze.
    It`s their hypocrisy-their output is racist, colonial and patronising to one big country with a culture that`ll survive the next BBC Trust Review.
    The Chinese don`t give a stuff what the BBC say-but they`ll be noting all this, and they`ll get revenge in their own time. Face is everything-and the BBC spit in theirs as much as they do in ours.
    Then the BBC will side with them,and blame whitey for upsetting the Chinese-when the slimy lying, lazy colonials at the BBC caused the sour climate last time.
    The BBC are venal traitors-kow towing Burgesses and Blunts without the good grace to f*** off to Moscow or Ramallah-anywhere where Corbyns bilious outbursts get him a soundbite…a Gallowite in need of a gallows to receive a due suspended sentence.

       23 likes

  6. Guest Who says:

    OT, but close enough….

    http://order-order.com/2015/10/20/asa-investigate-friends-of-the-earth-leaflet-cock-up/

    ‘The Advertising Standards Authority is investigating, though knowing them don’t hold your breath…’

    Misleading? The BBC will be all over this surely? And the ASA… if ever there was an equally trusted oversight guano, this was it.

    http://www.bmmagazine.co.uk/newswire/balls-takes-university-job-in-london/

    ‘Ed Balls is to take up an academic post, in a clear sign that he has no intention of returning to frontline politics’

    Possibly a clearer sign no sane US institution has a bargepole long enough, most UK education institutions (But Kings… really?) are nifty featherbeds for failed lefty pols, and it may have sunk in that day care for the Balls brood was going to be tricky with the Atlantic in the way.

       10 likes

  7. Guest Who says:

    https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/bbc_news_hospitality_201415?

    S Craig left an annotation (17 August 2015)

    The intervention of the ICO resulted in the BBC’s admission that it spends a fair few licence fees on the lunches of senior executives who are paid enough to buy their own sandwiches.

    From: S Craig 19 October 2015

    The BBC refused to provide the information I requested on the
    grounds that it was due to be published “shortly” on the BBC’s
    Publication Scheme later this year.

    That was in August.

    The BBC has not published quarterly expenses since May 2015.
    Publication cannot be said to be “in line with established
    practice”.

    As the BBC has not publish this information “shortly” and has not
    done so in line with the time table in place since 2009, it is my
    opinion that you are withholding it and were less than truthful in
    your response to my complaint which was investigated by the ICO.

    You refused my request on the grounds that there was no public
    interest in disclosing information ahead of the planned schedule.
    It is post the planned schedule by several months.​ ​

    Will you either provide the answer to my questions​ or publish the
    information publicly online. Or do I renew my complaint with the
    Information Commissioner’s Office and make an additional complaint
    to the BBC Trust for your less than honest response following the
    ICO’s intervention?

    “Hello, Butterkist? I’d like to place a large order…”

       15 likes

  8. Cranmer says:

    Radio 4 had a programme yesterday about republicanism. The presenter made out that it was an important issue now that Labour has had their first openly republican leader for a century. They conveniently ignored the fact that Corbyn is leader of the opposition, not PM, and if he ever is in power it won’t be for another five years. They also pointed out that support for the monarchy was at an all time high. But that doesn’t matter in Beebworld, because they can always do a ‘but what if it wasn’t?’ speculative report.

    I’ve noticed this before, this ‘but what if things were different?’ types of speculative reports. It’s a way of bringing up ideas that wouldn’t otherwise be relevant. Yet the BBC never seems to do it with things like ‘What if climate change isn’t really happening’ or ‘What if Islam isn’t really a religion of peace’ etc. So we got lots of commentary from a republican bishop (WTF??), some Aussie republicans etc about how they think the monarchy has to be got rid of. To be fair there was some pro-monarchy commentary, but the whole thing seemed a pointless exercise in speculation.

    I had to chuckle however as the presenter rather tetchily said at the beginning, (paraphrasing) ‘before you start writing in to complain about misuse of the licence fee, we’re not here to promote republicanism, just to hear what people are saying about it’.

    Presumably in the same way they’re always interested in hearing what people have to say about uncontrolled immigration, leaving the EU, Islamic extremism, etc etc.

       29 likes

    • nogginator says:

      I ve been in China 5 times, in the last 6 years, I can tell you they d consider the UK Government erm “trade ideas” as laughable short termism, and are here to see what part of our infrastructure the f-ckwit Osborne wants to give away next.
      Also the Chinese way in deals, will eat incompetents like Cameron for breakfast, just wait til the deals about cut
      and they change the goalposts, to see how much erm “commitment” we have.

         16 likes

  9. Aborigine Londoner says:

    Finally a Migrant Story to shock even the leftist bBBC.

    Migrant crisis: Dutch alarm over child brides from Syria
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34573825

    Seems to me the budding Engineers are marrying underage girls getting them up the duff and then they can claim more.

       20 likes

    • Ian Rushlow says:

      The age of consent in Syria is 15 and sexual intercourse with a girl under 15 carries a prison sentence of up to 9 years. It is a lower age than in the UK or Holland, but it was possible for 14 year olds to marry in Spain until just a couple of years ago. If there are 13 and 14 year old brides from Syria then something doesn’t quite add up. Mind you, a doctor friend of mine assures me that she sees a lot of underage pregnant girls from a certain community in Luton, too. They are not referred to the police and social services are happy to turn a blind eye. Considerations of ‘social cohesion’ no doubt.

         30 likes

    • richard D says:

      The expenses junket should be stopped before a starting point is drawn for real required cost savings. There will be so many nice little niches of easily terminated discretionary spending that the BBC will have little or no incentive to really look at how they are spending £4.5 bn of our money, and where massive savings could be made.

      But I do get your very clear point of where the BBC’s priorities lie.

         10 likes

  10. neilw says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-34579451

    Interesting that they didn’t report the Twitter trend #boycottstarwars yesterday. It’s as if it never really happened. Amazing!

       8 likes

  11. Guest Who says:

    May be a repeat, but this is a BBC-related blog I guess it’s OK.

    Was idly surfing the complaints pages, and saw the latest that troubles them. Apparently (at least it is about actual complaints for once).

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complaint/snolan_050915/

    ‘Stephen Nolan’s programme had more than 600 calls on the migration crisis. It is clearly an issue of huge significance and one that divides our listeners, and as such we spoke to a range of people with different backgrounds and opinions.

    The nature of the Nolan programme is that it allows listeners to debate the big issues facing the UK and gives them a platform to share their views and argue their case. Stephen’s role is to question, challenge and probe all of the different viewpoints being expressed, as he did on this occasion.

    On this particular day, Stephen challenged a caller who put forward strong views that other listeners may have found upsetting. These views were robustly challenged by Stephen with a series of questions about the callers opinions and beliefs. At every stage the caller was given an opportunity to answer in full. We accept that a couple of the questions should have been better phrased, however Stephen was careful not to express his own views during this debate.’

