38 Responses to Open Thread Tuesday

  1. Invicta 1066 says:
    December 22, 2015 at 11:47 pm

    ”Whoever seeks refuge with us must respect our laws and traditions and must learn German, . Multiculturalism creates parallel societies, multiculturalism is a lie” So said a certain Angela Merckel Germany’s Pm as reported last week in the DT.
    Contrast this with Cameron’s take about Britain having a wonderfully diverse multicultural, multi faith tolerant society.! Fully in line with the BBC’s propaganda so he gets praise and Merckel is ignored.

    Of course she will never succeed because to expect migrants to adapt to a German way of life will be deemed racist or Nazis or something. Anyway if all the Muslim migrants will have to do is to copy the thousands of Belgium Somalis when efforts were made to make them integrate into Belgium society, up sticks and use their EU citizenship and come to the oh so tolerant UK!

    Thousands arrived in the Midlands; within a year or so a special housing association was set up for them funded with £millions of taxpayers money to provide housing. Run by the Somalis it was closed down when the funds when missing.
    The BBC had a special programme on the setting up of the project, lavish with praise, little comment when fraud closed it down.
    What is to stop Germany’s migrants from doing the same thing?
    She got it right about multiculturalism didn’t she?
    I see another Christian Christmas ad in cinemas has been banned, happy tolerant diverse UK eh, Cameron.?

       74 likes

  2. Sir_Arthur_Strebe-Grebling says:
    December 23, 2015 at 12:15 am

    I know this is three days late, but the bBBC evening news on Saturday provided an unusually direct case-study of BBC bias. As it happened, two public figures died that day, both 87-year-old men and both having suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.
    The lead news item was about Jimmy Hill, with lots of footage of him in his younger days – no images of him since his illness took hold – and people queuing up to say what a great man he was. No contrary comments were included, for instance that he started the ridiculously inflated salaries for footballers that have to be paid for by the supporters, the biggest anti-Robin Hood transfer of money from the poor to the rich in history.
    The second news item was the death of Lord Greville Janner, copiously illustrated with film of him struggling with Alzheimer’s, and almost all of the item was about the alleged child abuse with which he was never charged. They did include a small bit showing him as an MP, speaking up for Holocaust memorials, before airing an interview with a woman solicitor who represented some of those he allegedly abused, saying how terrible it was that the ‘victims’ couldn’t get ‘justice’ or ‘closure’, and that she couldn’t pocket even more fees in a court case.
    The contrast, and the BBC bias, could not have been more stark.

       41 likes

    • Englands Dreaming says:
      December 23, 2015 at 7:28 am

      I think the Beeb wanted to deftly avoid comments made by Jimmy Hill in later life. He clearly wasn’t reading the official BBC script and went decidedly off message.

         20 likes

  3. Flexdream says:
    December 23, 2015 at 12:28 am

    R4 The World Tonight as I drifted in and out the kitchen I caught.
    Piece on removing politically incorrect statues e.g. Smuts. Check
    Piece on Labour. Check
    Piece with 2 trannies being interviewed. Check
    Piece introduced with derogatory statement a Tory politician is reported to have said years ago about the homeless. Check.
    Switch off.

       66 likes

  4. Kennedy says:
    December 23, 2015 at 4:58 am

    Just seen this on HuffPo:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/12/22/green-petition-builds-momentum-after-slamming-bbc-ukip-bias_n_8860498.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

    It says that, so far, 1600 people have signed the petition accusing the BBC of favouring UKIP over the Greens.

    Words fail me!

       53 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      December 23, 2015 at 8:46 am

      Interestingly, my email feed had this comment following one from elsewhere wondering about the motivations and methodologies and hence value behind anonymous post likes.

      Just provision of ammunition, not hard with a 20,000 intranet to coordinate responsibility-free clicks.

