474 Responses to Start the Week Open Thread

  1. nofanofpoliticians says:

    Happy Xmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year everyone. Many thanks to David, Allan and the team for keeping this show on the road all year. I feel we have covered some ground- especially as our left wing pinko Grauniad readers over at W1A continue to set such a pace in their bias and “Fake News”.

       81 likes

    • nogginator says:

      Yes MERRREEE CHRISTMAS!, seasons greetings to one and all, even to Tiny Tim Farron.
      Mind you, we better get in the queue of importance!
      BBC News Page – The Strictly Winner Christmas Message
      Maybe Nadiya will relay her, festive winterval type non alcoholic greeting thing during her 2 hr special
      Then there s the Ch4 Alternative Christmas Message

      … Oh and then there s our Queen?

      and so mine, to Broadcasting House … SCRAP THE BBC!

         65 likes

      • john in cheshire says:

        Mine to the fake news bbc is : accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour; after all, that’s what Christmas is about. In so doing, all the bad things that those who work for the (fake news and propaganda disguised as entertainment) bbc do, and have done will be made right again.

           29 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Seconded.
      A Great Year-Happy Christmas, and thanks to everybody involved in creating this safe space to trigger each other with platform shoes to walk a crooked mile in.
      Great bunch-very funny, best therapy and has prevented no end of smashed tellies or grumpy wives etc.
      Clive James survived Prince? Trump, Leicester, Southgate and Nigel?
      Great year!

         11 likes

      • nogginator says:

        BAAAH HUMBUG!

        The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Office of Diversity and Inclusion has come up with a list of “best practices” in order to ensure your “inclusive” workplace holiday party is “not a Christmas party in disguise” and that it refrains from being perceived as “endorsing religion generally.”

        The “Best Practices for Inclusive Holiday Celebrations in the Workplace” holiday resource guide states that the public university “does not have an official policy regarding religious and cultural décor and celebration in the workplace,” however, “we are fully committed to a diverse, welcoming, and inclusive environment.”

        In order to “ensure your holiday party is not a Christmas party in disguise,” the Office of Diversity and Inclusion has come up with a list of ways for supervisors to encourage individuals to celebrate their own religions and cultures without allegedly excluding anyone or even being seen as “endorsing religion”:
        •Holiday parties and celebrations should celebrate and build upon workplace relationships and team morale with no emphasis on religion or culture. Ensure your holiday party is not a Christmas party in disguise.
        •Consider having a New Year’s party and include décor and food from multiple religions and cultures. Use it as an opportunity to reinvigorate individuals for the New Year’s goals and priorities.
        •Supervisors and managers should not—as well as, not be perceived as—endorsing religion generally or a specific religion.
        •If an individual chooses not to participate in a holiday party or celebration, do not pressure the person to participate. Participation should be voluntary.
        •If a potluck-style party or celebration is planned, encourage employees to bring food items that reflect their personal religions, cultures, and celebrations. Use this as an opportunity for individuals to share what they brought and why it is meaningful to them.
        •If sending holiday cards to campus and community partners, send a non-denominational card or token of your gratitude.
        •Holiday parties and celebrations should not play games with religious and cultural themes. For example, “Dreidel” or “Secret Santa.” If you want to exchange gifts, then refer to it in a general way, such as a practical joke gift exchange or secret gift exchange.
        •Décor selection should be general, not specific to any religion or culture. Identify specific dates when décor can be put up and when it must come down.
        •Refreshment selection should be general, not specific to any religion or culture.
        •Most importantly, celebrate your religious and cultural holidays in ways that are respectful and inclusive of our students, your colleagues, and our university

           15 likes

  2. nofanofpoliticians says:

    Sports Personality of the Year last night was a bit of a disappointment. I’m not sure why as I had set the bar pretty low, but I had to turn off when the diver came on and promptly started ticking all the BBC boxes.

    Bullying- done
    Gay and homophobic behaviour – done
    Setting himself up as a role model – done

    In fact, very little on his expertise, diving, but heh, so long as we tick those boxes.

       53 likes

    • john in cheshire says:

      I presume that’s the (once was ) young Mr Daley; even though, by all accounts he’s no longer ranked amongst the world class divers? The problem for him and all such created Slebs is that they are now in a perpetual cage or prison; they will only be wanted for as long as they contribute something to the collectivist agenda. But, if they try to break out of their cage, they will be torn to shreds and cast aside like yesterday’s newspapers. For example, what if he decides that he’s not actually gay after all and wants to get married and have children, what would be the reaction of the likes of the fake news bbc? He’d be ridiculed and traduced and then declared a non-person. So, Mr Daley, and all the rest of the useful idiots, enjoy your gilded cage but don’t ever think of escaping from it.

         24 likes

    • foxcote7822 says:

      I must say I had my money on Mo Farah to win it I’m sure if it had been up to the BBC he would have

         16 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      I’d have thought Mr & Mrs Cycling were in with a good chance this time. OK, so maybe they default on one diversity box tick but must surely score two on CO2 emissions!

      Eeeh! Can yer ride tandem?

         12 likes

  3. EUKitemark says:

    I know it is not just the BBC, but certainly includes them. They push the narrative of all migrants being wonderful, any resistance to this nirvana essentially being racist, backward, etc. Therefore I was entirely unsurprised to find this story tucked away in the regions:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-38346960

    Horrific to learn what happened and every husband/father’s worst nightmare I would say. But when compared with the fanfare of reporting the unfortunate Polish murder victim received in Harlow recently, this report looks as if it didn’t want to be spotted at all. It is the worst kind of bias – filtering the news to shape social thinking. Not out of place in the former USSR.