    It’s true because the BBC says it’s true.

    For all else, a small disclaimer posted somewhere discreet usually serves.

       24 likes

  12. Thoughtful says:

    Peter Snow returns to the future Radio 4

    “The world of fashion takes some unusual turns, and none more extraordinary than this temporal trip to 1640 to witness the last Masque of the Court of Charles I, then forward to a 23rd century fashion show where the models are run off on a 3D printer and the whole thing ends in a riot. Peter Snow feels terribly underdressed but the writer Hermione Eyre keeps him on the straight and narrow.”

    When the reach the 23rd century we are told the lefty dream has been achieved and there are no longer any nation states, although what that has to do with fashion is unexplained.
    The fashion we are told is much the same as it is today!
    What a load of old bullshit! Leftie dreams for them equals leftie reality ! They can’t see any kind of problems along the way their insanity might result in!

    Here’s my take of life in the 23rd century leftie wonderland.

    The pair of them arrive for a fashion show where all the female models are covered head to toe in black bin bags with only a slit to look through and poor Peter & Hermionie are beheaded and sold into sexual slavery respectively.

    That is a more likely outcome, and not the one they want to believe in !

       24 likes

    • Cranmer says:

      Haha I listened to that! I know it’s only meant to be a bit of fun but I’d love to go on the programme and ask Peter Snow to take me back in time to show me some of the great moments in the history of socialism. I’d then tell him to take me back to October 1956 to see the massacres of Hungarian civilians by Russian stormtroopers.

         22 likes

      • Ian Rushlow says:

        Ah yes but the Hungarians deserved that. Just look at what they are doing now, rounding up and killing millions of poor refugees who are escaping Putin’s killers in, er, Palestine I think it is or somewhere like that.

           18 likes

  13. Sluff says:

    Last week – unemployment fell by 79,000. Reporting – about 7th on the schedule at 10.20pm on the 10 o clock news.
    This week – 3 – 4000 steel jobs lost. Reporting – headline news, plastered everywhere

    How does this statist organisation, drunk with its own unchallenged power, get away with such nakedly anti-government bias?

    And I might add that there has been not one jot of reporting about the high energy costs associated with green/bBBC obsession with renewable energy, which is impacting on energy-intensive industries such as steel-making.

       26 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      The BBC and steel…. they must be bursting out of Frankie Howerd’s back passage for all necessary to be present to discuss the current dilemma set and lines to snor… take…

      http://order-order.com/2015/10/20/unions-v-steel-industry/

      Bugger… Unions? Demands? Hypocrisy? This may need some careful phrasing. And no putting Jezza or any of his lunatic Shad Cab anywhere near anything other than HIGNFY (Dianne says hi and flutters her eyes).

      But… what’s this…?

      http://order-order.com/2015/10/20/bercow-javid-discourteous-and-incompetent/

      Well, if ever anyone knows discourteous and incompetent it’s the BBC’s favourite poison dwarf.

      Comments going well.

      How the BBC spins this will be a treat. Must check FaceBook later.

         10 likes

    • GCooper says:

      That’s been the real story today – not the loss of steel making jobs, but the lies told by the Left about the reasons for those losses. It was good to see Guido nailing the unions over their rank hypocrisy on energy costs but he shouldn’t have stopped there. The BBC has been doing the Left’s dirty work all day long, as it always does.

         17 likes

  14. Guest Who says:

    A couple of URLs worth bookmarking for a surf, and maybe fisk, later…

    http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/lords-select/communications-committee/inquiries/parliament-2015/bbc-charter-renewal/bbc-charter-renewal-public-purposes-and-licence-fee-publications/

    http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/communications-committee/bbc-charter-renewal-public-purposes-and-licence-fee/written/21779.html

    ‘described them as banal and ill-defined, whilst another said that they were so widely drawn that they could be interpreted in any way the BBC sees fit.’

    Like most other BBC guidelines. But still… ‘unique’ to the point of compulsion.

       8 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      A quick look at the written evidence published:

      National Union of Journalists – written evidence*
      20 October 2015
      Mr Michael Pollard – written evidence*
      20 October 2015
      MG Alba – written evidence*
      20 October 2015
      Media, Communications And Cultural Studies Association (Meccsa) – written evidence *
      20 October 2015
      The Freedom Association – written evidence | x
      20 October 2015
      The Children’s Media Foundation – written evidence |*
      20 October 2015
      ITV Plc – written evidence | ?
      16 October 2015
      International Broadcasting Trust – written evidence | *
      16 October 2015
      International Association for Media and Communication Research – written evidence | *
      16 October 2015
      Professor Des Freedman – written evidence | *
      15 October 2015
      Professor Richard Collins – written evidence | *
      15 October 2015
      Mr Paul Bedborough – written evidence | x
      15 October 2015
      Keith Hindell – written evidence | ?
      15 October 2015
      Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) – written evidence | ?
      15 October 2015
      Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM) – written evidence | *
      15 October 2015
      Guardian Media Group – written evidence | *
      15 October 2015
      Fujitsu – written evidence | *
      14 October 2015
      Dr Elena Draghici-Vasilescu – written evidence | *
      14 October 2015
      Creative Skillset – written evidence | *
      14 October 2015
      Commercial Broadcasters Association – written evidence | ?
      14 October 2015
      Channel 4 – written evidence | ?
      14 October 2015
      BBC Trust – written evidence | *
      14 October 2015
      Basca – written evidence | *
      14 October 2015
      British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) – written evidence | *
      14 October 2015
      Arqiva – written evidence | *
      14 October 2015
      Mr Julian Ruck – written evidence | X
      16 September 2015
      The Institute Of Economic Affairs – written evidence | *
      16 September 2015
      Professor Robert Beveridge – written evidence | *
      16 September 2015
      Equity – written evidence | *
      16 September 2015
      Enders Analysis – written evidence | *
      16 September 2015
      Mr Ron Hughes – written evidence | X
      16 September 2015
      Pupils 2 Parliament – written evidence | *

      I don’t know who chooses what goes in, or stays out, or if more is coming, but that is already an interesting selection of interest groups, companies and the odd ‘member of the public’ (apparently).

      I just took a quick scan and have marked * those I feel may be said to be erring on the BBC phile, X negative and ? competitors or neutral.

      Bloody hell, it’s like looking at the Future of the BBC stitch-up all over again.

      Mostly BBC family, insiders, ‘academics’ with fancy titles, and/or businesses seeking more public money via their sacred cow.

      Plus a few private public chosen to show how grubby the people are.

      I make it around 7 pro to 1 con.

      Get ready for the BBC to get more money, less accountability and even less challenge from the supine Tory government and its happy opposition committee members.

      Pathetic. Norman… Whittingdale… you’ve lost me as a possible voter, guys.