      Some to enable a ‘story’ to be justified, whilst others to enable a shut down to be demanded of authorities all too over-sensitive to social media pressure coorindated to sway policy with zero justification.

         14 likes

    • RJ says:
      December 23, 2015 at 8:49 pm

      “It says that, so far, 1600 people have signed the petition accusing the BBC of favouring UKIP over the Greens.”

      Astroturfing.

         5 likes

  5. Wild says:
    December 23, 2015 at 8:21 am

    The reporting of the recent Spanish election by the BBC was predictably biased – the reporter made little effort to disguise his enthusiasm for the leftist “anti-austerity” party Podemos.

       35 likes

  6. Geoff says:
    December 23, 2015 at 8:24 am

    Mondays BBC 4 documentary ‘From Andy Pandy to Zebedee: The Golden Age of Children’s Television’ was aunties take on what wonderful children’s programs they made in the 60’s, 70s and 80’s.

    I was looking forward to the bit on the ‘fix it’ children’s program that they ran for twenty years and Rolf’s Cartoon Time which they ran for 8 years, strangely these were airbrushed out of the potted history…

    The BBC, rewriting history….

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06t3mhm

       41 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      December 23, 2015 at 8:40 am

      A rather neat example of BBC revisionism of what goes in and what stays out when editors of integrity are in control of the production suite.

      At least no one from management lurking in the back in case they actually educate and inform with accuracy; they already know what is expected.

         19 likes

  7. Sluff says:
    December 23, 2015 at 8:53 am

    A kind of bias by virtue of useless interviewing on Toady R4 today – and on a topic I feel strongly about to boot.
    I have a relative who is now a surgeon. His parents both ran their own businesses. 10 years ago+ I remember asking him how he felt about the NHS given that his upbringing was entrepreneurial. He gave an example of how he had found a new gadget which would improve taking blood samples. But the bureaucracy of getting approval to use it (committees, committees, etc etc) was so huge he just gave up.
    This morning, 10+ years later, this exact same issue about slow introduction of technology in the NHS came up. Some titled personage, ‘Sir’ somebody, was hauled in and defensively reeled off all of the UK’s great medical and related breakthroughs. Smallpox vaccine etc. But all his examples were a. very old and b. non-monetised. We keep on giving stuff free to the world. Why don’t we patent the stuff and make some money out of it? Who knows, it could even fund the NHS. And as for the speed of introduction, “we’ve always done it this way” is the classic NHS refrain, we all know the bureaucracy of the NHS is elephantinely slow moving and utterly resistant to change, a culture inculcated into so many of the staff.
    The dim interviewer, and her interviewee , just did not pursue these themes. Spending other people’s money is what unites the bBBC and the NHS. The bBBC just cannot stomach the idea of anything remotely ‘commercial’ to taint the pure, virginal NHS. And boy, are we paying the price not just in terms of taxes, waste, and inefficiency, but also our low position in many of the global health outcome tables.
    None of which incidentally need equate to privatisation or care other than free at the point of delivery. That’s another issue.

       41 likes

    • TrueToo says:
      December 23, 2015 at 9:32 am

      Spending other people’s money is what unites the bBBC and the NHS.

      Throw in the EU and the UN and you have one big happy family.

         31 likes

    • Up2snuff says:
      December 23, 2015 at 3:08 pm

      I listened to that same item, Sluff, and found myself thinking – for the umpteenth time – that we really need a rigorous Judge-led Public Inquiry into various Departments of State, including Health.

      Many appear to be spectacularly deficient in one or more ways but how & why needs to be investigated. They appear to be ‘black holes’ into which vast amounts of taxpayers’ money are poured for very dubious returns and benefits.

         8 likes

      • RJ says:
        December 23, 2015 at 9:03 pm

        “we really need a rigorous Judge-led Public Inquiry into various Departments of State, ”

        There was a time I would have agreed with you, but where can we find a competent judge? From Scarman to Mcpherson to Butler Sloss, the track record is from poor to abysmal. For her child abuse enquiry Theresa May had to import Lowell Goddard from New Zealand. Lord Denning is too long dead.

