410 Responses to MID OPEN THREAD

  1. JimS says:

    Not BBC Bias but I’m curious as to how a box labelled ‘EIIR’ can be considered to be the property of an ex-PM, (Margaret Thatcher’s red box sells for £245,500).

    Also:
    Also sold at the auction was a Kaiser bisque model of an American bald eagle, which was gifted to the former prime minister from former US president Ronald Reagan.

    Simple civil servants have to declare every gift, no matter how small, and surrender anything over £50 in value. One rule for the rich I suppose. As to how much Tony Blair continues to make, well don’t ask… especially if you are the BBC.

       22 likes

    • Rob in Cheshire says:

      By tradition a retiring minister is allowed to keep one red box as a momento.

         27 likes

    • manchesterlad says:

      It does seem this was a personal gift from Ronald Reagan when she was no longer PM (and he was no longer the US president then either). It seems reasonable that this would not become government property.

         34 likes

  2. nogginator says:

    Geert Wilders Wins ‘Politician Of The Year’ Award For Third Time
    His party is currently leading opinion polls in the country, with one poll recently suggesting they would win 35 out of 150 if elections were held tomorrow
    https://t.co/7bJ2vvst2o

    Not on BBC News Europe? … surprised?
    no room?
    plenty for this though
    BBC – Migrant crisis: donated fur coats to Calais

    Oh yes … the “jungle” how s that going BBC?

    As Calais Jungle Descends into Warzone,
    Now, Second Migrant Camp Opens Up On French Coastline
    https://t.co/W9XKD3MYdj

       66 likes

  3. Al Shubtill says:

    Look North tonight reporting on a Rotherham Muslim rape gang trial, at Sheffield Crown Court; one of the girls (who was in a council run children’s home) was taken to Blackpool and kept locked in a room where she was raped everyday. When she returned to Rotherham; she gave a statement to a policeman who tore it up and accused her of lying.
    All the accused, needless to say, plead not guilty – as usual.

    These “people” who have been (are being) allowed to invade our country; just drag it further and further into the gutter, with the innate wickedness of their religion’s ideology and their hatred of us, the kuffar.
    I can neither see nor sense any end to it, or any solution other than: THEY’VE ALL GOT TO GO!

       111 likes

    • Save Our Sense says:

      True, but these are second and third generation that have ‘grown up’ here and feel some kind of pull to the fairyland fatherland IS are trying to create, which then turns into hatred and utter disrespect for us and our culture. The progressive, liberal values some of these girls then had rammed into them at Union-dominated schools led to the perfect storm – predators and prey.

      And no, their is no real political appetite to stop it, it’s merely collateral damage on our way to the progressive, multiculti nirvana the UN, EU et al have decided is the way. Shocking.

         75 likes

    • Geyza says:

      I wish there was some evidence to prove evidence was submitted and then subsequently destroyed by the police. Such a criminal act should be investigated and the culprits prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

      in Rotherham there were at least 17 different labour run agencies who were obligated to protect children. They were all infested with labour’s PC ideology and they employed many Muslims.

      No wonder thousands of white English girls were repeatedly gang-raped with utter impunity. Adhering to PC ideology is more important to the labour acolytes, than adhering to the law and child protection.

      The fact that evidence was destroyed, shows that this was not a failure in child-protection policy. This was not even “turning a blind eye” to violent and brutal gang-rapes. This was active participation in covering up those crimes. It was criminal accessory after the fact and conspiracy to pervert the cause of justice.

         50 likes

      • Dave says:

        17 agencies? That alone is ridiculous regardless of whom they employ or their political affiliation – Its just asking for any abuse to be made 16 other people’s problem – especially if the issue of the race/religion of the perpetrators makes it a politically incorrect hot potato. Lots of hand washing going on. I’d imagine at them end of the trial there’ll be some council spokesperson (it’ll be a spokeswoman as it will be considered to show more empathy that way…) standing up to tadvise that lessons have been learned before they all return their snouts back to the (halal) trough.

        No doubt they’ll scream ‘Tory Cuts!!’ when their budget is cut to allow for 1 agency.

           30 likes

        • Geyza says:

          As I recall from an article I read a few years ago there was at least 17 agencies. There was the local police authority, the child protection agencies, local state-run care homes, social services, the local health authority, the local education authority, the local council, county council, the MP, various welfare and anti-crime and anti-poverty agencies, adding up to at least 17 different agencies, (there may have been more), who all had some responsibility for child protection issues. All run directly by labour, or by boards stuffed with labour supporters, all operating under a labour government.

             16 likes

    • Emmanuel Goldstein says:

      Just imagine the hysteria if the little girl being locked up and raped (ROP’d) every day had been one of them being enriched by white Brits. Yet if some z list 60’s celebrity as much as looked at a girl 50 years ago the police go into overdrive.

         61 likes

  4. Rob in Cheshire says:

    I have just watched what must be one of the most stupid interviews Newsnight has ever shown, and I realise that is a crowded category.

    Evan Davies had Ann Coulter on to discuss Donald Trump’s candidacy. Apparently the Trump has been much influenced by Ann’s book “Adios America”. All the idiot Davies wanted to talk about was a joke Ann had made in 2006 which used the word “raghead”, and, bizarrely, whether Trump should use more racially charged language! It was pathetic. Newsnight had on the author of a book which has changed the political debate in America, and Davies just wanted to talk about trivia. Oh, and he managed to get gay marriage in too. Agenda much?

    It was the most embarrassing display of left wing petulance you could ever hope to see. By the end Ann Coulter was just laughing at him. And we pay £4 billion a year on pain of imprisonment for this garbage!

       117 likes

    • Chilli says:

      She wiped the floor with the nasty little twerp – and still managed to make all her points about immigration. Absolute pro. Wish we had a women of her calibre in UKIP.

         88 likes

    • Al Shubtill says:

      Is there a link for that?

         15 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      Particularly enjoyed Evan Davis’ slip “terrorist accident”

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06sbk92/newsnight-15122015

         42 likes

      • twitteryeanot says:

        love his talking about racially disparaging remarks and racist language like Kuffair and Infidel. Or am I dreaming?

           28 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        Davies: ‘What do you think is more creepy….?’

        Look in the mirror, you gurning gargoyle.

           22 likes

    • Germanicus says:

      It was unbelievable, he’s a spiteful, bigoted, little queen.

      No wonder Newsnight is dying on its arse and in danger of being pulled.

         47 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Bet there are a few sections of that in the edited highlights that Ian Katz couldn’t find time for.

         17 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Noticed in the intro Evan (more a fan of No. 2?) trying out Andrew Neil’s ‘No 1 fan’ claim, like that worked so well when used with Katie Hopkins.

      They really are either really thick or really, really thick.

         24 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Also trying to foist daft comparisons with other ‘groups’ on her, like Laura K, tried with Marine le Pen, like THAT worked so well too.

        Is Jasmine Lawrence in charge of prompts on the earwig?

           19 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          And the little creep tries to push the notion of being racist as a direction to adopt to push his PC agenda?

          All to the exclusion of the actual topic.

          8 year old nitpicking idiot.

          Maybe ‘how creepy can you be’ Evan can help me, why is he raising his daughter rather than the point.

          Love that perky ‘thank you’ last two words.

             21 likes

          • Al Shubtill says:

            Good Lord! What an awful, awful, b@stard!

            In that interview; he reminded me of a blue bottle which is tediously buzzing around and requires two or three good swats with a rolled up newspaper, before it’s finally silenced.

            I think Ann Coulter was probably just amused at such a light-weight being the presenter of the BBC’s flagship nighttime current affairs programme, with the repetitive, lacklustre questions he kept feebly lobbing for her to smash down.
            Embarrassing for Evan dearie – amusing for us though.

               38 likes

            • Flexdream says:

              Didn’t Queen Evan similarily attack Farage for his ‘tone’ and completely ignore debating real issues.
              Even if I disliked Coulter and Trump I’d find Queen Evan an embarassment. How did he get his job?

                 27 likes

  5. Dave666 says:

    BBc weather about a minute ago “it’s duvet off weather” It’s 12c here, not exactly warm.

       26 likes

    • taffman says:

      Notice also, the weather map showing the ‘golden yellow’ colour as if we are basking in sunshine. Transparent propaganda Al Beeb, transparent and blatant propaganda.

         39 likes

      • Stuart Beaker says:

        No, the golden yellow just indicates its p*ssing down. Appropriate, I suppose..

