Why did Miliband lose the election? Possibly because he didn’t have the right man on side…Nick Robinson for instance, unfortunately put out of action during the election by ill health.
Robinson, starting on the Today programme tomorrow, was a young Conservative but that might have been hard to ascertain if you listened to his BBC outpourings which, to me at least, seemed to lean towards favouring Labour.
It seems I’m not alone in that conclusion. In the Sunday Times Lynn Barber says ‘It seems to me blindingly obvious from his book that he was much fonder of Ed Miliband than of David Cameron’.
Also….’At one point someone offers Robinson the job of top Labour spin doctor, which they would hardly have done if they didn’t believe he was on their side.’
Robinson replied to this suggestion…’The person who offered it to me certainly thought that I was, not necessarily on their side, but willing to help their side.’
A young Conservative gone native inside the Bubble.
Switched on the radio, first thing I heard was Anna Foster (around 07:55) worrying that many people believe the Front National in France will get more support. She didn’t define who those ‘many people’ were of course….let me do it for her….BBC journalists, the Guardian and Muslim agitators. Why is the BBC completely unconcerned about the ‘worries’ of those who might vote for the Front National….the BBC dismisses them as racist Islamophobes who have no reason to be concerned.
Foster had two Muslim women on to tell us what a living hell their lives were due to Islamophobia….Foster described them merely as ‘French women’ when she closed the discussion….which is odd, as the whole point was that they were ‘Muslim’.
Foster wondered if ‘the anger [in France about the terrorist attacks] will be tapped into to improve the lot of immigrants’.
Wasn’t it immigrants who launched this attack?
A curious slant then by the BBC…again it is the ‘immigrants’ who are the victims, French racism the problem driving the immigrants to terrorism.
Listening to Nolan and a caller says the killers were not Muslim….silence from Nolan, silence, silence, then he tells us…
‘That’s the most poignant thing you can say…that they are not Muslim’
Trouble is that isn’t true is it Stephen Nolan? That’s a lie. A lie that is intended to prevent a particular course of action….such as that suggested by Hollande’s declaration that this attack was an act of war.
Nolan’s conclusion is that the clever response would be not to respond…not to over react…by over react he means military strikes against Islamic State.
The Spectator’s thoughts on that?
‘There will be many sage, chin-stroking, warnings against an ‘over-reaction’ to this atrocity. Of course. And yet it is not possible to avoid reacting to this act of war. Obliterating Islamic State, wherever it is to be found, is not liable to be a sufficient response but it is a necessary part of any response. Because if we did not know before now – and if we did not, it was because we were wilfully denying a grimly observable reality – we know now. There is no compromise that can be struck with the mindset behind these murders.
They may hate us for what we do but, more significantly, they despise us – all the western world – for who we are and how we live. This is so obvious by now that it risks seeming banal but it demands restating because, even now, even after all this, there remain too many people who deny the truth.’
And of course the real victims of the attacks are Muslims…the ‘backlash’ you understand.
The real victims? These are the real victims…..
[liveblog]
‘The people who died tonight were out living, drinking, singing. They didn’t know they had declared war.’
‘Terrorism is not the enemy. Terrorism is a mode of operation. Repeating ‘we are at war’ without finding the courage to name our enemies leads nowhere. Our enemies are those that love death. In various guises, they have always existed. History forgets quickly.’
The Mail reports in a big headline….
Stephen Nolan on 5Live on other hand tells us that we must treat such knowledge with restraint…in other words hide the truth in order not to put a dent in the BBC’s narrative about immigration….remember how quick the BBC were to produce a report that tried to deny a link betweeen a Syrian immigrant and the Jihadis.
The BBC isn’t reporting the link between immigration and the attack in Paris as a story in its own right but has slipped the news into its live feed.….
Posted at 16:38
A Greek government minister says the holder of a Syrian passport found at the scene crossed into the European Union through the Greek island of Leros in October.
Deputy public order minister Nikos Toskas, said in a statement:
On the case of the Syrian passport found at the scene of the terrorist attack, we announce that the passport holder passed from Leros on October 3 where he was identified based on EU rules … We do not know if the passport was checked by other countries through which the holder likely passed.
Attackers ‘self-contained cell back from Syria’
Posted at 15:46
The Paris attackers were members of a self-contained cell and had travelled to Syria, the BBC’s Frank Gardner reports, citing Whitehall sources.
‘Egyptian and Syrian passports found on attackers’
Posted at 14:36
An Egyptian passport and Syrian passport were found on two attackers at the Stade de France, according to the French newspaper La Liberation.