           8 likes

  8. TrueToo says:
    December 23, 2015 at 8:58 am

    Several alleged reporters at the BBC are long overdue disciplinary naming and shaming for their grinding, implacable bias. One such individual is Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, who produced a video ‘report’ on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that had me staring at the screen in disbelief.

    He portrayed Tel Aviv Israelis as living lives of indolence and luxury, either lolling slack-jawed with eyes closed on a beach or producing gold jewellery (nudge-nudge, wink-wink) and totally indifferent to the conflict with their Palestinian neighbours.

    Ramallah, on the other hand, was portrayed as bustling and energetic, with an earnest, photogenic Palestinian spokesman saying that things would be fine were it not for the ‘Occupation.’

    Naturally, a still photo of the unflattering lolling was used to fill the video screen on the BBC ‘News’ website as a triumphant final touch.

    This effort dates back to 2010 and is still proudly displayed on the website – while the window of opportunity to complain about it was closed practically before the bigots had finished congratulating one another over a job well done. It balances so precariously between a campaign against Israel and outright anti-Semitism that one settler adding a bedroom to his house in ‘Occupied Palestine’ would tip it over to the latter.

    I name and shame you, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, and I retrospectively award you the Most BBC Biased prize for 2010:

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-11294445

       39 likes

  9. Will all end in tears says:
    December 23, 2015 at 9:07 am

    I was listening to Adrian “face like a Toby jug full of piss” Chiles the other day and he mentioned that a potential replacement for Sepp Blatter could be Bill Clinton. “Respected all around the world” blah blah blah.

    Any mention of a Clinton no doubt gets all Al Beeb staffers a-twitching in their pants but I texted in to say;

    “Clinton? Did I hear you correctly? The man who lied to the world about getting sucked off by a woman who wasn’t his wife? Yeah, great choice. A real man of integrity there.”

    Fat tit never read it out. Ah well, next time.

    May I wish all contributors and readers of this site (even the bed wetting lefties) a very merry Christmas and a peaceful 2016.

    God bless us, everyone

       48 likes

    • Sluff says:
      December 23, 2015 at 11:06 am

      Yeah, and there’s a crucial difference.
      Lefties can write on here. An online discussion and debate ensues.
      Write anything opposing the BBC and/or its opinions on its website and ……..it is deleted for being off-topic.
      Always great when an opinion reaches the highest rated spot on HYS and THEN gets deleted. By some strange quirk of statistics, such comments are always centre-right.
      A telling example of bBBC bias through censorship.

         34 likes

    • RJ says:
      December 23, 2015 at 9:10 pm

      ““Clinton? Did I hear you correctly? The man who lied to the world about getting sucked off by a woman who wasn’t his wife? Yeah, great choice. A real man of integrity there.””

      Slightly OT, but there is a current advert on ITV for a product to recondition a woman’s hair “after 100 blow dries”. I misheard it the first time and thought “they can’t say that on TV”.

         5 likes

  10. AsISeeIt says:
    December 23, 2015 at 9:18 am

    The BBC talking about business and markets is like watching a fish attempt to ride a bicycle.

    No wonder lanky Ben Thompson wobbles “You’re watching a special edition of Business Lies… er… Live”

    All the usual BBC tropes and tick-boxes are there – the inordinate reverence and regard for supranational institutions over national ones and an obsessive interest in the person of the chairperson of the US Fed (she happens to be a woman) – these can serve for now as examples of the reflex BBC-ness of Business Live on the News Channel.

    I was watching BBC news yesterday and our national broadcaster played a most unconvincing Devil’s Advocate with straight face berating George Osbourn for failing to cut the deficit.