           24 likes

    • Geyza says:

      North West news last night trying to make out that overnight temps are more like the July norm. Maybe, for a very cold July. I do not remember having to have the heating on in July though. The propaganda is so blatant these days.

         21 likes

  6. Dave666 says:

    I tagged this on the end of the last thread as I’ve only just sent it. In reply to the response from BBc concerning a recent complaint.
    “there wasn’t enough time given to go into detail regarding the story” Is basically your response as to why facts were omitted from this story. In all seriousness are you telling me there wasn’t enough time for someone to say “Laquan McDonald had damaged a police car, was carrying a knife and was found to have pcp in his blood,” Something I timed myself saying in under 10 seconds. So seriously is this really your excuse? You didn’t have 10 seconds?. Perhaps the presenters could have cut down on their banter to save this time. Having worked on a radio station as a presenter I’m certainly capable of juggling things around to save a little bit of time live on or fill in if needed, but apparently your presenters can’t manage this. So apparently you would rather save 10 seconds than give viewers a full comprehensive review of the story. As for having the facts on your web page not all viewers will then go on to refer to this and some viewers may not even have internet access. Yet somehow they are supposed to know they need to refer to your web site to get the full story instead of watching a part of it on the television. Could you explain therefore if you knew you “didn’t have time” for this story why you ran it at all.

       62 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘In all seriousness are you telling me there wasn’t enough time for someone to say…’

      They are not serious about complaints because they do not have to be.

      Hence they could simply reply with ‘wibble, snark, booger-booger’ and it would take it a year to bring it to a Trust meeting where they believe their colleague was about right’.

         20 likes

  7. BBC delenda est says:

    The formalities, and legalities do not interest me.
    Reagan and Thatcher contributed significantly to the demise of the founding member of Marxist organisations which has the fastest death count in history.
    Not as large as the Muslim death count, but achieved far more quickly.
    For which we must be eternally grateful.

    However the response of both groups of fanatics to both the failure of Marxism and Islam must be more Marxism and more Islam.

    Perhaps we non Islamics and non Marxists should indulge ourselves and redress the imbalance.

       38 likes

  8. Dave666 says:

    The BBc answers my question well I think it does. Apparently what’s his name in space is the first “publically funded” “Briton” in space. So obviously overboard celebrations are in order as he’s the from what I read on the internet, so may be wrong” seventh “Brit” in space

       21 likes

    • Richard Pinder says:

      Brian Blessed is next.

      And then the Reaction Engines, Sabre powered, Skylon Space plane, produced by Bond, Alan Bond. Will thrust Britain to the forefront of Space travel in the 2020’s

         15 likes

  9. Englands Dreaming says:

    Opening the Beeb website (bbc.co.uk) today I am greeted by two stories right at the top of the page, so impossible to miss.
    1. US Muslims reel at Trump supporters’ hostility.
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35100094
    A complete non-story, with the only example of “hostility” being the unsubstantiated claim by a student who says people whisper when she gets on the bus. That is it, nothing else! Then we are treated to quotes by the local LA imam saying why do Muslims always have to apologise after a terrorist attack, other religions don’t. Nicely illustrating why the Muslim community is incapable of solving the problem themselves.

    2. Hijab fashion goes mainstream
    http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20151214-how-muslim-headscarves-became-a-huge-fashion-empire
    This one I couldnt bring myself to read, there is only so much bias I can take on a Wednesday morning

       71 likes

    • Oaknash says:

      Sorry Englands dreaming just reported your comment by accident duuuhhh ! I meant to reply to your post as I have just read the article on the Hijab fashion empire and all I really wanted to say was phwooooar!
      The article mentioned that there was a “Ramadan Collection” – This could be the one with fake arterial bloodstains and powder burns!!!!!

         44 likes

    • BBC delenda est says:

      ED
      “why the Muslim community is incapable of solving the problem themselves”
      I think the situation is even more fundamentally (useful term in this context) problematic, the Muslim “community” do not even think there is a problem.

      Because, they are right, never forget this. They have a monopoly on the truth and a God given right, nay a God given order, to contaminate the remainder of the Universe with it.

         34 likes

      • Geyza says:

        Indeed, as the video “Norway Peace conference” shows, and in the words of their Muslim speaker,
        “All Muslims think these things.”

        What things? Death for: Apostacy, homosexuality, women victims of being raped. Death is the most perfect punishment, because that is what Allah decreed via his messenger.

        ALL Muslims (according to the Muslim speaker) believe this things and such things are not extreme or radical.

        So why should they even try to change, when they do not believe actions we would consider as barbaric, are extreme or radical, but perfect? They consider drawing a cartoon to be radical and extreme.

           37 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      As Tom Jones might otherwise have sung: ‘Leave your headscarf on’.

         6 likes

  10. Oaknash says:

    Shock ! horror! story today on early BEEB news. Republic pressure group has complained that Prince Charles has been given access to confidential goverment documents. What a scoop! Anyone would have thought he was the heir to the throne ! The Bastard . Just who does he think he is!!!!!

       47 likes

    • hadda says:

      Of real concern is that Jeremy ‘Stop the War’ ‘Friend of Hamas’ Corbel gets to see them.

         44 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        That’s more Jeremy ‘Only Start Wars We Call For’ Corbyn, given Israel needs obliterating according to his best buds with his blessing.

           19 likes

    • MartinW says:

      Another complete non-story bigged up by the BBC. No mention that for a 100 years the heir has had access to the same sorts of confidential papers. It is the convention and, in my view, quite correct that he does. Noted also, by everyone on this blog, that the BBC says ‘the Government’ in order to imply it’s only the hated Tories, whereas Prince Charles also received confidential papers during the Blair Terror.

         40 likes

  11. BBC delenda est says:

    I am male. I judge that this curse hangs on many on BBBC.
    I was taught at school that the laws of physics are the same throughout the universe.
    Yesterday, no doubt due to the intervention of Allah, this was disproved.
    The laws of physics do not apply in Saudi Arabia, they also do not apply to parts of spacetime curved by the gravity of massive Saudis not living in Saudi Arabia.

    Yesterday Ehsan Abdulaziz, a rich Saudi, was cleared of rape by a jury.

    The defendant claimed that he accidentally penetrated an 18 year old girl when he “fell on her”.

    Those male readers/contributors here who have had normal sexual relations with physically normal women have never had this experience.

    “Judge Martin Griffiths reportedly gave rare permission to allow 20 minutes of Abdulaziz’s evidence to be heard in private.”
    Why was this?

    Trial held in Southwark, doubtless a model for millions of other rape trials involving the ROP. Packed juries and aquittals to follow. Naturally assuming that trials actually occur, the Kimble the Thimble police being judge and jury as to what constitutes evidence, saving the jury from having so to do

       90 likes

    • Stuart Beaker says:

      D’you know I saw a headline of this, and just assumed it was a trial in Saudi Arabia. Since the evidence was held in private, does this also mean that it will not be possible to cite it as a precedent in any further cases, or that the prosecution will be hindered in any appeal against the verdict, since they cannot cite the evidence given as a basis? Was the jury directed to clear, or were they given the freedom to deliberate for themselves on the evidence?

         61 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        ‘Since the evidence was held in private’

        Seems the UK legal system is basing itself on the BBC Trust.

        Transparency is so what you say you do than what you do.

           23 likes

        • Rob in Cheshire says:

          I wonder how many of the jury were fellow RoPers?

             16 likes

          • BBC delenda est says:

            RiC
            Ropers or rapers, same thing?

               14 likes

          • johnnythefish says:

            Looking at the direction the British justice system has been taking over the past 15 years it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the jury had been selected precisely on that basis.

               12 likes

    • Sir_Arthur_Strebe-Grebling says:

      The Times (£) reported that the ‘wealthy leader of an Islamic political party’ said that ‘that the teenager had grabbed hold of him, kissed him and pulled him towards her, which may have led to him inadvertently penetrating her with his fingers’.
      http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/crime/article4642165.ece

         9 likes

  12. seismicboy says:

    http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/35099081
    The BBC are at it again. Always finding a way of favoring the underdogs of this world and bashing big business. This time its Sky and BT who get it in the neck from Dan Roan.
    “Unfair on those supporters”
    “Fans are paying too much for pay TV football,”
    “That’s just not fair. ”
    Blah Blah Blah. Well, Dan, while we are on the subject of value for money, how about the BBC licence fee and having to put up with politically polarised poppycock day in, day out.
    The BBC gave up the right to sit at the top table of TV football years ago and with it their right to criticise. Their idea of live TV soccer is a crap website adorned with subbuteo style graphics and still 10 minutes late.

