The BBC long ignored the Daily Mail’s revelations about Harman and Co at the NCCL.  The BBC didn’t investigate the claims and only began to ‘report’ the story when Harman made her defence.

The BBC on the other hand has been quick to report a story in the Times about Tory MP Peter Bone.

Curious what catches their eye.

Having said that Newsnight did put the boot into Harman……

Harman tells us that…..

“I think if there is anybody who has over the years supported indecency it is much more the Daily Mail than it is me and that’s the frank truth of it.”

Of course it was the Daily Mail that introduced 24 hour drinking, or a free for all gambling regime where gambling machines were as addictive as ‘crack’,  or engineered the destruction of the economy or put young Brits on the ‘scrapheap’ preferring instead to import millions of cheap labourers.

Sorry no, my mistake…it was in fact Harriet Harman’s very own Labour Party that did that.

Unfortunately for Harman it’s not just the Mail that recognises she may have something to answer for…here’s the Telegraph in 2012:

How Hattie’s friends defended paedophilia

By Damian Thompson Politics Last updated: October 19th, 2012

‘….attitudes towards paedophilia in the 1970s were bizarrely relaxed – and not just in Catholic presbyteries or BBC dressing rooms. This was the era when activists on the radical Left lobbied long and hard for changes in the law to reflect a more “enlightened” attitude towards sex between adults and minors.’

The National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), which – in its evidence to the Criminal Law Revision Committee in 1976 – had said the following:

“Childhood sexual experiences, willingly engaged in, with an adult result in no identifiable damage… The real need is a change in the attitude which assumes that all cases of paedophilia result in lasting damage.”

In 1977, months before the future deputy leader of the Labour Party took up her post, the NCCL was quoted in the Evening Standard on the subject of the infamous Paedophile Information Exchange, the “information” in question being disgusting pictures of children involved in sex acts which members would pass to each other in plain envelopes. “NCCL has no policy on [the Paedophile Information Exchange’s] aims – other than the evidence that children are harmed if, after a mutual relationship with an adult, they are exposed to the attentions of the police, press and court,” said a spokesman.

Perhaps that attitude informed Harman’s take on photographs of children being OK…as long as there was no harm to the child…..but…..

“Our amendment places the onus of proof on the prosecution to show that the child was actually harmed,” she wrote.

So she thinks there is no prima facie belief that such behaviour is harmful and so should be allowed to continue unless proved harmful?

Very relaxed and liberal.

Also from the Telegraph, 2009….not a paper that Harman can try to dismiss as ‘puerile’ :

Whilst Newsnight did a reasonable job that hasn’t continued throughout today…None of the actual claims about the NCCL were aired in detail, instead we had Harman’s denials and defence and her tweeting of a Daily Mail story in a desperate attempt to throw a bit of mud back……

This is the actual Mail story in its Television and celebrity news section……

Inside Courtney Stodden photo album: Teen bride as an innocent 12-year-old… posing with sisters in first bikini shoot

Personally, having read the Mail for years, I can’t say I’ve ever noticed it urging us all to go out and chase young girls in bikinis.

However, make of it what you want but if it is ‘titillating’ and the ‘sexualisation of children’ as Harman claims, and the BBC has repeatedly repeated that for her, then what to make of this from the Left’s own progressive little rag, The Huffington Post  (prone to publish plenty of revealing photos as Guido reveals….and yet no disparagement from Harman just as she does as she dumps on the Sun for its page 3)…..

The Huffington Post devotes a whole section to little Courtney…..

And look…they report the same story that the Mails does about the girl:

Courtney Stodden: Young Photos Before She Was Married

Follow Video , Courtney Stodden , Courtney Stodden At 12 , Courtney Stodden At 13 , Slidepollajax , Young Photos Of Courtney Stodden , Celebrity News

A new batch of photos became available today that were taken when Courtney was about 12 or 13, her mother Krista Stodden told Celebuzz.

While some of Courtney’s poses in these older photos are still suggestive, there is no denying that she actually looks like a teenager. One of the photos is of Courtney with her older sisters Ashley and Brittany in a hot tub, who their mother says are both married with husbands their own ages.

