Gordon Brown, you remember him…Prime Minister and Leveson stalwart…..but where is he now? Even the BBC seem to have lost track of him…..
Funny old world when one of the most important characters in the last 15 years in British politics goes off the BBC radar…and he didn’t make the ‘New Elizabethans’ either…those Britains who have had the greatest influence…for good or bad….in the reign of the Queen.
Before the 2003 Iraq War Russia, China, France and Germany opposed the US resolution to ‘legalise’ the war.
The BBC fully endorsed their stance because it opposed the war itself. No questions were ever asked about why any of these countries were opposing the resolution….was it for some humane anti-war reason or the reality…a grubby backing of a murderous dictator for commercial and geo-political reasons.
The vetos were therefore themselves ‘illegitimate’ being based upon self interest rather than wider considerations such as the desire for a peaceful and humane resolution.
If such vetos are allowed then it negates the whole purpose of the UN as a world ‘policeman’ which arbitrates world affairs through a moral and legal framework..not on whether a country has trade deals with another.
Scroll forward to the present and Russian and China are refusing to back UN resolutions that attempt to pressurise Syria to come to terms.
This time though the BBC find their opposition not to its liking and gives its backing to the ‘rebels’ which might also be considered a strange volte face….how often have we been lectured that the US helping Islamist Mujahadeen to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan lead to the creation of Al Qaeda?
Now the Islamists are flavour of the month fighting for ‘freedom’.
Peter Hitchens in the Mail spells it out.
In Katya Adler’s film on the rise of what she calls the ‘Far Right’ in Germany she mentions the ‘Immortals’ and states that they are ‘anti-globalisation, anti-capitalist and anti-democratic’.
Is there any difference between these National Socialists and the Socialists of ‘Occupy’?
Strange how the BBC and Paul Mason love Occupy but abhor their fellow Socialists over the Channel.
The number of armed and violent radical Muslims is on the rise in Germany.
The Islamist movement is diversifying and attracting growing numbers of students, middle class professionals and intellectuals….the students being recruited as ‘sleepers’ to infiltrate into positions of power and influence later in their careers.
Revelations of mass murder and hate crimes forced the German authorities to admit they’d done too little for too long.
It is one of the biggest scandals of post war Germany….the question is ‘Is Germany’s past preventing it fighting religious extremism now?’.
The Islamists say they are answering the Muslim Umma’s call to save their people and religion and to restore their Caliphate.
The police have long ignored the rise of the Islamists and the ‘political’ background to their actions and ideology. Police never took decisive action….we have to ask why weren’t the Islamists stopped earlier?
It is suspected that there are Islamist sympathisers within the police ranks and in Institutions which all throws up some disturbing questions.
How were these militants allowed to flourish and just how popular and powerful are they?
Tackling Islamism is now high on the German political agenda…no one before had expected to see such a developed network of radicals.
The security services are out of their depth.
The Islamists have developed political groups that reject the German State and want a new world order…non-democratic and dominated by Islamic law and culture.
In the meantime as they wait for that to develop they are establishing ‘Liberated Zones’ dotted across the country where Islam alone rules…Islamic strongholds free of political and religious opponents.
They wish to live by their religion but this is the most dangerous thing…they want to change Germany from within.
They have elected representatives in Parliament who are hostile to the basic values of the German constitution.
The German constitution allows for the banning of groups and partys who are so hostile to the Constitution…the Koran and the Muslim denial of the Divinity of Jesus are already proscribed in Germany.
However statistics show that increasing numbers of Germans are sympathetic to the Islamist cause.
That was an abridged version of a broadcast by the BBC’s Katya Adler…and it was in fact about the rise of the Far Right in Germany. ….I have merely swapped Neo-Nazi for Islamist….close fit though isn’t it?
Can you imagine the same treatment being given to similar ideologies in the UK by the BBC?
The BBC’s sport correspondent, Gary Richardson, has been accused of being biased by the ‘Unions’ for calling border staff strikers a ‘disgrace’ and suggesting they should be sacked.
Richardson is normally quite ‘in your face’ as an interviewer but certainly he did say the strikers were a disgrace and it did seem a personal statement…..as to the rest you make your own mind up, (45 mins).
The unions were strangely quiet when Victoria Derbyshire’s show gave support to strikers and was ramping up the rhetoric with calls for general strikes.
