Author Archives: David Vance

THREATOGRAMS

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The folks who run the TV-LICENSING blog dropped me a line that I would like to share with you.

“I thought I woulddraw your attention to an ongoing Freedom of Information Act request we arepursuing with the BBC. As you will no doubt be aware the BBC has attractedwidespread criticism for the menacing tone of their TV Licensing routine letters,which have been dubbed “threatograms”. Using the Freedom ofInformation Act 2000 we asked the BBC how many complaints had been receivedabout these mailings since 2008.

The BBC initially replied with misleading data, which we knew was incorrect sowe challenged them on it. They promised to issue a revised response, but havemissed their own deadline to do so on three separate occasions. A month has nowpassed and the BBC still can’t tell us how many complaints have actually beenreceived. They blame their contractors, but the simple fact is that the BBCshould be monitoring these complaints closely and they obviously aren’t.

Licence fee payers should be seriously concerned that the BBC has such adismissive attitude to legitimate concerns about the wording of these letters.The BBC Trust has even criticised the tone of them. The full text of our ongoing FOIA request can be found here:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/complaints_against_tv_licensing
 We have also been keeping readers informed at our blog:
http://tv-licensing.blogspot.com“

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WHERE HAVE ALL THE MUSLIMS GONE?

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Biased BBC contributor Alan notes;


“You can only wonderwhere all the Muslims have gone from the BBC airwaves……they havevanished….the government starts talking of allowing gay marriage and there isnot a single Muslim voice that I have heard on the BBC. Today we had a Sikh, a Quaker and Christians but no Muslim. 
Curious that the normally so vocal Muslims are staying so quiet….can it bethe BBC has decided not to draw attention to another of the Islamic beliefsthat may be contentious whilst happily castigating Christians particularly fortheir anti-gay stance?

And listening to the radio news during the day it was hard to tell who had beenshot outside the school in Toulouse today…..’A gunman has shot dead a teacherand three children at a Jewish school in the French city of Toulouse.’ That doesn’t necessarily mean they were Jewish.

The BBC told us it was people outside a Jewish school….not Jews. But theywere quick to tell us that the soldiers that were shot last week were NorthAfrican or Muslims….’All three – of North African and Caribbean origin – wereshot by a man on a scooter.’ A reporter from the BBC started saying ‘shooting of Jewish children’ butchanged it to a ‘shooting outside a jewish school’. Editorial line to edit out the ‘jewishness’ of the victims? It’s a minor detail but odd not to say Jewish children were killed.”

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THE NEXT DIRECTOR GENERAL

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So BBC D-G Mark Thompson is stepping down from his post in the Autumn. The DT has an article here contemplating who should succeed him. Should it be a woman? Our old friend Helen Boaden is in the running. As you know, when it comes to Helen “Impartiality is in our DNA” Boaden we have the very personification of why we need to see the BBC axed.

Helen Boaden, director of BBC News Group, is tipped as one of the strongest internal candidates and according to sources at the corporation has already embarked on an internal PR campaign to secure her post. Mrs Boaden, 56, is married and has worked at the BBC for nearly 20 years, mostly in news and current affairs. She is also close to Lord Patten of Barnes, chairman of the BBC Trust, who will effectively be responsible for appointing Mr Thompson’s replacement. 

How charming. 

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AUNTIE LEADS TO COURT

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Say what you will about the BBC, it certainly keeps our Courts busy!

More than 3,000 people a week are being prosecuted for not having a TV licence making up a tenth of all magistrate court cases, it has been revealed. Spiralling numbers of prosecutions courts deal with more such cases than any other offence. Two out of three of the defendants are women – thought to be because they are more often at home when enforcement officers call. Last year 140,000 defendants were convicted and saddled with a criminal record. 

This is the side of the BBC that requires more focus – the way in which it criminalises hundreds of thousands of people in order to secure its multi-billion funding! To my way of thinking it’s morally wrong. WHY should the State Broadcaster have such a power? I can understand that any organisation  would wants the requisite funding to operate but the License Tax, backed up by the Courts, is anachronistic and draconian. 

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COMMENT THREAD DISRUPTION

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As you know, for reasons out of our control, the comment threads are disrupted. I appreciate the irritation this brings, not least to me since it is annoying that I can’t see all your many excellent points. However patience is required over the next week until we permanently fix all this nonsense. In the interim, I will continue posting and trust that those who can comment will comment and that we show some stiff upper lip until the fix comes in. I hate it when the blog itself becomes the topic of posts but I want to keep you up to date.

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TOULOUSE

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I happened to catch the BBC radio 4 news just after 5pm. The item being covered was the manhunt for the gunman who shot dead three young Jewish schoolchildren along with a teacher in Toulouse this morning. What stunned me was the angle the BBC journos were pursuing. Seemingly loose talk about “immigration” and  “halal meat” may have been a factor here. Yes, it seems that if politicians dare to talk about MUSLIM immigration, that may have led someone to kill JEWISH children. Amazingly the BBC are using this horrible killing to mute any criticism of immigration whilst portraying Muslims as victims. Quite stunning. Even the inhabitants of les banlieus were mentioned in terms of being discriminated against.

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NOT KIDDING YOU

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Some may share my view that the role of “Children’s Commissioner” for England is just another excise for institutionalised banal interfering in Education by dripping wet liberals. If you read this item on the BBC however you will note the gravitas that the State Broadcaster affords the views of Children’s Commissioner Maggie Atkinson. As usual, she is fighting for some sort of undefined utopianism and is alarmed that disruptive students are send home from school “illegally”. This, she suggests, is a breach in their Human Rights. In a radio interview here she adds that Black Caribbean boys, traveller children and pupils with special needs are far more likely to be excluded than those from other groups. Her suggestion is that there may be some form of bias against these minority groups. Now I do accept that she is entitled to her point of view, regardless of how detached from reality it is but WHY does the BBC not provide a balancing context? Check out the first link you will see that it is Shadow Education Stephen Twigg who gets the final word and unsurprisingly he supports Atkinson.

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THE ROAD TO HELL…

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The suggestion that Motorways and other major roads in England could be run by private companies under plans being considered by the government has caused outrage amongst the Statist mentality of the BBC hive. On Today this morning at 8.10, John Humphrys led the Jihad against the idea. Whether one agrees with the concept or otherwise (As it happen, I do agree with it!) the point is that Humphrys was far from the impartial facilitator of the interview and was decidedly hostile to Conservative MP Matthew Hancock. One of the default positions of many BBC presenters is that the State must be in control of every aspect of our lives. I wonder where they get the notion?

As I write this, I am about to go on the BBC Nolan Show where I will be arguing in favour of Chancellor Osborne’s plan to regionalise pay. Here in Northern Ireland, State workers earn some 28% more than their private sector equivalents. To my way of thinking this is an outrage and I will say so. Those who work for the State cannot reasonably expect to earn more than those who fund them. You can bet that I will face not just one but two opponents and again the default position lies in supporting the State, those who work for it, at whatever expense. 

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SITE UPDATE

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Hi All. I wanted to say that we are working away behind the scenes to provide you with a new and improved Biased BBC site. I have noted various comments left in Open Threads etc and we will endeavour to do what meets with maximum approval although on these matters it it impossible to please everyone! Please bear with us – the next week or so should see the site migrate to a new home we want some design changes made and of course the commenting system improved. So, stick with us, it may look quiet but it’s not!

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