      “The BBC is a public institution loved by the people and of vital importance to the nation. It is unique in the services it provides to its viewers and listeners and its online offering. The NUJ believes the BBC should be protected and enhanced, not diminished. It is a precious part of all our lives in the UK, providing something of very great value to each citizen, and should be treated as such. There is no popular move to downsize the corporation. Far from it, we believe there is no logical need to reduce its size or scope.”

      Ms Stanistreet: I would agree with Dinah’s point about the talent that resides at the BBC. The BBC is made up of huge numbers of people who are passionate about public service broadcasting and demonstrate their loyalty and commitment day in, day out. That is certainly the case for all my members and other staff who work there. The BBC embodies their passion and commitment.

      The Chairman: We end on a very positive note. Thank you very much.

      What is that oozing sound?

         12 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      In the first of those links I found the oral evidence sessions for 15 September. The middle session was with David Elstein – who has had senior experience at the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky – and Luke Johnson who was Chairman of Channel 4. Incisive stuff, both of them slamming the regressive licence fee and making cogent criticisms of the gynormous BBC. eg BBC spending on original TV production per annum is down to £1 billion, 30% down from a few tears ago. Plus criticisms of how the BBC is hopeless at partnerships – including rejecting Elstein’s suggestion that a partner could run a subscription channel for the entire Proms season.

      http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/communications-committee/bbc-charter-renewal-public-purposes-and-licence-fee/oral/21673.html

         7 likes

  15. neilw says:

    Is there no fucking end to this propaganda? Right now on Radio 2 with that wanker Jonathan Woss there is some bint plugging a shit book about the Roman Empire, and they have to slip in a bit about immigration, and are trying to claim that the Romans were liberals who would be shocked at the way we treat foreigners today. Tell that to the Christians!

       40 likes

    • GCooper says:

      I might even be able to top that. Earlier this afternoon the Radio 3 announcer managed to get ‘global warming’ into his introduction to a piece of music!

         27 likes

    • neilw says:

      Ah, I wondered why this bitch had been invited into the BBC to plug her book, then I found that she “appeared on Question Time from Lincolnshire in January 2013 and spoke positively about immigrant workers living in the county”. Say no more.

      These people will stop at nothing, including re-writing history!

         26 likes

      • Wild says:

        Her response to 9/11 was to say that the Americans had it coming to them. Immediately of course the BBC commissioned a series from her.

           20 likes

    • Dave S says:

      Astonishing ignorance. Rome ruled by savagery and using ruthless force. It worked.

         18 likes

      • GCooper says:

        Ah, yes – but never forget that liberals live in a parallel universe where facts are plastic and less important than feelings.

           18 likes

      • Thoughtful says:

        It did until Mass Migration ended their mighty empire

           17 likes

  16. Guest Who says:

    No comment from me on the accuracy of facts or validity of claims, but this looks only, at best, like a poor ‘from both sides’ defence the BBC can mount…

    http://medialens.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=804:sick-sophistry-bbc-news-on-the-afghan-hospital-mistakenly-bombed-by-the-united-states&catid=53:alerts-2015&Itemid=247

    The final sentence may take some mulling by those who so avidly read the editors’ complaint logs each night, as the dilemmas to the BBC Top Trump Hierarchy Tree mount up..

    ‘Perhaps it is not surprising that the header photo at the top of Sopel’s Twitter page should show him listening respectfully to US President Obama’

    https://autonomousmind.wordpress.com/2012/10/04/bbcs-pro-obama-bias-shines-through-after-debate/

    Wooly hats off to them:)

    (c) Viewstheirown, clearly

       8 likes

  17. Cranmer says:

    There appears to be nothing on the BBC news website about the large anti-immigration protests in Dresden yesterday. All I could find was one paragraph buried at the bottom of a story on Slovenia, which is mobilising its army to ‘manage migrants’. They managed to include a reference to concentration camps made by one of the speakers at the rally, though, and made sure they pointed out that an equal number of counter-protesters turned up. But why bury the story?

       28 likes

  18. nogginator says:

    BBC Radio still giving time to moaning Islamic groups … oh! and as even as I type blabbering about that “clockmaker” and Islamist daddy meeting Obama, after some “trending” “viral” Islamophile propaganda.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-34264995

    Counter-extremism: May targets ‘all those who spread hate’
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34568574

    “There is a global threat from Islamic jihadists, and a very severe jihad threat within Britain itself.
    To equate this with a minuscule threat from a handful of neo-Nazi nut-jobs (who should, of course, be combated in any case, however much she exaggerates the threat they pose) shows how deeply May and the entire Cameron government are beholden to Islamic supremacists.
    Who will pillory the government as “racist,” “bigoted” and “Islamophobic” if it speaks too forthrightly and honestly about the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat.
    Of course, May is not just speaking about real neo-Nazis. She also almost certainly is lumping in all opponents of jihad terror that she and her government consider to be “right-wing” with neo-Nazis”
    “Future generations of free Britons … if there are any?,
    will condemn her and her boss Cameron as naïve fantasists whose draconian measures against counter-jihadists and blind eye to jihad activity within Britain,(except in the most egregious of cases) have doomed Britain to years of bloodshed and chaos.”
    R Spencer.

    UK. T May, targets “all extremism,” not just “Islamist extremism” ….. Muslims still enraged, (surprised?)http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/10/uk-targets-all-extremism-not-just-islamist-extremism-muslims-still-enraged

       15 likes

    • Doublethinker says:

      To true. The liberal left have penetrated the police long ago and we now have the CC of Greater Manchester musing in the BBC House magazine , the Guardian, that he is worried that by using such forthright language about extremism the government is undermining the British values of free speech and toleration. What a stupid man. Surely he must know that he and his kind dumped free speech over the side years ago. What would happen if I got a megaphone walked into Manchester town centre and said that Muslim extremists were a threat to British lives , British culture etc. Note I don’t say anything about doing violence to them. Well he would have his boys and girls round there to arrest me before I could finish my second sentence. However, judging by his record, he is quite happy to allow Muslim to say whatever they like about committing acts of violence against British society, even urging their crazed followers to kill Brits. So on the one hand he supports free speech for Muslims but is keen to deny the same right to Brits. We do live in a crazy world.
      I realise that slowly the full horror of what mass immigration of alien cultures has done is dawning on the left but surely they can understand that when you are in a hole the first thing to do is to stop digging. But apparently not because they still hanker after even more immigration. These people are stupid beyond belief.

         36 likes

      • Thoughtful says:

        You have to remember that Fahys boss is the Fascist Commissioner Tony Lloyd. A man who went to Palestine specifically to shake the hand of a man whose supporters fly the Swasika, give the Socialist salute, and offer free copies of Mein Kampf translated into Arabic. It is his left wing lunacy which has led to Greater Manchester Police turning into what is little more than a Political Correctness Enforcement Squad.

