205 Responses to Weekend open thread

  1. tvlicensingblog says:

    New from the BBC TV Licensing Blog this week:
    – Abandonment of Controversial Criminal Courts Charge: The charge, which has widely been denounced as an insult to justice, is to be axed. Read more here: http://tv-licensing.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/abandonment-of-controversial-criminal.html
    – BBC’s Yentob Jumps Before Push: Creative Director Alan Yentob, who was recently at the centre of Kids Company controversy, has decided to jump ship before being ordered to walk the plank: Read more here: http://tv-licensing.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/bbcs-yentob-jumps-before-push.html
    – Disgraced BBC Sex Predator Due for Release: Stuart Hall, who raped and sexually abused umpteen children during his time at the BBC, could be free before Christmas: Read more here: http://tv-licensing.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/disgraced-bbc-sex-predator-due-for.html
    – TV Licensing Withdraws Dubious Case Against Innocent Mother: Another highly dubious TV Licensing prosecution gets pulled at the eleventh hour, as innocent mother stands before Magistrates: http://tv-licensing.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/tv-licensing-withdraws-dubious-case.html

       22 likes

    • I Object says:

      I gave up my BBC license around 4 months ago. Telling them I no longer wanted it was almost as good as sex ,in fact it is almost worthwhile buying it again just to tell them to f**k o*f again. The good thing about my current arrangements is that I can watch as much television I want at my friends house, he has a license and its only a short walk from my flat !!!. Yes I carefully went through the list of devices that are not allowed in my property and I am confident that all the criteria have been met, I even ditched the smart phone and went back to my good old clamshell without internet. So far I have had one missed unannounced BBC visit, and their calling card said they will be back in the future to check up ,well as long as my money is not used I don’t care. I am delighted I am not paying for leftist propaganda anymore.

         37 likes

    • deegee says:

      Re Disgraced BBC Sex Predator Due for Release. Does this sound familiar?
      The completed report, much to our continued frustration, lies gathering dust with the BBC clearly very reluctant to release its explosive findings. We wonder what part of the ‘purposes of journalism exemption’ the BBC relied on.

         9 likes

  2. Oldspeaker says:

    In light of the Leytonstone not a Muslim attack I wonder how many more hate crimes like not being sat next to on the bus we can expect?

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-34995431

    And at what point will moving seats not be recorded as a hate crime Ms Zia? When we see the knife being drawn or does blood actually have to be shed?

       52 likes

    • G.W.F. says:

      Its a hate crime not to sit next to one on the bus and its a hate crime to sit next to a muslim woman on a bus. Its a hate crime to look at them in case it is interpreted as a racist/Islamophobic look. I always lower my gaze when seeing one or cross the road early, but always avoid being served by one in the supermarket checkout.

      Surely it should be possible with modern transport facilities to ship as many as possible off to lands where their blood thirsty cult is accepted

         59 likes

    • nogginator says:

      Typical garbage, Islamophile BBC and “backlashaphobia”
      Uh and BBC TV Reports … now have it on loop.
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35016611
      Only 40 second report, BBC manages to fit it in three times

      … One could assume that there is a narrative at hand … sorry folks, can t trust the BBC
      It doesn t matter what someone shouts, the BBC are as bad as bloody twitter

      However …… if it deemed vital, “this is for Syria” by the Islamic wannabe mass murderer
      Yep! “This is for Syria” as he slashed an elderly mans throat
      … is the important part.
      Not Islamic pseudo apologetics.

      “when you meet the unbelievers, smite their necks”
      Verse (47:4) – Quran

         42 likes

      • neilw says:

        nogginator –

        “when you meet the unbelievers, smite their necks”
        Verse (47:4) – Quran

        Of course, Al beeb and the rest of the muslim apologists will say that you’re quoting out of context, which would of course be true only if these scum hadn’t declared jihad. The Koran isn’t specific about where the battle is being fought, or under what circumstances, only that we should have our throats cut wherever the jihadists meet us. As we all know, the Koran is a war manual, repeatedly and specifically inciting violence from cover to cover. Why is this filthy poisonous book not banned?

           55 likes

        • nogginator says:

          “muslim apologists will say that you’re quoting out of context”
          They might well do Neil, though they know that is B/S, as …
          the Quran doesn t have any, it is the immutable literal word of allah
          they do however have abrogation, because old allah kept changing his mind.
          or forgetting what he had said before …. (I know :-D)
          That is why this ideology Islam ,(yep! just like fascism or communism)
          is so dangerous.

             33 likes

          • Rob in Cheshire says:

            Allah also seemed to believe the world was flat, which was odd as he allegedly cteated it in the first place. Good job the book isn’t just the collected rantings of a paedophile who lived in a cave isn’t it?

               15 likes

    • neilw says:

      “Saba Zaman said she had noticed more people looking at her since the events in Paris”

      Well my f****ing heart bleeds for you dear. How traumatic and utterly terrifying it must be to be looked at.

      How about the BBC report the stories of the Paris survivors & relatives, in fact all the native Parisiennes, who are so scared of being shot or blown up “in their OWN city” that they haven’t dared venture out in public since the attacks? I am absolutely f***ing sick of this muslim victim line from Al Beeb. If this muslim woman doesn’t like being “looked at” then may I suggest either f***ing off to a muslim land, or at least take that stupid rag of her head that she wears to deliberately set herself apart from the rest of us.

         107 likes

      • Lobster says:

        If I had been walking down Oxford Street in 1942 dressed in a SS uniform, I suspect that I might have noticed people looking at me as well.

           61 likes

        • Al Shubtill says:

          The difference is back then people would have done something about it, whereas to even attempt to do so today would result in imprisonment.

             42 likes

        • Demon says:

          There used to be a story of an actor in full German Officer’s uniform walked down Piccadilly and no-one noticed because there were so many different uniforms on display already.

             8 likes

    • Wiser Monkeys says:

      It’s the PER CAPITA crime figures you must look at (there are 7 times as many Muslims in London as Jews). For the year up to October 2015, per capita anti-Jewish crime was 2.8 times greater than anti-Muslim crime. So that BBC article is a bit of a disgrace as immediately post Paris attacks, the anti-Muslim crime would only now be on a par with anti-Jewish crime. The BBC never contrast the two crime types at the same time; they persistently highlight the anti-Muslim aspect.

      We are now highlighting research which finds that sharia compliance correlates with violent attitudes among Muslims. Evidence proving that the NTDWI narrative is failing.
      http://wisermonkeys.uk/islam.html#sharia

         19 likes

    • Rob says:

      “It was the first time since 7/7 I’ve felt so unsafe in my own city.”

      SNAP!

         8 likes

  3. Will all end in tears says:

    The appeasement continues apace on Quisling Five Live.

    Every bulletin on the San Bernardino massacre focuses on the perps – how conclusions should not be jumped to about their being terrorists.

    Not a moment’s thought spared for the 14 slaughtered innocents or those left wounded.

    And on drive we learn that “Islamaphobic hate crime” has trebled in London since the Paris massacres.

    And what are these terrible crimes that are being unleashed upon the Muslims?

    (I shit you not)………..Erm, not wanting to sit next to one on a train and……erm…..not wanting to stand next to one on a bus and…………..erm……………moving away from them on public transport

    And of course there’s hard evidence of these crimes?……..erm……well no, it’s more anecdotal actually…………

    Please do have a listen (from 02:23). Truly embarrassing

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06qhf5d#play

    The BBC – appeasing, Quisling bastards

       93 likes

    • Rob in Cheshire says:

      If you don’t want to get shot, stabbed or blown up, avoiding muslims seems like a good idea.