       59 likes

    • DJ says:

      All true, plus the contrast with St Jo is also noticeable. They couldn’t wait to try and put that in some kind of wider context (Farage Shot Jo!) but there’s no one at the ever-diverse BBC who thinks homicidal loons coming in to the UK sounds like a good reason to have some sort of national ‘safe space’, like some kind of ‘border’.

         46 likes

    • Dave S says:

      Completely true. It is a very hard story to read and the way the BBc reports it is to minimise the real horror. That this creature was allowed to roam free in England is beyond comprehension.
      Now everything about the BBC is abhorrent to me and I hope to most clear thinking people. It is almost worse that Isvestia and Pravda which at least were obviously propaganda.
      It’s abolition is now essential. I do hope that at least President Trump will ignore and if possible boycott our media . That will give some hope to us all here.

         51 likes

    • Ian Rushlow says:

      The BBC article manages to avoid stating that the murderer was a Polish immigrant – here’s a more comprehensive one from the Daily Mail:
      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4042682/Drug-crazed-schizophrenic-Polish-warehouse-worker-broke-family-home-stabbed-mother-two-death-helpless-husband-listened-phone.html
      Note also that the BBC does not reference his use of cocaine and cannabis, as mentioned by the newspaper (presumably because drugs are a good thing and should be legalised, eh? Don’t want anyone questioning that narrative, either).
      Most immigrants do not commit crimes of course, plus we have plenty of indigenous Britons who do so. But the fact remains: any criminal act committed by an immigrant is a crime that should not, in the natural scheme of things, be one that occured at all. It would be interesting to know whether the cost of imprisoning European criminals (he’s now in Rampton) will form part of the Brexit negotiations.

         53 likes

  4. Sluff says:

    Ditto NFOP

    Here’s a little irony for readers.
    We all know that the left and their prime publicity agents, the bBBC like to offer our health and education and social services free of charge to anyone and everyone who arrives on these shores. Any sensible requirement to prove entitlement is immediately deemed racist by the Luvvies and Guardianistas.

    I”ve just come across my father’s National Registration Identity Card. UK of course. Notice 1 states ‘ always carry your identity card…..’

    The card is date stamped. 30 August 1948. When the post war LABOUR government was at the height of its powers, with the NHS about to be launched later that year.

    So we can control entitlement to public services. And ironically we have a Labour government to thank for showing us how easy it is ! So why don’t we just ignore the predictable howls of anguish from the rentagob right-on Far Left and just do it?

    A Merry Christmas to all taxpayers.

       53 likes

    • Old Geezer says:

      The Identity Card system was used throughout the war and carried on for a time afterwards. For the planning of the welfare state, see the Beveridge report. Just a hint, his report was published in 1942.

         5 likes

      • Cranmer says:

        I believe the system was discontinued in 1952 (under a Conservative government). IIRC a police constable arrested a motorist for failing to produce an identity card which led to the case being thrown out and the law on ID cards repealed.

           5 likes

        • BRISSLES says:

          Yep, I still have my Nat Reg. ID card – I was born in Oct 1948. I’ve never understood why there was such an outcry against everyone having one – they do in the U.S.

             5 likes

  5. Deborah says:

    I was on holiday abroad last week and went on a trip from the resort. We met a charming couple – he had been a BBC reporter but was now retired. He wasn’t anybody I recognised from either the tv or the radio – so not, I assume, one of their senior bods. They were staying at the most expensive hotel on the island – BBC pensions must be good.

    But he raised the issue of Brexit and asked how we voted. I explained, like most people in the north, we had voted ‘leave’. His wife responded that ‘sadly’ not enough people in the south had been able to influence the vote. The ex BBC assumed my reason for voting the way I did was immigration and said it would have been a waste of time as within a few years immigration would increase to fill all the job vacancies. (Apart from thinking that it would mean we had a strong economy if there are all these unfilled jobs, I said little on this point). I explained I had voted the way I did, because it was my last chance to have an effect on the unelected who ran the EU. The ex BBC said that all these presidents of Europe had no power but were only advisory. I thought ‘then why are we paying them so much?’ but not wanting to start an argument, only smiled. He went on to say that all his friends in Hampstead agreed with him, and he was sorry that he no longer worked for the BBC where he could write about all this.

    Liberal elite at the BBC? They really don’t get it don they?

       96 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      Blimey, he must have been old then, Deborah! Looking at the occasional news prog, most of the reporters are wizened old ‘know-alls’ who’ve been kicking around for years, and still won’t retire!

      Well done you too, for not rising to such stupid statements from someone who ought to have known better!

         18 likes

    • Lucy Pevensey says:

      Having spent 2 1/2 of the last 5 years out of work and desperately looking for a job, I would like to tell that BBC fellow that in today’s Britain “Unfulfilled jobs” are virtually non-existent. As are empty rental-properties. (I’m in work again now, Phew!)
      But only in part-time hours with much reduced income.

         4 likes

  6. Thoughtful says:

       9 likes

    • GRIM REAPER says:

      Did enjoy that thoughtful…think i’ll skip out and get a copy…Seeing that legend, ‘.on which the sun never sets’ at 21:10, made me imagine owning a pub named , ‘ The British Empire ‘…..and stuffing it with pics and curio’s of Victorian England and before….The Raj, stirring pictures of troops putting down rebellions….Boer War pics….Union flags….explorers….WW1 stuff….pictures of the Kaiser booted up the arse by a Baldrick style Tommy…you get the picture…..and a sign on the door..’Strictly no BBC staff or lefty journalists, no scruffy self-loathing students and staff…you will be ejected if discovered’….wonderful.