    As Luficer calls for another lawyer a rather geeky olive-skinned youngish BBC correspondent (sorry, I can’t find his name) does the incestuous in-house interview thing with the news anchor. “Government spending has risen by 4%”

    And, you wouldn’t know that if you watched BBC news day in, day out.

    You see, even when BBC finance journos do get it right this truth rarely bleeds over into the newsrooms where the “cuts” agenda rules supreme.

    Our BBC guy yesterday fascinates us with talk of one or two particularly large items this quarter causing the Chancellor to miss his spending reduction targets. Tell me more, tell me more, (as they sing in Grease – the show, not the EU province)

    “….large contribution to the EU and a payment to the World Bank…”

    Blink and you’ll have missed it, folks. The penny just dropped – but don’t expect to hear it drop.

       29 likes

    • Thatcherrevolutionary says:
      December 23, 2015 at 10:17 am

      It is a complete oxymoron to have a ‘business’ section for the BBC – an organisation without any commercial pressure or accountability? From the likes of Peston who is clearly on drugs, via Camel Ahmed the token, all the way down to the like of Jarrod or Jerrod or whatever, no accountability, no real world experience. These people wouldn’t last 5 minutes in the real business world.

         36 likes

      • GCooper says:
        December 23, 2015 at 10:39 am

        The BBC’s business coverage is so poor it’s hard not to treat it as the deliberate waving of two fingers at filthy capitalists by a bunch of trots. Probably the worst of all is the World Service’s In Business which is usually led by some rubbish from an ecoloon pressure group, a UN report (by definition worthless) or almost anything other than a genuine business story which would interest an intelligent listener.

        The last BBC reporter who knew anything at all about business was Jeff Randall – and what he had to say about the comrades after he had left was priceless.

           30 likes

  11. Selohesra says:
    December 23, 2015 at 9:49 am

    BBC website main headline “EU exit would break up UK, says Hague” – whereas opening line is ” …. could lead to break-up ….”

    Not so subtle difference – incompetence or bias?

       33 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      December 23, 2015 at 11:45 am

      Did you page capture?

      Incompetence or bias those two words do not mean the same and need accounting for.

      What I do see currently is ‘It’s unbelievable: Towns in Cumbria flooded again’.

      The BBC is big on belief.

      This links to this URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35166530

      Different headline. The ‘quote’ not in a text but from a householder.

      All terrible, and every sympathy, but I can believe it rains a lot in winter and, given the competencies of too many agencies involved in making things worse, can happen over and over.

      The EU story is now under Politics, citing ‘could’ in headline and intro sub

      Leads here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35165720

      ‘Could’ all the way.

      It is open to comments. Top one:

      13. Posted by ColinConundrum

      Main headline on homepage ‘EU exit would lead to break up of UK’. Article heading ‘EU exit could lead to break up of UK’. Classic BBC online. Trying to manipulate as usual. People aren’t that stupid.

      It doesn’t matter if people are stupid or not. The BBC is institutionally bent, knows it, doesn’t care, and protected by those in high office.

         21 likes

  12. GCooper says:
    December 23, 2015 at 9:55 am

    To be fair (to the BBC?!) all the media have reported the little twerp’s scaremongering attempts in the same terms.

    None of them has advanced a single reason why anything Hague has ever done should inspire confidence in his opinions.

       23 likes

    • Sluff says:
      December 23, 2015 at 10:58 am

      As its Christmas, let’s cheer ourselves up on Europe with a few comments from someone who knew EXACTLY where it was all headed, and who was the ultimate hate figure to the bBBC.
      Keep listening after the famous line to hear a later commentary tellingly prophetic of Nu Labour, the whole European socialist movement, and today’s Corbynista Labour Party.
      More than 25 years on, I can find few inaccuracies here.

         30 likes

      • GCooper says:
        December 23, 2015 at 11:09 am

        Oh, how she is missed!