         31 likes

  4. Dave666 says:

    Still waiting for a reply to this from 20/11/15
    YOUR COMPLAINT:

    Complaint Summary: Verification

    Full Complaint: This morning on Breakfast you ran a story on so called Islamophobia. I am interested to know if the young lady’s story of abuse was verified by anyone else?

       74 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      ‘Verification’

      I’m afraid you won’t get far with this. BBC journalism’s policy is to ‘tell stories’

      The approved campaigner is given the BBC platform to tell their story – the BBC will claim they can’t vouch for what is said. They have a strict ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ policy. You can’t pin them down.

         50 likes

      • Dave666 says:

        I know the score Asleelt, I’m an old hand at BBc complaints. In the end I will be wrong because I always am the BBc will be right because they always are and there is no agenda because they told me there isn’t.

           58 likes

        • Deborah says:

          Yes Dave666, I know how you feel. I have recently asked a question (disguised as a complaint) and as usual, the BBC couldn’t reply in ten days – got the usual email. I specifically asked one thing with the reason for my question, and surprise surprise, I was wrong even though my question wasn’t answered. Sorry to be less than specific but I always assume that all those PR people employed by Auntie have very little to do and I wonder if some are detailed to identify those of us on here in anticipation of our queries.

             25 likes

          • Dave666 says:

            Deborah. They know very well who I am and where I live as several years ago I took one of their jolly little anti English stories a bit further up the line. As I’ve said before I couldn’t care less because there is an issue with them that is justified and the bottom line is we are paying them to carry out their twisted and biased reporting.

               36 likes

  5. AsISeeIt says:

    “You ain’t no muslim, bruv”

    So, tell us, how does that sit with the latest BBC flavour of the month ‘transgender community’?

    ‘You ain’t no woman, bruv…. unless you think you are… er…. ?’

    Someone from the left, please explain.

       55 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      Al beeb is populated by immature liberal tossers for whom brains are not engaged.
      They think no further than the end of the particular shift that they are working, and hence think they have excused their briwn eyed boys with that bruv speech.
      However, there will be a reckoning, because that evil cunt is still alive and will have his day in court.
      He is bound to big it up on the jihadist muslim shit from the dock, and then they will have to report it too.

      Giving the lie to the bruv stuff surely.
      Bastards

         23 likes

  6. Alex says:

    The BBC won’t be long in spreading this ‘holy utterance’ at the scene of yet another attack that, of course, has ‘nothing to do with Islam.’ So, the Indy reports that ‘Britain unites’? What? Are the tambourine tapping Ryvita eaters at the Independent sure that every single person in the country is united by such a phrase? This utterly pathetic paper keeps on churning out the same old apologist crap after every Islamic attack. I mean, just because a man allegedly says ‘You ain’t no Muslim bruv’ the Left turn it into a unifying and profound spiritual rallying call.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/you-ain-t-no-muslim-bruv-britain-unites-in-rejection-of-leytonstone-tube-station-attacker-a6762211.html

    In fact, the BBC have caught on to this ‘holy of holy’ hastags at the bottom of this report:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35018789

    They even get Liebour in on the act in the final section.

       51 likes

    • Geoff says:

      After viewing the video a couple of times, I reckon the ‘you ain’t no Muslim bruv’ comment is directed at the arresting copper who appears to be a Muslim, either by a member of the ‘public’ or the attacker himself, but the MSM and Twitterati seem to be jumping on the ‘good Muslim in the crowd mantra’

         91 likes

      • Alex says:

        Good point, Geoff. I think you could be right, mate.

           31 likes

        • Dover Sentry says:

          Geoff is right. But the BBC won’t let the truth get in the way of a good story/hashtag.

             44 likes

          • Geoff says:

            For something truly nauseating have a look at #YouAintNoMuslimBruv on Twitter, no one that I can see no one has fathomed this, we seem to live among thick brainwashed tw@ts are are ascending into the majority, all with the help of the BBC.

               43 likes

            • Geoff says:

              Examples

              https://twitter.com/SamMeasham/status/673515320934559746

              I give up!

                 45 likes

              • GCooper says:

                Twitter is a Left wing echo chamber. Who cares what they think? They are given an importance far beyond their numbers by the lazy, equally Leftist, media.

                   40 likes

              • Grant says:

                I do not know who this wanker George Thompson is. But I think he is a troll !

                   17 likes

              • Al Shubtill says:

                Maybe the police should check out George’s flat, to see if that is where the missing “Belgian” Jihadist from the Paris atrocities is holed up?

                The stupid c**t will probably still think they are loving and peaceful, right up to the point when they slash his jugular.

                Sam looks like one of those nice chaps, who tend to take involuntary flying lessons (sans parachute) from the top of six storey buildings in countries controlled by “peaceful Muslims”.

                   33 likes

          • ray_f says:

            He did not need to claim he was a follower of (nothing to do with) islam, his actions spoke for him.

            witness – ‘you ain’t no muslim bruv’
            knife wielding muslim – ‘did i say i was’
            witness – ‘no, but i just assumed you were bruv, seeing as you just attempted to cut somebody’s head off with a big knife. ‘
            knife wielding muslim – ‘well, yeah i follow islam, but this is nothing to do with islam. It’s to do with…something else, i’ve forgotten now’

               18 likes

    • Alex says:

      This is absolutely PATHETIC! Puerile beyond belief. Why is what this man said (barely audible in the video) making news headlines? Shouldn’t the headlines be about supporting the victims and analysing how we go about confronting and eradicating the threats of Islamic extremism? What is this knife-wielding lunatic doing in our country? Shouldn’t that be the debate taking place, not some childish hashtag.

      http://news.sky.com/story/1600842/youaintnomuslimbruv-twitter-reacts-to-stabbing

         70 likes

  7. nofanofpoliticians says:

    Quentin Letts on how the BBC adjudged him guilty of a climate change crime. I must admit I do like his style (written and general presentational)

    http://blogs.new.spectator.co.uk/2015/12/how-the-bbc-trust-found-me-guilty-of-heresy-on-climate-change/

       38 likes

  8. BBC delenda est says:

    Britain unites in rejection etc.
    If there is one statement which can be made about the UK, it is that UK is not united.
    More of the false division into good and bad Muslims.
    The truth was seen in Paris, fewer “good” Muslims turned up to demonstrate about the Paris murders than were killed in the atrocity.
    I divide Muslims into two groups the good [zero members] and the bad [the remainder].

    PS why weekend thread on a Sunday, does BBBC now use a different calendar?

