416 Responses to MID WEEK OPEN THREAD…

  1. scribblingscribe says:

    Just seen the first episode of Peaky Blinders.
    What an education!

    All toffs, soldiers and upper class people are stupid, venal and evil. Apparently ‘the aristocracy can never forgive’, what I ask, none of them, not one single member of the aristocracy can forgive?

    A black Rastafarian could be a vicar in England in 1922 almost ten years before Rastafarians had even been created under Haile Selassie in Ethiopia in 1930. Wow, how prescient was he?

    Communists in the UK are good and many people are communists, even those who are communists but don’t yet know it. How about that? You could wake up on morning and say, ‘Darling, I suddenly realised, North Korea and Cuba look like just the sort of country to which we should emigrate. That Marx could predict the future, eh? What a boy.’

    This and other such nonsense dibbles from a series where the minimal substance gives way to stunning style. And believe me the style is beautiful.

    Only the BBC. Anyways, just seeing if I can order my copy of Marxism Today. Oh it is no longer published because only BBC producers and writers still believe that nonsense.

       27 likes

    • Helena Hand-Basket says:

      Many thanks for saving me money, as I was thinking of buying A Peaky Blinders DVD. (We are running short of good entertainment, as the TV here in Australia is petty dire.)

      Mr H-B and I will have to return to watching our Dr Findlay’s Casebook DVDs. True, the episodes are fifty years old, black and white and have appalling sound and visual quality. But they are still better then anything the BBC could do these days.

      At least the 1920s Scottish village of Tannochbrae features no historically improbable Syrians. Also, nobody has yet turned up at Findlay’s surgery to request sex change surgery. They seemed more preoccupied with trivialities like tuberculosis, diphtheria, smallpox, scarlet fever and malnutrition in those days.

         30 likes

    • Oldspeaker says:

      Peaky Blinders sounds like a true style over substance triumph,
      ” To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting communications medium.”
      As for Rasta vicars, well the BBC are still within the boundaries set by their De facto father(1897-1945)
      ” Credibility alone must determine whether propaganda output should be true or false.”
      In the BBC created brave new revisionist world a black Rasta vicar circa 1920 is entirely credible , the seed is planted in the public conciousness, job done.

         16 likes

  2. Thoughtful says:

    Perhaps readers might like to think about the rantings on another BBC bias site, but this time to the left, not the right.

    http://www.thecanary.co/2016/05/07/bbc-political-editor-laura-keunssberg-under-fire-as-petition-calls-for-action-over-bias/

    According to them her coverage of the election was anti Corbyn, and they might be correct, as the BBC is not hard Left, but soft Left.

       10 likes

    • 60022Mallard says:

      If the comment from StanCollymore is the Stan Collymore who vowed to take in Syrian refugees, can someone who has the technology ask him how that is going and report back the response?

         7 likes

  3. G.W.F. says:

    Statesman Khan calls for Labour to reach out to a broader audience.
    Power seems to have gone to his head as they used to say.
    Methinks the BBC will be backing this guy in his bid for Party Leadership and future Labour victory.
    Khan’s the man, Corbyn for the bin.
    I think he could sustain BBC support. Religion correct. Politics correct. Support for EU, and for those racists in the BBC for whom skin colour is so important he wins there.
    I think he could retain BBC support without having to transgender.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2016-36240466

       26 likes

  4. seismicboy says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36240798
    “EU referendum: UK is safer in, say ex-intelligence chiefs”
    Intelligence? Where was the intelligence in Paris?, Brussels? the UK’s intelligence services are more than up to the job without enlisting the bungling Clouseau style antics of the Europeans who are about as safe as the last cake at a children’s party.

       21 likes

    • GCooper says:

      And yet when Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI5 said, in March, that leaving the EU would be beneficial to our security, I recall posting here that the BBC did its best to downplay his comments.

      Yet more evidence of the BBC’s rampant, uncontrollable, bias!

