290 Responses to MID WEEK OPEN THREAD….

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  1. chrisH says:
    March 31, 2016 at 10:26 pm

    Listening now to Stewart Lee.
    Probably not a good idea to watch him, on the day of Ronnie Corbetts death.
    And definitely not wise to watch him, having seen how Laurel and Hardy explained THEIR comedy.
    For comedy this is not, in Lees case.
    Self-indulgent bumper car of thoughts that simply aren`t funny.
    And even Bill Brufords drum solos were more entertaining.
    At least he`s proved that the BBC can`t do comedy when it comes to migration.
    Crap.

       11 likes

  2. Flexdream says:
    March 31, 2016 at 10:44 pm

    Front page of BBC news website, because the real problem in British religious schooling is indoctrination by Orthodox Jews isn’t it?

    ww.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35928801

    “The education authorities have similar concerns about stricter Christian and Muslim groups.”

    See, it’s a problem for all religions.

       5 likes

    • johnnythefish says:
      March 31, 2016 at 10:49 pm

      A slightly subtler form of moral relativism to the one used by the likes of Jerrod and LDV.

      But only slightly.

      All dancing to the same agenda.

      Dancing over the fucking cliff.

         7 likes

  3. Dover Sentry says:
    March 31, 2016 at 10:47 pm

    Headlines I would like to see on the BBC, but never will :-

    The British Steel Industry has been destroyed by Labour imposed Green Taxes and the EU.

    Would the UK really Join the EU Today?

    Why Has Lady Thatcher Not Been Recognised for her Achievements?

    Argentina Has No Rights Over The Falklands.

    The British Empire brought Prosperity and Civilisation to the World.

    English is the World’s Primary Language. Not Bad For a Tiny Island in the North Sea.

    Despite UK Critics, the Unarmed British Police is Still Seen Worldwide as the Best.

    The World’s Biggest Slavers were Muslims and Africans. Cameron Demands an Apology for British People Enslaved.

    The British Military is the Best in the World.

    (Please add your contribution)

       29 likes

    • johnnythefish says:
      March 31, 2016 at 10:56 pm

      ‘What is it about the British way of life that makes the whole world want to come here. We put a spotlight on our civilised and welcoming culture and how it developed over centuries into what it is today – a beacon for the world.’

         18 likes

    • taffman says:
      April 1, 2016 at 12:46 am

      Dover Sentry
      May I add freedom of speech ?
      Al Beeb sees itself as an internationalist organisation – just look at its presenters , It is ‘multiculti’ .
      It does not do ‘Great Britain’ , it hates the whole idea of the British Empire and would like to airbrush it out.

         17 likes

      • Richard Pinder says:
        April 1, 2016 at 2:16 am

        I doubt that many young people are taught about the remnants of the British Empire, as they exist today. The only recent mention of the International Organisation called the Commonwealth on the BBC, was a side issue related to the Queens ninetieth birthday. But they concentrated on the African republics, and ignored the loyal White Commonwealth Realms and loyal West Indies and Pacific Realms and territories.

        Six facts not mentioned by the BBC:

        (1) The “British Empire” became the “British Commonwealth” which has now become the “Royal Commonwealth”
        (2) The Queen rules over the “Royal Commonwealth” which today still has more of the Worlds territory than under any other ruler.
        (3) She rules over 16 Realms comprising a total of 100 Territories, with a total land area of 10,335,644 square miles.
        (4) Today, 30 of the Worlds National, Provincial and Territorial Flags have the Union Jack in them.
        (5) Today, the Coins of 17 of the Worlds currencies have the portrait of the Queen on them.
        (6) The Queen is duty bound by coronation oath, to support Brexit, because of a warning in 2004, by experts from the Australian Monarchist League. Who pointed out the fact that to subject the Queen and the Crown to the authority of the European Union, goes against the spirit and intent of the 1931 Statute of Westminster, which prohibits the British Government from legislating on any matter that will subject the Crown to European Union authority.

           17 likes

    • Soapbox says:
      April 1, 2016 at 9:29 am

      Dover S – wish I could have ticked this ten-fold or more. Excellent post. These are exactly all the things the Bbc hates and it’s despicable of them to do so.

      Get it made into a tea towel and flog it for funds!!!

