Author Archives: Andrew

BBC: Lib Dems in clear over donation

The Electoral Commission has cleared the Liberal Democrats of wrong-doing over a £2.4m company donation it received before May’s general election.

The watchdog’s probe looked at whether the donation was “permissible”, as electoral law requires donating firms to be registered and trading in the UK.

5th Avenue Partners was based in London but owned by a Swiss-based firm headed by Scottish financier Michael Brown.

The Times: Lib Dems censured but keep £2.4m gift

THE Liberal Democrats have been criticised by the elections watchdog for failing to enforce a rigorous checking process on its biggest ever donation of £2.4 million earlier this year.

However, the party will be allowed to keep the donation after promising to tighten up its procedures…

It was revealed that the money had come from a Swiss bank account, that Mr Brown was not registered to vote in Britain and that when the first donation was made his company did not have an office in the UK…

The businessman, who has confessed to being arrested for bouncing cheques and made his fortune in real-estate deals in Florida in the late Nineties, said that Charles Kennedy was not ready to lead the country.

How confusing! Can anyone explain this divergence of opinion?

As we’ve noted here before at Biased BBC, often the BBC’s institutional bias is evident in what they don’t tell us – those little details that, somehow, just get missed out. Here are two examples spotted in one browsing session:

Picture power: Tiananmen stand-off – an article and introduction about the famous picture of a brave Chinese protestor obstructing a tank at the time of the communist government’s massacre in Tiananmen Square. Strangely, the BBC managed to omit the word ‘communist’.

On this day: 07OCT85 – Palestinian terrorists hijack an Italian cruise liner, the Achile Lauro, and 420 passengers. The BBC tells us that:

“They shot dead a disabled American tourist, 69 year-old Leon Klinghoffer and had his body thrown overboard with his wheelchair”.

Klinghoffer was murdered because he was jewish!

But do the BBC even mention his religion? No. According to this Wikipedia article, Klinghoffer was still alive when he was thrown overboard after he was shot. Another Wikipedia article includes other significant details that go unnoticed at the BBC, for example: “the PLO paid an undisclosed sum to Klinghoffer’s daughters, which was used to fund the Leon and Marilyn Klinghoffer Memorial Foundation”.

The point here is not the authoritativeness or otherwise of Wikipedia – it is the omission of material facts from BBC reports, whether through journalistic sloppiness or individual or institutional bias that matters.

10pm news coverage of David Davis speech – BBC showed a man with his
head down, apparently sleeping during the speech.

I saw that same man at two fringe meetings – he has some problem with
his neck that causes his head to slump over permanently – it never
changes, and I know that he was wide awake at those meetings. All
praise to him for staying involved and in the fight despite his
problem – and SHAME, SHAME, SHAME on the BBC by using that shot as
propaganda against Davis – they MUST have seen and known that this
man always has his head slumped down.

YET AGAIN the BBC show their true colours.

I don’t know whether or not the BBC knew of this man’s condition, but there is so much media scrutiny at any event these days, especially at party conferences, that it is easy for journalists and producers to sift through acres of footage to select the briefest of images that “tell the story” they want to tell, either in ignorance of their proper context, or worse, regardless of their proper context.

To depict a private individual in this way, implying that they were asleep when they may not have been (understandable though that might be in the case of David ‘IDS with hair’ Davis), and then broadcast it nationwide, is an abuse for which the BBC ought to broadcast an apology, naming the producers and reporters involved – to encourage greater diligence and responsibility when it comes to ‘telling’ the news.

, I was looking forward to enjoying And it’s Goodnight from Him – a Tribute to Ronnie Barker when on came the BBC London regional news, with the local weather forecast. Near the end of the forecast, the presenter, Peter Cockroft, came trotting out with:

“…and if you’re observing Ramadan, sunrise is at… and sundown is at…”

Good grief Peter! What about those of us who’re observing encroaching dhimmitude in the UK?

I’m quite sure that Muslims, still very much a minority (even in London, 8.5%, nationally 2.7%), are quite capable of following Ramadan’s strictures without you shoving it down our throats on the weather forecast!

Tell us Peter, what’s the forecast for Britain as we know and love it with people like you busy proselytising (however well intended on your part) on behalf of a minority religion? Stick to the weather, there’s a good chap.

I suspect, sadly, that Mark Steyn’s forecast, Making a pig’s ear of defending democracy, will prove accurate unless more people take a stand against this sort of nonsense.

I managed to get through last night’s lamentable BBC2 How Euro Are You? programme, but only just, and what a dreadful waste of time it was, except as fodder for this blog.

As usual for the BBC, the term ‘Europe’ was used throughout instead of ‘EU’, nicely conflating two quite separate concepts – one a continent, the other a political organisation. The show was presented by Andrew Marr, a serious reporter, and Dara O’Briain, apparently a comedian.