The Huffington Post publishes photos of Courtney Stodden when she was 12 or 13 and link to the same picture that the Mail reproduced:

Courtney Stodden Before She Was Famous

Why no outraged feminist fury from Harman?

Other Media publications aren’t averse to a bit of ‘titillation’ either…the Guardian celebrating Kate Moss being the ‘object of our gaze‘  and ‘turning heads’ since she was 14…..

Kate Moss at 40: supermodel still turning heads after 25 years

Croydon-born beauty has been the object of our gaze since she was 14 but shows no sign of losing her place at the top

and the BBC isn’t averse to using her, though older (19), in its own celebrity news where we see that a half dressed, drinking and smoking Kate Moss is…

Kate Moss: Crazy, sexy, cool

Link via  a proxy server as this BBC Worldwide site not available in UK:

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140213-kate-moss-crazy-sexy-cool

The BBC has been ‘pouring’  over Harman’s story all day…and yet manage to shed little light on the issues.

Sheila Fogarty said she would be keeping a close eye on what would no doubt be the dominant news story today.….and yet not much of interest came forth despite the underwhelming, lacklustre efforts of John Pienaar to explain things…..just the usual repetitions of Harman’s denials and counter smear against the Mail….but as shown above that’s a classic case of hypocrisy from Harman…shame the BBC gives it so much credence.

This BBC report does little to enlighten us as to the ‘evidence’ that the NCCL did act in concert with the PIE….neither quoting from nor linking to any of the documents that are fairly damning for the NCCL and which the Mail has revealed in its own stories.

This is the best the BBC can do:

The newspaper initially accused her of having “tried to water down child pornography laws” during her time at the National Council for Civil Liberties

And that’s despite having the documents available themselves as Newsnight stated in the interview with Harman.

It does look like the BBC is doing a fine job, Newsnight aside, in covering up for Harman and downplaying the claims whilst highlighting her own claims about the Mail.

How times have changed when they tried to smear Lord MacAlpine without any evidence or bothering to talk to him personally…but then he was a Tory.

The BBC should really check what the real people think:

Harperson Squirming Like A Stuck Pig

And Guido reminds us:

Harman: “No One Should Be Complacent” About Historic Abuse

Guess who?

Not a peep from the BBC….who were happy to report his ‘Nobel Peace prize’

US President Barack Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

The Nobel Committee said he won it for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples”.

Guess not everyone agrees……

Reporting on the ‘awards ceremony’, the IHRC stated in a press release: 

“Obama came in streets ahead of a gallery of fellow rogues which included other prominent politicians including French President Francois Hollande – cited for his country’s invasion of Mali – and the British Home Secretary Theresa May for a host of sins including extraditing Asperger’s sufferer Talha Ahsan to the United States, stripping Muslims of their citizenship, and most recently thinking about applying “anti-terror” ASBO-style punishments for British Muslims who are merely “suspected” of so-called terrorist activities.”

 

 

 

Paxman has a general sneer at the world of the Media:

Houses are being built across an ever more wide area of this green and pleasant land…on the green belt, in flood plains and now in National Parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty.

The BBC isn’t interested in the real reason all these new homes are ‘needed’.

Because they would then have to admit that there is at least one downside to immigration.

This morning on ‘Today’ (2 hrs 43 mins) they had a look at new relaxed planning laws enabling people to build homes in National parks….but not a mention of why there is such a need to concrete over Britain.

Perhaps the dreaded Daily Mail can help out…or rather The House of Commons Library…you’d think the BBC might report something they said…but no…..

Two cities the size of Leeds needed to house influx of new migrants as officials fear migration will drive up house prices

• In next decade, migrants ‘will be responsible for 629,000 new households’
• Wave of people coming to the UK could drive up house prices

The House of Commons Library predicts that from 2011 until 2021 a further 1.4 million migrants will flow into Britain.

The House of Commons figures – based on data from the UK and EU statistical agencies – show the huge impact of Labour’s open-door immigration policy.

By 2046, an estimated 494 people will be squeezed into every square kilometre of England compared with 411 now and only 374 when Tony Blair took power in 1997.

“If it’s news, it’s news to us”.