        No wonder Fahy decided to resign.

           16 likes

      • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

        What would happen …megaphone…etc….?

        It has hppened already, Weston wasn’t it?..all he dud was recite a churchill speech..and got arrested…
        That’s how useless our pathetic senior police are.
        Every time I see a senior officer on tv speaking now, I see a eunuch….a diversity specialised excuse for a man. The mannerisms, speech, attitude give it all away.
        There really is never going to be any help from those tossers.

           23 likes

  19. Geoff says:

    ‘Building Cars Live’ 180 minutes (over two days) of seemingly mostly recorded material! However its great to see a sucessful British product being produced by British workers, a shame the profits are German.

    Its only taken 85 BBC crew to bring you this production….

       18 likes

  20. Thoughtful says:

    Forget about being scared on Halloween, and get ready to be terrified by ‘The Blob’ !

    The Blob is the name given to the large area of record cold sea water in the North Atlantic and which is making forecasting the winter weather outlook all but impossible.
    Of course Global warming alarmists are all over this, telling us that the water is colder because it’s warmer again! They attempt to put this down to melt water which is not sinking because it has a lower salinity. You might think that they would have gone & measured this so they would have proof, but who needs proof when you can be alarmist?
    All this at a time when record refreezing of the sea ice has been underway for quite some time, the alarmists excuse for this is that it is only surface ice and not as thick as it previously was – not even allowing time for the thickness to rebuild.

    http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/oct/18/north-atlantic-cold-jet-stream-el-nino

    The Guardian article is quite neutral (for a change) perhaps this is why the BBC haven’t picked this up yet.

    Weather.com are much more alarmist:

    http://www.weather.com/news/climate/news/north-atlantic-cold-blob

    You can certainly expect hear all shades of Sh** comming out of the BBC on this over the next few weeks. My money is on a swing back in the North Atlantic Oscillation.

    Should we be worried? Well maybe if you want an accurate long term forecast, or if you’re concerned about a severe winter, but seeing as scientists are just guessing, and trying to make facts fit a narrative, and not the other way around.

       12 likes

  21. Leha says:

    The Blob = John Prescott

       10 likes

    • Essexman says:

      BBC news having a wankfest over Justin Trudeau , becoming Canada`s new PM , as he has policies they like, & the “Evil” Climate denier Stephen Harper is ousted .

         24 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        On Facebook they were using terms like ‘swept to victory’.

        I do not recall such positive hyperbole deployed when the results were less to their liking.

        Must be that editorial integrity they bang on about so much.

           13 likes

      • 60022Mallard says:

        The Canadians return to try again the socialist experiment – until it runs out of other people’s money.

        And lots more immigrants and “green” taxes?

           16 likes

        • Dave S says:

          Sad to see Canada go mad .In recent times the place has always seemed a bit flaky. Not the same sort of people now as those of the 1914- 1945 era at all.

             10 likes

  22. ray_f says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34572934

    Kids Company – do the sums add up?

    This report had a Have Your Say. When I saw it there was about 700 comments after maybe an hour. Then the comments just … disappeared. Is there any other MSM that just removes all comments that readers have provided. Comments should be archived with the report. Why do they have a button that says ‘DELETE ALL COMMENTS’. ‘ARE YOU SURE (Y/N)’. North Korea, Russia, China may ask for this function for state TV. UK?

    People take the time to read and comment on their reports, and the BBC arrogantly casts these aside. People can put a lot of thought into their comments. They are as legitimate as the report. In fact they give the report legitimacy, it shows a two way communication, unlike newspapers or TV. There arrogance is breathtaking. Do they not realize that the beauty of the Internet is that it provides a level of democracy, whereas the reader can express his/her view. If they don’t like people having their say then just stop pretending they want people to have their say. Just don’t provide the ability to comment on the BBC.

    I can imagine some faceless tw*t looking at the comments and just pressing the delete button.

       31 likes

    • Richard Pinder says:

      I’ve looked at my secret file of BBC staff from the BBC Charter Review investigation. And I think that the faceless tw*t who looked at the comments was Paul Wakely, and he did not like what he saw, so he told Nick Reynolds to press the delete button.

         10 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      The BBC has an ignoble history of ‘disappearing’ material that doesn’t suit.

      They have even vanished entire stories they themselves have published.

      The BBC is about as bent as it gets. Yet they claim, and most of the establishment parrot, how trustworthy they are.

      Is there not a Wayback/Newsniffer capture to confront them with?

         16 likes

    • taffman says:

      In the immortal words of the BBC’s very own Corporal Jones, “they don’t like it up em!”

         6 likes

  23. AsISeeIt says:

    “…the male contraceptive pill…”

    Or, Back to the Future

    Are there any Beeboids out there who aren’t hopelessly steeped in PC-approved thought?

    Old school Maggie Philbin, ex-Tomorrows World, was asked what previously futuristic developement we were still lacking in 2015.

    Her reply, of course, is a bien pensant lefty shout out – like as not to help her get some guest appearance on something or other.

    But steady on Maggie, we were supposed to be talking about the children’s movie Back to the Future and were in the realms of hoverboards – not fighting in the sex war trenches. Still, when men do start getting pregnant, we’ll get back to you.

       13 likes

  24. AsISeeIt says:

    Stop the world at the next bus stop, I want to get off

    BBC London tv news carried this but just in case you don’t believe it – here is a link to the Guardian (pass the fritatta)

    http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/20/man-charged-alleged-racist-incident-london-bus

    ‘Kashif Samuels, 25, has been charged with a racially aggravated public order offence over an incident on a crowded 149 service in Tottenham, north London, on 15 October, Scotland Yard said’

    http://islam.onepakistan.com.pk/urdu/name_meaning.php?eu=kashif

       10 likes

  25. AsISeeIt says:

    The government today announces a major step toward solving our energy crisis

    BBC tv news headlines shout “But critics say….”

    And the critics quoted are Greenpeace – an unelected supranational campaign group funded by, and in whose best interests, no one knows for sure.

       17 likes

  26. Dover Sentry says:

    “”Cage Takes Charity Commission To High Court””

    http://news.sky.com/story/1573252/cage-takes-charity-commission-to-high-court

    Not mentioned by BBC.

    Bias by omission.

       13 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Maybe they are using their renowned editorial integrity to engage a period of watertight oversight…. until the inconvenient facts to the narrative goes away?

      Again.

         5 likes

  27. Anne63 says:

    Off to a bad start this morning (rant alert!).

    God I hate the MSM – I tend to have SKY on in the morning to avoid the BBC but I think it might actually be worse.

    Princess of Stupid Natasha Devon MBE (!!!!!) explaining how attending a Micheal Jackson concert was a “life changing experience” for her. Good grief! Perhaps she used to be black up to that point and never told us. The other paper reviewer was Sam Delaney, who has a face I’d never tire of slapping.