         6 likes

  4. chrisH says:
    March 31, 2016 at 10:54 pm

    I`ve seen it all now.
    Ken Clarke-ex Chancellor, ELECTED-arguing with PAUL MASON in the adversarial chair sitting next to his old work colleague Kirsty Wark.
    Can hardly believe it-have the Labour Party given up on opposition, and now are able to call on ex-BBC staff to argue for John McDonnell?
    And Clarke just says nothing?
    Astonishing.
    Oh now -it`s Jewish schools causing…well, radicalisation in their way!
    And there we were thinking that Trojan Horse was a problem confined to Muslims?
    There you go-when the first Jew decides to grope kids, run childrens homes, behead servicemen, bomb us all to bits on a regular basus-then let me know.
    When will the Jews tell the bastard BBC to stop tagging Judaism to Islamic fascism-as if they`re really as bad as each other. And now Chris Cook is cruising N10, checking on boys attending school?
    The BBC simply can`t help themselves can they-hopefully the Yeshivas will ask to see Chris Cooks DBS check!
    The BBC have GOT to go-anti Semitic, offering opposition to elected Tories and creeping around Jewish schools in the early hours as if they`ve got a role anymore.
    After Savile-fuck off BBC!

       28 likes

    • Geoff says:
      March 31, 2016 at 11:06 pm

      I didn’t get that far, when I heard Secunder Kermani reporting from Port Talbot telling us about Sajid Javid’s misdemeanors and the BRITISH steel industry, one could have been forgiven in thinking that the report was from somewhere in Southern Asia….

      Off it went!

         20 likes

    • nogginator says:
      March 31, 2016 at 11:39 pm

      Hmmm … Jewish schools? – the squawk does appear to be enjoying herself a little too much

         8 likes

    • Aborigine Londoner says:
      April 1, 2016 at 6:57 am

      To be fair I don’t see this as antisemitism but against one very extreme sect who have decided to live their lives in London outside the norms of society including illegally keeping their children out of registered schools. I think that any extremism and rebuff of our society and laws should be properly investigated and that includes extreme Christian sects beaming into living rooms on satellite. Whilst the biggest threat to our way of life is undoubtedly Islam we must be cautious of other extreme churches/sects/religions who may well be as dangerous to the stability of our nation. It’s of note that the Haredi do not regard mainstream Jews as Jewish! Now where have we heard something similar about Islam recently?

      From Wiki:

      Haredi views[edit]
      Main articles: Haredi Judaism and Hasidic Judaism
      When dealing with others of their own faith who have different philosophies, Haredi Jews attempt to differentiate between the individual practitioners and the movement/philosophy.[1]

      When dealing with the individual, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein is famously quoted as characterizing all current-day non-Orthodox Jews as Tinokot Shenishbu, literally “captured children,” in a category analogous to Jewish children captured by non-Jews who were never taught Judaism, meaning that they do not act out of wrong intent or motives, but out of ignorance and poor upbringing (Iggeroth Moshe)[citation needed].

      However, when dealing with the movement/philosophy, they perceive the generation of other denominations to have historically been engendered by heretical intent and the 1800s widespread denigration of religion. They view Reform Judaism, Reconstructionist Judaism and Conservative Judaism as heretical non-Jewish movements. Some Haredi leaders[who?] have stated that Reform is philosophically further from authentic Judaism than Christianity and Islam. As such, Haredi authorities have strongly fought attempts by the Reform and Conservative movements to gain official recognition and denominational legitimacy in Israel. Haredi groups and authorities will not work with non-Orthodox religious movements in any way, as they view this as lending legitimacy to those movements. The members of those movements who have been born of a Jewish mother are, however, still regarded as Jews.[1]

         3 likes

      • Demon says:
        April 1, 2016 at 10:15 am

        I agree Aborigine. There is no reason why this shouldn’t be pointed out, and indeed it should. However, two Jewish schools are teaching an extreme form of their religion whereas dozens and dozens of extreme Moslem ones, and even some state ones, teach an equally extreme version of their religion plus giving praise and encouragement for murderers but will be carefully ignored by the BBC/Guardian/Labour Party axis.

           7 likes

  5. Dover Sentry says:
    March 31, 2016 at 11:43 pm

    I can’t find this reported by the BBC:

    http://news.sky.com/story/1670528/exposed-uk-school-promoting-extreme-islam

    Why not?