         6 likes

  7. nogginator says:

    BBC 5Live – Pienaar Politics
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b085fyy0
    24 mins – Latest Al BBC stitch up on Assad
    They host a debate with Alex Nekreshov and some Syrian erm American? mouthpiece.
    Former advisor Alex is a guy who takes no sh-t, is very blunt and
    … who appears to smell a rather large BBC rat in Pienaar s kitchen.

    “John Pienaar …. BBC Radio 5 live @bbc5live .@StirringTrouble storms out of interview on @JPonpolitics after speaking to Syrian woman http://snpy.tv/2hIbjeP.”

       18 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Can see why it`s called Pienaars Politics now anyway.
      What a stitch-up, Craigs Interruption Index and Red Herrings counters are off the scales.
      Disgraceful ambush.
      Maybe he needed to get onto the BBC to find out what Isvestia, Tass and Pravda used to do.

         7 likes

  8. StewGreen says:

    The Times Newsbites

    Monday
    Aid Scandal
    – UK law obliges gov to spend 0.7% on Aid (12bn)
    – Often Dfid shoves unallocated money in Trusts eg for last 5 years £9bn, World Bank has charged £241m.fees on them
    – Dfid’s.spending on consultants is out of control £1bn /yr eg £10K to produce a single blogpost
    pg 8 WB charged 5% management fee their staff fly first class on long haul

    pg45 Liberty House has bought the Scottish aluminium plant.and 2 hydro plants for £300m
    I still reckon.they are subsidy milkers who’ll end up closing the plant and take the subsidies off the dams

    MPs warn of £30-a-year energy bill rise to stop winter blackouts
    – A report called Electric Shock: Will The Christmas Lights Go Out Next Winter? has been published by the British Infrastructure Group
    (That’s part of the £500/yr/ household cost of green gimmick subsidies and inefficiencies
    https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2016/12/11/uk-govt-spending-319bn-on-quest-to-change-future-weather/)

    What about the Northern Ireland RHI Scandal: MoreU Burn MoreU Earn scandal ?
    The BBC reporters should have been exposing it a year ago when the whistleblower spoke out.

       24 likes

  9. Deborah says:

    Rabbi Blue has died and while it was quite a nice report and fond review of his life on WATO, being the BBC, they had to repeat several times about his homosexuality. But Rabbi Blue was much more than his orientation and the importance the BBC placed on it was out of proportion. And why had he being stopped from his G-D slot? Because, apparently, he was a stereotypical Jew. So it didn’t matter that he could reach people that many others couldn’t – and I still refer people in crisis to his books – in spite of his orientation he didn’t fit the BBC profile.

       41 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Not surprised one bit Deborah.
      That he was taught by Hugo Gryn,was a kindly man who was open about his struggles with his sexuality in his books(always gentle and kind) and was a popular contributor to both Wogan and Thought For the day(I think!)won`t be enough.
      Like Jo Cox and Millie Dowler, Margaret Thatcher and Castro-they can only see the dead as rallying calls to reenact previous battles, or else a springboard to the next empty crusade of theirs.
      Why let a personal tragedy or family disaster go to waste.
      Hopefully Labour will tell them to leave out the tributes once someone tells the BBC that Rabbi Lionel Blue was Jewish.

         27 likes

      • BRISSLES says:

        Though not of my religious persuasion, I too remember the Rabbi from his days on Wogan, always very interesting to listen to. His sexuality was never discussed – and in those days was anybody bothered ? we were far more respectful and ‘those things’ remained private. Sorry to hear of his passing Deborah.

           14 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      It has puzzled me recently that within the BBC, in their recent spate of diversity demonstrations, various south Asians (proper ones from the south) and south-east Asians are missing. No Pacific Islanders that I can think of, despite growing representation in British (English?) rugby football. No obvious South Americans or very north North Americans, either.

      Either you do country of origin diversity or you do not. If you really want to be fair, then perhaps do it in proportion to the existing population mix but that might mean redundancy for quite a number from further north, say, above about 15 degrees latitude north in the Indian Sub continent and including instead a South Korean or two (big community in south London) together with someone from Brazil.

         18 likes

      • Cranmer says:

        The BBC never seems to have much about Chinese people, despite there being quite a few in the UK. The last oriental character I can recall in a major role was David Yip in ‘The Chinese Detective’ about 35 years ago. Why are they ignoring such a large cultural group?

           30 likes

        • Ian Rushlow says:

          The clue is in the leftist term ‘BME’ (Black or Minority Ethnic). They believe there is a racial hierarchy among non-Whites, in which Blacks are at the top of the pile. And as such, they symbolically represent all other non-Whites. When a Chinese/Indian/Moroccan/Brazilan person etc sees a TV advert in which four friends – three white, one black (but not too black – mixed raced is preferred) head off to the burger bar or football match or supermarket they are supposed to think “Ooh, look, a coloured person just like me who shares my interests and background. Now I can buy those products, too!”

             29 likes

        • Rob in Cheshire says:

          “Why are they ignoring such a large cultural group?”

          Because they aren’t afraid of them.

             16 likes

      • Scroblene says:

        You’re right, Up2. When I spent several years living in Earls Court in the sixties, we didn’t call it diversity because there were Australians living there, we all called it a great experience, and one which I treasure still!

        All the Aussies I met were kind, generous and fun in varying degrees, the only ‘diversity’ came from tankers of Fosters hammering down the M4!

           16 likes

  10. BRISSLES says:

    Just a little aside for those on here who considered the best dancer won on Strictly. Carole Smillie (late of Changing Rooms and Wheel of Fortune) has, amongst others vented their spleen at the BBC for the technical difficulty of voting for Danny Mac. Apparently after casting their vote, a recorded message said ‘thank you for voting for Ore’ !!! so, if trying again only made another vote for Ore, then little wonder the rank outsider won. I don’t think these accusations of rigging are going to go away,.