    Then coverage of Xi’s visit and his ride in an “ostentatious” coach (which looked quite nice to me). Isn’t that what Picasso Face Jackson was? The silly cow reporting on the State Visit then went on to point out that the Chinese media are not free and were therefore treating the event in a very positive way. China obviously missed out on life changing Michael Jackson concerts before the idiot snuffed it.

    Must be terrible to live in a country where the media are controlled. I can’t imagine what it must be like.

    Rant over.

       22 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      Surely not such a life-changing experience as going to a One Direction concert that gets cancelled?

         3 likes

      • Anne63 says:

        No, can’t compare with 1000s of lives tragically ruined.

           3 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Were you at the cancelled concert? Tell us about your experiences. Please email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your experiences.

        So many experiences to share, they wrote it twice?

        Sorely tempted to write in and say “No, I was not there. it was cancelled. Hence, no concert. So, the few related experiences worthy of note. Twats”

           4 likes

    • ObiWan says:

      Yes, Sky News is every bit as infected with illiberal unprogressives as the BBC and CH4. It’s just one big incestuous pit of vipers – interchangeable people in interchangeable roles within interchangeable broadcasters. They all sing from the same mucky hymn sheet; none of them provide adequate (or, indeed, any) counter views, none of them engage in genuine debate (because that’s not what they want) and all of them kneel before the the altar of The Dominant Narratives (be that immigration, CAGW, the EU or ‘multiculturalism and diversity’, etc.) of the day.

      There are no genuine voices of dissent on the UK main msm broadcasters; all are in thrall to the liberal left agenda and no opportunity to bend the facts, lie by omission or simply misinform is left untaken.

      It’s a total disgrace – and it really is like living in an Orwellian nightmare where there is only ever one voice, one view, one political stance.

         22 likes

  28. AsISeeIt says:

    In these days of tightening budgets and careful scrutiny of costs, would someone care to tell us why BBC’s Rip Off Britain requires three identikit presenters – Julia Somerville, Angela Rippon and Gloria Hunniford ?

    The cost of the bucket-fulls of make-up slap alone must be astronomical

    Do I need a 3D compatible tv to appreciate the true value of this triplicate broadcasting?

    Gosh I do hope this ‘A’ team of consumer warriors save someone some money

       16 likes

  29. Guest Who says:

    Well, I now know what the BBC deems the bestest best break… gush news to rush out by email:
    —-
    140 migrants land at UK base in Cyprus

    Four boats carrying 140 migrants land at RAF base at Akrotiri in Cyprus, UK’s Ministry of Defence says

    Woo hoo! Look forward to any analysis on what possible reasons may lie behind this feat of navigation. Or questions of the military on how sensitive defence sites can now be approached successfully without challenge.

    Nifty precedent.

       23 likes

  30. Jerry Owen says:

    I watched James May’s making a car live last night on BBC2. I thought it would be politic free, but no I was wrong.
    We had his co host blond woman ( I don’t know her name ) taking a trip to Norway ( at our expense ) to tell us how the nation had embraced the electric car…18% apparently. If 18% is called embracing I clearly have had the meaning of the word wrong all my life! We were told that bus lanes could be used car parking was free and electric was free.
    Electric of course isn’t free, it is produced and it is sold, she should have said that the electric was paid for by other tax payers. Free car parking means of course efficient time use isn’t made of car parks thus impeding on paying customers, and presumably electric cars using bus lanes will clog them up in certain areas.
    She informed us that she wasn’t sure about electric cars at the front of her piece ( yeah right! ) because of their range and availability of recharging points. But surprisingly ( ! ) after a test in a £50k plus Tesla ( we will all have one then ) she asked the question.. ‘is the future electric? I think it just may be’. Easily swayed or devils advocate?
    We also had a brief non explanation of why our car manufacturing went bust. I quote from the BBC as it is their own words.. ‘The British car industry tore itself apart’. I am old enough to remember red Robbo and the militant unions striking at the drop of a comrades flat cap, but the BBC quickly glossed over actually quite an important part of British car making history.
    Part two is tonight and actually worth watching although watching James May on his own makes you realize just how funny and watchable Jeremy Clarkson made the Top Gear series. Incidentally I wonder if Danny Cohen sees the irony of getting rid of Clarkson only to find himself some months later following him to the rather less than iconic ‘Amazon channel’?

       24 likes

    • Geoff says:

      What happens when 90% have an electric car, can they all drive in bus lanes, park for free and recharge for free?

      Battery technology and longevity wasn’t mentioned and lets hope once all these people have arrived at work they don’t need to go out at lunchtime, because they won’t be fully recharged, or in the winter what is their range with headlights, heating and windscreen wipers all running?

      As I mentioned in an earlier post the program has 85 BBC staff on site and 80% of the program consists of recorded material, hardly ‘live’

         21 likes

    • JimS says:

      Here in the UK we are going into yet another winter with our electric supply on the limits of its capacity.

      Surely it must be obvious to anyone that replacing diesel and petrol cars with ‘electric’ cars will require more electricity than we use at the moment? Where will it come from? We don’t have enough land to house all the part-time wind farms and the sun doesn’t shine at night!

      I understand that DECC believes that to meet our emission targets we will need to stop using gas to heat our homes. We will instead use electricity.

      None of this is a problem, we just need to plug our cars and heaters into the wall, simples…

         14 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      What I am prepared to concede is that in Norway ‘leccy cars are likely a bit lower on the GHG at point of generation thanks to hydro vs. many other countries.

      A point a BBC journo in their one ton 4×4 seems happy to ignore as they tootle up the M4 waving at the Ecotricity turbine outside Reading, ignoring the various coal, gas, nuke and wood pellet stations actually pumping out CO2 across the land so they can feel warm and worthy in their subsidised smugmobile.

         7 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Also if everyone has a ‘leccy car, and the country relies only on Dave’s rooftop twirly and Ed’s unicorn farts, come a still day I’d allow about that day to boil the kettle, assuming the grid still works.

           5 likes

  31. Arthurp says:

    And for what – here’s evidence that the effect on climate change of increasing CO2 is overestimated by a factor of 5 to 10

    In Perth

    Mind you anyone can see that by looking at the poor correlation between temperatures and CO2 concentrations.