Finally Richardson asks Jeremy Hunt why he thinks this will be the best Olympic Games ever…and Richardson says he has already seen good reviews of the Games ..mostly by foreign journalists…..and not the BBC did he mean?
The BBC exists to serve the public interest.
Or so its Charter tells us.
What it believes is the ‘public interest’ is altogether a different thing.
It certainly believes the police, government and, well, just about every public body and commercial interest should be accountable for its actions…accountable to the BBC.
It is less happy about its own accountability as Mark Thompson goes on to explain:
‘Transparency is as important for the BBC and the other publicly-owned PSBs as for any other public institutions. But sometimes calls for transparency turn out to be a cloak for something else.
Everyone knows that such proposals have nothing to do with the public interest or real accountability and everything to do with an agenda of weakening and undermining the public broadcaster.’
Asking the BBC to explain itself is a cunning ploy to undermine it.
Presumably that’s why they refuse to publish the Balen Report as it would undermine the impression that the BBC was fair and impartial…and presumably why they refuse to divulge by whom and why a film of an argument between Tory communications chief and a BBC reporter was released onto YouTube…..
‘Presumably with political motivation, an employee took it upon him or herself to post on YouTube footage that had been inadvertently filmed by a BBC cameraman of a heated, off-the-record conversation between Craig Oliver, the PM’s communications chief, and Norman Smith, the BBC reporter, over alleged bias.
The BBC promised a “full investigation,” but now, in response to a Freedom of Information request that arrived after the 20-day deadline, Stephanie Harris, the Head of Accountability at BBC News, cites the Data Protection Act as grounds for refusing to say anything further. “The individuals concerned in this investigation would not expect their personal data… to be disclosed to a third party,” she says. “Any future requests for the same information are highly likely to result in the information being withheld.” ‘
Previous to this the BBC faked a film to make a claim of political fall out that was…em…fake….
‘Last November, it took a robust Mandrake campaign to persuade the BBC to issue a belated, on-air apology to Andrew Tyrie, the chairman of the Treasury select committee, for broadcasting faked footage of him purportedly being brow-beaten into toeing the party line by Steve Hilton, who was at the time Cameron’s strategy chief. ‘
Ever since bombs have been going off in Western countries and Muslims have been proclaiming this is done in the name of Allah to further His Realm on Earth the BBC have been consistent in denying the religious connection and paradoxically claiming that these Muslims are wrong….the BBC knows better…the Fundamentalists are ‘perverting Islam’.
My contention is that they are carrying out Islam’s policies…to spread the ideology as widely as possible…and that it is ‘moderate Muslims’ who are perverting Islam by not following the fundamentals of their religion but merely cherry picking bits they like.
Now however the BBC has had a change of mind, religion is important in shaping politics and can be the driving force that informs policies.
The BBC has taken a deep look at Islam…..no of course not….they have taken a deep look at Christianity, Protestantism in particular, and decided it doesn’t like what it sees.
Why?
Because it looks like Protestant work ethic and thrift with money is behind ze German’s austerity demands for the rest of Europe.
And of course the BBC doesn’t like austerity…so a perfect storm….the BBC’s dislike of a ‘Tory’ policy combined with its dislike of an almost ‘right wing’ religious ideology which demands sacrifice, work and individual responsibility comes together in this tract about the nasty Germans with their boot on the neck of the lovable catholic southern Europeans.
‘The eurozone crisis has intensified a deep-rooted debate about whether Germans, shaped by Protestantism, are fundamentally different from Catholic “Latin” countries and their allies.’
‘Discussion among eurozone leaders about the future of their single currency has become an increasingly divisive affair. On the surface, religion has nothing to do with it – but could Protestant and Catholic leaders have deep-seated instincts that lead them to pull the eurozone in different directions, until it breaks?’
Personally I hadn’t realised the spendthrift Gordon Brown was a Catholic Son of the Manse.
The BBC don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story….But it shows how they are quite prepared to damn a religion if it suits their own political purposes….and the particular religion’s devotees won’t then launch a jihad against the BBC for its criticism.
Bravo Mon Braves.
The BBC has been on its favourite hobby horse today….bashing the police. (08:33)
John Humphrys sounds shocked that of 2000 complaints against the Police only one may result in a police officer being sacked.
