The BBC is headlining with the amazing news that a ‘Labour’ politician wants Boris to resign for his comments about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Of course they don’t tell us that he is Labour…just that he is the Mayor of London….the same mayor of London that told Muslims that to cooperate with the police on anti-terror issues would make them ‘Uncle Toms’. Maybe he should resign…..maybe the BBC should ask him about his comments [lol] or that he campaigned ‘as a Muslim’ for the Mayorship whilst declaring that Zac Goldsmith was a racist dogwhistler for raising the issue of Islamic extremism and Khan’s close relationship with some extremist speakers….never mind that Goldsmith never mentioned that Khan was a Muslim, just that he kept unsavoury company…it was Khan, as said, who campaigned on the Muslim ticket.
Of course Boris was probably accurate about what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been doing, when she worked for the BBC’s Media Action…he had of course been briefed that this was the case by his staff. He probably should not have said what he did as the result could have been foreseen. Note though that the Independent reported his comments without putting any significance on them at all and in fact praised Boris…..until the anti-Boris lobby started to ramp up the rhetoric…..absolutely no flicker of recognition from the Independent that Boris had said anything untoward…..
Boris Johnson has finally condemned Iran’s detention of British citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and offered to visit her in prison. Speaking to a committee of MPs, Mr Johnson attacked both Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s conviction for spying as a mockery of justice and her treatment by the authorities in Tehran.
“When I look at what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism as I understand it,” he said.
He added: “Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, nor her family, has been informed about what crime she has actually committed. And that I find extraordinary, incredible.”
Mr Johnson was told that an MP had been informed she could visit the dual British-Iranian national if she wished and asked if he would make the trip, replying: “Of course.”
Note that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was already facing an increased sentence which the BBC etc fail to mention when they tell us Boris’ words will condemn her to a life behind bars for years more….
Last month, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was told she could face 16 more years behind bars after the Iranian courts reopened her case and added three charges.
Look at the husband’s reaction then…
Responding to Mr Johnson’s comments, Mr Ratcliffe said: “I warmly welcome the Foreign Secretary’s condemnation of Nazanin’s treatment by the Iranian authorities to date. He is right – her case is a mockery of justice, and an abuse of Iranian and international law.
“I thank him for his offer to visit Nazanin and check that she is OK.”
Mr Ratcliffe also clarified that at the time of her arrest his wife had simply been on holiday with Gabriella, visiting her parents and other family members in Iran.
Mr Ratcliffe explained that Mr Johnson’s comment about his wife having taught journalism was a in fact a reference to her first graduate job eight years ago when she was an assistant at BBC Media Action, the corporation’s international development charity.
He said that his wife had never actually taught journalists but instead had simply made travel arrangements for tutors on an international journalism course.
No outrage, but an admittal that she was part of the system that taught journalists, the BBC’s Media Action [a soft power organisation designed to undermine and subvert undemocratic or authoritarian regimes like Iran’s]…the Iranians unlikely to make a distinction between teachers and those who facilitate their job.
Dimbleby on Any Questions presided over the usual BBC biased audience who repsonded with great cheering when asked if Boris should be sacked.
Just shame that genuine, contextualised, nuanced journalism is beyond the BBC these days and a baying mob of left-wing Corbynistas is running the show now. They don’t give a damn about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, they just want to politicise and weaponise her imprisonment in order to ‘get Boris’. The more they attack Boris the more the iranians will tak ethe opportunity to dmaage him as well by ‘sabre-rattling’ about how they will treat Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe….the anti-Boris mob are doing the Iranian’s work for them…..they would love to see their politiciking end in the fall of Boris….a famous victory. The BBC et al are helping in that, doing Iran’s work for it.
Boris was esentially right you just wouldn’t know it from listening to the BBC…who also must owe a duty of care to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe as she is in prison for working for them. Maybe Lord Hall Hall should resign?
This case is turning into a Lawrence. The Iranian woman and her British husband will be calling the shots and judging the FCO performance on behalf of labour and its broadcasting arm al eeb I’ll leave the British bit out.