Looking very much like the ‘rumours’ of Islamists using the migrant flow as cover to enter Europe was true. A truth the BBC tried to deny and even now looks like wanting to play down. This is an important and dangerous fact that needs to be dealt with not brushed under the carpet. There is also an issue with the make up of the migrants as a whole…the vast majority being Muslim…just how many, not Jihadis now, will turn to that method of propagating their views? Not something that should be ignored as the consequences will be far more serious than what is happening already.
Spot the difference between how the BBC reports Jeremy Corbyn’s intended, and now cancelled, speech….
The Labour leader was set to say: “For the past 14 years, Britain has been at the centre of a succession of disastrous wars that have brought devastation to large parts of the wider Middle East.
“They have increased, not diminished, the threats to our own national security in the process”.
Jeremy Corbyn cancels Islamic State speech after Paris attacks
The terror attack in Paris has forced Jeremy Corbyn to cancel a planned speech in which he would have suggested that British bombing operations against Islamic State (IS) had contributed to an increased threat to national security.
The Labour leader had been due to speak out against a “succession” of conflicts which date back 14 years – taking in current operations against the extremist group as well as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Extracts from the speech released in advance indicated he would use his strongest language yet to criticise the UK’s involvement in the fight against IS in Iraq, linking it to the wars begun in 2001 in Afghanistan under Tony Blair’s premiership.
He has previously said the UK should “look again” at its participation in the bombing campaign against IS.
In the speech to Labour’s East of England conference he was expected to say: “For the past 14 years, Britain has been at the centre of a succession of disastrous wars that have brought devastation to large parts of the wider Middle East.
“They have increased, not diminished, the threats to our own national security in the process.”
He was due to call for “a different kind of foreign policy – based on a new and more independent relationship with the rest of the world”.
Why did the BBC miss that bit about the Islamic State out of its report?
Will the BBC be asking him about his old Islamist/Marxist mates at Stop the War who tweeted this…
Why is John Rentoul being attacked for this tweet when clearly Corbyn had such a sentiment in mind for his speech?…
“Will (Jeremy) Corbyn say France made itself a target?”
And indeed Corbyn’s response included this condemnation of Western foreign policy…
‘It’s vital at a time of such tragedy and outrage not to be drawn into responses which feed a cycle of violence and hatred.”‘
Remember Corbyn’s Labour wanted to get STW’s opinion before deciding Labour’s policy on Syria….
Labour’s foreign policy is a debased joke
Another milestone has been passed. Labour’s Corbynite journey on foreign policy has exited tragedy and entered the realms of farce.
This evening, the BBC’s Ross Hawkins reports that the shadow minister for foreign affairs, Catherine West, addressed the Stop The War coalition meeting in parliament, saying,
“Obviously in the summer before Russia was involved we were thinking the government might bring forward a proposal and we were preparing mentally for that. However since 30 September I think that’s more remote and obviously if that proposal does come forward then we will need to speak to you and talk to you about what your view is on that.”
There it is. in black and white. A commitment that Labour would consult with Stop the War before deciding its Syria policy.
How dare she.
Here’s Stop the War’s John Rees from 2006 indulging in paroxysms of Orwellian doublethink by backing Saddam Hussein as a champion of the oppressed that he was oppressing,
“Socialists should unconditionally stand with the oppressed against the oppressor, even if the people who run the oppressed country are undemocratic and persecute minorities, like Saddam Hussein.”
Corbyn pathetically comes up with this anodyne and essentially worthless statement…
The horrific events in Paris were an attack on all multicultural & multi-faith societies. Solidarity to all affected
Well then, it turns out that Charlie Hebdo was simply a warm up act for the vile acts of Jihad Paris endured last evening. The BBC reports that at least 128 people were murdered. The question is – who carried out the attack and true to form, earlier this morning on BBC Radio4 Today, the words “Islamic terrorism” were noticeably absent.
‘Join us for a Spectator debate on 18 November at Church House, Westminster – Is the BBC really a national treasure? Speakers include Melvyn Bragg and James Purnell, director of strategy and digital at the BBC. Chaired by Andrew Neil. Click here for more information and to book tickets.’
Is the BBC really a national treasure?
Spectator Events
Wednesday, 18 November 2015 from 19:30 to 20:45 (GMT)
Church House Conference Centre
Dean’s Yard
SW1P 3NZ London
United Kingdom
The BBC continues its support for the Islamist cause giving a platform to a group that the BBC knows is an Islamist front….
Initially dubbed “Jihadi John” by the media, he was subsequently named as Emwazi, from west London, in February.
