Author Archives: David Vance

I wonder what is the chronic drug and alcohol  abuser Will Self that has so moved the BBC to line him up as Radio 4’s writer in residence? Thoughts?

Anyone read this ecowacko drivel from Roger Harradin? Who would have thought that John Gummer would end lionised by the BBC? All he had to do was embrace his inner Greenie. If you read this lengthy report is takes the usual pro- Environmentalist line that Harradin predictably spouts.

First the headline;

A Belfast interface worker has called on the authorities to keep protesters away from interface flashpoints.

Gosh..let’s read a little more..

Twenty-nine police officers were injured at the weekend in rioting at east Belfast’s Short Strand interface. It followed a loyalist protest over the decision to restrict the flying of the union flag at Belfast City Hall. Joe O’Donnell, director of the Belfast Interface Project, said keeping rival groups apart is vital, or years of cross-community work will be destroyed.

Joe sounds a caring kinda guy.

Hang on a mo though, is this “interface worker” Joe O’Donnell the SAME guy who held senior office in Sinn Fein?  Yup. What else? Is this “interface worker” in any related to the same  Joe O’Donnell who when elected as a Sinn Fein Deputy Mayor took part in this tribute to IRA killers? So, a senior Republican who supported the IRA is presented as an innocuous “interface worker”.  Welcome to the working week. BBC Northern Ireland – never knowingly balanced.

I’ve noticed the BBC giving Baroness Grey Thompson a soapbox to attack Coalition moves to reform Disability benefit. She was on Today again this morning and allowed a free run. It seems that having a disability means never having to be challenged on your views on Welfare. This is part of a broader campaign by a group called We are Spartacus – a group given a VERY sympathetic hearing here by the BBC. The one group one never hears much from is the taxpayer expected to fund all of this.  I suppose when the BBC is energetically pushing the meme of heartless and savage Tory cuts, why worry about balance?

Morning all! Monday comes and so does a new Open Thread for you to detail the bias! Enjoy!

I see that the police trade union has been busy using the BBC  for a little scaremongering and shakedownism!

“The number of young police officers in England and Wales has fallen by nearly 50% in two years. There were 9,088 officers aged under 26 in 2009-10 but only 4,758 in 2011-12, figures obtained by the BBC show. In Cleveland, North Wales and Staffordshire the fall in the number of officers aged under 26 was more than 70% over the period. Overall police numbers hit a nine-year low in 2012, due to tighter budget constraints slowing recruitment.”

Oh no..those savage and cruel Coalition cuts. Vote Labour – the policeman’s friend. Looks like the BBC is keen to do all it can to prove how awful cuts are for these highly paid police officers

I was sorry to hear of Andrew Marr’s stroke and wish him a full and speedy recovery. I may not agree with his politics but I hope he gets well soon. However I did  tune in to his programme this morning to watch James Landale interviewing Labour leader Ed Miliband and what a difference it made! I felt Landale was to the point, dogged and took no nonsense. Miliband look rattled to me and this is how all politicians should be treated and it was SUCH a refreshing contrast to Marr’s pally-wally act with the likes of Miliband. Thoughts?

Bias comes in many guises. A Biased BBC reader notes concern about the BBC using non-BBC material on news bulletins and their NORTHERN IRELAND website without declaration or caveat;

“In the case of the driver last night in Newtownabbey a clip of the incident was played this morning at 9am on Radio Ulster with I think no introduction at all and certainly no mention of the source of the material and without the usual “the BBC has not been able to verify this” caveat as done on Syria.

This was what they did last summer by endlessly displaying at the top of their website, the clip supplied by Sinn Fein of the band parading in circles outside St Patrick’s which emphasis ensured marches along Donegall Street became a huge issue for months, and will be for decades. They also failed entirely to put the matter in any context  e.g. one small fact being circling was what the band did when the parade stopped, anywhere. Do they have protocols for such use of externally supplied material and if so why aren’t they using them here? Would they use the same editorial judgment to broadcast if it was a strike and picket by hospital or transport workers (like BA stewards two years ago)?”

UPDATE

Subsequently the BBC have rephrased the wording to the incident. The are no longer claiming he was a road user?? However the BBC are still saying he was stopped from trying to visit his seriously ill wife in hospital. This is completely at odds with the eye witness accounts.

UPDATE

BBC NI website 16.47 12 Jan

‘In Rathcoole in Newtownabbey, a distressed pensioner pleaded with protesters to let him pass through a road block so he could make his way to visit his seriously ill wife in hospital.
The protesters jeered at the elderly man and refused to let him through.’

BBC presenter William Crawley has been lobbing fairly provocative if seemingly  innocuous comment on to his Facebook page every couple of hours says:

William Crawley 2 hours ago via Twitter

• Contrary to rumours of fake audio, the recording of a distressed pensioner last night was made by BBC reporters live at the scene.

Impartially reporting the facts or vigourously pursuing an agenda?

BBC have been bigging up Heseltine’s attack on Cameron’s alleged desire to negotiate new relationship with EU. They have kept this narrative going all week. First, US criticism of putative changes in EU relationship, then German,  now Hezza.  I suppose anyone who stabs Thatcher in back is assured BBC gratitude?

Sometimes, I hear things on the BBC that make me do a double take For the past day the BBC has been trolling the notion that half the worlds food “is thrown away” with UK supermarkets getting accused of wanton waste. On Today this morning, Evan Davies speculated that “Supermarkets give us things we do not want” and therefore end up jinking such produce. What a remarkably stupid and left wing idea. Has he not heard of supply and demand? Supermarkets only provide things they think we will want. Sure, sometimes they may get it wrong but the notion of Supermarkets imposing “things” that we do not want is detached from all commercial reality. Perhaps Evan has been working for too long for organisation that DOES impose things on us – the BBC?