         25 likes

  5. BRISSLES says:

    Here’s something I fail to get my head around. The parents of Sadiq Khan arrived in London (the most expensive place in the world) just before he was born in 1970. Ok, 8 kids (?) , Dad a bus driver and the family living in a 3 bed COUNCIL FLAT ! – er excuse me but how did that happen ??? With the best will in the world, there were many of us back in the swinging 60’s who would have killed to have lived in the capital, but even back then it was out of the reach of us – both buying AND renting. Was the family on so much benefit with 8 kids that the rent was easily achieved ?? Why didn’t his Dad become a bus driver in Exeter or Southampton for example ? I don’t care how far he’s come since his family landed here, these people do not have ‘history’; he may talk the talk about creating a great London, but even his recent roots are in Pakistan. Probably like most of the indigenous population, I can trace my family back to the late 1600’s without a trace of immigrant blood (although it could be Viking !!) – I shudder at the takeover of my ancestors homeland and its clearly going to decline further.

       40 likes

  6. Jeff says:

    Our esteemed leader, David Vance, took part in The Big Question, this morning. Let me tell you he’s braver than I am! The question today “was the British Empire a force for good or evil?” Blimey what a mob of disgruntled, moaning minorities we had slagging off the British Empire. Oh, and little Owen Jones was also there ready to pour petrol on the flames.
    Apart from Mr Vance there were one or two intelligent and knowledgeable historians and a benevolent Sikh, who attempted to redress the bile and bias. Yes, we regurgitated the horrors of the slave trade, the long trauma of Indian occupation, and we were informed that the ghastly mess that is modern Africa is also our fault.
    There were belligerent Sikhs, people of “Pakistani heritage” and mad as hatters Africans who all thought the empire was a stain on humanity. We Brits were shown up as the truly ghastly, racist, intolerant people that we clearly are. It’s a real wonder to me that all these fine folk from foreign shores choose to grace our awful country with their presence! It’s really rather decent of them when you think about it.
    But amongst all this angst and discord sat a serene black female priest who hadn’t said much but at the culmination of an hour’s anger, spite and retribution, had me laughing out loud when she told us sagely that, “We now live in a tolerant and benign multicultural society that accepts everyone and celebrates diversity.”
    Eh?

       41 likes

    • BRISSLES says:

      Good post Jeff. l haven’t been to India, nor have any desire to, but a case in point is their railway system. We gave them that, and then their Independence. From what I’ve seen on the box, here we are 67 years later, and it doesn’t seem to have been improved on – oh yes they have a space programme, but cant afford any paint or a revamp of their railway stations. Africans may think we are the dregs of the world, but funny how they love to wear the shirt, tie and suit of the West. Alright, we may have pillaged the riches of some countries, but it shows the lack of intelligence not to have capitalised on what we brought to their shores in an attempt to civilise them.

         22 likes

    • Al Shubtill says:

      If living under British rule in the Empire was so vile, surely the last place on earth these “people” or their antecedents should wish to live would be in Britain?

      The British Empire was the best thing that could ever have happened to these countries; what do they think it would have been like if left to themselves? Though I wish we had – so we wouldn’t have to suffer their malign presence in this country now.

         7 likes

  7. G.W.F. says:

    Soldier dies after injuries in a street in Brecon – where the SAS are trained. Major incident, no informtion, but many rumours. However, despite lack of knowledge it is nothing to do with terrorism.

    Mentioned by BBC

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3579452/Heavy-police-presence-major-incident-reported-Brecon-man-injured-town-centre-later-died.html

       12 likes

  8. chrisH says:

    The strangest thing on the midday news on the BBC.
    Gavin Esler reading his script like the liberal louche monkey we all know him to be.
    He started with the “news” that two ex-spooks had said in(but where else?) the Sunday Times that we`d only prevent a Brussels or a Paris 1, Paris 2, a Cologne or a Lampedusa if we…er…shackled ourselves closer to Clouseaux-currently tasting Junckers socks for semtex…but soon available to hide in the guards van and arrest white have-a go heroes.
    As Europes Vichy Velocipaedos do when not at the cream horns of Islam, when not finding scratch and sniff sex pests in their Austrian dungeons, their Belgian bordellos.
    No-MI5/6 are only competent and trusted when they`re operating in the dark with only other English speaking old colonies to share data with…as soon as you give it to Clouseau or Frites, Sour Klaus or Medhi-Russell Brands Islamic dopplegangers will only tattoo it all onto their sisters arses for their fellow-bangers.
    MI5/6 died in the trust and media department when Alistair Campbell took their goolies for key rings under Blair 2003-serially stupid Oxbridge bluestockings and pervs with books to sell later.
    Bit like being a laydee….if you have to say you are, you ain`t!
    Mrs T used to say that…and the drag act weirdos at Spook Central will like the laydee reference-so may listen.

       14 likes

  9. chrisH says:

    But I digress.
    The spooks spoke-and we got a brief clip of Gove saying something.
    Esler ran up to the piece re Goves rebuttal of the spooks-but instead of playing what Gove said-without ANY pretext at all as far as I heard-we got Osborne telling us all-again-NOT to leave the EU.
    So what was intended to be a rebuttal of the spooks under Gove became a reinforcement of the spooks using a clip of Robert Pestons(isn`t he ITV now too?) interview with Osborne.
    Don`t even think he as given the “Osborne” strapline either…but could be wrong.
    I`m guessing the the BBC editor at lunchtime though that we thickies wouldn`t know our Goves from our Osbornes-and there would be no need to play Goves negative take on the EU, when Osborne could be used instead to back the spooks.
    Such is BBC duplicity, trickery-and frankly-malicious incompetence.
    Getting the dupes to think that they`d played an EU opponent of the spooks-when what they played merely doubled up on the lies from the spooks.
    Needs investigating-first time 1`ve ever seen it .
    May be wrong-it`s not as if I listen to the BBC but by accident…but this looked shameless to me.

       15 likes

  10. Roland Deschain says:

    I alluded to it last night at the time further up this thread, but I really was taken aback by the BBC not bothering even to hide their approval of Sadiq Khan’s election during the late evening news. I quote from the headlines as they were read out:

    “Following a bitter campaign in which the Conservatives repeatedly suggested the Labour MP had links to extremists, Mr Khan said he was disappointed by the smears but insisted he would put them aside”

    That, to me, quite clearly indicated that the BBC accepts Mr Khan’s assertions that the Tories’ allegations were smears. The BBC should not be taking sides. If it were being impartial it would use wording such as “disappointed by what he said were smears”. No doubt they will claim that they were simply quoting Mr Khan but it can be seen from the wording quite clearly that they are not; they are reporting. Anyway, complaint is in. They are trying to stop any disclosure of Mr Khan’s possibly dubious past by playing the Islamophobia card and this has to be challenged, otherwise no Muslim in public life will be allowed to be scrutinised.

       29 likes

    • Lobster says:

      ” Otherwise no Muslim in public life will be allowed to be scrutinised. ”
      Isn’t that already the case Roland?

         12 likes

  11. Maria Brewin says:

    The three Finalists for BBC Young Musician 2016 are saxophonist Jess Gillam, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and French Horn player Ben Goldscheider.

    I’m sure that, as with all BBC competitions, finalists are chosen solely on merit:

    2016 Category Finalists

       9 likes

  12. BRISSLES says:

    I saw that too Maria – before the winners were called on stage, I had already picked them out (one in particular !)

       7 likes

  13. Roland Deschain says:

    zspjr7.jpg

       3 likes

  14. chrisH says:

    Listening now to the magisterial Michael Gove swatting off the irritating Andrew Marr.
    As if he never left the Education Department-it really should not be Goves job to educate a philandering ex-stroke victim who seems not to learn from a single word he is told by those who know-like Gove, Lawson and countless others he chooses to harangue and badger like a-well a recovering stroke victim who` s surely only allowed his philanderings because the BBC pay his way.
    Gove is the only Tory worth a candle these days, and is the obvious leader in waiting.
    PS Anybody else think that “Sir John Sawers”(who?) is merely John McDonnell with Kim Jong ills hair dye#8?
    You can tell when Marr is fucked-because out come the tittle tattle re Queens conversations and his “relationship” with Cameron nowadays at the end of his flop out.
    Typical Beeb smearing-and doomed to failure as everything that Master Marr Baker does…

       21 likes

  15. GCooper says:

    Unbiasd, eh, trolls?