       38 likes

  9. chrisH says:

    Only heard a few seconds of Broadcasting House-like that other bookend show with Ricky Coles on Saturday morning, the “Weekend Section” of good liberal opinions-it`s always plum full of smug liberals who get to confirm how great they all were during the past week-and how awful the rest of us are.
    So Paddy O Connells few cents-as far as I could tell-was upbraiding less Beeboid hacks in the Mirror etc about how foolidh they all were to doubt the might Corbyn taking-well Oldham no less-providing the nation with Labours non solutions and catastrophically stupid errors since 1832.
    In short-the BBC showed the faith, the pollsters and hacks got it wrong-Jez is a winner!
    So would I be if I was given 7000 postal oites from the Trumpton printing press to put grannys thump print on.
    Yet this meme of the BBCs id getting to me-THEY kept schtum throughout the campaign,,,I heard nothing much about it-reason for that is that it would be “By-Election Blues”…”crap weather up to Christmas”…still building shrines for Paris, waiting for the results of the Global Boiling Tube Summat too.
    In fact-if Corbyn had lost-and the BBC had fklaged up that possibility too much-then the BBCs Common Purpose agenda would not be helped-so the shitstix kept quite.
    Yet here they are now-crowing from the dunghill like the French cockerel…thankfully the recipe on how to make coq-au-vin is not yet translated into Arabic…too tricky and unislamic !

       31 likes

  10. GCooper says:

    On and on the cultural Marxism juggernaut rolls, unstoppable and uninterruptible. R4’s lunchtime ‘news’ snorathon had Mardell (I believe it was) rubbishing everything to do with Parliament’s decision to bomb Isil, speaking to any disaffected Syrian nutcase he could find whose beef is that we aren’t bombing Assad instead. Jeremy must have been loving it as he tucked into his Sunday nut cutlet.

    And for pudding? Why, apparently it’s 50 years since the first ‘anti-racism’ legislation was passed in the UK, which is a cue for yet more heart-searching and finger wagging. You cant help wondering whether the comrades have a special ‘on this day’ aide memoire on their screens just to make sure no socialist celebration of a past event is ever missed.

       37 likes

    • Grant says:

      GC . Great post ! “Snorathon” should be in the next OED. You mispelled Mark’s name . It Lardell. But you make a good point about the relentlessness of Marxism. It is incredible that, in the face of all the evidence, they continue. They are like programmed automatons, unfeeling , uncaring, unthinking, brain dead. The walking, and enlessly talking, dead. All that is fine with me but I do not want to be dragged down by these hopeless losers who only know hate and not love.

         31 likes

  11. Thoughtful says:

    http://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/624548/BBC-Christmas-programming-four-hours-Christian-shows-slammed-Stephen-Green

    THE BBC was last night accused of “enforced politically correct blindness” and “diminishing religion” for scheduling fewer than four hours of original Christian programming in more than 300 hours of shows over Christmas.

    Ten years ago, the BBC broadcast eight hours of Christian programming on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day alone, including dramas based on the Christmas story such as The Mystery Of The Three Kings.

       47 likes

    • G.W.F. says:

      Have they still got that heathen chap in charge of BBC religious broadcasting?

         32 likes

      • BRISSLES says:

        That would be the Muslim Aaquid Ahmed – er, yes I believe so. I also saw his name on the credit list as a Producer on the Fern Britton Meets…… show.

           12 likes

    • Xavier says:

      I give it a couple of years before Eid programs are polluting our airwaves. I wonder if Islamic shows will reveal the real Mohammed – the murdering, peadophilic rapist, or perhaps it’ll be airbrushed out.

         46 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        That might sound like an exaggeration to some but you can well imagine a few years from now the BBC employing the excuse ‘Because Muslims now outnumber practising Christians in Britain….’

           27 likes

        • Rob says:

          aye we’ve come a long way since “new way new life” on a Sunday morning in the seventies.

             2 likes

  12. embolden says:

    All last week on BBC radio 4, repeated plugs for a new series of Ancient Ways in which we can “join Bettany Hughes on a journey along the Egnatian Way between Rome and Istanbul”

    No BBC, the Egnatian Way was between Rome and Byzantium and later between Rome and Constantinople when the city was renamed.

    Istanbul is the modern, Ottoman and Islamic name for the city.

    So careless about the history of some names, but not others (Mumbai and Chennai) how long before we hear about Jesus crucifixion in Al Quds?

       56 likes

  13. Jason Twig says:

    The Leytonstone report is a good illustration of the extremely low standard of basic reporting that is acceptable and encouraged across all BBC platforms.

    It shows batantly that getting across the groupthink agenda takes priority over even basic facts.
    Those resposnisible for writing, sub editing and publishing this would find it hard to hold down a job on a small town freesheet.

    So-called BBC “journalists” show a huge degree of immature, muddled thinking and inability to be objective that would be laughable were it not so obviously encouraged from the top of the organisation.

    Stories seem to be written by self-absorbed sixth formers who can’t take themselves out of the picture, rather than trained journalists.
    Are they actually trained in basic reporting skills (who, what, where, how, why? is it fair and accurate?) rather than just being indoctrinated with the agenda before they are let loose to spew this garbage across the world?

    If you were not able to get the basic facts of this incident from other sources you’d have no idea of what actually happened. The repeated point the reader MUST take away is that a terrorist attacker (don’t give any details of the attack or what he said) “wasn’t a real muslim” and this must be the truth because a big group on twitter say so.
    Unbelievably, the story becomes about pro-muslim twitter reaction rather than what happened in the incident.

    The huge amount of our money that is available for reporter training is certainly not teaching them the basics of journalism so we must conclude it is being spent on indoctrination.

       47 likes

  14. Beltane says:

    ‘If we lose the BBC then I would certainly have lost a very important element in my life’.
    Disregarding the subtle yet significant dichotomy of ‘we’ and ‘I’, this statement from St.David of Attenborough does beg one or two questions – so perhaps it might be fair to ask what would we, as opposed to he, actually lose?
    Would we lose a service which is funded through legally enforced extortion and, as such, represents a massive distortion both of its primary role and the original terms of its charter?
    Would we lose a service which seems only capable of staggering from planning meeting to planning meeting by agreement to an increasing number of 20-year-old repeat programmes – or, at least, those which meet current PC agendas? Or would we lose a service with entertainment parameters largely based around house purchase, antiques and cooking?
    Would we lose a news service which studiously ignores public opinion, as reflected in overall sales of mainstream newspapers, and chooses instead to base its sources, opinions and political stance almost exclusively on a newspaper with a circulation and level of social impact close to that of The Dandy?
    Would we lose a carefully selected reservoir of approved opinion from the liberal-left, so regularly invited to be aired that the very concept of impartiality is mocked by the utter predictability of their appearances?
    Would we lose a service that despite a staggering level of income actually offers less and less? And where sport coverage is concerned, that a highly significant percentage of viewers would expect and require their licence fees to be devoted?
    Would we lose a service which, in common with the NHS, believes fervently in costly and inefficiently tiered degree-level management, rather than practical experience to achieve its aims?
    Could it be replaced with a more balanced, impartial, fully-informed news and entertainment-based model?
    Could we do without it?
    Would we miss it?

       38 likes

    • BBC delenda est says:

      Beltane
      The Dandy!
      I think your comparison is unfair.
      The contents of the Dandy were far superior to the content of the AlGuardianBinBeeboid.
      Cheaper too, and you could cancel it.

         26 likes

      • DownBoy says:

        Which is the one with Desperate Dan(ny) Cohen?

           10 likes

      • Scronker says:

        delanda
        I always found the Dandy a bit too right wing for me. I prefered the Beano.