Advocacy group Cage, which previously suggested MI5 harassment may have contributed to Emwazi’s radicalisation, said he “should have been tried as a war criminal”.
Mohammed Emwazi
- 1988: Born in Kuwait, moves to UK in 1994 aged six
- Educated at the Quintin Kynaston Community Academy in St John’s Wood, north London
- Fluent in Arabic and English and a British citizen
- 2009: Completes computing degree at University of Westminster, travels to Tanzania, Amsterdam and Kuwait
- 2013: Tries to travel to Kuwait but is stopped. Disappears. Parents report him missing. Police tell family four months later he has entered Syria
Source: Cage, London-based campaign group
Why is the BBC giving credibility and authority to Cage? How long before Shaker Aamer becomes a Cage ‘spokesman’ and a constant feature, as with Moazzam Begg, on the BBC? The truth about Aamer is revealed here….all information that’s well known but brushed under the carpet by the likes of the BBC.
‘Aamer, who was born in Saudi Arabia, was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001; he was sent to Guantánamo Bay in February 2002. The US government believes him to be a weapons-trained al-Qaeda fighter; Aamer’s supporters claim that he was in Afghanistan to carry out voluntary work for an Islamic charity.’
Note the BBC makes no mention of Cage’s previous beautification of the mass murderer Emwazi…
Jihadi John: Activist who praised Mohammed Emwazi as “beautiful” caught on video backing jihad
The human rights campaigner who described Mohammed Emwazi as ‘a beautiful young man’ previously supported waging jihad against British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Asim Qureshi, research director at Cage, called on Muslims to back jihadists at an anti-US rally held in London in 2006.
In an emotive speech caught on video, Mr Qureshi told a crowd gathered at rally organised by Hizb-ut Tahrir, an Islamist group: “When we see the example of our brothers and sisters fighting in Chechnya, Iraq, Palestine, Kashmir, Afghanistan, then we know where the example lies. When we see Hezbollah defeating the armies of Israel, we know where the solution is and where the victory lies.
“We know that it is incumbent upon all of us, to support the jihad of our brothers and sisters in these countries when they are facing the oppression of the West.”
Note the BBC faithfully and without challenge reporting Cage’s assertion that Emwazi was radicalised by MI5 and that he should have been tried and not ‘droned’….Jeremy Corbyn’s line.
This plays into the BBC’s own preferred narrative…one that it was promulgating not 2 days ago when the Islamist IHRC, on Armistice Day, announced this….
Government policy ‘negatively affects’ Muslims
Government policies, including those linked to security and extremism, are having a “negative impact” on British Muslims, a campaign body’s report says.
‘A campaign body‘ eh? That’ll be yet another Islamist front group that the BBC presents as credible and honest.
Anyway, to be clear, it is all the fault either of UK foreign policy or the nefarious activities of the security services driving Muslims into the arms of the Jihadis…no other reason..there’s no rhyme, reason or religion behind their radicalisation.
To cap this off the BBC’s Frank Gardner, ever more useless and unreliable as a witness, came onto 5Live (around 18:07) to give us his analysis but first we heard (18:06:30) from the presenter, Anna Foster, who told us what Cameron said about Emwazi and then said ‘Moving away from the politicians let’s hear what the really important people say, the relatives of Emwazi’s victims…’. However I imagine it won’t be long before the BBC is reporting with relish all the criticisms of Cameron’s position on Emwazi’s killing….his ‘assassination’ and ‘execution’. In fact the BBC has kicked off that criticism already……
Gardner then came on and gushed about Emwazi’s death….
‘Militarily I think it will have very little effect at all…psychologically it is important because prime ministers going way back many many years in this country love to be able to say ‘We will bring these people to justice and they will be held accountable’ .’
Ahhh yes…you thought Gardner was going to say this was psychologically important because a high profile propagandist for the Islamic State was taken out of the equation….but you were wrong…the BBC are only intent on slagging off Cameron and Blair.
Gardner goes on to make a very personal statement…
‘What this guy [Emwazi] should have had is the day in court and be made to atone for his sins…instead of which he’s probably had a quick and painless death which is what he denied his own victims.’
Kind of a remarkable statement, not just because it is one of opinion, but also one that is hugely hypocritical given the BBC’s relentless opposition to the prison in Guantanamo Bay….how long before the BBC would have started the campaign to get Emwazi released?
Too early to say for sure who is responsible for the attacks in Paris tonight but should it be the BBC’s Islamist friends shouldn’t we start asking serious questions about the BBC’s enthusiasm for the Islamist narrative and the consequences that ensue from the massive amount of propaganda the BBC pumps out on their behalf?