Author Archives: David Vance

DB has already picked up on the Scarlett Johansson story and I see you have all been commenting on it. There was one additional element to the story that irritated me and it is this bit..from the BBC report…

“Actress Scarlett Johansson has quit as an ambassador for Oxfam amid a row over her support for an Israeli company that operates in the occupied West Bank.”

WHERE? Do they mean Judea/Samaria? How can Israel “occupy” it’s own land, exactly? I can understand Palestinians using such language but for the BBC to parrot it is surely indicative of bias.

The BBC then adds…

The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

It’s not just Israel that “disputes” this “consideration”, BBC.

As picked up by George R in an Open Thread…

Newsnight’s new presenter has been offered a £200,000-a-year contract to lure her away from ITV, it has emerged. Laura Kuenssberg, a BBC veteran who is currently the business editor at ITV, is set to become Newsnight’s chief correspondent next month. It was today reported that she would be earning a salary of £200,000 to appear on the programme, whose average audience has slipped in recent years to just 600,000 viewers.

Here you go, a new Open Thread for you to complete!

You have to laugh at the sheer cynicism of the BBC. This morning we awoke to the news that official figures show the UK’s economic growth in 2013 was the strongest since 2007, the year before the financial crisis. Instantly, the BBC produced an economist who was able to tell us that whilst the UK IS experiencing economic growth, it is mostly in London and the south of England. Ah, that pesky growth, discriminating against our friends in the North. The BBC increasingly sounds like an echo chamber for Ed Balls and his cliched mantra that WHATEVER the growth is does not resolve his “cost of living crisis”. Nor can it – since that is a political invention to replace his clapped out “Plan B” narrative.

Anyone catch Mishal Husain climate scaremongering on Today this morning just after 7.10am? The difficulties affecting the Somerset Levels are apparently part of “extreme weather” we are now experiencing and an “expert” was on hand to confirm this was undoubtedly linked to “climate change.” After the Today AGW propaganda fest, there was another BBC Radio 4 programme called “The Long View’ which looked at the Big Flood of 1953. Michael Fish was on hand to confirm that this was caused by climate change and that with global warming and rising sea levels (his words, not mine) we will be lucky if we do not face further and more frequent events. The truth is that the BBC still shills for AGW even though the facts do not support it. For the comrades at the BBC, it is a matter of faith.

Well folks, a new week dawns. And the BBC is meticulous as ever in making sure that EVERY Conservative announcement is balanced with a Labour statement. Hence Cameron’s “bonfire of regulations” for small business is balanced by Chukas “let’ set up a new quango”. Anyhoo, the day beckons me and I bid you adieu and leave this new open thread for you to complete!

Interesting to watch the BBC promote the utter madness of Ed Balls class war driven envy laden plan to hike the top rate of tax. It’s as if the BBC are colluding in the rewriting of history. I think these charts tell the story the BBC will not tell…

The Coalition is far from perfect and I am no fan of either Party but credit where credit is due! However Labour needs us to believe that if there is economic growth, it is the wrong sort of growth. They need us to swallow the “cost of living crisis” now that they cannot sell us PLAN B. But when the Coalition then produces figures that at least indicate that INCOMES have risen ahead of inflation over the last year, the BBC leads with Labour denying this. Labour, of course, has little interest in INCOMES, for them it is all about WELFARE. Naturally, as Government seeks to reduce WELFARE then there will indeed be a “cost of welfare” crisis for the idle. But Labour spins this as if it applied to all working people and the BBC is VERY quick to run with this propaganda line. Shame on them. They have an obligation to be neutral, instead they shill for Miliband.

Good economic news! Quick, raise doubts and pour water on it so that “cost of living crisis” meme is unaffected! Over to you gang! A new Mark Carney approved Open Thread!

You do wonder at the culture that prevailed at the BBC. When did it change, I wonder?

An alleged victim of Dave Lee Travis said when she worked at the BBC in the mid-1970s ‘it was common practice to have tongues down your throat, tongues in your ear, bums being squeezed’.

The woman, who claims the veteran DJ pinned her up against a wall and groped her while presenting his Radio 1 show, said she learned to deal with the ‘unwanted attention’ the longer she worked there. She also told jurors at Southwark Crown Court that when she tried to complain about Travis’ alleged behaviour, the corporation ignored her and ‘slammed the door’ in her face.