It’s a pity that Marr and No’Brain got their roles mixed up – Marr clearly ended up as a comedian for getting involved with such tosh, whereas No’Brain was seriously unfunny throughout – especially with his numerous smart-alecky slots supposedly debunking ‘tabloid myths’ about Europe. He did however serve as a useful reminder about, though it wasn’t mentioned in the show, just how well Ireland has done out of the EU – even though comparatively rich these days, the Irish got the most per capita out of the EU15 in 2004.

Near the beginning of the show Marr proudly announced:

Marr: “We’ve got a panel who hold very different views on this subject, now, quite deliberately, because you hear politicians banging out about all of this all the time it is going to be a politician free zone”

…and then went on to introduce various contributors, including one Julia Gash, introduced in the following exchange:

Marr: “Julia Gash, you’ve got a lingerie company, and you trade, er, or you used to trade a great deal inside the rest of the EU. What do you feel about the Euro? Is it something that really helps you, does Europe help you as a businesswoman?”

Gash: “Absolutely, if I’m going to be buying collections in say, from Paris, I want to know what that’s going to cost when they actually go on sale in my shop, and I want to know it’s gonna be the same price throughout seasons. With the fluctuations in the exchange rate you can’t do that, except all the countries within the European Union who have the Euro can, which is why they don’t come to Britain to buy any more. So, having run an export led business, recognising how harmful it was for us not to have the Euro, I now recognise how good it would be for business, it’s just making it easy, making trade simpler, and trade at the end of the day is what made Britain great”.

Marr then introduced Bridget Rosewell, who does know about business and economics, and asked her:

Marr: “Isn’t what Julia said, about the practical business case for the Euro almost unanswerable?”

Rosewell: “The business case for the Euro, ‘would we all like to trade in one currency?’ is fine, but it might as well be the Dollar or the Chinese currency and so on. We’re an international completely global city and a global country, so I don’t think it’s about the Euro, and I think the big issue, I used to be very pro-Euro, pro-EU, and all the rest of it, I think Europe’s great, but the EU stinks”.

Marr: “Julia?”

Gash: “No, over 50 percent of our exports goes to Europe, so it makes sense, if you are going to have an international currency, we are working in a global marketplace, so we need these big currencies to actually trade effectively, it makes sense for it to be the Euro, we’re more aligned with the economies than any other country, I mean, I live in Sheffield, and the Yorkshire economy will be very different say to that in Kent or Cornwall, but actually, as a whole, we’re more similar say to Italy or France, despite the differences that do exist”

Marr: “Okay, well a big range of opinion, we’re going to hear a lot more from all of you later on…”.

As you can see, Gash had a lot to say about Europe and the EU, and Marr gave her plenty of time say it, unlike Rosewell, who barely got started laying in to the EU before Marr was back to Julia for a nonsensical John Prescott style rebuttal from her. It’s a pity he didn’t follow up Rosewell’s point quite so assiduously – e.g. “So Bridget, why does the EU stink?”!

What we weren’t told, though the BBC are very well aware of it, having had Gash on before, is that she’s a big-time Liberal Democrat activist and wannabe-MEP! So much for Marr’s “politician free zone”! The other thing we weren’t told is that Gash’s lingerie business, that which qualifies her to speak as the voice of business, amounts to a supposedly upmarket sex shop and an accompanying website (beware dodgy pictures)! One of the times I recall seeing Gash on the BBC before was on BBC LDN (as their London regional programme pretentiously styled itself then), at a second Gash store, in a puff-piece on London’s “first permanent Eurozone” in Kingly Court, near Carnaby Street – which was also featured on BBC News Online, where Gash gushed:

Now that 10 more countries will be joining Europe on 1 May, there’ll be lots more tourists who will be coming to London with Euros in their pockets.

Strangely though, the London store is no longer listed in the phone book, nor does it appear on Gash’s website or in the Carnaby.co.uk map of the area (Kingly Court, 2.3). Perhaps London’s ‘first permanent eurozone’ wasn’t quite the success it was supposed to be for Gash.

Unlike the BBC though, Gash’s profile on her own web site is honest about her background:

Julia Gash, 41, is the founder and designer of Gash lifestyle brand. Originally from Nottingham, she studied in London and Brighton before moving to Sheffield in 1990 where she still lives. She is also involved in British and European politics and is well known for her pro European and liberal views. She represented the Liberal Democrats in the European Elections in June 2004.

Julia writes a monthly column in Exposed Magazine (see Advice from the Gash Girls) and has a weekly phone-in radio show called Sunday Night Sex on Hallam FM.

Eve Magazine has rated her as one of the world’s top sex and relationship experts and Cosmopolitan (May 2004) gave Julia a “sex salute” in recognition of “her services to womankind”

– even if the photo looks more like “Julia Gash, 27”, rather than 41!