       39 likes

  11. gaxvil says:

    The World must think, quite understandably, that the state sponsored, Government supported and defended BBC is the official mouthpiece of this country.
    That sucks worse than Izzard in a frock.

       32 likes

  12. Thoughtful says:

    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/745056/Muslim-protest-demands-Islamic-caliphate-Allahu-Akbar-Belgrave-Square-London-Syria

    Second time in a week and the government & Police do nothing, the BBC decide not to report it at all.

       39 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Maybe a few of us need to put together a “Non-News” media forum for the news stories that upset the BBC enough for them not to make their bulletins.
      My Top Five from last week?
      1. Lagardes Court Case re tax evasion and fraud
      2. Trumps Thank You Tour-tremendously successful, but who`d know that?
      3. Clintons Christmas Party-a wake with music apparently, but who`d know that
      4. Polish bloke murdered in Harlow was NOT killed by racist Brexit surfers-as yet, no correction to what they said
      5. Dutertes record popularity in Manila, despite channel 4 not seeming to approve of his “Just Say No to Drugs” campaign.
      Still though-Mays trousers, Gus O Donnell, The EU as the Hotel California that we can never leave, Osborne, Carney and the tumultuous resurgence of the Lib Dems?….we got more if you want it?….NO?…well, here it is for foie gras you geese!

         35 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        chrisH, with the BBC ducking out of their website and Editors Blogs until very recently (a small return appears to be underway), together with their attention to so-called fake news, I have wondered whether there might be resources for an internet news site that tries to do reliable non-fake news from a citizen journalism basis?

        Thoughts, anyone?

           18 likes

    • G.W.F. says:

      Thoughtful
      Perhaps they are giving expression to the Government policy on Syria – but the Government do not want to draw too much attention to it for the moment.
      Tell you what. Go film any protesters to the demo and report them. Treezer and her cops will be on them quicker than you can say ‘UKIP’

         11 likes

    • Dave S says:

      I am sure that the new US President will be noticing and hopefully it will make him all the more determind to let Europe and even GB deal with the outside world on their own.
      The very best thing Mr trump can do is to abandon Europe to it’s fate.

         8 likes

  13. taffman says:

    At a time when we often hear about the growing problem of the cost of caring for the elderly in this country, many of whom have paid in to the system all their working lives we get this …….
    “The UK gives more in international aid than any other developed country apart from the United States, according to figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.”
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35226478
    Isn’t it about time that the old adage ‘Charity begins at home’ was applied ?

       50 likes

  14. Kennedy says:

    Now that Michael Sheen has denied that he is quitting acting to concentrate on political activism, can we damn all the organs that had previously reported the contrary as “fake news” sites?

       37 likes

    • chrisH says:

      So many others have similarly given up any acting, singing or artistic talents that they once had in order to be political activists too.
      I mean-when was the last time we got a laugh out of Jack Dee or Eddie Izzard…intentionally I mean?
      Dimblebys face just before 5am on the 24th June was about the last time the arts establishment gave us a chuckle.

         32 likes

  15. Pounce says:

    The bBC, and its selective coverage of ‘Black Lives Matter’ stories.

    Many people here have written about how keen the bBC is when it comes to Black lives Matter incidents. Especially where the victim is black, a child and the shooter is….White. If I didn’t know any better, Going off the bBC I could only presume that the US, is a racist country which loves to murder in cold blood Blacks and Muslims (The fact that both (smaller) demographics have more blood on their hands is besides the point) So the bBC has published (A day after it was reported in the states) the sad tale of a 3 year old child being shot dead by an irate gunman at a stop sign ,
    Little Rock boy, 3, dies in road rage shooting
    A three-year-old boy being taken out shopping by his grandmother has been killed in a road rage shooting in Little Rock, Arkansas, US police say. Their vehicle was fired upon by another driver who thought the woman had not driven quickly enough through a stop sign, police said.The identity of the pair has not been released…..Police are hunting for a black Chevrolet Impala but gave few details of the man driving it.

    That is what the bBC is reporting, here is what the local police tweeted yesterday morning (Over 30 hours ago)

    We need your help locating an older black Chevrolet Impala being driven by a tall B/M. The incident occurred at Warren & Mablevale Cutoff.— Little Rock Police (@LRpolice) 18 December 2016

    The poor child was named and pictured yesterday, however that information has now been removed. The poor tot was…Black.

    So I ask, where is the BLM matter crowd. Why aren’t fat slags holding up the Lewisham omnibus in protest. Why isn’t the bBC pointing out that the shooter is…Black.

    The bBC, the apologists for Minority on Minority crime.

       41 likes

  16. G.W.F. says:

    Facts, nothing but facts about the struggle for justice in the US election. Last attempt to stop the evil Trump from taking office.
    Reading the BBC will give the impression that the US voter were robbed.
    Says the BBC
    ‘Why the controversy this year?
    In November’s presidential election, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by a margin of nearly three million, but only gained 232 electors because she lost crucial swing states. This has fuelled renewed calls for the electoral college to be scrapped, with critics arguing it is undemocratic and unfair.
    Furthermore, US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia hacked the emails of the Democratic National Committee – leaking embarrassing messages about Mrs Clinton’s paid speeches to Wall Street and party infighting – in an attempt to put its thumb on the electoral scales for Mr Trump.’

    There is a hell of a lot missing here and sa lot to question.

    Link to BBC article

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38364137

    There is a HYS on it and the highest liked are trying to overcome the BBC bias and misreporting.