           11 likes

      • Beltane says:

        Interesting that some appear to feel that the Beano might have made a better comparison model – though I’m sure both Beano and Dandy in their hey-days – with sales exceeding 2 million per week – performed significantly higher at public information levels than the BBC’s favourite scripture.
        Truth to tell, I did agonise over which example to use. On the one hand, the socio-economic contrasts of Lord Snooty and His Pals with Dennis the Menace provided powerful metaphors with which Guardianae could readily identify – but then the strength of Desperate Dan’s image, evoking equally powerful proletarian links swayed the balance. That said, I have to concede that the negative non-Green and contra-Vegan elements of cow pies would inevitably have alienated a proportion of potential sympathisers.

           11 likes

    • Steve Jones says:

      Sadly, Attenborough has gone from national treasure to old fool in less than 20 years.

         38 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        Even less than that I reckon, Steve. Until a couple of years ago he was unconvinced by the AGW theory. As more and more evidence against it has gathered, he’s gone in the opposite direction. The words buttered and bread come to mind. Maybe one day some insider will spill the beans on the exact location of the BBC’s very own Room 101 (forget torture – think ££££) and who runs it.

           25 likes

        • DownBoy says:

          The Attenborough brothers are/were archetypal liberal bien pensants.
          Spare a thought instead for the courageous Professor David Bellamy, who was ‘no platformed’ a few years back for climate change apostasy.

             34 likes

  15. CranbrookPhil says:

    Any Answers yesterday was the most biased one-sided one I have ever heard, it was a disgrace. No need to relate which side of the bomb Syria/do nothing debate every (yes every!) caller-in was; we all can guess as it is the BBC.

    Couldn’t comment nearer the time as there was no Weekend Open Thread.

       32 likes

  16. The Old Bloke says:

    This David Attenborough:
    http://www.populationmatters.org/

       8 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      I can’t be bothered to listen to this tiresome old fart any more – he’s no longer an interesting free-thinker just another mouthpiece for the BBC and its enviro-socialist 28gate cronies, spewing their science-free childish clapped out mantras at any and every opportunity.

      Population control as any fule know is a key objective of Agenda 21. Their target of a ‘sustainable’ world population of 800 million raises the obvious question: how do they plan to get rid of the other 7 billion-plus? Maybe the ‘final solution’ favoured by Jezza’s enforcers is intended for more than rebellious sitting Labour MPs.

         24 likes

    • G.W.F. says:

      Population matters – this is the outfit who put up their stooges on BBC HYS discussions to point out that the cause of all ills is population. Attenborough supports them when he is not filming carnivore killing for survival porn. And it is porn, of the kind that lures perverts into national parks to get turned on watching a Lion killing some antelope or whatever. Real life, you see.

         9 likes

      • GCooper says:

        Unfashionable though it might be in Right wing circles, I agree with Attenborough about population. There are too many of us. That doesn’t mean we need to cull the species (though Nature might yet do that for us) but it does mean that fewer of us on the planet would make it a far better place to live.

           20 likes

        • Al Shubtill says:

          To achieve that the West needs to stop saving the Third Worlders from themselves: with money; food; medicine and peace keepers.

             15 likes

        • Ian Rushlow says:

          Not too many of us– too many of them.

             9 likes

        • Rob says:

          I read somewhere that the whole world could fit into Texas, with each family having their own home and sizeable garden. This would leave the rest of the world uninhabited. It may have been some crack pot site (I don’t remember), but they had an argument against the overpopulation rhetoric.

             0 likes

  17. Dave666 says:

    And as if by magic.
    Thanks for getting in touch regarding ‘Breakfast’ as broadcast on 20 November.
    We understand you would like to know if the young lady’s story of abuse was verified by anyone else.
    Noor Salhi was invited to the programme to relate her personal experience of racial abuse. While the programme did not provide independent confirmation of Ms Salhi’s experience in her local supermarket we believe our audience were capable of judging the truth of what she said for themselves and Mr Fiyaz Mughal, who monitors such attacks, said her experience was not uncommon.
    We value your feedback about this issue. All complaints are sent to senior management and programme makers every morning and we included your points in this overnight report. These reports are among the most widely read sources of feedback in the BBC and ensure your complaint is seen by the right people quickly. This helps inform their decisions about current and future reporting.
    Thanks again for taking the time to get in touch.
    Kind regards
    David Glenday
    BBC Complaints
    So in my judgment and I imagine yours this is made up. Obviously exactly what I expected them to say. Possibly prompted by my comments on this site. Ok I haven’t finished with this one yet. Does the BBc complaints section work on Sundays?

       43 likes

  18. Thoughtful says:

    I was going to post this on Friday on the Weekend thread which never materialised !

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-02/hungary-s-orban-says-germany-struck-secret-turkey-refugee-deal

    Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a staunch opponent of accepting refugees into the European Union, said Germany struck a “secret pact” with Turkey to take in as many as half a million people.

    The initiative, which wasn’t part of a weekend agreement between Turkey and the EU on curbing the flow of refugees, may be announced by Germany within days, Orban told a forum of ethnic Hungarian leaders in Budapest on Wednesday.

    I haven’t seen anything about this on the BBC, not that I’m surprised !

       38 likes

  19. Alex says:

    I wonder if the BBC will be reporting on these scum?

    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/624648/Chilling-message-menacing-migrants-demand-open-borders-die

    There should be zero tolerance of these parasites.

       39 likes

  20. Leha says:

    Seen this on “Dateline London” today

       25 likes

  21. G.W.F. says:

    An ISIS style imitation beheading performed in London’s East End.
    The unity between the left, feminists and the worst aspects of Islamic fascism are seen in Class Wars’ objection to what they see as a celebration of violence against wimmin in a Jack the Ripper Museum. These Corbynistic upholders of working class culture are also trying to ban panto’s which glorify violence but are supportive of street violence against those protests about Muslim child sexual grooming gangs. Although Brillo Neil has interviewed them he has never given them a rough time.
    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/class-war-party-candidate-calls-5597731

       23 likes

  22. neilw says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-35022119

    No surprises here, except that Al Beeb don’t hide the fact that Wallace is a convert to the religion of peace & tolerance.

       13 likes

    • GCooper says:

      It’s been a toss-up between somewhere in the former Soviet Eastern Europe or France being the first to crack and it looks like France might win the race.

      I’m no fan of the FN’s economic policies, but if the French wish to revive the Museum of Socialism and find out the hard way that it’s a quick route to ruin, that’s their right as a sovereign nation and good luck to them. What interests me more is how the FN’s immigration policies work and how quickly the pressure grows for them to be adopted here, once a government a mere 30 miles away is bowing to common sense and the will of its electorate.

         21 likes

  23. The Old Bloke says:

    So, here is one for Harrabin and all the other MSM scientific experts (English students to you and me with a qualification in media studies) that read these pages. The latest satellite data on Global Temperatures show a downtrend which leaves the planet, this year, with another year of no Global Warming and this despite a very active natural warming phenomenon knows as the El Nino. Now, if there has been no recorded warming by the most accurate available data scanning (RSS) despite the natural warming of the sea temperatures which are now included in temperature data sets, when the El Nino (it is reported that the current El Nino is the strongest since 1998) wains and the pacific cools, this cooling will be reflected in the data sets. Oh dear, a cooling ocean and a cooling atmosphere. I bet you didn’t see that one coming did you Mr Harrabin? And just how are you going to pedal the Global Warming myth when the feared sun spot cycle 24 kicks in as well? How are you going to convince us that Climate Change is caused by Global Warming when the reality will be a cooling planet? The next 5 years will be fascinating won’t it.? How on earth are they going to “cook the books”? El Nana anyone? 😎

       31 likes

    • The Old Bloke says:

      Is it no wonder that those in the Climate Change forum in Paris are speeding up the process of extracting as much money from their taxpayers as quickly as possible? What did Prince Charles say? We have 5 years to save the planet? Or am I mistaken? Did he mean that or did he mean we have just 5 years to grab what we can before the balloon goes up?