       52 likes

    • BBC delenda est says:

      sb
      Not that I care about football or the, usually half-witted, fans thereof.
      If the BBC wants to complain about prices, What about the prices to attend these matches.
      How about the multi zero transfer fees.
      How about the larger than David Cameron salaries paid, every week, to these people whose only abilities seem to be hugging each other and spitting long distances five times a second.
      Well Aunty?

         8 likes

  13. Germanicus says:

    So Steph’s report on Breakfast today: The woman is really getting down the nitty gritty of her Business/Economics brief, she was walking around a Royal Mail sorting office breathlessly telling us how it was busier than usual.

    Imagine, a sorting office busier than normal at christmas time?? Fuck me, who’d have thought it? The woman’s some sort of oracle.

    Seriously though, is this the sort of ‘reporting’ that the BBC are reduced to with their thousands of journos? It’s embarrassing.

    I look forward to her next in-depth piece in which Steph uncovers a direct link between higher than usual chocolate egg sales and an annual Bank holiday weekend that usually takes place in March/April.

       72 likes

    • Dave666 says:

      I’ve just watched Steph in the sorting office and the poor postie who is still “throwing out” The standard of journalism I expect.

         28 likes

      • Angrymanupnorth says:

        Steph and her career encapsulate the illness in our society. Don’t get me wrong, I actually like Steph – she seems like a grand lass and you can’t fault her for following the money. The real tragedy is that Steph is trained in a useful and productive field in engineering, yet is working in the useless and unproductive field of ‘Meedja’ (better pay you see. For now.) So Steph can be asked to do ‘pieces’ bemoaning the number of women in Engineering, on account of those who are trained (women in engineering) getting employed to do media work and PR work relating to highlighting the lack of women in Engineering.

        Steph – one Beeboid who actually is employable outside the Beeboid/MSM bubble.

        Free Steph! Axe the telly tax!

           35 likes

  14. AsISeeIt says:

    I was deeply touched – as I’m sure so many will have been – by the revelation that Shaker Aamer (late of Guantanamo Bay) found London had changed so much since he has been away (ah-hum). Aside from noting that people seem to be on their mobile phones all the time these days, he also remarked on how the British capital had become so “cosmopolitan”

    I think we can all relate to this. Whatever did happen to pearly kings and queens, pints of whelks and Chas ‘n’ Dave?

    Let’s join our old china-plate Shaker in a bit of a knee’s up and a reminisce of the good ol’ days….

    My old Iman said: “Foller the van,
    And don’t dhimmi-dally on the way”.
    Off went the van wiv me IEDs packed in it.
    I walked be’ind wiv me old cock linnet.
    But I dillied and dallied,
    Dallied and dillied;
    Lost me way in Afghanistan!
    And you can’t trust the CIA
    Like the soft-touch coppers
    When you can’t find your way home.

    Al’t’gevva naw!
    Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner
    That I love London so
    Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner
    That I think of her wherever I go

    I get a funny feeling inside of me
    When walking up and down
    Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner
    That I love London Town

       49 likes

    • DownBoy says:

      ‘You’ll find ’em all,
      Doing the Lambeth chop.’

      ‘Any old knife,
      Any old knife,
      Any any any old knife’

      ‘Kneecap Mother Brown,
      Kneecap Mother Brown’
      etc.

         25 likes

  15. The Old Bloke says:

    So, all the “happy clappy” greenies all feeling smug with themselves after Paris (a bit like an Amway convention) all fly off and those from the USA find themselves confronted with this:
    http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/12/15/monster-snowstorm-denver-breaks-daily-snowfall-record/
    Another record “cold” event.
    The BBC a bit slow off the mark on this one. I wonder why?

    Be prepared for a “record” “Hotttest Eva” December day, week, month, 6 hours, minute, nanosecond..from the Met Office and/or the BBC. Despite much evidence that years past similar (if not the same or higher) temperatures have been recorded in the U.K. Today, every man and his dog has a home weather recording station wired into a computer network and uploaded onto various Met sites which include the Met Office through their WOW system (Google ‘Met Office WOW’) In times past, before these home bread weather stations were set up, the Met Office only used data from confirmed sites through their own “district” observations. Many of these were at Military airfields, lightly used, or rural sites. Today, hundreds are in cities and suffer from the Urban Heat Effect and are not calibrated to take this into effect, henceforth the hypothetical CET series, where most of the temperatures recorded are mathematically homogenised. So expect a “Hottest Eva” event, when in all probability, it isn’t.

       31 likes

  16. Geoff says:

    Something very wrong here, my local BBC told us on Monday that foodbank use was up, yet the BBC now report this….

    Mind you personally I find these figures extremely hard to believe, do new arrivals walk straight into employment? I know quite a few 40 and 50 year olds who are unemployed but not claiming and would guess this is quite common…

       44 likes

    • Dave666 says:

      Figures are rigged I know they were in the office I worked in. I come in the 50+ not signing as I get nothing even the ni credit is not much use to me. Can’t be bothered with the job center staff who I had to work with in the 80s/ 90s I had a very low opinion of them then. After signing on 4 years that opinion was lowered I found them useless they lost my documentation, tried to suspend me (and failed) twice. I didn’t get a single job interview through them, and they dragged me in every week at extra cost to me for no reason other than to mess me about.

         47 likes

      • BBC delenda est says:

        D666
        Public sector workers losing documentation.
        You must be white, they usually lose the documentation if you are ethnic to help you avoid inconveniences like trials and imprisonment.

           19 likes

      • DaveR says:

        Completely agree about job centre staff though I haven’t had to use them for years. I left my CV with them and the only time they tried to job match me was as an electrician working on the railways. I wanted to ask them what, on my CV, gave them the impression I was even remotely qualified to do such a dangerous and vital job. I have no lecky qualifications and in fact even hate changing a plug, yet they wanted to put me forward to work on the railways. If I had got it, there would have been an explosion that could have been seen from space.

           8 likes

  17. embolden says:

    The History of Spain last night, started in a commendably balanced way, El Cid, the Almoravids, the Almohad Caliph, Boabdil, the Reconquista but then veered into a “who do you think you are” look at the family history of the presenter, Simon Sebag-Montefiore which to be fair to him he expressed disquiet about (who made the editorial decision to include it?) and references to “Jewish blood” and its prevalence in the Spanish population of today.

    Why is so much history presented throught the prism of the Jewish experience and relationship with Christianity? whilst interesting it is, with all due respect, not an unbiased historical perspective, and was not reflected in the title of the programme, which was “Blood and Gold- the making of Spain”. The Jewish experience was only mentioned vis a vis the Reconquista. Relations between the Jews of Spain and the Almoravids and the Almohad Caliphate were not explored.

    Looking forward to the balanced view of the civil war that we are sure to be presented with….

    Is objectivity itself, the enemy of the BBC?

       36 likes

  18. Oldspeaker says:

    A quick look around the BBC news site revealed nothing much out of the ordinary until I found this, not a new piece by any means but I don’t remember seeing it before.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-1446c419-fc55-4a07-9527-a6199f5dc0e2

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35031313

    Both fantastic and profoundly depressing, the latter because it reminded me of the service the BBC used to provide, not pushing any hidden creepy immoral agenda nor trying to corrupt and beat people down with the PC hammer. Just bringing some news from far flung areas of the globe that most of us are unlikely to ever visit together with high quality pictures. I’m surprised it ever passed BBC “quality” control…”Wot, no promiscuous transgender far left ethnic slant?”

       22 likes

    • Dave666 says:

      This story was running around the end of October https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Lassen_(DDG-82). I’m sure I’ve heard the story before much earlier. As I stated in an earlier comment I wonder why they bothered when rising sea levels will flood the artificial islands. I wonder why BBc have decided to run this story now.

         10 likes

      • Umbongo says:

        “I wonder why BBc have decided to run this story now”

        I presume that there remains at the BBC a dying, atavistic impulse to report an item of news or general interest without seeking to inject part of the Narrative into the reportage. Wingfield-Hayes almost manages it here. In other words, there appears to be no agenda: on the contrary, it’s newsworthy and informative. We’re so used to propaganda from the BBC that a lack of same arouses our suspicions. That alone is a profound comment on the BBC’s manifest bias.

           18 likes

      • Oldspeaker says:

        And therein lies the rub for rising sea level fanatics Dave, why is China expending considerable time, money and resources creating military outposts that could be underwater in a few years time? Maybe because they know different? not being constrained by PC crap and not subscribing to climate change fantasy are huge advantages to have over the west for any nation.