       21 likes

    • G.W.F. says:

      The BBC are presenting Trump’s victory as a defeat for democracy, the popular vote. Here is a map of the area won by Trump and Clinton restively – the Clinton Archipelago

      These are the counties (490) that went to Clinton. The rest of the country? 2600 counties went to Trump.

      hillary_archielago_12-18-16-1.jpg

         44 likes

    • RJ says:

      I’ve yet to find anyone who is interested in this “popular vote” story. People in the UK have an instinctive understanding of the US system because we use something similar – in our general elections the Prime Minister we choose is the leader of the party that wins the largest number of consituencies, not the leader of the party that received the most votes. The difference in the US system is that because of the disparity in size between the largest and smallest states (constituencies) the value of winning each one is weighted by its population.

      Trump won the most state votes to the Electoral Collage so he’s President Elect, but if we want an even closer comparison with our system, the Republicans won the majority of seats in the House of Representatives (House of Commons) and the majority of seats in the Senate (House of Lords), so in addition to his personal victory his party also won.

      Everyone I talk to understands that Trump won under the US system and he would have won under the British system. I’ll admit that he would not have won under a system that neither of us use – but then, if the US system had been different Trump would have run a different campaign. For the Presidential election he campaigned in the states where it mattered, rather than restricting his appearances to the states where he felt comfortable. He ignored the states that he was never going to win because under the US system extra votes for him in those states were of no benefit to him .

      I’m sure that the BBC undertands all of this, but it is engaged in a political campaign with two aims, The first is to turn he British public against Trump, so that government ministers will feel pressed to continue with the stupid comments about him. The second is, if possible, to annoy Trump so much that he gives up on the UK, thereby making Brexit more difficult. The BBC’s attacks on Trump won’t make any difference to the US election, but they could undermine Brexit.

         34 likes

      • gaxvil says:

        Is this what we have to look forward to next election?
        Protests, Email storms and death threats in an attempt to reverse the vote?
        As Hillary stated, ‘the orderly and peaceful transition of power is what marks America out’. Although that was before she lost.

           32 likes

      • Banania says:

        If the Referendum had been organized on Parliamentary lines and we had voted by constituencies, the result would have been overwhelmingly for Leave.

           5 likes

  17. taffman says:

    Are we properly monitoring the people entering this country ? – how many more crimes have been committed by foreigners ?
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-38366792

       17 likes

  18. taffman says:

    Christine Lagarde said she had “not seen anything that’s positive” about Brexit and warned that it could “lead to a technical recession”.- Six months ago………….http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36284200
    Yep I suppose you can say that again Christine ………..
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38369822

       23 likes

  19. 7Clubs says:

    Mo Farah deserved to win SPOTY far more than Andy Murrays 3rd win.
    Mo Farah is the greatest long distance global competitor of his era and is arguably Britains greatest ever athlete against some very stiff competition:Coe Edwards Thompson etc
    Andy Murray is only the 4th best tennis player of his era and has only 1 rival for Britains greatest ever tennis player (Fred Perry)
    If Farah was white he would have won SPORTY several years ago

       2 likes

    • BRISSLES says:

      Um, that isn’t quite true 7Clubs. There have been many black recipients of the trophy…….
      Linford Christie
      Daley Thomson
      Lennox Lewis
      and in 1999 the Greatest Sportsman of the Century was awarded to Mohammed Ali !

         24 likes

    • Geoff says:

      Nothing to do with his colour.

      1) He’s not British (Born Somalia)

      2) He doesn’t live here (lives Portland, Oregon)

      The Union Jack is just a flag of convenience and the majority of the British public can see that.

         39 likes

      • Alicia Sinclair says:

        And he`s such a crap speaker that His Quorn sausages might as well be as wooden as his acting.

           12 likes

    • Jerry Owen says:

      7clubs
      The clue is in the award title, ‘sports PERSONALITY of the year’ admittedly Murray doesn’t have one, but don’t smell racism where there is none.

         10 likes

  20. scribblingscribe says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38364137

    How odd for the BBC to be troubled by the electoral college system of the US not matching the actual vote. I don’t recall the BBC being remotely upset at the following percentage votes v seats in parliament, following the 2015 gen election:

    POLITICAL PARTY ….PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL VOTE….NUMBER OF SEATS
    UKIP………………………………. 13%…………………1
    Liberal Democrat…………….7.9%………………..8
    Green Party…………………….3.8% ……………….1
    Plaid Cymru…………………….0.6%………………..3

    No doubt when the BBC realise how unfair the UK system is for UKIP they will demand the election be rerun. Or ask the Russians to stop interfering, else insist on recounts, blame it on people not realising what they were voting for, ….

    Oh dear, the mindless bias is obvious to all, bar the over excited children at the BBC.

       74 likes

  21. Richard Pinder says:

    On the Jeremy Vine show they had a phone-in idiot who at first was angry that the state did not own the Railways or Post Office. But then was also angry that the state owned 80 percent of the press.

    Me, I transferred from the Daily Mail to the Daily Express, when the Daily Express became the first newspaper to support UKIP and Brexit. This democratic commercial pressure forced the Daily Mail to eventually support Brexit. The State did not support Brexit until after the referendum. On the other hand we have a state broadcaster which supports the wet-Tory/Lib-Lab state administrations of the past, while expecting the state to force the plebs, to pay for a state broadcaster that sprouts the Blairite anti-Democratic pro-EU propaganda of the past, under a system that promotes people to BBC celebrity status on the back of open support for the Labour party. But if you don’t, and are seen to support a populist tyranny of the majority, then you are sent by the BBC, on a Grand Tour.