What isn’t apparent of course is the seriousness of the complaints which might have some relevance as to whether it merits sacking someone.
You could equally ask how many BBC staff are sacked as a result of complaints…and I’ll bet the BBC gets more complaints than the Police.
Humphrys goes into full on moral arbiter mode and starts to lay down the law stating that ‘We have a right to know what is going on in our police force….if they are doing something wrong we should know.’
Yes, he’s right.
So why did the BBC spend £300,000 hiding a report into BBC anti-semitism?
Do we not have a right to know how the BBC are conducting themselves…because the results of their actions could be quite devastating…..the existence of Israel, at the very least its peaceful existence, depends upon a true and accurate portrayal of events in the Middle East…..and that is not what we get from the BBC.
Such a scenario is plausible because it is happening…Israel is being delegitimised as a nation and therefore open to ‘morally justifiable’ attack by Muslims to ‘retake’ it.
Of course Israel is not alone in falling victim to media lies and attempts to radically alter people’s perceptions…as mentioned above the police are a frequent target of the BBC, as are Tories and often the Army…and now the Bankers.
Dominic Sandbrook in the Mail suggests that such vilification could result in a nightmare scenario where the mob takes over….as the Media plays its part in demonising all Establishment figures and inciting anger against them……
‘I would argue that — in an age when newspapers and television are dominated by outrage at bankers’ greed, the occupation of major financial centres by protesters and riots on the streets of Europe’s capitals — this Hollywood blockbuster has a frightening relevance that has little to do with the terrible crimes of a lone lunatic.
And the film’s British writer-director, Christopher Nolan, is not alone in giving artistic expression to the moral and political crisis threatening the West.
This week’s other big opening was the National Theatre’s brilliant new production of Shakespeare’s play Timon Of Athens, presented against a background of avarice and corruption in the City of London.
In scenes that uncannily mirror the plot of the new Batman movie, the mob storms the city of Athens.
The 99 per cent, it seems, will have their revenge on the tiny elite who held them down. Only a few years ago, productions like these would have felt strident and exaggerated. In the summer of 2012, however, they feel shockingly timely.
Thanks to the impact of endless scandals, the reputation of our political and financial elites has sunk to an all-time low.
For the first time since the Hungry Thirties, capitalism itself is in danger of becoming a dirty word.’
Highly dangerous stuff…it is right that people who are corrupt should be jailed and those who are incompetent or negligent punished but whipping up the crowd into a frenzy of anti-banker or anti-capitalist violence is not the answer…because it wasn’t Capitalism that failed, and we need Capitalism, even Lenin acknowledged that….it was greedy or reckless people that racked up the debts…including one Gordon Brown.
My car does not ‘fail’ if I drive it into a hedge…it is me that is repsonsible…the car is innocent!
The BBC have been delighting in a bit of ‘Blue on Blue’ in the Tory camp as Nigel Lawson suggests that George Osborne should give up some of his other roles and concentrate on the economy, and the BBC have been reporting his advice as often as possible.
Fair enough…Lawson did say that…but Lawson also said that the reason the last budget was an ‘omnishambles’ was that unlike single party governments where Osborne would draw up his plans and have the PM sign them off, in the Coalition Osborne has to work his plans out in conjunction with the Libdems and get them to sign off on the budget also.
Other than broadcast the actual interview these other comments haven’t been given any air time at all (as far as I’ve heard)…..which you might consider somewhat unfair considering that the budget farce was seen as a pivotal moment in this government’s life and for Osborne’s reputation.
Lawson’s comments indicate that if it hadn’t been for the interfering Libdems things might have been very different.
The BBC want to keep Osborne on the hook and his reputation in the gutter and so won’t be repeating anything that let’s him off that hook in any way shape or form.
Just adding to David’s post on J’lem (via The Commentator)….the BBC has a profile of each country and illustrates them with a photograph.
This is Israel:
And this is Palestinians:
You get the message….brutal Israeli oppressors armed with machine guns and tanks being heroically resisted by desperate, young Palestinains fighting for their freedom with all they have left to them…stones, bravery and determination.
How about that old colonial haunt Rhodesia…em…Zimbabwe?:
The Zimbabwe Ruins are the remains of a lost civilization.
Ah yes, Africans were great once, and civilised…probably just before the white colonialists arrived to mess it all up.