         29 likes

    • Rufus McDufus says:

      They’ll probably claim their policies are responsible for the cooling.

         13 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      How on earth are they going to “cook the books”?

      They’ve got away with murder so far – temperature-rigging, failed theories presented as ‘settled science’, disproven climate models still being used to scare the world shitless about ‘runaway global warming’, lies about melting ice at the poles, the most outrageous re-branding exercise which frames any weather event anywhere in the world as being the result of ‘man-made climate change’, teaching kids that CO2 is a pollutant, not to mention Climategate and 28gate – so I’m afraid it will be business as usual. There is nobody with any real influence to hold them properly to account and little wonder when the whole scam is supported by Western leaders, most of the Western media and almost every scientific, governmental and educational establishment in the West (due to infiltration by eco-socialist zealots) and every third world country sees it as yet another opportunity to hold out an even bigger begging bowl.

      The situation now is beyond surreal but it has such momentum I can’t honestly see what will stop it unless people wake up to the inevitable economic and social disaster it is going to bring and someone steps up to the plate who can lead us out of it. Perhaps thousands dying from cold when the inevitable power cuts come might trigger the collective waking up moment we so badly need.

      We’re heading for a tipping point alright, but it’s nothing to do with climate.

         4 likes

  24. JimS says:

    The Asians across the road from the nephew’s house had one of these ‘ISL’ skips delivered – should we be alerting the police?

    midi-skip-pop.jpg

       15 likes

    • Rob in Cheshire says:

      “All sizes are approx” it says. I should say so, they appear rather hazy on how many inches are in a foot. Is it 12 or 27?

         3 likes

      • Kennedy says:

        Oh for the great days of Imperial measures! I used to have to translate bits of history books into decimal for my students. They couldn’t understand how we coped with base twelve, base twenty Maths as well as base ten. By the way I’m Irish so I had to cope the difference between the Irish mile and the English mile as well. I don’t think we were more clever in those days, but I do think we had more challenging subjects and teachers who expected us to reach the high standards they set.

           11 likes

        • GCooper says:

          Well that shows my ignorance! I had no idea an Irish mile was different. And I agree, I don’t believe we were essentially any brighter – but we were more stretched.

             8 likes

  25. Dave666 says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35021876 ok . So there is someone on board “brandishing” a “rocket launcher” on a ship armed with
    2 × AK-725 twin 57 mm (2.2 in) DP guns
    4 × 8 Strela 2 SAM launchers
    2 × 22 A-215 Grad-M rocket launchers

       9 likes

    • Steve Jones says:

      Maybe the captain of the vessel, quite sensibly, was prepared for an attack by a small boat. This has happened before and the lesson to be learned is that you had better be ready to respond instantly. Calling the crew to action stations takes too long.

         8 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Something rather beyond a BBC defence editor, especially one trained to push outrage over insight.

           7 likes

        • Steve Jones says:

          Guest Who,
          Precisely. Defence won’t have formed a very large part of the PPE degree studied by most of the clowns at the BBC.
          Russia hasn’t lost sight of what armed forces are actually for unlike the west. Our military’s main role is currently escorting migrants across the Med.

             12 likes

          • Guest Who says:

            Just as the Germans noted Cambrai, the Japanese noted Taranto, the Russians probably noted USS Cole. Not to have close quarter defences, especially in areas with little room to manoeuvre, would be simple dereliction.

            So the BBC ratcheting up the tensions is pure incitement.

               8 likes

          • Rob in Cheshire says:

            Western leaders seem to think the role of the armed forces is to reflect the diversity in our society. Women and trans people must be fully represented. Who needs cis males who just want to kill our enemies? That is soo last century.

               8 likes

  26. Ian Rushlow says:

    What did it just say?

    Sometimes with the BBC it is difficult to know where reality ends and parody begins. The BBC website currently contains a bizarre article – presumably written for April 1st – entitled Beyond ‘he’ and ‘she’: The rise of non-binary pronouns – see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34901704. The stated aim of the article is to persuade us (or is it themselves?) that personal pronouns such as ‘he’ and ‘she’ are unacceptable and that people should be free to use whichever pronouns they wish, including they, ze, ey, per, zie etc. The real aim is to undermine the concept of family by trying to eliminate the concept of gender altogether: nature may have dictated that lifeforms are male, female or neutral but activists with wooly hats and BBC reporters know better. Although painful to read, it is worth working through the article to gain an insight into the twisted minds of those who seek to destroy the world about them. As with much Leftist dribble, the arguments and issues simply relate to linguistic anomalies and manipulations peculiar to the English language (it would be interesting to see how alternative pronouns operate in say, Arabic or Chinese, or how the gender-bending fits into traditional African societies, but that’s a bit too demanding for the BBC). In the meantime here’s a suggestion for the BBC: use ‘he’ and ‘she’ where appropriate and ‘it’ where there is otherwise confusion or an issue.

       23 likes

    • JimS says:

      Bolts fit nuts; bolts don’t fit bolts; nuts don’t fit nuts.

      Anyone who tells you anything different is on the same planet as ‘flat earthers’.

         8 likes

  27. Al Shubtill says:

    Just listening to Lady Justice Butler-Slop on Toady – God help us! And this woman was a judge of the Court of Appeal! WTF.

    It is no wonder this country is knackered.

       31 likes

    • wronged says:

      No one trusted her views in the Family Courts, one of the the dodgy Havers antecedents. She is a typical establishment figure, – self interest, no understanding of the real world, wholly untrustworthy, and above all very dangerous

      Is it any wonder that no one trusts our conceited, self absorped Left wing judiciary?

         33 likes

    • The Lord says:

      Heard it. Unbelievable. As you say ‘God help us’. Typical, I suspect, of the type who foists ‘multi-culti’ on the poor old working classes before retreating back to their own ‘exclusive’, immigrant free areas.

         22 likes

    • Kennedy says:

      Google her husband. That woman has no right to sit in any court, let alone the family division. Before I get moderated off for that statement or sued by her for libel, I appeal to her to ask herself the question about Caesar’s wife. I don’t believe in guilt by association, but I do think that a judge should be a person who gives people a sense of trust.

         9 likes

  28. neilw says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-35019111

    Socialists get trounced in Venezuela, and this is what Al Beeb have to say…

    “◾At 74.3%, voter participation was high, suggesting a sizeable proportion of the population backed change”

    I Can’t help thinking that if the socialists had won then they would be describing it as a massive mandate.

       26 likes

  29. AsISeeIt says:

    Higher up this thread we broached the subject of the BBC allowing approved – but unsubstantiated – claims to be broadcast with no effort to verify.

    The practice is deeply dishonest. The supposedly balanced BBC journalist tees up the guest interviewee – knowing their inherent biases – lends the credibility of our national treasure and then airs their words to millions. Following which the BBC steps back from responsibility for exaggerations, lies and, frankly, damn lies. All under the cover of allowing people to ‘tell their stories’

    Within five minutes of BBC news broadcasts on the weather in the Lake District this weekend I hear “the heaviest rain in a 1000 years” and “the worst rain ever”. Neither claim is scientifically verifiable or from a common sense point of view likely. In fact logically speaking the two claims are mutually incompatible. Yet each goes swimmingly with a known BBC-approved narrative.

