PROJECT FEAR EVERYDAY

One of the things that most annoys me about the BBC is how it is using the TODAY programme each morning to disseminate “Project Fear” propaganda from Cameron and his pals. This morning we were treated to the Editor of The Economist screeching that the UK could “only” ever hope to obtain a trade deal with the EU similar to that of Norway. It appears the simple economic fact that we are the UK’s single largest export matter has NO significance in terms of trade negotiations if you write for The Economist?

Freedom from information

 

The BBC was very eager to nail the government on its supposed ‘misleading’ figures for death rates in the NHS at weekends [Not so keen to get to the real figures though] with a FOI request.

Strangely the BBC shows a marked reluctance to similarly nail the government when it comes to genuinely dodgy immigration figures that the government admits it won’t reveal because ‘ it might prejudice the outcome of the EU referendum. ‘  Yes we can’t have facts and information relevant to the debate interfering with the debate.

From the Telegraph:

Ministers ‘hiding full scale of EU immigration’

Experts say that while official migration figures suggest just one million EU nationals have come to Britain over past five years, more than two million have registered for national insurance numbers

Hundreds of thousands more EU migrants may have come to Britain than disclosed in official records, experts have warned as ministers were accused of hiding the full scale of immigration.

Official figures published suggested that 257,000 migrants came to Britain last year, with a significant rise in the number of Bulgarians and Romanians.

However over the same period 630,000 EU citizens registered for a national insurance number, which would entitle them to work or claim benefits in Britain.

Jonathan Portes, Principle Research Fellow at the National Institute of economic and social research, has asked the Government for more detail of the national insurance numbers.

However, his request has been rejected on the grounds that it might prejudice the outcome of the EU referendum.

He said: “It is very difficult to understand why there should be this sudden divergence. I do not believe that you can explain this huge discrepancy now by saying these are people only here for a few months then going back. It is massive and it did not used to be this big.

“The Government is hiding this data. They claim it would interfere with the renegotiation. It is genuinely outrageous. Which ever side of the argument you are, on immigration or on the EU, the electorate deserves to have the facts and the data.”

PC PC PC’s

 

Remember the time when diligent BBC reporters would plaster the BBC website with stories of the police dragging ‘innocent’ schoolboys off to be waterboarded?  How times change…not a sign of this tale of a white, non-Muslim boy beng so treated…

Outrage as school calls police after pupil looks at Ukip website in class

Teenager Joe Taylor was flagged up for political extremism by the deputy head after he used a school computer to click on the party’s website. 

The 15-year-old went online earlier this week to research immigration following a classroom discussion on the subject, logging on with his school username. 

But he was stunned when teachers subsequently reported him to the police, claiming he had raised welfare concerns by visiting “politically incorrect websites”. 

Amazingly he was referred to a specialist team whose usual brief is preventing vulnerable youngsters from being groomed and indoctrinated by Islamic State (ISIS) jihadis. 

Rough Injustice

 

 

The BBC has been telling us all day of the rise in rough sleepers and Labour’s outraged reaction.

What the BBC wasn’t telling us in its news bulletins was that 56.7% of rough sleepers are immigrants….

Total non-UK    4,201    56.7%

Only right at the very bottom of its website report does it make any such admission about immigrants…

Where nationalities were available, 43% were from the UK, and 36% from Central and Eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004 or 2007.

Why is the BBC not so keen for you to know that and isn’t it a bit of a cheek for Labour, who opened the floodgates to attack the government for something Labour’s immigration policy, and of course the EU, is mostly to blame for?

 

 

 

 

Rotherham Rozzers didn’t bother

 

So the police get all the blame for Rotherham?

Yesterday, unfortunately can’t remember when, a BBC reporter admitted that he repeatedly heard tales that the Hussain family were involved in serious crimes but the police were ignoring them. So the police ignored these crimes….what exactly did the intrepid BBC reporter do to expose both the crimes and the police’s inaction?  Nothing obviously.

This wasn’t just a matter of the police ignoring things, the media and local government were also involved and turned a blind eye due to the ‘race factor’.

Why do we not hear the BBC admitting the media were also at fault?

Curiously the report about the convictions has vanished off the BBC’s front, UK and England page despite this being a major story from yesterday….you have to go all the way deep into the website to the regional area of Sheffield and South Yorkshire to find the story now and even there it isn’t prominent.  Almost as if the BBC doesn’t want you to see the conviction of Muslim men for mass rape and abuse….the cover up continues.

 

 

 

The Not So Damning Dame

 

Dame Janet Smith spent three years investigating the BBC and Savile and then allowed what, half an hour or so for journalists to quiz her on her conclusions limiting each one to one question and a supplementary question?  Ridiculous as she strictly regulated what they asked and how long they had to ask it.  Surprised at the journalists who deferred to her and allowed her to get away with it.  She was there to answer questions not to get away with revealing as little as possible whilst strenuously defending her own reputation..

Her conclusion that the BBC, as a corporate body, was blameless as senior managers had no knowledge of Savile’s activities is complete nonsense.  She claims that the hierarchical nature of the BBC meant that such discussions never happened but anyone who has ever worked in any organisation knows that there is huge amounts of contact between the different levels and that ‘gossip’ of such a salacious nature concerning someone as famous as Savile, a person who was a major and important celebrity for the BBC, would have flown around the organisation at speed.

DJS even admits that in 1971 the allegations were in the newspapers but the BBC top brass were so concerned with the reputation of the BBC that they covered them up…how then does she conclude that management knew nothing?

She states that knowledge about Savile was limited to producer level and producers did not have the authority to tackle them…OK say that was true….Savile was carrying out his abuses over many decades so when those producers got promotion and rose up the ranks were they not then in a position to take things further and to take preventative action as they saw he was still employed by the BBC?

DJS said that there was a culture of fear that meant staff would not report Savile’s behaviour for fear of the consequences for their careers.  Surely then that is the responsibility of senior management?  There have been plenty of similar enquiries about other organisations, such as the Police, where the BBC has been happy to point the finger of blame at senior management for not managing such a culture.

As the lawyer for the victims said, this is an expensive whitewash that gives BBC management a clean bill of health when in reality it beggars belief that they could not have known anything.

Liz Dux, from Slater and Gordon, says:

‘All the Savile and Hall victims have ever wanted from this report is truth and accountability. Despite millions having been spent on the inquiry, my clients will feel let down that the truth has still not been unearthed and many will feel it is nothing more than an expensive whitewash’.

On the basis of reading through parts of the report, it’s difficult to disagree with her assessment.

 

Having said all that the BBC itself, at least on the shape of BBC Trust headshed Rona Fairhead, took the blame as she said that ‘No one can doubt the BBC failed the victims and it turned a blind eye.’

 

 

Question Time Live Chat

David Dimbleby presents this week’s show from Poole, Dorset. On the specially reinforced panel: Conservative MP for South West Norfolk, Elizabeth Truss, Telegraph journalist Julia Hartley-Brewer, Guardianista Giles Fraser, creator of Downton Abbey Julian Fellowes, and a very special welcome back to our Thursday nights for the lovely Dianne Abbott, Shadow Secretary for International Development.

Neither of the two local Tory MPs will be appearing for reasons unknown.

Kick off tonight at 22.45

Chat here, register here if necessary.