           11 likes

    • Umbongo says:

      Apropos of Wingfield-Hayes’ first piece: it is informative. Unfortunately he can’t forbear giving the US (the old whitey US obviously) a light kicking by likening the Monroe Doctrine to China’s land/sea grab. AFAIAA the Monroe Doctrine was not the 19th century Americans (unlike the 21st century Chinese) actually grabbing territory and declaring it part of the US: it a was warning to European powers intent on expanding their empires to stay out of the Western hemisphere and, not least, to retain and expand the US’s influence in the area.

      Moreover, although W-H notes US power is “for the moment” unassailable the Chinese assertiveness will shortly put paid to this. Oddly W-H only mentions the Community Organizer in the White House once (in the second piece as it happens) to report Obama’s pathetic plea in November (?) to the Chinese to exercise restraint. If US seapower is dominant – which it is – why isn’t the US Navy doing something rather more aggressive to prevent the Chinese expansion? Mind you, who wouldn’t rather golf in Hawaii or play man-games with Bear Grylls than stand up for US – and international – interests?

         16 likes

      • Grant says:

        Umbongo, Obama does not do foreign policy , much to the delight of the Russians and Chinese.

           20 likes

        • Geyza says:

          Although Obama is now trying to belatedly take credit for the Russian destruction of large swathes of ISIS territory. Apparently the US airstrikes are degrading ISIS. Funny how the pilots are not aware of this as 90% of their sorties return without dropping any munitions at all, for fears of accidentily killing people. Whereas the Russians are not quite so squeemish.

             24 likes

          • Grant says:

            Geyza, Good point. Not a peep from the BBC about any collateral damage by the Russians.

               13 likes

            • Geyza says:

              I recall some wild finger pointing at the Russians the day after they started bombing ISIS, because they hit a house full of “innocents”, but the BBC went very quiet on that when the Americans bombed a UN Hospital in Afghanistan the next day.

                 13 likes

  19. Old Goat says:

    The other half has been following “Professional Masterchef”, as is her wont, prior to my intention of abandoning the BBC for ever.

    Last night it was delayed fifteen minutes, whilst the poster child Brian Cox and his mate Dara Ó Briain, smarmed and talked inconsequential drivel with others who looked a bit awkward, and seemed to be wondering what they were all doing there, because somebody had gone to the Space Station.

    It made her very cross.

       32 likes

    • Umbongo says:

      Reminds me of the excitement at the BBC which mandated the interruption of the stream of bias on Today to tell us that Shaker Aamer might be on his way to the UK in a private jet after his release from Gitmo.

      Apropos of spousal disagreement: Mrs U and I differed concerning the faux-excitement generated by the media – and it’s not just the BBC – about this (in the scheme of things extra-terrestrial) non-event. She considers – and she may be correct – that this fuss is preferable to the usual crapola which exercises our state broadcaster (eg Parisian climate change).

         25 likes

  20. MartinW says:

    Goodbye, Naughtie. I think that will suffice. In the wonderfully sarcastic words of Mr Bennett ” You have delighted us long enough”.

       40 likes

  21. St George says:

    Hello Bloody hell trying to get logged back in is nearly as difficult as getting a complaint upheld at the beeb…….. Wankers at work have the TV switch on BBC1 having to watch VD (need a shot of antibiotics after being subjected to that shite)…One year on from The Pakistan School shooting….terrible act but still thinking there will not be a charlie hebo programme on 7 January 2016…..might be wrong lets see

       21 likes

  22. Save Our Sense says:

    So the Scots have tramped all over Trump’s objection to their planned array of windmills off the coast of his golf course in Aberdeen.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-35106581

    Few things of note here. Obviously Trump is top of the left’s shit-list (the Scottish Nationalists, despite their confusing name, being as left as left gets…) which, I’d wager, completely mires any hope of a non-biased decision from the Supreme Court – despite the fact that his substantial investments in Scotland are yielding employment and a sizeable tax take for the local economy.

    Trump argued that ‘planning consent for the wind farm was so imprecise as to make it legally invalid,’ but you know, when it comes to what the left wants who cares about silly little adult things like procedure, feasibility, strategic planning etc etc.

    And if we flip it the other way round, imagine the fury if Trump himself had wanted to build the windfarm..? The eco zealots would have been going crazy about the view being spoiled, the threat to local birds, the fact that manufacturing each windmill consumes more energy than it will ever produce and so on. Cue protests, placards, a BBC film crew in a boat off the coast talking about biodiversity, damage to the sea bed etc etc.

    And the quite blatant BBC bias? Well in the story they quote three sources who are in favour of the ruling, versus one against – The Trump Organisation. Anybody any idea what the locals think BBC, you know, the people that live and work there and make a living thanks to Donald Trump? No? Thought not.

       45 likes

    • Geyza says:

      The shrill cries of extreme horror which follow every rational, common sense and truthful announcement by Trump, by hysterical and deluded lefties, makes me want Trump to win more and more. I am a supporter of Cruz, but would be happy to have Cruz serve as Vice president under Trump.

      I think it would be hillariously funny if Trump won.

         45 likes

  23. G.W.F. says:

    Yesterday sitting in a queue awaiting my second passport check whilst entering France from the UK. My passport was checked leaving the UK and my car was checked for security. In France, first passport control, then armed cops took the passports from the car drivers for a second check which took a couple of minutes per passport. On the radio, BBC, were jabbering about how easy it was for trade and tourism for passport free travel in the EU.

       39 likes

    • soyelcaminodelfuturo says:

      Arriving back into Dover earlier this year the car in front of me was dithering so I overtook him before exiting customs and immigration. That was a mistake. An officious policeman decided to make an example of me. I do have time for the police usually but not this one. Instead of upholding border control he was more interested in mounting a very tall horse and indulging in a sneery point scoring exercise. I’m sure that he was very satisfied with his work but he completely didn’t check the car for Moroccans or any other kind of wrongness. I had been in Morocco a few days earlier incidentally. Man they manage their vehicular border crossings (Ceuta -> Tangier) very differently.

         22 likes

    • Save Our Sense says:

      Meanwhile, just behind the cops’ control cabin a group of Europe’s future Doctor’s and Brain Surgeons, complete with recently donated fur coats (WTF is all that about?!) and out on a daytrip from The Jungle, were apprehended for the fifth time this week for trying to sneak into the Tunnel. As always, hey were sent merrily on their way without so much as a frown from the Cops, who then turned round and carried on barking ‘Papers!!’ at another hapless law-abiding British motorist in the queue, whose car was then ripped apart in the never-ending effort to stop terrorism.

      The BBC-commissioned sitcom ‘Jungle Brothers’ is currently at the draft stage in Frankie Howerd and will feature an episode highlighting the catastrophic dangers of the Tunnel, whereby an unsuspecting immigrant in a wheelchair inadvertently gets hooked up to the back of one of the trains, makes it to Britain (requiring fresh underpants from those luvvies at Calais Aid) and then jointly sues the French and British governments for £20 million.

         27 likes

  24. seismicboy says:

    Is Tim Peake’s trip to the ISS (or should that be so-called ISS?) an elaborate BBC stunt to get a their own tame climate spy in the sky. How long will it be before we get him on BBC weather, live from the space station?
    “The Atlantic is looking a bit warm today Carole”
    “Christ, where’s the polar ice cap gone? it was there yesterday!”
    “Carole, I have a great view of that erupting volcano in Indonesia, it’s producing a lot of CO2”
    “Tim, if I could just correct you there, all CO2 is man-made, didn’t we make that clear before you left?”
    etc. etc.

       33 likes

  25. Thoughtful says:

    Pure unadulterated propaganda – pro mass immigration, pro refugee, pro asylum seeker, pro Muslim.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06ssy1t

    #AylanKurdi picture – How one picture changed the nature of the debate about migrants in Europe.

    On the 2nd of Sept, a picture showing a 3 year old Turkish boy dead on the beach first appeared on social media, where it became widely shared. Traditional media soon followed suit, and Aylan Kurdi’s picture became the defining image of Europe’s migrant crisis.

    Credited with prompting a major shift in public opinion, it bolstered the #RefugeesWelcome movement, and sparked a response from Europe’s leaders after months of shifting the blame. In Britain, within 3 days of the picture being posted, David Cameron announced that the country would welcome 20,000 more refugees by 2020.