       31 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Dishonest and, being the BBC, uniquely easy to take as far as they want.

      Any attempt at pursuing this via CECUTT will be met with a wall of ‘got it about right’ journalistic integrity waffle, and an FOI with a ‘purposes of’ exemption.

      So basically the BBC can claim anything they want by proxy, unchallenged.

      And do. Constantly.

         16 likes

    • gb123 says:

      What I find amusing is the way reporters on all the main channels have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to floods and basic Hydrology. Time after time you hear them crying out about 100 year flood events as if it is only supposed to happen once in 100 years. Reality is a 100 year event is a flow and a probability. In any 100 year timeframe there is roughly 63%-64% chance of one or more 100 year flood events occurring.

         24 likes

    • Old Goat says:

      That nasty, vindictive “Storm Desmond”. Gone are references to deep autumn or winter depressions, these monsters are now demonised with silly names, and come whirling out of an otherwise peaceful Atlantic, where they never lived in the past. Climate change now causes our depressions to have names, and the public better beware. I wonder how many Muslim names will be included, for “balance”? One thing’s for sure Storm Mohammed will enrich us all – with rainwater, or snow, or even Shariah showers and may even whip off our heads.

         36 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        OT but given the Armageddonukepocalypse ‘reporting’ of weather by The Daily Express, the name is interesting.

           12 likes

      • ObiWan says:

        The Met Office are being especially egregious at the moment. Not only do we, as the public, have to endure their patronising, politically-driven adoption of ‘storm naming’ (a totally pointless, uncalled-for gesture, given that the UK does not regularly, if ever, suffer from the threat of true hurricane-style storms – even less so during a well-documented time of fewer such storms happening anywhere across the world), but their every utterance on either TV or radio is at the moment equivalent of a party political broadcast on behalf of the scientifically illiterate and wilfully dishonest.

        A total disgrace to honest meteorology. The Met Office is now little more than a cheerleader for the Paris CoP – and just as dishonest and hopelessly compromised by its own political bias.

           34 likes

        • GCooper says:

          Agreed – and the alacrity of the BBC’s presenters in covering what are simply perfectly normal weather events as if they were devastating cataclysms is so transparent you could replace a window with it.

          This morning’s Toady followed Harrabin’s latest love letter to non=existent ‘global warming’ with a gushing report on ‘Desmond’.

          Not only do BBC employees appear to have no scientific background, they appear to have no historical knowledge either. If they had, they would have some sensible context in which to place a pretty typical early winter storm.

             27 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      ’20 odd schools closed’

      Well, I’m sorry BBC, but these days our teachers are apt to declare their place of work closed of a Monday morning at the drop of a hat.

         21 likes

      • BRISSLES says:

        Too true. Gone are the days when as an infant I trudged to school with snow creeping over my black wellygogs, and once there all the socks were hung over the massive radiators to dry off in time to go home ! Kids (and their parents) are wimps and haven’t a clue of the meaning of ‘backbone’.

           18 likes

        • Geoff says:

          My Mum was told off for arriving late for school one morning back in 1942 following a Baedeker raid, the bus had to take a detour because of a bomb crater in the road on its normal route, she was told to allow more time!

             18 likes

        • Dave666 says:

          During my days at school the school was never closed in term time full stop, The teachers managed without assistants and didn’t need a training day every 3 months.

             9 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      Cropping the shot

      The helicopter-born camera captures the alarmingly flooded street beside the river – but as the operator zooms out widening our view we see to the rear of the buildings the still dry untouched streets and undamaged cars safely parked.

      Frightened evacuees huddle together in the rubber dinghy – but as the camera shot widens we see emergency service workers pushing the boat along whose water-proof waders are only ankle-deep in the foodwaters.

      The governemnt spokesman is flanked by party supporters as he rises from the front bench to make his statement in the Commons – but as the camera focus pans out we see all of six party-hacks ‘donutted’ around their colleage in an otherwise deserted House.

         26 likes

  30. nogginator says:

    In todays
    not to mention, so called, don t say ISIS, ISIL, Islamic state, call them … Daesh (Islamic state in Arabic) …
    News

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-35021210
    BBC News – After Islamic mass murder, Obama: We can’t let “this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam” and Hillary won’t say “radical Islam”: “Sounds like we are declaring war against a religion” meanwhile Lufthansa flight Muslim bangs on cockpit door, threatens to down plane, “wanted to see Allah” and a Somali Muslim slashes elderly mans throat, for bombing Islamic state
    Outbreaks of “workplace violence” ? … “mental illness” even?, is that in Islamic perps, or in political leaders?

       27 likes

  31. GCooper says:

    Yes, in view of his, um, stormy temperament I wonder if the Express hacks had to run their coverage past one of his courtiers?

    Indeed, I wonder if the choice of name might even have been deliberate on the part of the Met Office?

       9 likes

  32. oldartist says:

    I know this is old news now but if anyone here hasn’t seen the video of Maryam Nawazie’s lecture at Goldsmiths University it is linked on isthebbcbiased.com:

    Obviously the charming “bruvs” in the audience aren’t Muslims.

       20 likes

    • ObiWan says:

      Trouble starts around 12mins in – but it’s been building for a few minutes already. Islamic thugs (male and females) determined to disrupt free speech by the use of menace and intimidation. All this in a British University. Absolutely staggering.

         25 likes

    • Kennedy says:

      Thanks for posting that. The woman is a hero. NB. I’m calling her that to demonstrate that I am a PC Guardian type of chap who doesn’t use sexist words like, heroine, actress etc.

         10 likes

  33. Dover Sentry says:

    BBC TV 08.30

    A half hour slot devoted to ‘Business News’ in that unique BBC style.

    First item, how business and technology can ‘save the planet’. A simple advert for the Paris talks. No substance to the mutterings about reduced lights etc. And of course, no opposing view from ‘some might say’ sceptics/heretics.

    Next item was about African successful business women in (Nigeria).
    ..

       23 likes

  34. Guest Who says:

    Breaking news.

    Seems the BBC learns things, eventually…

    Breaking News
    Bin lorry driver ‘repeatedly lied’

    Glasgow bin lorry fatal accident report says driver “deliberately misled” doctors over medical history, BBC learns

    For more details, see the BBC News website
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-35025408#%22

    I remain unclear why this whole event was put on virtual lockdown for so long.

       24 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      Because it’s a public controlled body, and like all public bodies they are given extra ordinary powers which they then misuse !
      This is the reason we can’t trust the public sector, there’s zero accountability of staff for what most would regard as gross misconduct, but say a wrong word and your feet won’t touch !

         13 likes

  35. nofanofpoliticians says:

    Calais jungle has now become a mini-city, according to this article :

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3348594/Restaurants-theatre-free-wifi-Calais-Jungle-migrant-camp-mini-city.html

    Those who have been there will be struck by the similarity in the pictures to life in sub-saharan Africa… its a sort of home from home for some of these people, who are clearly not impoverished as the picture showing all the phones re-charging would demonstrate.

       29 likes

    • Ian Rushlow says:

      The Daily Mail article is clearly fraudulent. It only shows pictures of young men, when we know for a fact from the BBC that the camp is populated exclusively by vulnerable women and children who are escaping conflict in, er, Turkish holiday resorts or something.