       8 likes

    • The Old Bloke says:

      You know, there are times when I scratch my head in wonderment at some of the things that folk say, as if they have just discovered what other discovered years and years ago. When I was a geography student (and heavily into meteorology) the books I read then talked about how the sun’s cycles affected our weather and climate. I have studied in depth the sun cycles and correlated the weather (climate) data (actual, no modelling) and saw for my own eyes what the relationship was. In my village I’m known as “the weatherman” and often get asked what the weather is up to and based on my own study of climate variation based on sunspot activity (solar radiation)and told folk last November that historical evidence (over 150 years) states that we are in for a cold and protracted winter and that 2015 looked like it would be cool and dry. Sure enough, bang on the money.
      Today I read of someone in Perth banging on about his “discovery” which in relates to sun spot/radiation activity and that Co2, surprise, surprise, is not the main driver of Global Warming. I do despair. It troubles me somewhat that he also states that the over cooking of the eggs by either five or ten fold is not an exact scientific statement. Is it 5 or is 10? If you are so unsure, why not 15 or 20?
      Anyway, the Northern hemisphere is cooling, fact, something, according to Roger Harrabin of the BBC, shouldn’t be happening. Oh and if you are off to Scotland on Sunday, take your skis and shovel and a warm blanket or two. Funny how no-one ever mentions the affect of solar radiation upon our climate. I wonder why? A cool dry year? Well Dartmoor has had a “frost day” every month this year and has been the driest for 43 years. Fact, and not a Met Office model in site.

         23 likes

      • scribblingscribe says:

        Agree with all you say from Sun activity to Roger Harrabin but can you offer proof that the Northern hemisphere is cooling? ie as opposed to NOT warming since 1996.

           1 likes

      • Old Goat says:

        Remember Tony Abbott? Remember Stephen Harper? Remember they were both against the global warming claptrap, and said so, and consequently became enemies of the UN, and subsequently lost their premierships?

        Remember, too, last year Christopher Monckton warning the Australians (and us all) of the likely course of events?

        Here’s a reminder…

           12 likes

        • Geoff says:

          Thanks for that, that he certainly can’t be accused of being a conspiracy theorist.

          We live in worrying times.

             10 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Hmmn. That’s interesting, Arthur. Thanks for the link.

      Bearing in mind that our planet does seem to demonstrate an ability to adjust and/or heal itself, I have from time to time pondered whether the attempts by some politicians, scientists & enviro-mentalists to cut the rate of increase of CO2 emissions and eventual the level of them may actually cause much more harm than good.

      These politicians, scientists & enviro-mentalists seem quite oblivious to the fact that through history a lot of ‘early science’ was distinctly dodgy if not outright wrong and that everyone should be very cautious about being dogmatic about science. I was taught at school a long time ago that good scientists say “We think … “, “It appears that … ” and “From experiments & observations made so far it seems that … “.

      Interestingly, the Physics teacher who told us that at regular intervals was interested in science as a consuming passion, not just a job, and was interested in the environment & ecology very early on. He would have exploded if he’d had to listen to some of the statements made over the last twenty years although it’s possible he’s still alive now and has heard them.

         4 likes

  32. Roland Deschain says:

    Today’s weighty topic for discussion is… Is Canada’s new PM the only world leader with a tattoo?

    It’s being treated with the disdain it deserves.

    27. spinal tap
    What a thoroughly intriguing article and opening a HYS on this topic is very relevant to current world affairs. Wait a minute… I’m off for a poo if anyone cares.

       15 likes

    • mikehunt says:

      Yes, they’ve chosen a variety of arty looking pictures of him.

      Apparently ‘The design is borrowed from the Haida people indigenous to Canada’s Pacific north-west’

      No question about whether such cultural appropriation is PC or not, we don’t worry about things when we’ve got a swoon-inducing lefty in power.

         7 likes

  33. Oldspeaker says:

    Old news, just a take on clockboy and his presidential candidate father that you probably won’t see on the BBC,

    https://willyloman.wordpress.com/2015/09/17/whats-the-story-with-ahmed-mohamed-and-his-ridiculous-briefcase-clock-the-answer-lies-with-his-father/

    It would seem the boys father had a little inside help, and just played the media along until they danced to his tune, the whole charade gains momentum helped along by wilfully lacklustre journalism or just plain laziness, and bingo, result.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34587285

       18 likes

  34. Thatcherrevolutionary says:

    After the loss of 270 steelworking jobs in Scotland yesterday, not hearing too much from the poison dwarf about this…….No wonder. Don’t think we’ll see too much of the little shite till this all dies down.

    Steel Contracts for the new Forth Crossing awarded by the Scottish Government.

    “FCBC conducted an extensive review of the world’s leading suppliers to ensure the major steel components are delivered on time and within budget, maintaining best value for the public purse.

    The first fabrication is taking place at Crist in Gdansk, Poland which will produce 4,200 tonnes of steel to form the project’s massive caisson foundations. Around 8,500 tonnes for the steel bridge sections will be fabricated at Tecade-Megusa in Seville, Spain and 24,500 tonnes will be fabricated at Zhenhua Heavy Industries in Shanghai, China.

    These companies have strong track records of delivering world class steel for major infrastructure works such as the Puente De Cadiz for Tecade-Megusa, the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge in USA and Hardanger Bridge in Norway for Zhenhua Heavy Industries”

       24 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      The BBC continues to evade the prime reason Tata Steel gave for their latest closures – the excessive cost of electricity imposed by climate alarmists and the EU

         25 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      I suspect EU procurement rules are behind that. It would be interesting, if so, to hear Madame Krankie deal with that when threatening another Scottish referendum if the UK votes to leave the EU.

         11 likes

  35. ObiWan says:

    BBC being all kinds of slippery viz the Chinese and UK problems with steel production. This is a great example of how the BBC lies by omission, or just plainly disregards any facts that hurt the narrative it wishes to adopt.

    One thing the majority of British steel producers seem pretty united on is their view that this Government’s (i.e. the EU’s) policies on carbon taxing (therefore the price of energy to UK industry) is crippling their industry, whilst simultaneously providing a very unfair playing field, especially to our Chinese friends (who, untroubled by climate change idiocy, have naturally taken advantage of the commercial opportunities thereby provided).

    The BBC doesn’t seem (or want) to understand this. The Corporations blames the Chinese for ‘flooding the market’ with cheap steel. It doesn’t want to ask itself why that might be?

    Lunatic ‘climate change’ legislation flooding out of the EU’s filthy orifice is, of course, designed to cripple not just Britain’s industrial capacity, but those of all EU member states. This is how ‘wealth redistribution’ works for the EU and its mates in the UN. You begin by systematically closing down (or making ‘unfeasible’) existing industrial infrastructure and then by transferring those industries (and by extension those jobs) to ‘Less Developed Nations’ – all in the name of ‘climate policy’.

    It’s pretty clear to anyone with even an ounce of sense what is happening here. I don’t blame the Chinese at all. They have seen the idiocy of our ways and have just taken fair advantage of an unfair situation they didn’t create.

       30 likes

    • taffman says:

      Time to get out of the EU – Its not fit for purpose .

         18 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      ObiWan – you explain the full background to the steel closures, the BBC is still giving us only part of the picture, twisting the facts as usual.