    But was it right to share the picture of a dead child in the first place?

    No difficult questions ask, no stones turned, blind acceptance, and of course no mention that the image had been faked either.

       31 likes

    • Wiser Monkeys says:

      The boy’s name was ALAN – not Aylan – Kurdi, as confirmed by his aunt Tima. The popularity of the mis-spelling (done by the Turks) shows how little people really know about the facts.
      We did our own original research into the circumstances surrounding his death, and you can read the article here:
      http://wisermonkeys.uk/boyonbeach.html

      We came to several unpleasant conclusions, through we did not find a compelling case that the image was faked.
      But exploited certainly, according to the available evidence.
      AlanKurdi-unseen.jpg

         20 likes

      • Grant says:

        Aylan and Alyan are interchangeable in Arabic. Alan has various meanings in Turkish but would never be used as a boy’s name. I suspect that someone, possibly even a Beeboid, gave him the english name Alan either out of ignorance of to get greater sympathy from the British. Anyway the whole case smells of a put up job to begin with, aided and abetted by the strangely incurious BBC !

           22 likes

        • Wiser Monkeys says:

          During an interview, Alan’s aunt Tima confirmed his name. If we recall correctly, he was named after a cousin who was originally named after a place in Canada.
          There are roughly around twice as many references online to “Aylan Kurdi” as there are to “Alan Kurdi”. Not the biggest deal, but it does indicate how sloppy the MSM were about the story.

             14 likes

          • Grant says:

            Wiser, you are quite right. They do no research. Aylan/Alyan is an Islamic name meaning ” he who climbs upwards ” ( ironically ! ) or someone who is very active , both in the religious sense.

               8 likes

            • Grant says:

              PS The BBC has an Arabic section and anyone could have asked them. Even Urdu -speaking muslims know the meaning of the name. It is just lazy, sloppy journalism.

                 7 likes

    • Angrymanupnorth says:

      It was the abuse of power by those in government, the media and the ‘charity’ sector of their positions, and their use of a child’s death to promote their inhuman and immoral response that “..changed the nature of the debate.”

      BBC are complicit in the deaths of countless. As I commented at the time, when Douglas Carswell attempted to address the matter:

      “…If the subject matter were not so serious, the performance by the BBC ‘interviewer’ would be funny. The subject matter is however, serious, and I am not laughing. What is it that divorces Simon McCoy’s brain from some basic human facts? How can Mr McCoy wallow in such spiteful self-righteous ignorance and emoting, when surely his job is to ask questions pertinent to the subject of the ongoing invasion of Europe by hundreds of thousands of people from Africa and the Middle East, and allow the interviewee to provide answers? We the viewers can judge the answers and we don’t need a retarded man-child interviewer to pass judgements on the responses based on his limited knowledge base, lack of human decency and his low IQ.

      Simon McCoy (BBC) appears in the ‘interview’ to regress to a child-like mind set. Whilst approximately 17000 (under 5’s) children will have died on the same day as the poor boy, Simon McCoy’s entire emotional energies are focused on only one (presumably because he has now seen disturbing pictures. Please don’t tell Simon that 6.3million under 5’s died in 2013. He clearly wouldn’t be able to cope.) That the emotional response of the metropolitan elite to a photographed corpse of one of these unfortunate children has become central to the British press coverage of a national and international crisis is bad enough, but for the BBC through Simon McCoy to deliberately use a single tragedy (one of approx. 17000 similar human tragedies that day) to smear a whole political party (UKIP), and an upstanding gentleman such as Douglas Carswell with desperate, childlike, unthinking, self-righteous smugness, insults the public who look to the BBC to provide news….”

      and the following day, I commented about the political use and abuse of this child’s corpse:

      “…Using ‘child death porn’ images and the original lies that brought the images into the homes of our nation, to encourage the ongoing mass relocation of (mainly young males) people into Europe from different cultures, and legitimising this as “morally correct”. Useful idiots? Or more sinister? They must have been advised by now that the poor dead child in question was not fleeing from persecution, but resided in the safety of Turkey. That the boy’s father is reported to be an alleged liar and ‘people trafficker’ who put his own family at risk, resulting in their deaths, must be known to these celebrities too, surely?…”

      As Obiwan has pointed out elsewhere, when you see a family of Syrian refugees in this country, remember the 12 other families that our taxes could have helped, if the government had done the morally justifiable thing, and resourced their resettlement closer to home. Stefan Molyneux has done the research for us:

      and

      The moral case is settled. The science is in. Yet our government acts against our interests as humanitarians and tax payers and against the interests of those suffering in the Middle East. Shame on the LibLabCon.

         23 likes

  26. Angrymanupnorth says:

    16/12/15

    Just listening to the BBC Daily Politics in the background.

    My attention was grabbed by a discussion between Andrew Neil and Laura Kuenssberg regarding the timing of the EU Referendum. Remember, the ‘EU’ and ‘Europe’ are now synonymous terms. Please check it out on i-player because it is very revealing:

    The conversation was framed with the following accepted assumptions: (i) That the British Government wants the UK to stay in the EU (ii) That it is right for the UK to stay in the EU (iii) The government will be attempting to time the Referendum so as to maximise the probability of a ‘Stay in’ vote. (iv) There will be a migrant crisis next year, and the Referendum should be timed to minimise the impact of this migrant crisis (that has not yet been created) – this is the biggy.

    Bias? What bias?

    Yes, Andrew and Laura casually assuming that there will be a migrant crisis next year. ? If A and L think this, by extension they believe that the institutions of the state, the EU and the states of European countries, whilst never in human history having had more resources and portion of GDP at their (unaccountable) disposal, will inevitably fail to protect borders and will be in a ‘crisis’ from invading aliens – next year (early summertime). The surprise is that they openly talk about this insanity, yet continue to plug for the destruction of democracy by continuing down the authoritarian EU spiral staircase. I guess Andrew and Laura must live in particularly civilised enclaves of England, or elsewhere. Certainly they have no thought for the Welsh Scots or English plebs for whom this EU disaster is more than an academic and professional interest.

    Time to Leave the EU. It’s obvious. To those who care for the future.

       47 likes

  27. Will all end in tears says:

    The NHS – will it ever be able to stop running a deficit?

    The problem, according to the BBC, is the baby boomers. You know, the ageing (Asian?) population.

    Absolutely fuck all to do with mass immigration. So little in fact that it’s not even mentioned.

    Truly shocking

       59 likes

    • BBC delenda est says:

      Waeit
      They need to revert to the Golden Age of Blair, give the GPs a 36% pay rise and reduced responsibilities.
      Concurrently with the Blair policy of white patient neglect, malnourishment and starvation.
      Racist Labour, discriminating against genuine British people.

         25 likes

  28. Angrymanupnorth says:

    Earlier today, I was subjected to the most disingenuous monologue from the former Prime Minister, John Major, who was a guest on Radio 4, Jim Naughtie’s show between 0800 and 0830. JN’s last show. (Never mind, carry on). An invited uninterrupted pro EU propaganda monologue, not an interview. The BBC’s blatant bias in their complete lack of scrutiny and challenge to the unfounded assertions being made by a proven incompetent predictor.

    John Major. Wrong on the ERM, wrong on the Euro, wrong on the EU, still wrong. He thinks the British are, well, shit – I don’t get that.

    Major appeared to confirm that our European ‘friends’ actually don’t like us, as they would conspire to ‘make life difficult’ when our government reclaims the people’s sovereignty (which it had no right to ever cede in the first place, something Major will never understand). No wonder our country is in the state it is in with such self-haters and cowards having had the reins of power. The european states will do what is in their best interests, which is cut a deal with the UK after Brexit. We need competent positive politicians to cut that deal for the UK, which excludes Cameron, most Tories, the Labour Party and especially those who think so little of the British, like the former Prime Minister John Major.

    Cameron and Major both require Vaseline and Sudocrem in their international Negotiations kit bag. We need Britons of substance who don’t need such articles in their arsenal. Oh, for a Churchill, or a Thatcher!

    Vote Leave. So the UK can soar like an eagle without the turkey of the EU* tied to its feet!

    [Soon the ‘turkey of the EU’ may indeed contain, Turkey.]

    UKIP – the only route out of this mess. Join UKIP, vote for UKIP. Get active!

       55 likes

    • Grant says:

      Why on earth do the BBC think that anyone takes any notice of a total nonentity and failure like John Major ? A unitelligent, uneducated fool. Our EU partners may not like us but they love our money. Lets get out before any more damage can be done. Buffoons like Major can always go and live in an EU country and they won’t be missed here !