    “Jeremy Paxman WITHDRAWS article critical of European Union from next issue of Radio Times ‘after pressure from BBC’
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3579462/Jeremy-Paxman-WITHDRAWS-article-critical-European-Union-issue-Radio-Times-pressure-BBC.html#ixzz485DuHaBj

       16 likes

  16. AsISeeIt says:

    I’m sure the BBC will get around to covering this PA report

    http://home.bt.com/news/world-news/tribal-council-to-go-on-trial-after-teenage-girl-killed-and-burnt-11364058770792#disqus_thread

    ‘Tribal council to go on trial after teenage girl killed and burnt’

    Meanwhile the BBC prioritise this one

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36242428

    ‘Afghanistan: Taliban prisoners hanged as Helmand fighting flares’

       5 likes

  17. Al Shubtill says:

    Great right hook!

    I’d dearly love to see Camerloon and Gideon getting one of those apiece.

       2 likes

  18. Sluff says:

    Bafta. First winner, Wolf Hall.
    The speaker launches straight into an anti government tirade and pro bBBC polemic.
    If there’s one thing that sticks in my gut, it is a bunch of very rich celebs protecting their income stream provided for them by a compulsory tax imposed on the proletareate, the argument masquerading as ‘public’ broadcasting.
    I bet ITV win few prizes, and those that they win are with both hands tied behind their backs by having to find every penny of their income from their own efforts.
    Absolutely disgusting.

       24 likes

  19. JimS says:

    More Or Less excels itself in scraping the ‘remain’ barrel. They fetch in some ignoramus from the Peterson Institute in the USA to tell us that trade will be worse once we leave the EU.

    Our expert tells us that growth of the new markets in Asia has slowed so the EU isn’t as bad as it was, relatively speaking. As the EU markets are essentially mature it should be obvious that China and India are likely to be far more important in the future.

    He also tells us that countries like India and China wouldn’t want to do deals with little countries like the UK, they would rather deal with the big EU. No mention that the UK has Commonwealth links with India and provides homes for a significant number of their wealthy. No mention that little Iceland did a deal with China in 2013. No mention that the EU has been working on a deal with the US for more than 10 years, while little Canada, Mexico and Australia have deals in place.

       13 likes

    • Fred Basset says:

      We were selling Trident airliners to the Chinese before we joined the EEC in 1973. I wonder how we managed to do that?

         11 likes

    • GCooper says:

      ISTR it was More Or Less that had a hack from the FT ‘analysing’ some point or other in the referendum campaign the other week. The FT!!!

      The programme is an insult to the listener’s intelligence and it is typical of the BBC’s arrogance that they think they can get away with such a confidence trick.

         4 likes

  20. Sluff says:

    Bafta update.
    The Speecial Award has been presented by black actor Adrian Lester to …….you guessed it…….Sir Lenworth Henworthy, who apparently wants to see a diversity clause in the BBC charter.
    I don’t think the usual sickbag is big enough.

       21 likes

    • Sluff says:

      ……..and Mark Rylance who won for Wolf Hall stuck the knife into ITV because it dares to have adverts ……
      Yeah, Mark. Money grows on trees in bBBC and luvvie la la land, but most businesses have to raise their own revenue. It’s not given to them.

         20 likes

    • Number 88 says:

      BBC News bragging that the BBC won around half of the award that were going.

      Well they would. It’s easy when they have a £5bn war chest to play with.

      Rather sickening that the ultra rich luvvies demand that the government don’t touch the BBC (or in other words, people considerably poorer than them are forced to £ cough up to keep them in their luxurious lifestyles).

         13 likes

    • Helena Hand-Basket says:

      Well, I’ve been calling them the Barftas for years!