The BBC has long ignored the links between the NCCL and the Paedophile Information Exchange…or rather its links to certain members of the Labour Party….it is quite apparent that the NCCL knew precisely what PIE stood for and yet still allowed itself to be persuaded that PIE was a persecuted minority in need of the NCCL’s protection.

It is also clear that the NCCL actively worked in support of some of PIE’s aims as shown below in its attempt to lower the age of consent.

Harman, Hewitt and Dromey were intimately involved in the NCCL’s activities and cannot possibly claim not to know what PIE stood for…despite that Dromey now claims he fought assiduously against PIE….and yet PIE remained affiliated long after he left.

Today the BBC has decided to defend those members, helping Labour attempts to discredit the story (as the BBC did with the Mail’s report on Ralph Miliband…one all too true):

Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman has accused the Daily Mail of running a “politically-motivated smear campaign” against her.

The newspaper has reported that a group she used to work for had links to paedophile rights campaigners.

The National Council for Civil Liberties forged “close links” in the 1970s and 1980s to Paedophile Information Exchange, it claimed.

But Ms Harman dismissed the “horrific” and “untrue” claims.

The BBC of course does nothing to investigate the claims and just provides a platform for Harman and Dromey to deny everything and claim they are victims of a political smear.

The first I heard on the BBC was on the Victoria Derbyshire show today (53 mins) in which she said ‘some commentators [unnamed] say it is a witch hunt and hysteria’.

Note her very careful wording that attempts to dismiss the story and claims there is a need to break through to the truth…to get to the origins of these [patently false] claims by a right wing rag.

She then brought on the Labour supporting Mirror’s associate editor, Kevin Macguire who said the Mail was probably wrong and guilty of bullying, intimidation and playing politics….but Harman and Co should come out and say so if that is the case.

No attempt to investigate the truth here either by the BBC.

So let’s have a look at some history and inconvenient truths that the BBC doesn’t want to dwell on…..

‘An awareness and acceptance of the sexuality of children is an essential part of the liberation of the young homosexual,’

Campaign for Homosexual Equality  1975

Patricia Hewitt was a member of the CHE.

Lord Smith….head of the Environment Agency is……

Vice-Chairman of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality.

A connection he didn’t seem to want to publicise widely.

CHE is delighted to announced that Lord Smith of Finsbury has agreed to become one of our Vice-Presidents. As Chris Smith he was Britain’s first openly gay MP and he’s currently Chairman of the Environment Agency.

A few months later…….

Pink News tells us that in July 2009 this happened:

The Campaign for Homosexual Equality has been disaffiliated from human rights organisation Liberty, allegedly over a motion which called for a time limit on reporting child sex abuse.

The contentious motion read: “We urge the government to introduce a Statute of Limitation which would debar any criminal prosecution in respect of alleged child abuse unless the matter was brought to the attention of the police within five years of the complainant reaching the age of majority.”

The group has claimed that in cases of historic abuse, evidence or acknowledgment of an accused man being gay can damage his chances of acquittal due to homophobia and confusion between homosexuality and paedophilia.

Liberty said…...”In particular, your motion on child sex abuse is also clearly contrary to the objectives of Liberty”

And remember this hero……

Peter Tatchell: Not all sex involving children is unwanted, abusive and harmful.

‘The positive nature of some child-adult sexual relationships is not confined to non-Western cultures. Several of my friends – gay and straight, male and female – had sex with adults from the ages of nine to 13. None feel they were abused. All say it was their conscious choice and gave them great joy.

‘While it may be impossible to condone paedophilia, it is time society acknowledged the truth that not all sex involving children is unwanted, abusive and harmful.’

This is a submission by the NCCL in 1976 to Parliament urging changes to the age of consent…..which is surely in support of those who want to have sex with underage children…..paedophiles in other words….10 year olds were fair game it seems…as long as they ‘understood the nature of the act’…………so not really a ‘smear’ by the Daily Mail….

Here we can see the dates when the Labour trio were involved:

Former health secretary Patricia Hewitt was general secretary of the NCCL from 1974-83, Harman was its legal officer from 1978-82 and Dromey sat on the group’s executive committee for nine years, between 1970 and 1979.