       17 likes

    • Save Our Sense says:
      April 1, 2016 at 1:25 am

      ‘A private Muslim school in Yorkshire is promoting an extreme form of Islam, claiming that Jews are engaged in a global conspiracy to take over the world and that adopting British customs is forbidden.

      The Islamic Tarbiyah Academy in Dewsbury teaches 140 primary school children in an after-school madrasa and runs full-time classes for over-16s and adults.

      Mufti Zubair Dudha, the centre’s founder and head, is a respected cleric from the orthodox Deobandi sect which is thought to control half of all mosques and madrasas in the UK.’

      Well who’d a thunk it..?!!!

      Prediction: AljaBeeba will cover it it by describing said institution merely as ‘a religious school’ with absolutely no mention of the words ‘Islam’, Muslims’ or any of this: ‘Dewsbury has a history of disaffected youth becoming radicalised and was home to Britain’s youngest suicide bomber, its youngest convicted terrorist, and one of the 7/7 bombers.’ It will also be absolutely buried in the back end of the Yorkshire page, will paint the Jewish angle in the story in some way that Jews basically deserve the Mufti’s hatred before signing off by telling us that the poor Mufti is now afraid of a ‘right wing backlash’ or some other contrived drivel.

      The suspense is killing me.

         22 likes

      • KatieH says:
        April 1, 2016 at 9:48 am

        Sky News reported it last night and interviewed somebody from Quilliam and an Imam over it. Nothing on the BBC. Quell surprise.

           9 likes

  6. Yasser Dasmibehbi says:
    April 1, 2016 at 4:38 am

    The British Empire should be taught in all schools. And I don’t mean in the guilt trip way the left teach it! One of conquest, brutality, and their favourite word ”oppression”. It is ironic the popular view of has been formed by one V I Lenin who sitting in Switzerland in the early 1900’s made a hurried study of the topic and produced a propaganda pamphlet designed to stir up hostility to the Tzarist regime in Moscow. This became for some reason the template for most future writings on imperialism and has permeated the British mindset to this day. Anti-imperialism was standard fare for the sixties and seventies students. It is worth noting that Lenin actually knew very little about the British Empire and admitted it.
    We can excuse Lenin in his mountain exile, for not knowing more, but for the average Brit this is shameful. Not that the shame is on the poor Brit but that of the British establishment who let their proud history fall into the hands wreckers and cynics and social engineers.
    The story of the Empire is more complex than other empires of the time, and in so many ways different that it has to be put in a class of it’s own. And it pays to remember a few things.
    The Monarchs of Britain were not that interested in it. There were seldom any real cries for expansion even from the early days. (Cromwell, who briefly had a ‘Western Design’ in the West Indies is a small exception). It was largely started up by business and ventures mixed in with religious motives at times. Later geopolitical and strategic reasons could be added.
    Whoops! I fear I am about to write a text book so I’ll get to the point. The more you read about the British Empire the more interesting it becomes. It is not like the picture that the misinformationists of the past have painted.
    The story of the Seven Years War should be taught in schools. Also the real story of how the next war for empire saw the loss of the american colonies. It has nothing to do with ‘oppression of colonists’ and people yearning for freedom.
    It is the the opportunistic power grab by a small but clever group of dissidents and the incompetence of the British Government and their continual attempts to appease this faction which totally failed as they were unappeasable! (Sound familiar?). A weak government reluctant to show a firm hand and an opposition that sided with the colonists for internal reasons, not that they cared for or were really interested in the welfare of the the colonials. As for the final Battle of the war Yorktown. This was a battle won by the French army and navy and the few troops that Gen Washington could get together. The failings of empire need to be taught as well. Instead Brits accept the US version
    and accumulate guilt.
    Anyway get to the point, Yasser. Get to the here and now man!
    Okay folks,if you are still with me let’s leapfrog to current times. There is not much loyalty left in the Commonwealth today. Certainly not for the Crown. Most of the countries are republics and the commonwealth is seen as source for aid and assistance. It was a bad move in the early 1950’s when the British Commonwealth allowed countries to ditch the connecting head of state and still remain a member. It is far too late to change that now. But if a post brexit Britain is to looking to re-strengthen ties with commonwealth countries then countries that retain the monarch should get considerably more benefits than those that choose to reject the monarchy. At the moment I do not know of any incentive for countries to keep the crown other than sentimentality, which is slowly ebbing away.