       39 likes

  22. embolden says:

    7Clubs if SPOTY stood for Somali Person of the Year he’d have won hands down, but as it doesn’t, he didn’t…..haha only joking!

    He just got less votes than Andy Murray.

    Voting for things, it’s what we do!

       19 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Why not a second recount and an appeal to the Hague?
      I voted for Eric Bristow…cheer him up!

         14 likes

  23. Pounce says:

    Regards the assassination of the Russian ambassador the bBC quotes:
    He can be heard yelling “Don’t forget about Aleppo, don’t forget about Syria” and uses the Arabic phrase “Allahu Akbar” (God is great).

    Err bBC he actually utters ‘Alis snackbar quite a few times.
    Turkey: Russian Ambassador shot dead

       24 likes

    • nogginator says:

      “uses the Arabic phrase “Allahu Akbar” (God is great)”.

      ever the deflection eh … Al BBC always excusery
      … meaning, my god, the Islamic god is greater
      greater than who? yep greater than your guy,
      greater than you … (look I just proved it, by murdering somebody).

         17 likes

      • nogginator says:

        Whisper, the shooter was apparently Turk special security
        … sadly Islamic though … DOH!

           14 likes

      • Alicia Sinclair says:

        They repeated this partial account of what the murderer said on this mornings 9am news on Radio 4.
        Just as they did with Lee Rigby.
        Quite deliberate.

           9 likes

    • Cranmer says:

      I’m convinced some Beeboids get a frisson of excitement when they hear ‘Allah Ackbar’. To them it’s the nearest they’ll get these days to Wolfie Smith shouting ‘Power to the People’ off the top of Tooting Broadway tube station.

         8 likes

  24. vesnadog says:

    Yes, Merry Christmas and a happy new year to everyone on here and also to your loved ones!

    Even though I don’t comment much I still read every thread eagerly!

    Bet those secular progressives within the B-BBC only ever send Christmas cards (with pretty rainbow colours, obviously) to their own dear darlings!

       19 likes

  25. TruthDoctor says:

    BBC reporting; “Lorry ploughs into German market killing one”. Phew! I’m glad it wasn’t a moslem terrorist; just a crazy lorry.

       39 likes

  26. Thoughtful says:

    http://foxsanantonio.com/news/nation-world/reports-truck-runs-into-crowded-christmas-market-in-berlin

    Multiple dead, we can only hope Angela Merkel is amongst them if it does turn out to be her fault.

       20 likes

  27. gb123 says:

    Berlin police say 9 dead. Our news services don’t check sources.

    Wir können 9 Tote & viele Verletzte bestätigen. Viele Kolleg. sind am #Breitscheidplatz im Einsatz um die Hintergründe zu ermitteln.— Polizei Berlin (@polizeiberlin) 19 December 2016

       8 likes

  28. scribblingscribe says:

    Merkle only invited 1 million lorry drivers into her countr, what about more employment opportunities for those who hate us.

    Sorry about sarcasm on a night when many people’s lives will never be the same, but I am so angry at the stupidity of those running European countries.

       43 likes

  29. nogginator says:

    Germany:
    Truck plows into Christmas market in “deliberate attack,” nine dead …
    er not Jehovah Witnesses
    Turkey:
    Muslim screaming “Allahu akbar” murders Russian ambassador at photo exhibit …
    er not Mormons
    Greece:
    Muslims set fire to church, paint “Allahu akbar” on wall …
    er not Hindu s
    Brussels Lockdown
    The Belgian capital was locked down for a second day with police and troops on the streets as authorities reviewed whether to extend a security alert meant to prevent a repeat of the bloody Paris attacks. With the world on edge over the jihadist threat
    … er not Sikhs
    Egypt: Christians still denied churches while government opens 10 mosques every week
    … er not Buddhists

    Thank goodness, we re alr … no wait!
    HUGE crowds of Muslims chanting Allahu Akbar descended on London for the second time in a week in a series of protests to demand an Islamic caliphate
    … er can anyone hazard a guess?

       44 likes

  30. Thoughtful says:

    ISIS have now taken responsibility for the Berlin attack. Well done Mrs Merkel you must be really proud.

       39 likes

    • nogginator says:

      “Muslim Mother” Merkel will just start lecturing Germans about “Islamophobia” again, and keep lawfare-ing Pegida, she really is “the Manchurian candidate”

         34 likes

      • Rick Bradford says:

        If we count up the body bags from Bataclan, Nice, Paris, Brussels, Berlin etc, what are we looking at — 250 to 300?

        If in 1940, 250 British civilians had been slaughtered on home soil by maniacs shouting “Sieg Heil” (the German translation of Allahu Akhbar), would Churchill have avoided naming the Germans and instead blamed his own people for not being more ‘inclusive’?

        Anyone who is over the age of 5 can see that these madmen are never going to ‘play nice’, no matter how much we lick their boots. Anyone who is not a traitor knows this is a war, and one which the Fifth Columnists such as the BBC are helping us to lose.

           37 likes

  31. Thoughtful says:

    Apparently security services have placed security barriers in UK cities market areas to prevent this kind of attack.

       12 likes

  32. Thoughtful says:

    images of the barriers in Birmingham – did the security services know an attack was imminent ?

    stream_img.jpg

    stream_img.jpg

    stream_img.jpg

       17 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Not a security specialist, but a large truck at speed, especially at the join, will not be stopped

         10 likes

  33. Sluff says:

    Who would have thought that so many skilled doctors and engineers could also be such great lorry drivers?

       47 likes

  34. Thoughtful says:

    The lorry belongs to a Polish haulage company and is registered in Gdansk, according to local media reports. The owner of the company, named only as Ariel Z, gave an interview to Polish radio TVN24 on Monday evening, saying his cousin had been travelling to Berlin in the lorry. He wanted to spend the night in the city, Ariel said, adding he could not imagine his cousin causing the crash as he had had 15 years’ experience driving lorries.