           34 likes

        • wronged says:
          December 23, 2015 at 3:43 pm

          Under her leadership she would be the unifying thread to bring the leave EU groups together.
          If they were alive today she would absolutely destroy Ken Clarke,Heseltine and John Major. They would be absolutely pertrified to speak out against her.

          If only she were around today. My goodness, Thatcher with Tebbit alongside, were a force to be reckoned with.

          Love her or loathe her, you had to admire her.

             26 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      December 23, 2015 at 11:48 am

      Did the others try to do it in the inaccurate way cited above, then cover it up?

         4 likes

  13. GCooper says:
    December 23, 2015 at 10:03 am

    Well, well, well… how ever could the BBC have missed such an important story as this?

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/12/23/pictures-pegida-celebrates-christmas-second-annual-christmas-carols-islamification/

    It seems that an estimated 8,000 people have taken part in a PEGIDA rally in Germany. Apparently they were so violent that they actually sang carols, thus proving what a bunch of far Right neo-Nazis they are.

    SIlence from the BBC, of course.

       57 likes

  14. Soapbox says:
    December 23, 2015 at 10:12 am

    The plethora of awful perfume ads will soon be over…to be replaced with all the holiday ads by about midday on Christmas Day. Then the media in general will turn to New Year Resolutions. How wonderful it would be if the BbC resolved to “just report the news.” Nothing more and nothing less; no analysis, only impartial interviews and definitely no comments or implied innuendos. We, the people (who pay you money to do this) are NOT stupid. Let us make up our own minds about things that you just report.

    Oh dear…I think I have just woken up from a dream.

    Happy Christmas everyone.

       52 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      December 23, 2015 at 11:32 am

      OT, but what is it with these TVCs?

      Hundreds of them. All flogging some alcohol with a dash of Posh Spice sweat in it. Is there really a market?

      And most seem borderline rape fantasies or enough to get Humbert Humbert asking Jim to fix him a bottle of Anais Anais delivered by the cast.

         11 likes

  15. G.W.F. says:
    December 23, 2015 at 3:51 pm

    From a circulated email re the Licence Fee.
    BBC licence fee
    To the House of Commons.
    The petition of residents of the UK,

    Declares that the petitioners are dissatisfied with the BBC licence fee; further that up to 50 MPs recently demanded an urgent Government review of BBC funding; further that the Magistrates’ Association has been calling for the decriminalisation of TV licence evasion for nearly 20 years, concerned that evaders are punished disproportionately; further that 52.8 million letters were sent in 2014 to suspected evaders which were followed up by 3.8 million visits by TV licence officers, 204,018 prosecutions (or out of court disposals), of which 24,025 were unsuccessful, and 40 imprisonments, for an average of 20 days; further that the licence fee represents a much higher proportion of income for poor households; further that it gives an unfair advantage to one broadcaster; further that the UK is now perceived less favourably internationally by countries that have never enforced TV licence fees or have abolished their TV licence due to its public broadcaster funding model; further that the petitioners find the BBC’s content outdated and biased and therefore do not wish to fund it; and further that an online petition on the matter was signed by 170,000 individuals.

    The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to end the BBC licence fee. And the petitioners remain, etc.

    I hope you like it. Last time I spoke to Andrew Bridgen (it was last Friday, before I sent him a hard copy of the official text, with my signature on it) he told me “I’ll put in to present it as soon as I get it and Parliament is back after the Christmas recess.” I’ll let you know when a date is set.

    TV LICENCE COURTS
    On a different subject, the BBC came back to me with a new list (purged of about 50 names) for the courts dealing with TV licence offences. I’ve published it here, under the section entitled 3rd Update. https://endbbclicencefee.wordpress.com/2015/10/10/courts-dealing-with-tv-licence-offences/ I’m still waiting for the Ministry of Justice’s list (which they promised nearly a month ago but still haven’t delivered, even after I nudged them). I hope to compare the 2 lists. That will have to wait.

    Caroline Levesque-Bartlett

       16 likes