During those years, the NCCL built links with PIE and lobbied parliament on behalf of its agenda. Close relations between the groups were apparently founded on the shared principle of social and sexual progressiveness.

PIE members maintained that sexual relations between children and adults did not harm the former.

In 1978, Harman claimed that sex abuse images should be given back to paedophiles by police who had seized them because doing otherwise would be censorship.

PIE was only disaffiliated in 1983…long after Dromey left.

The Guardian in 2012 ran this charming exercise in rebranding paedophiles as victims….

In 1976 the National Council for Civil Liberties, the respectable (and responsible) pressure group now known as Liberty, made a submission to parliament’s criminal law revision committee. It caused barely a ripple. “Childhood sexual experiences, willingly engaged in with an adult,” it read, “result in no identifiable damage … The real need is a change in the attitude which assumes that all cases of paedophilia result in lasting damage.”

The reclassification of paedophilia as a sexual orientation would, however, play into what Goode calls “the sexual liberation discourse”, which has existed since the 1970s. “There are a lot of people,” she says, “who say: we outlawed homosexuality, and we were wrong. Perhaps we’re wrong about paedophilia.”

Social perceptions do change. Child brides were once the norm; in the late 16th century the age of consent in England was 10. More recently, campaigning organisations of the 70s and 80s such as the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) and Paedophile Action for Liberation were active members of the NCCL when it made its parliamentary submission questioning the lasting damage caused by consensual paedophilic relations.

Harman says PIE ‘infiltrated’ the NCCL….that suggests a secret and clandestine operation….this suggests otherwise……

In the PIE Chairperson’s Annual Report for 1975-6, Keith Hose wrote that ‘The only way for PIE to survive, was to seek out as much publicity for the organization as possible…. If we got bad publicity we would not run into a corner but stand and fight. We felt that the only way to get more paedophiles joining PIE… was to seek out and try to get all kinds of publications to print our organization’s name and address and to make paedophilia a real public issue.’

This might also suggest otherwise…can Harman et al say they had no idea at all of the views of these people?…..

NCCL also set up a gay rights sub-committee at the same time, members of which included prominent paedophiles Peter Bremner (alias Roger Nash), Michael Burbidge, Keith Hose and Tom O’Carroll. And of course Walters and Locke were on the Executive.

The Daily Mail in December last year revealed the background to why PIE was accepted by the NCCL…..

‘The PIE somehow managed to convince feminists and the gay rights lobby that they had shared values and that we all belonged in the same club,’ recalls one feminist writer whose magazine was lobbied for support by the PIE after the Exchange won NCCL affiliation.

‘Anyone who spoke out against them feared being called a “homophobe”, which in Left-wing circles at the time was about the biggest insult anyone could throw at you. So they were invited into the liberal establishment.’

A PIE ‘information’ leaflet published at the time, called Paedophilia: Some Questions And Answers, shows how the organisation had managed to ally its cause to the gay rights movement.

‘Homosexuals are now widely regarded as ordinary, healthy people — a minority, but no more “ill” than the minority who are left-handed,’ it read. ‘There is no reason why paedophilia should not win similar acceptance.’

The NCCL — then under the chairmanship of Henry Hodge, the Left-wing solicitor who would go on to marry Labour MP Margaret Hodge — appears to have bought this argument hook, line and sinker.

‘The PIE was also being picketed by the National Front, so a lot of people also supported them on the basis that our enemy’s enemy had to be our friend,’ says the writer. ‘It seems terrifyingly simplistic now, obviously, but that was the political context.’

It doesn’t take long to dig up such information.

The BBC obviously either can’t be bothered or believes there is something to hide.

Here is a page from PIE’s manifesto in 1975 which proposes that there be no age of consent…in other words almost any child over the age of 4 (under 4 and it still wouldn’t be a ‘criminal’ matter) could be a victim:

This manifesto was widely available and handed out at various conferences for 50p a go.

The Daily Mail notes:

Surprise, surprise, the BBC has ignored our expose of Labour’s links to a child sex scandal. QUENTIN LETTS imagines its reaction if those involved were Tory

No surprise there really….but what else has the BBC ignored?