         19 likes

    • Jerry Owen says:

      Agree with your post, but one point that hasn’t been mentioned anywhere as far as I can see is that British steel is far superior than just about any other steel in the world hence it should carry a premium price logically anyway. Sheffield steel is of course world renowned and it owes its historical success down to the geography in that area in that it has five ( I believe ) large water tributaries, water of which is essential in the making of high grade steel.

         11 likes

    • DownBoy says:

      They will be unbiased when hell freezes over, which it won’t do because hell is heating up and the science is settled so no further ‘journalism’ required.

         3 likes

  36. Jerry Owen says:

    A big police chief of greater Manchester tells us on LBC this morning a number of interesting things, first that females should not go to prison and be criminalized as the result is worse ( family children etc… do not men have those! ) than if they were left in the community and taught their errors, so crime can in fact go unpunished if you are a woman. He then tells me they don’t have enough officers to cut crime, then in the next breath that crime is falling.. err isn’t that job accomplished then?
    When asked about police investigation of internet fraud by a caller his response is that if people were more careful there would be very little internet crime, so clearly it is our own stupid fault rather than criminal activity. We are then told that there aren’t enough officers to investigate car crimes as they have a real threat from ‘extremism’ ( yes he is all over the place ) so they have to prioritise car crime, so if you are old you need your car more apparently and so you will have an investigation, although he didn’t specify at what age this would come into force (sic).
    He informs us that there is a real problem with children ( Muslim.. although he didn’t say ) being ‘radicalized’ by the internet as ‘radicalism’ is beamed into their bedrooms. I wonder how many here have had radical Islam beamed into their computer? I have had the internet now for at least a decade and can safely say that not one shred of Islamic radicalism has been beamed at me, is my computer different to those that have computers in the Islamic republic of Tower Hamlets? Am I wrong in assuming you get what you actively look for on the internet?
    Further he informs us that the new anti terrorism laws coming in will have to be seen not to be anti Islamic as of course we have issues with radical extremist Christian fundamentalists as well …… yes I kid ye not! This is so serious a lie I actually find it hard to laugh at, this is warped speech beyond comprehension.
    On a separate note LBC took us to the news where we were told that a boat load of terr…. immi…. spong… asylum seekers ( new I would get there ) have landed in Cyprus which is British sovereign land… with lots of children aboard of course and one presumes a few fluffy teddies too! This is the same Cyprus that has our military aircraft carrying out operations against Isis. Isn’t there some Alice in wonderland liberal perversity at play here whereby we transport many of our young fit male ideological enemies from their home land to an area of military sensitivity? Just an hour or so of LBC tells us just what a dysfunctional Island GB has become.

       33 likes

    • taffman says:

      More importantly what is our Prime Minister doing about this , perhaps Essexman will tell us ?

         14 likes

      • Essexman says:

        Yes , will RAF Akrotiri is a Sovereign Base , which does have a lot of beach, that fronts the Med. The airfield & admin buildings are surrounded by a fence , but this does not extend to the beach. The smugglers are thinking this is a back door into England , but no, Immigration comes under the Greek Cypriot government , in the Greek part .

           0 likes

        • taffman says:

          Its all very embarrassing for the Prime minister really, The British bases on Cyprus are at the forefront of the battle with ISIS. Consider the security implications had the ‘invaders’ been hostile .
          All our Armed Forces are seriously depleted because of the lack of investment by our present Government. It is reminiscent of the state of the our Nation in September 1939.

             1 likes

    • shelly says:

      So using the Police Chief’s “logic” anyone who has anything unsavoury on their computer, is not guilty of a sex crime, they have actually been groomed by unknown felons, beaming porn straight into their bedrooms.

      It’s all the internet’s fault !

         21 likes

    • Aborigine Londoner says:

      We do have problems with radical churches and they beam into certain households on Sky channels.
      Remember Victoria Climbie, Adam the torso,?
      Not only do these churches preach witchcraft and wickedly abuse children, they also broadcast some of the most racist anti-white filth without challenge.

      http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2015/10/phenomenal-growth-of-churches-in-uk-linked-to-child-witchcraft-accusations

         14 likes

    • ObiWan says:

      “…On a separate note LBC took us to the news where we were told that a boat load of terr…. immi…. spong… asylum seekers (knew I would get there )…”

      Lol. Well done! You’re already doing better than all of the msm combined – they still use the word ‘migrants’ for some unfathomable reason which flies directly in the face of all statistical and verifiable data to date.

         17 likes

    • Arthurp says:

      I’ve had radical Islam beamed at me – comes from a site http://www.bbc.co.uk or something similar.

         8 likes

  37. nogginator says:

    “BBC Radio still giving time to moaning Islamic groups … oh! and as even as I type blabbering about that “clockmaker” and Islamist daddy meeting Obama, after some “trending” “viral” Islamophile propaganda.”
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-34264995
    Here it is
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34587284

    Completely, constructed “Islamo-victimhood train” … folks, as usual immediate trendies, twitterfarties are “on board”,
    (sorry 😀 ) and the Al BBC.
    sanity on the issue …

       20 likes

    • nogginator says:

      Clock boy Ahmed Mohamed meets Obama, decides to move to Qatar
      “I know how you feel, Ahmed. If I ever met Obama face to face … I am sure I would want to leave the country as well.
      Seriously … Ahmed Mohamed didn’t build anything. He just fit existing clockworks into a pencil box.”

      “There are ominous implications of this entire episode, with the inevitable effect that school officials will be wary of stopping Muslim students with suspicious objects — making Obama exceedingly irresponsible, or worse, to join in the lionization and canonization of this boy”

      “Ahmed is the darling of the political and media elites, and yet, according to a family friend,
      “Everybody’s vilifying him, and he’s not a villain.”
      Everybody? … Obama and Zuckerberg and Clinton and Sergey Brin and Omar Bashir and Ban Ki-moon and the Queen of Jordan are vilifying him?
      The mainstream media, with its endless series of weepy creepy pieces denouncing the school and glorifying Ahmed — they’re vilifying him?”
      R Spencer

      http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/10/clock-boy-ahmed-mohamed-meets-obama-decides-to-move-to-qatar

         21 likes

      • G.W.F. says:

        Ahmed the clock boy has been named as Muslim of the year by CAIR. Don’t tell the BBC, their Muslim of the year won the cake competition.

           21 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘Who does the training ?’

      That market rate talent lady who sent the ‘don’t tweet anything stupid’ once?

      That worked soooo well.

         9 likes

    • Arthurp says:

      I think it is sponsored by EU funding.