There’s so much more that could be written here about the BBC’s EUseless How Euro are you?, but life’s too short, both for reader and writer! For more on the programme see EU Referendum’s In the gutter.

Biased BBC Satire: Which of the above screenshots doesn’t tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Watch How EUseless Are You? online here: Low-res./Hi-res.

Update: The excellent EU Referendum has followed up on this again.

, hero of British comedy from the BBC’s better days.

, they’ve introduced a new innovation from the world of focus groups – a so-called Perceptions Panel, whereby viewers dial a freephone number and use their telephone keypads to express satisfaction or dissatisfaction throughout each of the speeches by the various leadership contenders.

I can’t help but wonder why this interesting innovation has been held back until now though – wouldn’t it have been just as interesting to use it for Kennedy, Blair and others over the last fortnight too?

While we’re on the subject, take a look at the picture montage of the three party leaders on The Daily Politics page – looks like Howard’s been a victim of that special BBC picture selection treatment, again.

– since early on Saturday afternoon until at least lunchtime on Sunday the lead story under Wales on BBC News Online’s home page has been Luxury homes ‘killing’ community.

The story itself is mostly about comparing relative deprivation between different areas, and does not justify such a hyped up headline – no where in the story, for instance, does the word ‘killing’ appear, even though it’s used in the headline as if it’s a quote.

Whilst googling some background on this story I found a similar BBC story, dated Friday, headlined Poorest areas revealed by study – which is the sort of headline that I thought would be suitable for the alleged Luxury homes ‘killing’ community story. Imagine then my surprise when I clicked on the link from Google and found that they were actually one and the same story – albeit with a large dollop of Beeboid spinning in between to spin Friday’s original story about relative deprivation into Saturday’s spun story about ‘luxury’ homes killing a community!

You can compare Friday’s unspun version of the story, Poorest areas revealed by study, with Saturday’s Beeboid leftie spun version, Luxury homes ‘killing’ community, until Google’s cache is next updated.

Update: Now that Google’s cache contains a post-spin version of the story, here are before and after screen-shots showing how a leftie Beeboid gave this story a nasty spin (click pictures to see full-size):

Before: the original story

After: BBC spin applied

Personality clash drives newsman from BBC

HE WAS one of the BBC’s longest-serving newscasters and a veteran foreign correspondent. She had hosted daytime makeover shows after being a young City financier. And it is Philip Hayton who has quit the corporation after 37 years because of a personality clash with his co-presenter…

Silverton, who used to present makeover shows, worked for an investment bank before opting for a career in the media…

One critic has described the glamorous Silverton as looking “not only as if she had come fresh from a beauty salon but as if she usually worked in one”.

Hayton has covered more than 20 conflicts as a BBC foreign correspondent and broke the news of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother’s death. When asked during a BBC children’s webchat what skills were required to be a news presenter, he replied: “It’s helpful if you’ve been a reporter so that’s why they generally appoint presenters who’ve been reporters.

“Increasingly TV news is becoming more glamorous,” he said, but being glamorous was “certainly not the be-all and end-all, and it’s surprising what you can do with make-up, haircuts and nice clothes”.

He believes a strong journalistic background to be vital for BBC News presenters; Silverton’s rise through entertainment shows may not have impressed the veteran.

The BBC’s race to the bottom continues. More in the Daily Telegraph.

New Labour evangelist Tim Allan must have been having a good old chuckle this morning after the results of his dirty work against the BBC bore fruit. Allan was, of course, the PR man who leaked a tape of the memorably injudicious speech that BBC sacred site John Humphrys made at a PR forum.

Humphrys must have realised that the scorn he poured on the government during the address left himself vulnerable to attack, and so it proved to be when the great man measured up to David Blunkett on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 and queried a tabloid story about the pensions secretary’s private life.

“Can you carry on doing your job in the cabinet with the kind of publicity that you’re getting?” Humphrys asked, which led to this instant Blunkett riposte: “Can you carry on doing your job at the BBC with the kind of publicity that you’ve been getting?”

Monkey’s match report: Blunkett 1, Humphrys 0.

Touché! See also Thompson spooked by Sky News, as noted by Ritter in the B-BBC comments:

Someone tell the producers on BBC1 drama Spooks they aren’t helping director general Mark Thompson’s crusade to boost News 24. Mark says he’s tired of turning up in newsrooms and studios to find Sky News on the monitors, rather than News 24.

You might want to have a chat with Peter Fincham then, Mark. Despite protestations a couple of years ago from ex-controller Lorraine Heggessey that Spooks doesn’t plug Sky News, last night’s episode of the latest series of the hit MI5 drama featured no less than five – count ’em – Sky News presenters. If even MI5 tunes into Sky to find out the latest news then what hope does News 24 have?

Presumably Mark’s staff prefer Sky so they can be first with the news too!