       20 likes

    • Dover Sentry says:
      April 1, 2016 at 9:15 am

      Excellent post! Yes, renewing Commonwealth links is a good idea. India, anyone?

         8 likes

  7. Helena Hand-Basket says:
    April 1, 2016 at 6:19 am

    More BBC headlines you’ll never see:

    “It ain’t ‘alf ‘ot, Mum!’ voted 100 times more popular than ‘Citizen Khan’ in national poll

    VC-winning D-Day veteran admits: ‘If we’d known we were fighting for an Islamo-Nazi future, we’d have stayed home and listened to ITMA!’

    BBC licence fee voted: ‘worth 60p a year, and that’s only for the ‘Dad’s Army’ repeats!’

    Wildlife experts recommend cull for over-breeding polar bears

    Red meat and sugar consumption found to extend healthy life

    Kenyan tribe pleads for return of British rule

       19 likes

  8. Guest Who says:
    April 1, 2016 at 8:24 am

    Pinch, punch…

       17 likes

  9. GCooper says:
    April 1, 2016 at 9:54 am

    Here’s a measure of the Corporation’s decline in standards.

    Last night I watched a BBC 4 programme on Anglo Saxon treasures. It was presented by one of the BBC’s latest Go To girls for anything historic – the art historian, Dr Janina Ramirez. Dr Ramirez, looking like a Gothy undergrad who has spent half her loan on eye makeup, is a regular on BBC 4 these days, often in harness with her visual opposite, the Elsa Lanchester lookalike (think Bride of Frankenstein) Professor Kate Williams. Clearly, along with the likes of loopy Lucy Worsley, they are part of the BBC’s ‘film anyone, anything, except an old white man!’ policy, which is, it must be said, pretty insultingly ‘right on’ and in itself a sign of how deranged the BBC has become, Know your subject? A leading authority? Sorry! Wrong chromosomes, chum!

    Anyway, in the course of this romp through Angle Saxon bling, Dr Ramirez was discussing a representation of Romulus and Remus in which a figure ‘prostates’ himself. Yes, that is what she said. I ran it back and checked. Aside from a giving the viewer a good chuckle, it wasn’t, I admit, a gross error but an error it certainly was.

    Let’s be charitable and assume that Dr Ramirez knows the difference a prostate gland and being prostrate in supplication. But if she hadn’t spotted it at the time, surely her director or the film editor should have pulled it up at a later stage? Well, they didn’t. My guess is they didn’t realise the mistake, or, if they did, they decided to leave it. Perhaps they thought the audience was too ignorant to notice? In either case I am absolutely certain that something like this wouldn’t have happened forty years ago. It would have been spotted, chuckled over, and fixed.

    As these things go, this incident was just a straw in the wind, but howler by howler, inaccuracy by inaccuracy, the Corporation goes on getting dumber and drags society down with it. If ignorance is bliss, the BBC is preparing us for Nirvana.

       18 likes

    • Rob in Cheshire says:
      April 1, 2016 at 10:13 am

      A good point. If it was a slip of the tongue, it could have been corrected at the editing stage. That it stayed in implies that no-one even realised it was a mistake.

      Mind you, I have noticed that very few Beeboids can even pronounce the word “sixth” these days; it usually comes out as “sikth”, which makes them sound like Violet-Elizabeth Bott. Even Paxo is guilty.

      Alvar Lidell and John Snagge must be revolving at high speed these days, poor fellows.

         11 likes

    • Geoff says:
      April 1, 2016 at 10:39 am

      Do agree on the ‘go to’ batty females for the BBC4 history programs, however I do have a favourite, sadly she’s on on as regularly as the aforementioned…

      dr-suzannah-lipscomb.jpg

         10 likes

      • GCooper says:
        April 1, 2016 at 11:00 am

        I don’t object to female historians (far from it) but I do object to the monoculture. It’s one of those problems where ‘the cure is as bad as the disease’. We seem to have gone from a situation where there were no women presenters to one where they are in a wholly disproportionate majority.

        I also have some concern about academic appointments these days, but that’s not a BBC issue per se .