    This in from Berlin correspondent Kate Connolly

    Police have said the juggernaut which crashed into the Xmas market had Polish number plates and belonged to a Polish delivery company. The company said the truck left Poland this afternoon heading to Berlin and that they lost touch with the driver at 4pm local time. It would appear that the lorry might have been hijacked.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2016/dec/19/berlin-truck-crash-christmas-market-live

    If the Roppers have found they can hijack trucks and use them in terror attacks then we are all in very grave danger.

       33 likes

    • Steve Jones says:

      I wonder how quickly the authorities will release information about the suspicious person they arrested and the dead passenger? Stand by for all the usual concern about a backlash from our totally detached politicos and MSM.

         31 likes

      • Doublethinker says:

        Can everyone just stay calm. It may be that the lorry driver was heroically wrestling at the wheel with his passenger and trying to avoid hitting innocent shoppers. His passenger may have had mental problems. Alternatively the driver may have a blackout or heart attack. We must not jump to conclusions about a terror attack just because the driver was a Muslim and rammed a Christmas market. Any way, and this can’t said often enough, it was nothing to do with Islam and all true Muslims will be as appalled and hurt as the rest of us. It must also be emphasised that not sitting next to a Muslim on a train is also an act of terror and of equal horror. Don’t you realise that putting up Christmas trees or going out and singing Christmas Carols is just gross provocation to peaceful Muslims who only wish we would all live peacefully together under Islam, the right brand of Islam of course. I’m reliably informed that within the next hundred years or the right brand will emerge from the current schism of Sunny and Shite .
        I’m sitting back and waiting for cretinous BBC Muslim apologists to crank into motion. We have heard everything that they have to say for years now. Even a blind man can see that everything they say is wrong and that they are just preventing us getting to grips with the threat Islam is to the west. If you have Muslims you have problems.

           34 likes

    • ToobiWan says:

      I was watching RT news about the Russian Ambassador when they broke the story. They said that one of the dead appeared to be a passenger in the truck. “Missing” driver?

         14 likes

      • G.W.F. says:

        Soon anyone suggesting it was a RoPer attack will be condemned as conspiracy theorists. The driver will turn out to be a middle aged German with mental problems that were undetected by his employers and will be discharged from his post. Relatives may try to seek compensation or prosecution through the courts but will be denied the opportunity of a trial. Meanwhile, interesting photographs taken at the scene will disappear.
        Someone here pointed out that conspiracy theories fail because it is hard to maintain a conspiracy involving lots of people. I do agree. But I recall just after WW2 in the small town I grew up in that many people – hundreds in fact – had done war work in a converted lead mine. They never ever spoke about it and despite attempts to get access to the place I failed because of impenetrable wires. Yes – a lot of people can learn to avoid careless talk.

           9 likes

  35. Sluff says:

    Seems a bit trite with the current German tragedy, but…..

    We caught a bit of Celebrity Mastermind this evening on bBBC1.
    Narrowly failing to win, by only one point, in second place was……. a glove puppet !

    Could there be a more telling proof of dumbing down?

       28 likes

    • Foscari says:

      We had a couple of the “usual suspects ” on Celebrity Mastermind
      who were only on the programme because of positive discrimination
      and diversity, and I am not including the dog in this. One young
      lady who appears with John Humphrey on the Today programme was a real
      bright spark. ” Which country was split up into two in 1945 and reunified
      in 1990?” That was one of the more difficult questions she didn’t know the
      answer to. Her fellow diverse contestant was answering question on Chelsea FC
      as his specialist subject. First question was “who is the present manager of
      Chelsea FC?” I am too embarrased to tell you who he said. On the general knowledge
      questions however I did suss out that he knew nothing as he just made up joke answers,
      except for the two he got right. I think they asked him what his name was! By the way the country was where 9 people were mowed down by whom the BBC will tell us was a
      mentally ill person. Maybe for a laugh the Chelsea matermind could of said a four letter word which sounds like who the present manager is.

         31 likes

  36. Steve Jones says:

    BBC tip-toeing around the truth of the Berlin lorry attack on the 10pm news. Not keen to speculate are they? Any conjecture is offered very guardedly and in the most ambiguous terms. The reporter is baffled that an attack like this could happen the week before Christmas. Oh really. This has become a sinister and treacherous organisation.

       68 likes

  37. Newkid says:

    Latest from the BBC news at 10, apparently the police in Berlin are keeping their options open as this could be and I quote “some form of extreme traffic accident” what an insult to the people who have sadly lost their lives or been injured……….. oh and of course nothing at all to do with a certain religion that deals in peace.

       47 likes

  38. Hexhamgeezer says:

    I wonder if the Berlin atrocity is down to another of the Beeb’s ‘mentally ill Norwegians’?

       25 likes

  39. Thoughtful says:

    Warning ! Do not watch this if easily upset !

    The aftermath of the Berlin Muslim attacks

    http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=20a_1482181359

       10 likes

  40. Jeff says:

    Good to see Merkel acting swiftly and announcing she’s called a meeting of the security services.
    However I think the only honorable thing for this idiotic and dangerous woman to do is to announce her immediate resignation.
    I wonder if we’ll hear from any of the usual suspects telling us that she did the charitable thing allowing a million Muzzies into her country.
    Somehow I doubt it…

       42 likes

    • Cull the Badgers says:

      I think Merkel ought to do the honourable thing. But then I doubt if she would understand the notion.