The BBC is very green and promotes everything so tinged…even hated Tory politicians with ‘vested interests’ that conflict with their duties but who promote the green agenda.

The BBC happily ignores or downplays any problems associated with renewable energy and related political policies….the massive failure of Germany’s green policies and the crippling  costs involved barely merit a mention when they should be front and centre on the BBC as of enormous importance and relevance.

However the BBC doesn’t have to go to Germany for such reports of industry being crippled by green energy policies…they can look much closer to home:

UK factories shut down to avoid high power costs

Cripplingly high power costs are forcing some of Britain’s heavy manufacturers to shut down their entire operation at peak times, with furnaces cooling and workers shivering in cold, darkened offices.

Executives say this “third world” scenario is becoming more frequent, as companies try to avoid using energy at peak times, when costs can rise 300 fold under the unusual rules of Britain’s power market.

Mark Broxholme of Tata Steel said its specialist division, which makes alloys used in aircraft and cars, shut down between 4-6pm every day last week. When it accidentally operated during a half-hour peak time period, the cost was £1m.

“It costs us £27 to boil the kettle [during a triad]. We end up telling our workers to sit in the mess room together to keep warm because we can’t afford to keep going,” Mr Pedder said.

“It is a crazy system and it is getting worse. The government talks of keeping the lights on but they are already going out for heavy users.”

The BBC could look much closer to home but doesn’t.

A story about industry having to shut down due to Green taxes and the BBC ignores it.

Any possibility that the BBC’s news agenda is driven by its own politics?

Today investigated Foodbanks:

Half of food bank referrals ‘due to benefit changes’

Apart from it being just another chance to bash the government on the apparent ‘Standard of Living Crisis’ one little claim stood out made by Justin Webb….he told us that it was ‘fair enough to politicise foodbanks‘ if it meant we got answers about the issues…issues of course as defined by the likes of Justin Webb.

‘Fair enough to politicise’?  Not a phrase you hear often, or at all on the BBC normally…..it is usually the other way round, the BBC complaining bitterly about ‘politicisation’.

For instance…when Eric Pickles said the Government had been wrongly advised by the Environment Agency he was instantly vilified for allegedly starting a ‘blame game’…Victoria Derbyshire said it was ‘puerile point scoring’….the claim being that we should be looking at dealing with the floods first and then look at who was to blame.

No such qualms about foodbanks though.  (And remember this: The Foodbank Is Born)

And indeed no such qualms when it comes to people who point the finger of blame the other way concerning the floods.

This morning, and indeed all day, a letter from a ‘group of leading environmental and planning experts’ made headlines on the BBC.

Wonder if they were co-ordinating with anyone?

‘In an open letter, they urged the prime minister to adopt a clear strategy for future flood prevention.

The call came as shadow chancellor Ed Balls said a Labour government would make investment in defences a priority.’

We were told this morning that the floods were a ‘legacy of not addressing the problems…and that we need long term sustainable investment….and that there was too much finger pointing.’

Justin Webb then finger pointed, wondering ‘Should this Government should have behaved differently?’

Which is odd…because that is precisely the issue Pickles was addressing when he said they had been badly advised by the Environment Agency…and should have acted differently…and you will note the Environment Agency doesn’t get a name check in Webb’s blame game.

Curiously the Landscapers etc say:

‘In the Environment Agency are people experienced in addressing these problems, as there are among the members of all our organisations. We need to mobilise that joint expertise.’

Weren’t the EA the problem?

So who is to blame?  Government or an agency run by a Labour peer who advised Government?

It looks like the BBC is only interested in finger pointing when the finger points in a certain direction.

It’s only ‘fair enough to politicise an issue‘  when it helps their case.

Wake Up To Money’s Micky Clark must be good mates with Russell Brand or something.

Last week he told us that the Government was lying to us about low unemployment figures….this week he continues the theme (8 mins) saying we may be being duped by employers and politicians about the ‘good news on employment’...the employment figures are open to manipulation he tells us.

So…again he is openly claiming the Government is lying to us about the level of unemployment.

This is a constant theme with Clark, and indeed the BBC…either the numbers are wrong, a ‘puzzle’, or the jobs that are being created are low grade or part time or zero hours contracts, which MC has a problem with.