         39 likes

  36. Thoughtful says:

    Stephanie Cole reads from the new collection of essays by acclaimed writer Diana Athill, which is being published to mark the author’s 98th birthday later on this month.

    In this first essay, “Post-War”, Athill delights in debunking the myth that Britain in the 1940s and 1950s was a mire of dreariness. A young woman when the war broke out, peace and its aftermath was a time of joy, freedom and optimism.

    “I worked at that time in the BBC information room. When the election came we stayed up all night for the results, overjoyed at the victory of the Labour party, it was what everyone in the room wanted, and we didn’t want Churchill taking us back into the past.”

    So even immediately post war the BBC was a hotbed of left wing support if not overt bias.

       35 likes

    • Lobster says:

      I bet the champagne bottles were a bit hard to come by then, though.

         15 likes

    • GCooper says:

      It certainly was but they had to be a great deal more careful about how they showed that bias. Which didn’t, of course, stop them from employing known communists to propagandise, despite having a resident MI5 officer, whose job was to vet staff for ‘subversives’.

         16 likes

  37. Sluff says:

    Anyone notice how bBBC refers to the Front Nationale in France constantly as the ‘Far Right’? (which from a statistical point of view like on a normal distribution curve must be inaccurate as a 30% vote means you are not Far anything).

    But nobody gets labelled as ‘Far Left’, or ‘Hard Left’ ?
    What about those who support Corbyn, take militiant tendency type positions, are intolerant of any views but their own, threaten, send bile to MPs who voted for action in Syria, who shout down people – why to the Trots in the bBBC newsroom, they’re just cuddly people having a bit of exhuberant fun.

    Bias writ large, 100%.

       48 likes

    • GCooper says:

      Yes, indeed! If the FN is ‘far Right’ what is ‘Stop The War’? And what about some of the ultra-militant trade unions?

      As you say, it’s clear bias from the far Left BBC!

         32 likes

    • taffman says:

      I heard one of their commentators referring to UKIP as such the other day.

         20 likes

    • Lobster says:

      Very true, Sluff. I noticed on the world news section of the digital teletext pages this morning that the winning Front Nationale were once again decribed as “far-right”, but the losing Socialists in Venezuela (looney Chavez’s lot) were “leftist”. Oh, by the way, the Venezuela item (like anyone gives a shit about Venezuela) was top billing and the French item was fourth.

         25 likes

      • GCooper says:

        The irony, of course, being that the FN’s economic policies read like old Labour’s….. A point completely lost on the clueless class warriors at the BBC.

           25 likes

        • Rob in Cheshire says:

          GCooper:

          Quite correct. The FN is economically “left wing”, but it also represents a patriotic ideal of the nation. Ukip’s economic policies are “right wing”, but they too represent a patriotic ideal of the nation. What has happened over the years is that patriotism and a belief in the nation has ceased to be part of the “mainstream” thinking of the political and media establishment, so they portray two very different political parties as if they are both “far right”. In fact neither is “far right”, one is of the moderate left, the other of the moderate right. It is their patriotism which makes them beyond the pale as far as the mainstream blob is concerned.

             29 likes

          • GCooper says:

            I entirely agree. The imbeciles who subscribe to the Guardian/BBC view cannot stop conflating belief in national sovereignty with fascism.

               25 likes

      • Englands Dreaming says:

        I listen to Outside Source on the World Service hoping to hear about France, and tuning in half way I realised they were on about Venezuela. The local person reporting from Venezuela, was saying how happy everyone was about the result, dancing in the streets, etc. This didnt chime well with Luna at the Beeb, who said that “there must be also a lot of disappointed people”, then the local bod realising who pays the check agreed that there were lots of disappointed people, but they were staying indoors.

           9 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      Very much noticed here. I’d like to know their definition of “far-right”. The Today Programme wondered if the FN’s more moderate stance was really just fine words hiding their true nature and I was hoping they might extend that curiosity further to the ROP.

         28 likes

    • Ian Rushlow says:

      Infinitely better to be Far Right than Far Wrong.

         23 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Only a left wing government could make a complete basket case of a country sitting on the world’s largest oil reserves.

      The fact that it is a basket case has somehow eluded BBC news HQ.

         15 likes

    • Flexdream says:

      The BBC is not alone in calling the FN ‘far right’, nearly every news organisation does. Presumably because of its socialist economic policies and mass support.

         9 likes

  38. Roland Deschain says:

    The BBC wants your opinions on COP21. (COP21: Will it be absolutely Fabius in Paris?)

    My favourite so far:
    29.Vorsprung Durch PivotTables
    “Fabius, Fabius, I love you! But we only have 48 hours to save the Earth….”

       12 likes

  39. GCooper says:

    The following letter is buried in today’s letters page of the Telegraph. Properly reported and given a wider audience it would be incendiary. I am opening a book on the BBC not reporting it:

    ” SIR – The share of new housing needed to accommodate immigrants is likely to be considerably higher than “nearly half”.

    That figure is based on the “high variant” net annual migration estimate for England of 217,000, according to the 2012 official projections. That statistic is now obsolete; the 2014 high migration projection assumes a net annual inflow of 226,000. More importantly, all these projections look unreasonably low in the light of recent inflows. In the year to June 2015, the actual net inflow was 336,000; in the year before that it was 330,000.

    International migration is already the major factor behind housing demand and seems likely to remain so. That fact is not adequately recognised.

    David Coleman
    Emeritus Professor of Demography
    Oxford University ”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/12035926/Letters-Abuse-of-postal-voting-should-worry-both-the-public-and-the-politicians.html

       26 likes

  40. G.W.F. says:

    Sad day at the BBC, France, the Far far far right do well at the polls, but oh dear what has happened to socialist Venezuela?
    The new regime are going to release the political prisoners.
    As Guido says: Owen Jones, Diane Abbott, Grahame Morris, Colin Burgon, Richard Burgon, Tariq Ali, George Galloway, Ken Livingstone, Seumas Milne, Jeremy Corbyn – your boys took one hell of a beating.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-35019111

    http://order-order.com/2015/12/07/political-prisoners-to-be-freed-in-liberated-venezuela/

       18 likes

    • GCooper says:

      Political prisoners – now there’s a phrase we’d have to get used to if that lot were in charge!

         10 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      It is the worst-ever defeat for the leftist movement founded by former leader Hugo Chavez in 1999.

      Looking at that lot in action over the last 20 years aren’t they more like ‘Far Left’ or ‘Hard Left’ or even ‘Marxist’? I suppose it depends on your starting point, and we know where that is for the BBC….

         16 likes

    • MartinW says:

      Yet I wonder if Maduro and his henchmen will soon declare the result null-and-void, and begin a reign of terror on the opposition and all unfavoured persons. Until he, his government and private army have actually agreed to relinquish power, I am remaining sceptical of a real change.

         4 likes

  41. Kennedy says:

    Just seen a headline that Janner has been found unfit to plead. Nothing on the World Service so far.