         7 likes

  41. EnglandExpects says:

    BBC’s Jenny Hill reports German police as saying that the lorry carnage in Berlin could have been a traffic accident .
    I presume the driver was most likely a mentally ill Norwegian too?
    Ironically tbe previous item was about fake news with the report pointedly including the Brexit referendum campaign .

       34 likes

  42. Thoughtful says:

    Just hours after a truck ploughed through a Christmas market in the city, killing nine, officers sealed off a different area due to a bomb threat.

    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/745391/berlin-street-lockdown-suspicious-item-truck-attack-christmas-market

       13 likes

  43. Thoughtful says:

    Here’s some news I don’t remember being reported in the UK:

    12-year-old attempted to bomb Christmas market in south Germany: prosecutors

    http://www.thelocal.de/20161216/12-year-old-attempted-to-bomb-christmas-market-report

    A young boy tried to set off a nail bomb at a Christmas market in Ludwigshafen, but the device failed to detonate, prosecutors have confirmed.
    The boy, a German citizen of Iraqi heritage, attempted to blow up the device at the Ludwigshafen Christmas market on November 26th. When the device failed to detonate he gave up, before trying again on December 5th, prosecutors said on Friday.

    This time he took the explosive device, hidden in a rucksack filled with nails, and placed it in a bush near the town hall.

    Fortunately a pedestrian spotted the bag and alerted police, who then had specialists carry out a controlled explosion, Focus magazine reported on Thursday, citing security sources.

       26 likes

    • G.W.F. says:

      Thoughtful

      I heard that the young 12 year old boy was too young to prosecute.
      I assume he shaved his beard off before he was arrested

         17 likes

  44. Restroom Mole says:

    Re Berlin: time to boycott Muslim businesses? How long would the so-called Indian restaurants survive. I don’t think many Muslims eat in them.

       22 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      The so called Indian restaurants are just a front for laundering drug money in many cases. Even if no one ever went in them to eat they would still stay open regardless.

         20 likes

    • Cull the Badgers says:

      Who but muslims go to muslim shops? Surely they are not universally popular anyway. Oh! Just thought, ‘corner’ shops I guess.

         4 likes

  45. Chilli says:

    The BBC refusing to speculate over this one – and in their defence, there was that incident in Glasgow with the refuse lorry that had all the trappings of an Islamic attack but turned out to be some daft old git passed out at the wheel. But you can guarantee if the Berlin attacker was known to be a blue-eyed white man the BBC would already be onto their 2nd round table discussion about the threat of UKIP and the far right.

    PS. This has probably been mentioned on here already but make sure to check out SyeTen’s “Truck of Peace” series of videos on YouTube. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JcUi5_eNoqk
    The parody of Bernstein’s America is totally epic.

       23 likes

  46. BRISSLES says:

    What was it we said when Merkel welcomed the millions to her Country ? its only going to take a couple of atrocities before she gets lynched politically ? Not taken as long as we thought Angela.

       23 likes

    • Cranmer says:

      Sadly I don’t think this atrocity will make much difference. I remember the IRA mainland bombing campaigns and there was, amongst many British people, a ‘no surrender’ feeling, that this had to be endured to protect democratic principles. I suspect a lot of Europeans feel the same way about Islamic terrorism; that it must be endured to protect the vision of a united Europe and multiculturalism.

      If Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan and Nice did not cause the French to ‘rise like lions after slumber’, it is even less likely that the orderly Germans will do anything dramatic.

         14 likes

      • Grimer says:

        True, but where would we have sent the people of Northern Ireland? There is a clear solution to Germany’s problems – it could be resolved as quickly as it has arisen.

           1 likes

  47. nogginator says:

    BBC – Timeshift, Fortunes of the British corner shop
    From early Victorian times til today … alas the BBC skips through
    early Victorians till after 1972 in about 10 mins, to concentrate the
    next 50 minutes on
    … you guessed it, Indians, Iranians, Ugandan Asians, RoPers fighting all that “waycism”, dodgy film clips segued together for narrative, making us “wonderfully diverse”.
    On and on it goes, radio Asian shops, comedy Asian shops, celebrity Asian shops .. the shop keepers who only had their wits to protect
    them from all that abuse and racism, they were so clever and integrated etc, etc.
    Shopkeeper celebrities from the Al BBCs parallel universe of “Eastenders”.
    Now we have the “scourge” of the Supermarket Minis, so the Al BBC mourns this downturn for Asian shops … wait a minute it wasn t doing that at the start of the show!.
    Travel has changed us, says the Al BBC, we ve been enriched by diversity, we can celebrate the changing faces of our locals. Zippo! Show over
    … and no time for recent polish shops either.

       35 likes

    • G says:

      Nogginator, over the last few days, I have gone back into past recordings (‘Containment’ being one) of 2016 to view. All American and all depicting mixed race marriages and resulting children apparently as the norm. So watch out: American film series will be focusing on this multicultural dimension and reflecting it for the future as the norm. After all, they have to do their bit to conceal the increasingly huge abyss don’t they?

         5 likes

  48. nogginator says:

    It had to come …
    BBC News – Berlin Breitscheidplatz: Lorry kills nine at Christmas market
    An articulated lorry has ploughed into a busy Christmas market in the heart of Berlin, killing nine people and injuring many more, police say.

    Artificial intelligence at fault? the lorry did it?
    … on this night of such tragic loss
    how ever did it get to the shoppers? … just askin
    thanks BBC

       33 likes

    • NotSure says:

      Indeed, just like when that politician was recently killed by a gun and a knife.

      I’ve taken to locking my kitchen drawer just in case any of my utensils decide to put an end to my apparently increasing number of phobias, ism’s and love of historic dictators.

         4 likes