Never mind that most are in fact full time jobs, there are a record number of women in the workplace and youth unemployment is falling.

Women suffer the most?

Ministers welcomed the fact that a record of more than 14m women were now in work, with the female employment rate of 67.2 per cent the highest since records began in 1971.

Low grade jobs?

There were 32.35 million workforce jobs in September 2013, up 216,000 from June 2013 and up598,000 on a year earlier. As shown in Chart 9, the sector showing the largest increase in jobs between September 2012 and September 2013 was professional, scientific and technical activities which increased by 137,000 to reach 2.62 million.

900,000 young unemployed?

There were 917,000 unemployed 16 to 24 year olds (31% of whom were in full-time education),down 48,000 from July to September 2013.

All part time jobs?

The number of men working full-time, increased by 87,000 to reach 13.98 million.

The number of men working part-time, increased by 13,000 to reach 2.16 million.

The number of women working full-time increased by 122,000 to reach 8.09 million.

The number of women working part-time decreased by 28,000 to reach 5.91 million.

The BBC…half the News…all the Time.

BBC have been allocating a lot of airtime today to this:

More children on adult mental wards

An increasing number of young people with mental health problems in England are being treated on adult psychiatric wards, it emerges.

• Mental health services ‘in crisis’

Note that link to ‘Mental health services ‘in crisis’…..an old story from last year…however not so keen to link to more recent news…….

…… just been listening to 5Live Drive (17:37) and LibDem Health Minister Norman Lamb talking about the lack of attention given to mental health issues.

He raised the fact that the BBC had ignored an important government announcement about care for mental health patients from a couple of days ago.

Presumably this is the one he was referring to:

A new agreement between police and the NHS seeks to improve mental health crisis care

Emergency support for people in mental health crisis is set to see dramatic improvements across the country as part of a far-reaching new agreement between police, mental health trusts and paramedics.

The agreement – called the Crisis Care Concordat – has been signed by more than 20 national organisations in a bid to drive up standards of care for people experiencing crisis such as suicidal thoughts or significant anxiety.

The Concordat, announced today by Care and Support Minister Norman Lamb, will help cut the numbers of people detained inappropriately in police cells and drive out the variation in standards across the country.

Odd that the BBC would ignore such ‘good news’ and only go for the ‘bad’…especially odd as if you have listened to Victoria Derbyshire you will know that this is an issue that comes up a lot….how police treat and care for people with mental health issues.

Peter Allen on 5Live Drive didn’t want to know and seemed quite put out that someone should dare to criticise the BBC saying ….never mind that, shouldn’t you, Norman Lamb, be providing more beds for patients?

Love it when they get the hump….as they always do when someone tries to hold them to account…the Beeboids don’t like the treatment they mete out to others being used against them.

Remember this:

Saturday Live on the 16th had an interesting little report. (about 0945)…all the way from the delightful People’s Republic of North Korea.

John McCarthy hears about the Arirang or Mass Games in North Korea’s capital Pongyang;  a dazzling display by thousands of marching, dancing, skipping, gymnastics and… flip charts. He talks to visitors to the games photographer Jeremy Hunter, former diplomat James Hoare and tourist Tony Pletts.

Fascinating what an upbeat little tale we have about one of the cruellest regimes in the world from the BBC….

We are witnessing an ‘ amazing stage, an incredible event….there is something here that these people have got, this system has got….the minders are really really wonderful…you only get to see what they want you to see but you really do get a sense of what life is like for Koreans…picnics and dances at the weekend….an element of Disney involved….it makes you appreciate just how different life could be from the life you lead at home….absolutely a thumbs up to go see one of the great spectacles of the world’

Thumbs up for those unspeakable atrocities!!!!……

World must act on North Korea rights abuse, says UN report

The international community must act on evidence that crimes against humanity are being committed in North Korea, says a long-awaited UN report.

A panel of experts mandated by the UN’s Human Rights Council said North Koreans had suffered “unspeakable atrocities”, and that those responsible, including leader Kim Jong-un, must face justice.

Let’s hope you now….’appreciate just how different life could be from the life you lead at home’