         38 likes

    • Geyza says:

      Had John Major been interviewed about his thoughts on any other tory Government policy, Jim Naughtie would have been interrupting left, left and left (I was going to write left, right and center, but Naughty never interrupts from right or center). By allowing Major to bang on about the EU, uninterrupted, from a Europhile position, the BBC have again revealed their blatant bias.

      I remember in 1997 how the BBC had relentlessly attacked anyone from the tories and were very tough on them during interviews. Nothing wrong with that, as they were the government of the day and deserved tough examination. I also remember as Blair came to power, the BBC claiming that they had received complaints about how they treat government ministers previously and would tread more lightly in future… and they avoided any tough examination of labour ministers until about 2007.

         15 likes

      • Grant says:

        Geyza, what a convenient excuse. No doubt when the coalition got in, the BBC said they had complaints about how soft they were on the previous government !

           8 likes

  29. Dover Sentry says:

    The BBC won’t be playing this. Farage on the EU this week in their Parliament.

       48 likes

    • Grant says:

      The only party leader with balls ! He is so right about Cameron. Cameron is just a shifty second hand car dealer and that is an insult to second hand car dealers.

         42 likes

    • taffman says:

      Al Beeb hate UKIP . They are paid by the manufactured and artificial Eurostate to hate the party . Cam Moron is pretending to negotiate but he has already nailed his colours to the mast and said he wants to remain in the failed state. There could be a nice job for him at the end of it because he will not remain in his present office .

         21 likes

  30. Thoughtful says:

    Two Tory Lefties have been given enormous air time today, John Major & Michael Heseltine, both of whom have given wholehearted unconditional support to staying in the EU.
    To them corruption, waste, vested interest, lack of accountability, are positive attributes. They are not in the slightest concerned by future policy, the only way is by staying in.
    When asked even the most simplistic question about the benefits however the fragility of their position is shown as the argument falls to pieces.
    Britain risks “splendid Isolation” says Major, but can’t say more than that. In some of the items when the BBC have allowed the other side to be heard – which is not often, it’s plain that Europe sells far more to us than we do to them, and they aren’t going to put that at risk.
    A ban on the import of German cars, French wine, Danish Bacon etc would certainly concentrate the EU minds no end !

       40 likes

    • Grant says:

      All that is missing is Kenneth Clarke. These were all failures as politicians and are dinosaurs living in the past while the world has moved on.

         35 likes

  31. Guest Who says:

    OT, other than these are from publications that speak to the BBC, who then speak at the nation with them:

    http://ukmediawatch.org/2015/12/16/guardian-not-clear-if-rock-throwing-dolls-were-heading-to-palestinian-authority/

    If reported (the BBC’s finest ‘Rocket, what rocket?’ brigade surely cannot claim not to be aware), one may suspect some watertight oversight to be noticeable.

    http://order-order.com/2015/12/16/indy-time-to-grant-isis-diplomatic-recognition/

    Well, golly, if that does not require an A380 of Pulitzer wannabes going there now to understand the motivations, what will? (Note to accounts: book one way. There may be savings).

    http://order-order.com/2015/12/16/stay-classy-guardian/

    Maybe if it was made into a song. Radio 1 would play it, surely? Even Jonnie Walker.

       9 likes

  32. wronged says:

    Off topic a bit I know, but whilst reading todays BBC news website I couldn’t help but compare two stories. Stuart Hall the BBC peadophile and the Hatton Gang robbery crew.

    Stuart Hall, no mention of him working almost exclusively as an employee for the BBC. He has served his sentence and has been released. Rightly they did not reveal his home address for fear of reprisals.

    However, the Hatton heist crew had their personal addresses written into the article even though they are at present not guilty. They are now vulnerable to reprisals, revenge may indeed be sought from those who were robbed of millions of pounds.

    Could someone justify the protection of Stuart Hall’s address as opposed to the robbers of the Hatton crew.
    How completely irresponsible. Oh I know, Stuart Hall is ‘one of their own’.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-35111521

       23 likes

  33. Flexdream says:

    The BBC obliged to report through gritted teeth,
    “The UK unemployment rate fell to the lowest for nearly 10 years at 5.2% in the three months to October.”
    But every silver lining has a cloud if you look
    “Sluggish pay increases
    The pay of workers grew at its slowest rate since the January to March period, in spite of the unemployment dip.
    Total pay grew 2.4%.”
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35111020

    With wage rises at 2.4%, and inflation -0.1% in October, and 0.1% in November is pay inrease really ‘sluggish’? No, a real terms increase of 2.4% is good. And ‘slowest rate since January to March period’ means what without context?

       25 likes

  34. wronged says:

    Sorry I should have included the other web address to compare the above with, see below

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35114106

       5 likes

  35. Steve Jones says:

    Fracking gets the green light from parliament as reported here:
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14432401
    The interesting bit is the graphic showing a cross section of how fracking is done. Now I know for certain that the BBC was told that the cross section was misleading because it implied that fracking took place just beneath the surface. Subsequently, the phrase ‘not to scale’ appeared at bottom left but nothing else was touched. The point is that a diagram showing something closer to the correct scale would have informed people just how deep down the drilling goes.
    For some reason the BBC did not choose that approach. I can’t think why.

    Also, here is a handy guide to the Richter Scale so you can see just how terrifying those magnitude 2.2 quakes are:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale
    Shukman et al were obviously too busy to include this.

       24 likes

    • Grant says:

      Steve, it could be bias. Or it could just be ignorance of the science. The BBC even make “mistakes” with maps, especially of the Middle East. The problem is that the BBC is a mix of unprofessionalism, ignorance, incompetence, laziness and bias. It is often difficult know which factors are mainly at work.

         29 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      The BBC and integrity: ‘not to scale’. Actually, no connection at all.

      Graphically the fracking pipe could be illustrated to clarify the fact of depth with ease.

      It is probably shown properly on a BBC website in a basement behind a locked door with the sign ‘Beware of the Leopard’.

         16 likes

  36. Save Our Sense says:

    Whatever your thoughts on fracking it is the BBC’s obligation to report the subject, any subject, with impartiality – end of, no excuses, that’s the way it is and the license fee payer is taxed accordingly.

    So, the House of Commons, which purports to do the will of us, the people it represents, has voted in favour of fracking. The BBC’s reporting of this, you’ll notice from its headline story below, is quite blatantly 90% against the decision, giving a voice to anyone and everyone who’s against the vote while leaving it until the penultimate paragraph to produce a quote from the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

    There is enough evidence in this one story alone to hang the biased BBC out to dry. Really, who’s gonna put a stop to it – it’s getting worse!

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35107203

       34 likes

  37. Guest Who says:

    The BBC on Facebook, and their now all-time favourite topic:

    BBC News

    First he banned Muslims.
    Now he’s “closing the internet”

    Interesting picture chosen, too.

    A few are pointing out that their impartial grasp of integrity is matched only by their editorial accuracy.

    Oh, and on matters of messing with folks’ Internet, raising this by the BBC is ‘brave’, given one of the two top forced options to be fed such calibre of ‘news’ being pondered by Mr. Whittingdale.

       16 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      It links to a story with the same image, but a different ‘slant’, using the ever dubious one degree of separation technique of the BBC quoting ‘tweeters who mock’.

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-35109492

      Guessing any attempt to ascertain how these are found and selected would fall under ‘our little secret’ editorial integrity exemptions.

         6 likes

  38. Thoughtful says:

    The BBC seems concerned about the kidnapping of a ‘hunting party’ on the Iraq / Qatar border and that there are members of the Qatari Royal family amongst the victims.

    They do admit that Qatar has been funding ISIS but not that they are funding the promotion of Islam in the West, nor the ‘influence’ of Western politicians with their oil money.

    Odd that a handful of people quarter of a world away should merit even a mention on the news, let alone a headline item though.

       17 likes

    • Xavier says:

      ??? Iraq and Qatar do not share a border nor are they even close.

         14 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Maybe one of those BBC ‘special stuff’ maps they use for this region? Like the one that managed to disappear an entire country? With integrity, of course.

           11 likes

  39. AsISeeIt says:

    Benefit of the doubt

    Not BBC but a fine example of Europeans giving refugees the benefit of the doubt to suicidal extremes

    [Metro newspaper Wednesday 16th December 2015]

    ‘Terror images found on refugees’ smartphones’

    ‘Hundreds of images of beheadings, dead children and Daesh flags have been found on the mobile phones of asylum seekers trying to enter Norway. The country’s immigration service discovered the content during background checks on thousands of refugees this year. The videos and photos show dead bodies and brutal punishments, such as people having their hands cut off.’