       7 likes

  42. chrisH says:

    Ten minutes of the BBC round about 9am confirmed for me the utter bias and uselessness of the BBC.
    1. Thought For The Day-should we keep it, should we not….only the BBC and fools like Welby or Baines , Longley or Saddiqi give a stuff-it`s as far from religion as I can imagine. The likes of James Jones and Clifford Longley are Vichy when it comes to fighting for Jesus and His Cross. Bin it-and any Christian worth the salt would refuse en bloc to pay a license that trashes then 24/7…but pays Giles Fraser to lend a collar, now that Saddams noose is no longer remembered.
    2. The “National Front” did well in the French elections-why call them that, unless you want us to go back in time to Webster, Tyndall and Griffin…they are the FN and have always been called that from this side of the water-but it`s clear why the BBC did it-and it only means another reason to remove the BBC and their serial cut and paste lies.
    3. Andrew Marr spoke of the “Islam Reformation” with guests who reckoned that Saudi may yet be the Holy Land, that Mecca will maybe win us to seeing it as the Muslim Canterbury…utter bilge from empty academics whose funding won`t take too much figuring out…if there IS an academic seat of learning that Saudi etc DON`T pay for or accredit-let me know!
    All that shite in ten minutes…I made my excuses and will wait for Mel or Claire on the Moral Maze now, job done

       25 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      …they are the FN and have always been called that from this side of the water..

      Excellent point. Funny how the BBC would normally strain every jaw and vocal sinew to get the naming convention and foreign pronunciation ‘just right’ (think ‘Myanmar’ or ‘Chechnya’). Funny how this French exception coincides with the BBC’s Right-smearing agenda.

         20 likes

      • ID says:

        I was just surprised that psychosomatic mutism did not kick in and stop various BBC announcers from uttering the heretical words “victory for Marine Le Pen”.

           6 likes

      • G.W.F. says:

        They cannot pronounce Paris as the French do but go out of their way with every third world slum town.

           10 likes

  43. seismicboy says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0394f0k/sprout-boy-christmas-on-bbc-one?intc_type=singletheme&intc_location=avs&intc_campaign=bbcone_christmas&intc_linkname=vidclip_sproutboy_contentcard5
    If you thought the BBC had the plight of all the hard-done-by souls of this world covered..
    Ethnic minorities
    Muslims
    Refugees
    Immigrants
    Benefit claimants
    Gays and lesbians
    The SNP
    Transgender, transvestites et al
    Endangered species (except white, law-abiding UK citizens of course)
    You would be wrong. The BBC have taken that small green, un-loved at Xmas time, vegetable under its wing.

       13 likes

  44. seismicboy says:

    I suppose he’ll be sprout girl by this time next year after his NHS-funded sex-change.

       8 likes

  45. Peter Sausages says:

    Labour loving always wearing red Jo Coburn really trying to talk up Wurzel Gummidge lookalike Corbyn zzzzzzzzz

       9 likes

  46. Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

    My memory could be at fault, but I’ve just seen the Leytonstone mobile phone footage ( once again) on bbc news at 1….. But the voice over played #### no longer sounds like the original, it’s much louder and clearer than I remember it…..and doesnt even sound like the same bloke.

       14 likes

    • MartinW says:

      Yes, I thought the same. The more recently broadcast words sound a lot clearer, and I assumed they had been deliberately enhanced by relatively sophisticated electronic means. It seems less likely that another voice has been substituted, but with the BBC cynical manipulation knows no bounds, so one can never be absolutely sure.

         8 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      Yeah ok…I’ve just watched the three clips linked elsewhere here, and I’m wrong…it’s no different.
      However the bit on the beeb was crystal clear. Enhanced?

         4 likes

  47. Sluff says:

    We have fun on this site referring to our State broadcaster as bBBC or Al-Beeb.
    But I’m so slow I’ve only just realised we should all refer to them as Far Left in future, e.g. the “Far Left bBBC”, “Far Left Al-Beeb” etc.
    The Far Left being a ragbag of ‘idealogues’, pacifists, big statists, high taxes, centralising, anti market economy, violent and intimidating, entitlement culture, anti-Western values, pro-open door immigrationists, who have no tolerance for other views and so contrive to undermine, ignore, misrepresent, and prevent. Sums up the BBC pretty well, don’t you think?

       28 likes

    • GCooper says:

      I’m pretty sure I have described the BBC thus on here in the past so, yes, it makes sense to me.

         11 likes

  48. ObiWan says:

    This isn’t headline news as far as the BBC is concerned (of course), so it’s relegated to a ‘c’ head, some way down the front page…

    Migrant crisis: Germany heads for 1m asylum-seekers in 2015
    Germany has registered 964,574 new asylum-seekers in the first 11 months of the year, putting it on course for more than a million in 2015. The number of migrants arriving has not slowed despite the winter cold, with a record high of 206,101 in November. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in August that the country expected 800,000 asylum-seekers over the year. Documents leaked in October suggested the government was privately anticipating the arrival of up to 1.5m.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35027951

    The road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions…

       22 likes

    • Steve Jones says:

      That evil woman has no good intentions regarding Germany. I hope she lives long enough to see the damage this will do and be held accountable.

         12 likes

    • ID says:

      In Hamburg, they are now planning to build new neighbourhoods, each accommodating 5000 “refugees” .
      Complete and utter madness. Poorer Germans and tax payers are also beginning to ask themselves if billions and billions of Euros can suddenly be found for “refugees” why haven’t they had better state benefits or been paying less tax in the past. The sound of multicultural axes being ground on ARD/ZDF TVsoaps is deafening.
      They make the plays that government workers stage to educate illiterate peasants in Africa and India look the height of sophistication. At least these are sincere attempts to help villagers. The media constantly assume that their publics are against the influx of “refugees” because they are in someway anxious or fearful like small children; the older population dissaproves only because it is “set in its ways”, senile and angry.
      People resent their way of life being changed without their consent. Resentment is an entirely rational response to injustice. In some cases, it is literally a “burning resentment” and many reception centres have been burnt down by “ordinary citizens”, causing much puzzlement to the chattering classes.

         11 likes

  49. Thoughtful says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06r4gpj

    Radio 4

    British liberalism – The Grand Tour:

    Anne McElvoy tours 300 years of British liberalism.

    Anne starts in Oxford in 1683, with the story of the last large-scale book burning in Britain. She traces how dissident philosopher John Locke took on the whole principle of the arbitrary power of the monarchy.

    As Anne discovers with the help of Justin Champion and Hannah Dawson, dissident texts were burned and Locke was repeatedly driven out of the country and hunted by the King’s agents. Yet all the time he was developing his ideas on the proper limits of power, and on religious toleration.

    When James II was ousted in 1688, Locke returned to London in triumph, and his ideas have helped to shape how we live ever since.

    But, as Anne explores in later episodes, the story of British liberalism is not one of straightforward victories. Locke explicitly excluded non-Anglicans from his vision of liberty. And what about black people, or women?

    Over the course of the first five programmes, Anne traces the development of the ideas we now call liberalism through the lives and works of Adam Smith, Mary Wollstonecraft, Thomas Clarkson, John Bright and John Stuart Mill.

    She explores how a rebellion led by black Jamaicans led to a massacre – and how demands that the British Governor of Jamaica be put on trial divided Victorian intellectuals against each other.

    And she ends the first week of programmes with the apotheosis of one kind of liberalism in the era of William Gladstone, even as a different version of his creed was taking shape.

    In the second week, Anne takes us from the non-violent Suffragist campaign for votes for women, onto the triumph of an elite liberalism in the 1960s – and explores how, ever since, the idea of liberalism has grown more and more complicated.

       6 likes