        One might say the same about the ethnicity of news readers, of course, or sofa bouncers in adverts…

           13 likes

        • johnnythefish says:
          April 1, 2016 at 11:50 am

          I object to a particular female historian who:

          a) Obsesses over how wonderfully progressive and inclusive the Roman Empire was

          b) Gratuitously uses profanities in documentaries before the watershed and doesn’t discourage others from doing likewise.

          No prizes for guessing….

             12 likes

  10. Edward says:
    April 1, 2016 at 10:15 am

    I wonder if the BBC News “EU Referendum Reality Check” feature will include the reality that it would be so much easier for our government to help the British steel industry if we were out of the EU.

    Even union representatives are stating this fact when spoken to by the BBC, and yet the BBC seem to be shying away from discussing this in more depth and yet very happy to ensure every viewer is made aware that it was the Conservatives who privatised the steel industry in the first place via a delighted Norman Smith who was almost tripping himself up in his rush to get this little snippet of history onto air all day Tuesday(?). Obviously, his intention was to imply that it’s such an irony that the Conservatives are considering renationalisation, which, of course, they are not.

    Reality check? More like “Cherry Picked Reality Check”.

       10 likes

  11. BRISSLES says:
    April 1, 2016 at 11:38 am

    Following on about pronunciation, I never ceased to be amazed by the way that when handing over to reporters in another country, its done in a manner that would have my old English teacher recoil in horror…………….

    “and now over to our Ireland / France / Australia (etc) correspondent ”

    Clearly it cannot be said “our Irish correspondent” as it would indicate the person was of that nationality, but why not…

    “and now over to our correspondent IN Ireland / France / Australia (etc) ” which would be how we would have been taught in school.

    Perhaps someone on here can put me out of my uncomfortable misery when I hear this grating way of handing over, and the reason for it.

       12 likes

    • GCooper says:
      April 1, 2016 at 11:47 am

      I should know the answer to this but I don’t. In fact I’ve been meaning to find out. It has become the fashion in newspapers (even once sensible ones) to refer to the ‘Belgium navy’ or ‘Italy prison crisis’ rather than the Belgian Navy or the Italian prison crisis. It’s irritating and illiterate and I suspect (though that is all it is) that it stems from, a desperately PC need not to identify something as being intrinsically ‘of’ that nation.

      I, too, would love to know what started this nonsense – as well as how we can rid ourselves of it.

         9 likes

      • Fred Basset says:
        April 1, 2016 at 12:19 pm

        My default position is to blame Tony Bliar for just about everything so how about pinning this one on him as well?

           8 likes

  12. AsISeeIt says:
    April 1, 2016 at 12:33 pm

    Template new campaign of the form so beloved by the BBC on the breakfast sofa this moring.

    Sleep. ‘Expert’ introduces what he terms ‘National Guidelines’ and insists the importance of sleep must be taught in schools – wake up at the back there, boy!

    Can they leave nothing for the public to decide for themselves?

    The only surprise here was that rather than upping the female expert quota even further this was a chap – he was a tad camp – the sort that illustrates his use of the ordinary and well-understoad phrase “middle-aged” with pointless bunny ears gestures drawn in the air.

    Leave us be.. BBC

       8 likes

  13. Guest Who says:
    April 1, 2016 at 2:18 pm

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35944661#%22

    Progress. Not ‘Luton Man’.

    And a delivery driver. So it could have been ‘Brown Luton Van Man’.

       3 likes

  14. scribblingscribe says:
    April 1, 2016 at 6:21 pm

    Why aren’t the BBC, The green Party and the Guardian celebrating?

    They are getting exactly what they have wanted. Port Talbot and Scunthorpe will soon be Carbon neutral towns. Isn’t that wonderful?

       3 likes

  15. EnglandExpects says:
    April 1, 2016 at 6:54 pm

    BBC is doing its best to rubbish the introduction of the living wage . We are told that many beneficiaries. who are currently on the minimum wage, have partners who earn considerably more. So many of the households who benefit are middle income.
    That’s not one of the convincing arguments against the living wage . Highlighting the attractions it will have to yet more EU migrants might be better, but of course the BBC supports mass immigration. Mentioning the hit for small businesses could be another argument but the BBC never shows much interest in the value of these businesses.
    Isn’t it the job if the official opposition in parliament to criticise government policy? Ok, so we have a pathetic opposition but it’s not the job of the BBC to fill the gap . Clearly those who work at the BBC don’t see it that way.

       1 likes

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