         8 likes

  38. John Anderson says:

    Whenever there is trouble with the Palestinians BBC types like Mishal Husain yammer on about “proportionality” – trying to depict the Israeli responses as too harsh, unfair on the poor “occupied” Palestinians. Whereas to many of us the Isreali responses are usually restrained, given the blind hatred they face. One of my favourite US writers is Victor Davis Hansen, a farmer in California and a noted historian of wars in the ancient word. In this article he slaps down the absurdity of the “proportionality” argument – if you have to stop the trouble, you have to squash it flat. Like Carthage, and like Germany and Japan had to be deterred from any resurgence of militarism.

    http://www.nationalreview.com/article/425787/obama-palestinians-istaelis

    But his arguments are far too complicated for the poor appeasing souls at the BBC to grasp.

       22 likes

  39. Dover Sentry says:

    Today is Trafalgar Day. (If you have to ask, you don’t need to know).

    No mention on the BBC. But loads on the new film ‘Back To The Future’.

    Take a look at the past BBC, and how we dealt with European Dictators.

    ..

       24 likes

    • Cranmer says:

      If the BBC ran a story on it at all, it would probably be about some Spanish group objecting to the name ‘Trafalgar Square’.

         22 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      and this Saturday is the 600th anniversary of the Eve of Agincourt. It will be covered wall to wall by the BBC, no doubt, as they are so keen to remind us of our proud national history !

         22 likes

    • Steve Jones says:

      Decided to listen to ‘Tommies’ on R4 today as it was touted as being a meticulous reconstruction of events during WW1 using regimental archives, diaries etc. That should be interesting, I thought. Turned off after 5 minutes. Here is a tricky question for you all. Do you think the BBC used the programme as an opportunity to push a number of its favourite agendas?

         19 likes

      • GCooper says:

        The BBC uses almost every programme to push one of its favourite agendas. We could have a fun thread just spotting the most ioncongrous – and I reckon R3’s worming of ‘climate change’ into an announcement yesterday would be quite high up there. But I bet there are even worse!

           12 likes

  40. Guest Who says:

    https://twitter.com/BBCNormanS/status/656791447803424768

    Seems the BBC’s Norman Smith has the absolutely clearest idea when “quotes” should be used and when not, to achieve maximum ‘accidental’ editorial integrity effect.

       17 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Norm on a roll, clearly…

      Views ‘not his own’ presumably?

      Interesting editorial precedent.

         23 likes

  41. scribblingscribe says:

    Just watching Daily Politics with Andrew Neil being his usual, wonderful, belligerent self. But had to turn off following the broadcasting of an item on the Hinckley Point Nuclear reactor. Now I have deep reservations about many aspects of the project and want to know more.

    So who should the BBC get to front the item, an engineer you might think, maybe a scientist, perhaps an economist to go over the figures. Nope wrong. They had a ludicrous green talking nonsense. He thought that 25% of the electricity last year was provided by renewables when we all know that every kilowatt of renewable has to be backed up by genuine power production.

    Following the item you would expect to have some expert present to give the non-green argument. No way. The same environmentalist activist was in the studio.

    If they want to use an environmentalist activist why not Prof Lovelock who supports nuclear power?

       31 likes

    • ObiWan says:

      “…Following the item you would expect to have some expert present to give the non-green argument.”

      No, I gave up expecting that a long time ago. It never happens. The msm stages these ‘debates’ as careful non-debates, especially the BBC and CH4. They don’t want debate. Whenever an illiberal unprogressive talks about ‘wanting a debate’ they actually mean the exact opposite. This is a lesson hard-learned and now fully understood by those of us, like your good self, who still believe in free and open debate, where one point-of-view is countered with an opposing point-of-view.

      The BBC, chief among so many sinners, has forgotten that this is how real, informed and well-rounded ‘debate’ should work. I think we all know why.

         23 likes

  42. Sir_Arthur_Strebe-Grebling says:

    In its role as a public information broadcaster, surely the bBBC should be publishing these maps of the territories of black gangs in London?
    http://metro.co.uk/2015/10/20/mapping-londons-gangs-scale-of-capitals-turf-warfare-shown-by-maps-5451375/

       17 likes

  43. Guest Who says:

    http://order-order.com/2015/10/21/bercow-bans-pmq-on-green-taxes/

    Be keen to see how the BBC ‘handles’ this one, if indeed they go near.

    The man is insane, and being in a hall of lunatics does not excuse him being the top nutter in charge of democratic process.

       22 likes

    • Wild says:

      It is time they farmed out the coverage of Parliament to an independent provider. The BBC is not fit for purpose (or at least the purpose of facilitating a parliamentary democracy) for example the viewers feedback remarks (the entire function of which is to deliver the Labour Party spin of the day – every single comment was anti–Conservative) prefaces a discussion which they failed even to notice that the Speaker prevented the Prime Minister from answering a question about the link between green taxes and the cost of steel production in this Country.

         15 likes

  44. Jerry Owen says:

    I see an Israeli managed to lodge himself under a Palestinians car today, the lengths these Israelis will go to, to stop any peace process is quite frankly astonishing.

       18 likes

    • St George says:

      I know just like these fucking Israeli’s throwing themselves on palestinians knives…

         16 likes

  45. JimS says:

    The BBC continues in its attempts to cause a rift between Britain and China. Jeremy Vine has a go at insulting the Chinese president’s wife, (would never dare do that to Michelle!) then raises concerns over our new nuclear reactors.

    The BBC keeps hiding the fact that they are not Chinese-designed but French; the Chinese are providing the funding. Then we get the idiotic Lisa Nandy, shadow DECC minister, to tell us what a bad deal it all is and that the wicked government has killed off ‘our’ solar industry just as it was about to become viable.

    What is ‘our’ solar industry? Basically a pack of semi-skilled roofers, scaffolders and electricians installing kit that is made…
    in China! Oh dear.

       20 likes

    • nogginator says:

      Well … old China s dropped on with a cracking 3 for 1 deal, as the dangerously inept and clueless Toryboy s Osborne, Cameron and co can t wait to sell us out again.
      Tories eh! some things never change.
      There will of course be backhanders in all of the right pockets, in No10 to ensure all goes smoothly.

      The first will funded to only a third by China
      The second and third will be Chinese designs

         8 likes

      • JimS says:

        Sizewell will be the same design as Hinkley Point; the proposed Chinese design for Bradwell is still subject to the approval process.

        I suggest that criticism of the BBC’s failure to hold politicians to account is valid on this site; generic criticism of ‘Tories’, (or for that matter any other political party), is not.

           5 likes

  46. Guest Who says:

    Oh dear #2.

    Looks like a cornerstone of the BBC/Graun/Watson/HackedOff coffee table of outrage and virtue may be hitting a rocky patch…

    http://order-order.com/2015/10/21/top-cop-leon-brittan-victim-of-baseless-witch-hunt/

    One is sure BBC editorial integrity will ensure reporting covers their backsides fully exposes the story in all its grubby glory.

       13 likes

  47. Lobster says:

    I see that lefty Labour MP Michael Meacher has died.
    Black armbands all round.
    I loved Guido’s comment “He leaves behind a wife and twelve homes”.

       16 likes