They ll have to make a peer and give him a load of compensation , apologise for this that and the other
Khan, love, or loathe him, one thing is for sure? He’s a lying toerag and a crap one at that!
Khan just called Johnson names and recited things he has said in the past. It is so infantile.
Despite Johnson’s gaffes he is broadly competent and fantastically well-educated. One slept a lot easier in London knowing he was in charge. Khan’s preposterous response to any terror attack is to do nothing, as apparently terrorists hate it when you actually do something to stop them.
Khan should resign or be sacked – London is turning into a war zone under his watch. He has all the reassuring presence of a spiky tin shed in a thunder storm.
It is very strange. This sudden discovery of what Londoners and political groupies and keen (as in sharp) observers knew about Boris Johnson years ago.
He had been Foreign Secretary for three months and we (those among the above groups) could see he was almost non-existent to the point of invisibility. He had had an opportunity to not only make a name for himself at State level but also to help the people of Syria.
By the time the end of 2016 had arrived, he could have been on a plane not just to Moscow and Damascus and Teheran and Amman and Jerusalem but also Seoul and Pyonyang and Brussels and Strasbourg.
By the time the Prime Minister announced her desire for a General Election in June 2017, Theresa May and Donald Trump had, I think, individually had more meetings with other leaders than Boris Johnson. The Foreign Secretary’s invisibility continued during the General Election campaign until the last week. (Mind you, at least he did turn up then. Many of Bojo’s Cabinet colleagues, Phil Hammond among them, were completely non-existent during the run up to Polling Day.)
After all this, you would think the BBC would be asking questions about Boris Johnson. But no.
Nothing.
Very strange, that, from a uniquely funded, well-resourced, leading news organisation. Not a peep.
Until now.
Something about this and about the BBC smells very, very fishy.
Plenty over promoted politicians about – khan – a humans rights lawyer for god sake – fighting the state – and another foreigner called Boris whose done a bit of journalism and ascended the greasy pole. Khan wants the top job as they all do so exploit some trivial incident like an Iranian woman getting banged up to score points in the party. It diverts attention to the often drunken misbehaviour of politicians .
As an aside there was a funny al Beeb interview with that half wit from the Green Party who said that at work everything should be professional – no banter – no humour – maybe she should go Muslim and stick a sack on.
Corbyn and Khan, if they had anything British about them, would condemn Iran in the strongest possible terms instead of using Boris’s comments – said in good faith and perhaps with some truth behind them – to their political advantage.
But that’s the Islamic Socialist Axis scum for you. How can anybody expect Corbyn to condemn Iran when he’s stuck so far up the Hamas arsehole?
And anyone taking a holiday in Iran when they have a background of activism (however mild), as evidently she might, needs their head looking at.
What an effing state we’re in.
I gave up on Boris after his comment about opposition to financing bullfighting as political correctness gone mad.
He’s a minister in a Government that oozes political correctness like no other.
When I was a teenager I was against bullfighting because it seemed cruel. But after I thought about it I came to the conclusion that bulls raised for bullfighting had a better deal than bulls raised for beef. They both end up as beef, but one has a more glorious upbringing and dies full of testosterone and endorphins in the body (natural painkillers).
Also there is a cultural side to bullfighting, where people develop a respect and consciousness for the meat they eat, whereas ordinary cattle meat is out of sight and out of mind. Most people have no idea where that meat came from they find wrapped in cellophane in the supermarket. Sometimes it might even be horse or donkey meat.
It just seems to me that this is just another attempt to get a Tory MP sacked, it doesn’t matter what the reason is, someone, and I think we know who, is trying to overthrow the government, so they can stop Brexit, a lot of devious characters are behind all of this, including some in the EU I would bet.
Khan is just a sycophant, out to impress, he needs taking down a peg or two.
In the spirit of balance, from left field:
Dark looks at the Xmas party, surely?
O’Brien has had extreme leftest view filters surgically inserted into his eyes. He can see no other viewpoint except from the far left, even when his position is evidently ridiculous and provably so. Trouble is, he has a radio show with full control over content and the rest of the BBBC are now striving to match his level of impartiality and even handedness.