         6 likes

  21. scribblingscribe says:

    Good news for the BBC: Trump is going raise the minimum wage in the states ‘by some magnitude,’ he is going to increase taxes on the wealthy, ‘For the wealthy I think frankly it (tax) is going to go up and, you know what, it really should go up’.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/in-policy-zigzag-donald-trump-says-ok-to-raise-taxes-on-the-rich-increase-minimum-wage-a7019446.html

    Yes, the BBC will be shouting about this from the rooftops. Headline news. Stop the website updates …

    Erm no …

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-us-2016-36239546
    ‘US election: Trump in apparent reverse on taxes for rich’

    And that was pretty much it.

    Oh. Ah well.

    I bet if Hillary Clinton farted in the face of an octogenarian, disabled priest, whilst slapping a baby around with a decent sized machete, she would get a better press from the bbc.

       17 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Over on Facebook, BBC News is offering a comparison between the two candidates.

      Objectively of course.

      Comments suggest many have their doubts.

         1 likes

  22. Mr.Golightly says:

    5Live Nolan just now. Peter Kosminsky, he of the standing ovation at the Baftas, tells Stephen that Whittingdale should “seriously consider his position” and “calls on him to resign”. Kosminsky “attacked government plans to change the BBC and Channel 4”.

    Followed by David Vance, described by Nolan as a “critic of the BBC”, and Phil Harding a former BBC executive. Phil says “it’s the public’s BBC not the government’s or Whittingdale’s”. Phil says that 192,000 people voting in a recent poll liked what the BBC did and wanted more of the same.
    David says the BBC should stop whinging and cease extorting over £3billion from the public. He exposes the central hypocrisy of the BBC. The BBC wants no interference from the politicians yet it also wants the government to enforce that the public coughs up. David goes on to accuse the BBC of criminalising people, denying the public a choice, shielding themselves from competition and behaving in a way more likely seen in Russia than the UK.

    Rock on David.

       21 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      At 16:40 Steve Hewitt makes a good logical points : The BBC bods in PR hype mode are going for the extreme scenarios which aren’t going to happen e.g. The idea that the gov will order the BBC about Saturday schedules. So he said Peter Kosminsky’s being over the top at the BAFTA was part of that PR. However the gov had played a trick by dictating the budget cuts first then making the reorganisation plans the second phase.

      24:30 Phil Harding -versus- David Vance
      ends at 31:00

         3 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Must be another of those unique BBC exemptions that critic of the BBC is allowed on the BBC.

      Usually they are banned.

         2 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        Yes I think the next scheduled slot is 1 min 14 second at 3:23am on September 17th on Radio 3
        that a BBC critic will be allowed on

           3 likes

  23. BRISSLES says:

    NOT FAIR !
    At the BAFTAS Nadya Hussein on stage with Mary Berry ! I only hope the rise and rise of this young woman is equalled by Jane Devonshire, winner of Masterchef. If not, then shame on the BBC. The continual trajectory of this lady must make even Mary Berry feel embarrassed, as she’s never had to put up with all this PR with other Bake Off winners.

       15 likes

    • Sluff says:

      Agree Brissles. Feel a bit sorry for Nadya. I think she’s quite nice really. It’s not her fault she is being used and abused to serve the bBBC’s multi culti agenda. OK she’s getting well paid in the process but as Tony Benn would doubtless have said, let’s go for the policy not the person.

         3 likes

  24. Voice of the Mysterons says:

    Why do BBC history programmes that involve China or the ‘East’ involve a under current of anti Western bias?

    The Silk Road is the latest example of liberal self loathing.

    While I except and admire China’s many contributions to the World and find them fascinating (indeed, that’s why I watch these shows), why does every pseudo historian have to qualify them by making derogatory comparisons with the West, whilst of course forgetting the enormous contributions of the Greeks/Romans/Gauls etc.

    Also, the BBC history department continues it’s pro Islam whitewash by portraying them as traders not invaders, and attributing inventions to them, when real histories show they stole them from people they subjugated.

       10 likes