    ‘But immigration chief Erik Haugland said there might be an innocent explanation’

    ‘”It could be they have witnessed something and had a desire to record what they’ve seen, or they may have been acting tactically and have the symbols associated with terrorist organisations so they could pass through areas under their control”, he said’.

       28 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      That’s a stonking great ‘could’ there by our Erik. He should go far.

      ‘May’ be worth checking, perhaps?

      A bit like some labelled ‘not helpful’ by BBC kiddies and security experts like Malala, have had the temerity to suggest.

         19 likes

  40. Grant says:

    BBC TV 6 pm news. 1. Bash fracking 2. Bash Trump. 3. First 1000 Syrian refugees arrive. Shows family decorating a christmas tree. BBC manage to find some christians or were they ? I would put no deception past the BBC. Weather forecast ” This crazy weather continues ” etc etc. Agenda ? What agenda ?

       46 likes

    • Arthurp says:

      Scandalous article found here. Implies that fracking will damage the water table.

      There’s lies, damned lies and BBC journalists.

         25 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Cue kitchen taps as Bunsen burners.

        I do notice she popped in ‘could’ there, so all backsides covered.

        I wonder what 1200m looks like… to scale?

           16 likes

        • Grant says:

          But we are lucky that,on BBC website , “Claire Marshall explains how it works “. And, with her Law degree and postgrad in “Broadcast Journalism ” , she is perfectly qualified to teach we ignorant viewers and we should be grateful .

             21 likes

        • Steve Jones says:

          What does 1200m look like? I reckon a talented and qualified science journalist, keen to educate their readership, could help you picture that sort of distance by saying it is a bit more than Mt Snowdon is tall.
          As I said, a talented and qualified journalist could do that.

             11 likes

        • Geyza says:

          1200m? Well my three storey house is only about 30 meters, so imagine a 40 three storey houses stacked on top of each other. It is very nearly a mile. Or at 51.59m, try imagining 23.3 Nelson’s columns stacked on top of each other.

          I really do not understand lefties who oppose fracking. I mean they have a soft spot for coal mining, yet now oppose using coal, but not the mining of that coal and coal mining is a lot more damaging to the environment than fracking is.

             16 likes

          • Demon says:

            And they’re all in favour of those useless wind monstrosities that really do ruin the environment but achieve little benefit at all.

               13 likes

          • Rob in Cheshire says:

            Geyza:

            30 metres is about 100 feet, so probably even more than a three storey building perhaps?

               2 likes

    • Dazed and Confused says:

      Which is why the Simpsons are far more truthful and educational given the 6:00 slot…Then you can tune in to ITV news.

         16 likes

      • chrisH says:

        I do the same sir.
        Simpsons-take my share of liberal crap from the BBC and Channel 4-then top the day off with Family Guy.
        Both cartoons give far more truth than anything that the liberal media give us by way of “news and analysis”
        The Simpsons tells you more about schooling than anything I know…and because they`ve been years ahead of us by the time we see it-it counts as current affairs to me.

           11 likes

  41. BBC delenda est says:

    Item on AlBeeb about the killers of fourteen people in San Bernardino recently.
    Contrary to earlier reports, states AlBeeb, the killers did not post about jihad on social media.

    So that makes it OK them?

       22 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      No, but as this is how they source their news, it may explain why they didn’t have a helicopter overhead to cover it.

         9 likes

      • BBC delenda est says:

        They managed to find a helicopter PDQ when Cliff Richard was under investigation.
        Rotherham rapes, the end of the universe will occur before AlBeeb shows any interest.

           28 likes

  42. Thoughtful says:

    A heads up for a pro Islamic terror piece from those unbiased people at radio 4 !

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06srqhb

    In the days after the recent terror attacks in Paris, documentary-maker Tim Samuels spent a weekend living in a notorious ‘banlieue’ – one of the neglected suburbs on the edge of the city, seen as breeding grounds for radicalism.

    At least four of the killers from the January and November attacks came from these poor suburbs, but are politicians and the media right to make a direct connection between the banlieues and extremism? What repercussions have the attacks had on those living in the estates, who already feel highly marginalised?
    Tim stays with a Moroccan single mother and her young son who live in La Grande Bourne on the south side of Paris – a concrete mass penned in on all sides by main roads, and a far cry from its initial vision as a 1960s utopia. The estate is now a byword for extremism – it was home to Amedy Coulibaly, who killed four shoppers in a kosher supermarket and a policewoman at the time of the Charlie Hebdo attacks. Yet Tim finds his host and many others are resolute that their community has been wrongly demonised.

    He meets some of those who knew Coulibaly. They say he appeared perfectly normal just days before he launched his murderous assault, and suggest his radicalisation took place in prison.
    For all the defiance of some, other locals tell Tim that they feel like 5th-class citizens – living in an area where even the police won’t respond to their calls. Tim also finds many shops shuttered up, open drug dealing and taxis refusing to enter the area.

    As he says farewell to his host family, Tim leaves the estate filled with conflicting narratives – hope and defiance rubbing up against despair and extremism. He is then given some surprising news by his taxi driver…

    So the next time the BBC are reporting an Islamic inspired terror outrage, just remember – it’s cause the BBC don’t think you’re worth it.

    White lives don’t matter !

       21 likes

    • soyelcaminodelfuturo says:

      “They say he appeared perfectly normal just days before he launched his murderous assault”

      What they’ve got hold of there is one of them there “moderate” Muslims what don’t agree with violence and all that malarkey. That’s what they are – “normal”. According to Al Beeb there’re all like this.

      Better keep the moderates away from any guns then – they’re a bit trigger happy, these moderates.

         19 likes

      • Grant says:

        Soyel, LOL ! Yes, That’s what they all say and they expect us to believe it !

           9 likes

      • Geyza says:

        These extremists always appear “normal” and decent. That is Taqiyya. The Islamic duty to deceive the non-believer. What that tells me, is not that we should be afraid of a tiny minority of “not real” Muslims who are perverting the religion, but that we should be afraid of every “normal” and “moderate” Muslim, because all the murderous nutters who kill for Islam appear “normal” and “moderate” before they kill.

           17 likes

  43. Brett says:

    At least the female bbbc reporter on the simon mayo show told us to expect the xmas tree needles to drop earlier this year, you see ,they were harvested during the warmest november on record!!!!! Ho ho ho,merry winterval folks

       24 likes

  44. nogginator says:

    BBC – Video – Prime Minister: Donald Trump – ‘Divisive, Stupid, and Wrong’
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35113312
    https://t.co/02c6Qngdo6
    “I think his remarks are divisive, stupid and wrong and I think if he came to this country it would unite us all against him,” Cameron said during Question Time in the House of Commons.
    That, too, drew a backlash, with London mayor Boris Johnson–also a Conservative–firing “Crime has been falling steadily both in London and in New York, and the only reason I wouldn`t go to some parts of New York
    … is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump.”

    These clowns speak in the reality denying bubble of Westminster, wilfully ignorant of all that is happening around us
    The MSM, the BBC skew real news in favour of potted B/S narrative.
    … It won t be long!

    Denmark: Jihad “migrants” stretching police resources to breaking point
    Sweden: “For the first time, I feel scared to even live here now”
    UK: ISIS Twitter accounts traced back to UK Department of Works and Pensions
    Norway : 100s of migrants had photos of executions and severed heads
    Hungary: Europe Is a ‘Battlefield’ Now Due To Migrants, Says PM
    UK Petition Calls For Armed Guards Outside Synagogues And Schools
    Forget The Trump Petition, 1.5 Million Hungarians Have Now Signed To Stop EU’s Asylum Policies

    Prime example of such BBC attempts of news skew

       50 likes

    • Grant says:

      Cameron and Johson are idiots. If Trump does become President, does that mean they would refuse any contact with him ? Yet the buffoon Cameron is happy to meet the President of China , a country with no human rights and where minorities ,including his beloved muslims, are regularly persecuted. What a hypocritical moron.

         44 likes

    • Flexdream says:

      Evan Almighty has a problem with anyone vaguely right of centre

         25 likes

      • Grant says:

        He also has a problem interviewing adults !

           27 likes

      • Geoff says:

        Bollocks to the important issues let’s talk about gay marriage and Paddington Bear. He ain’t fit to read the BBC3 kiddy news, let alone present Newsnight.

           44 likes

    • MartinW says:

      Davies’s interview with Ann Coulter is appalling – but by now we so used to the egregious Davies nit-picking and trying to character-assassinate, talking over his guest whenever the guest says something he doesn’t like. The man is a complete shit (and I extremely rarely use such language).

         49 likes

      • Dave S says:

        Davies is just not very good at his job. This is now true of the vast majority of BBC commentators and news people. I hate to say it but even George Galloway is better at interviews than they are.
        There is something very amiss with the selection processes at the BBC. It is not just that they all are of one mind it is that they are increasingly useless.

           41 likes

    • manchesterlad says:

      Thanks for posting this Evan Davies interview with Ann Coulter. She does rather wipe the floor with him doesn’t she? – she cleans him off her shoes too.

      She makes the excellent point several times that he keeps saying he wants to talk about the ‘issues’ but then every question he asks is pathetic-lefty point-scoring about something said as a joke eight years ago. Of course, he’s a lefty, he doesn’t understand what the issues are, he just knows he doesn’t want to talk about them.

         52 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Davies, Laura K, sofa sloths… all sat down and with a Babel fish stuck in their ear and told… “The issues do not matter; drag it back to UKIP no matter what”.

        Jasmine Lawrence rules the production suite. And the predictable result is a hoot.

           20 likes

    • Al Shubtill says:

      It occurred to me – Ann Coulter is a sort of more intellectual and articulate Katie Hopkins; I should very much like to see her go head to head with Brillo.

         27 likes

  45. nogginator says:

    Saudis announce Islamic anti-terrorism coalition … 😀 😀 😀 , wahabi s anti terror ROFL
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-35099318

       24 likes

    • Grant says:

      It is noticeable that Frank Gardner immediately finds problems with it. The BBC have always supported terrorism and criticised any attempts to counter it.

         29 likes

  46. chrisH says:

    The BBC is that shit these days, that it`s rare to find a programme worth a damn.
    That said, last Sundays programme on the making of the film “Shoah” seemed pretty good to me…and now David Aaronovitchs programme on Islamic State seems way more knowledgeable than nearly anything else i`ve heard on the BBC of late.
    Neither are as good as it gets-but so much better than anything else the BBC offers these days, so let`s be grateful for such mercies.

       17 likes

    • Geyza says:

      Below is an excellent documentary about Islamic State. It would never appear on the BBC though, bacause there is no way that anyone can watch it and then rationally claim that ISIS has nothing to do with Islam.

      WARNING: NSFW and there are scenes which show human heads stuck on spikes.

         12 likes

  47. Dover Sentry says:

    This says a lot about online petitions to Parliament:

    http://news.sky.com/story/1607259/sky-poll-30-percent-support-trumps-muslim-ban-call

    500,000 signed the petition to keep Trump out of the UK.

    But 30% of those polled in the UK recently support Trump’s views.(Sky Data Poll). How many millions does that represent?

    Not to be found on BBC. But then it wouldn’t suit their narrative of course, unless it had been the other way around.

    ..

       37 likes

    • manchesterlad says:

      Interesting that the majority of people polled oppose or strongly oppose a ban though?

      Of course, they are entitled to their opinion, but you must wonder how much they know about Islam? If they just listen to the BBC and the majority of the MSM they could be excused for thinking that Islam is just like Christianity except you stick your bum in the air to pray – and, oh yes, you fast for peace once a year don’t you!

      Most people I know are negligently ignorant of true Islam. Try to tell people about it and they glaze over and mutter about how I have been listening to fascist propaganda … No, I say, I’ve just been reading the Koran.

      They are so mesmerised by the comfy image portrayed of Islam that they are simply unable or unwilling to digest any other views – or the true facts even.

      What could possibly go wrong?

         40 likes

      • Brett says:

        Well said manclad, i tell my friends the same and get the same reaction. Its almost like everyone has been brainwashed! Cough cough.

           27 likes

      • Geyza says:

        They also apply false equivalence to the way Christians ignore the (now defunct) violent acts in the bible, (particularly the old testament) and the way Muslims implement their faith. Christianity worldwide especially when implemented in Christian countries, is peaceful, bar an extremely tiny number of fundementalists. Islam worldwide, is mostly peaceful, except where it is practiced in a country which is an Islamic Theocracy.

        If Christianity and Islam were the same sort of religions, then the terrorism statistics should be fairly even between them… But over 98% of all terrorism last year, comprising thousands of acts of violence, were committed in the name of Islam. NONE were committed in the name of Christ.

        Another difference. Jesus Vs Mohammed. Jesus was a man of peace. Yes, he got a bit cross at money lenders, but he never raped anyone, enslaved anyone or killed anyone. Mohammed is considered to be the most perfect example of humanity by real Muslims. He was a lying, rapey, kiddy-fiddling, murderous, slave-owning monster.

        liberal ignoramuses seem to believe that people who uphold Sharia law and support all the “death to infidels” scripture of Islam are considered not real Muslims.

        It makes me wonder, How much of the Qu’ran and the Haddiths must one ignore for liberals to think that one can be considered a “real Muslim?”

           21 likes

        • MartinW says:

          Yes, very well said, Geyza. It is worth emphasising again that the so-called Christian fundamentalism as portrayed by the media really is not Christian at all, if defined (as it should be) as those following the teachings of Christ. Violent acts described in the Old Testament are pre-Christian, of course, but one doesn’t expect the manipulating media to make that distinction.

             9 likes

        • Rob in Cheshire says:

          The Bible is in essence a history book. There is no pretence that it was written by God, and whilst it might chronicle wars fought by the Israelites in the Old Testament, that does not mean that their God necessarily approved of what they did. It could not be more different from the Koran, which is an instruction manual for world domination and the destruction and enslavement of the non-believer. It is truly a wicked book. It is to Islam what Mein Kampf was to Nazism, and for my money there is little to choose between the two lunatics who wrote them.

             9 likes

      • Xavier says:

        “No, I say, I’ve just been reading the Koran.”

        So yeah, you’ve been reading fascist propaganda.

           6 likes

  48. Ian Rushlow says:

    The BBC is excited. An article on its online magazine reports enthusiastically on “A new film looks at the cases of all of the 86 women killed in Britain in a single year – 2013 – by their partner or ex-partner in a new film.” The theme is ‘all men are murderers, when they are not rapists of course’. To reinforce the message – in case anyone is confused – it helpfully points out that “In 2013, 164 women were murdered in Britain – 86 of whom (52%) were killed by their male partner or ex-partner. In that same year, 381 men were murdered in Britain, 12 of whom (3%) were killed by a female partner or ex-partner. ” Disgraceful. Presumably under Equality and Diversity legislation women should be encouraged to kill more men.

    The BBC decides to describe three sample cases. These are unexcusable, as are all cases of murder, regardless of cause or motivation. But they are also highly selective. Towards the bottom of the article are the names of the 86 women. Notice anything about the names? Such as, a disproportionate number of them seem to have names that are not – how shall we put it – traditionally British? Might it be the case that the murderers themselves do not have names that are traditionally British either? Here’s the story of three of them – why did the BBC not elaborate on these examples? Were their lives less important? Or is there some other agenda at play?

    BBC article – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34933659

    Three examples they could have used:
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-26824623
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2651744/We-hour-say-goodbye-She-badly-burned-told-look-face-Daughters-businesswoman-burnt-death-abusive-ex-husband-speak-time.html
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2730593/Husband-paid-drug-addict-just-1-000-kill-wife-frenzied-stabbing-attack-having-affair-sister-convicted-murder.html

       30 likes

    • Grant says:

      Ian, But notice that all the examples they use are white British. It would be interesting to know how many were “Honour killings”. BBC bias at its most shameless and blatant.

         22 likes

  49. Angrymanupnorth says:

    O/T Had to share this:

    Mr Watson is surgical with his words. Brilliant presentation.

       23 likes

  50. Dave666 says:

    BBc Breakfast just before I’m out as it’s MOTR time “incredible temperatures”” Incredibly mild” weather droid tells us a few more “mild” comments get thrown in “crazy temperatures” Sloth pursues the sports Minister over Tyson Fury.

       15 likes

    • Jerry Owen says:

      As you know in America storms and tornados are given names. The reason we have started giving names to storms ( in a teacup ) and mildly windy weather is to try and fool people into thinking our weather is worse now than it has been by linking it to America’s more volatile but still natural weather patterns.

         27 likes