Author Archives: David Vance

FORGOTTEN VOICES

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Biased BBC’s Alan points out…


“The BBC has revealed that MI5 and MI6 have been ‘cleared’ over allegations of being involved in torture….in other words the allegations by the ‘victims’ are lies. But they make sure you understand that this is only because of lack of evidence…..and so the Security Services are probably guilty of something….if only they had the evidence…but any way something else might be found soon.

However evidence is not always held in such high esteem by the BBC, even if it points conclusively to guilt.

The BBC has over the years been keen to give terrorists and Islamic extremists a platform to voice their ideology and grievances. The BBC is prepared to give a high degree of credibility to their tales whilst not giving equal weight to the statements of the security services, the Army and police.

British soldiers, according to Victoria Derbyshire, are murderers when they accidentally kill civilians in military operations, security services are all implicated in torture and the police are racist and violent, the Justice system weighted against Muslims. Mozzam Begg, Binyam Mohammed, and now Shaker Aamer amongst many others, are given the explicit backing of the BBC regardless of whether or not there is a wealth of evidence that they were involved in extremism.

The BBC’s naive elevation of such people to ‘martyr’ status and spokesmen for the Muslim ‘community’ without questioning their allegations in the slightest is highly dangerous for society, destabilising and undermining the secular State whilst promoting Islam as an essentially harmless ‘Faith’ intent merely on spiritual endeavours.

It is a shame the BBC have forgotten those who are the real victims, those who died at the hands of people who follow the same ideology as Begg and Co.

In 2005, in London, on the 7th of July 52 people were killed and over 700 injured by devotees of Islam.

The BBC leapt to the defence of the bombers, asking ‘what could drive such young British Muslims’ to do such terrible things…..concluding of course it was their treatment by British Society and British foreign policy….Islam means ‘Peace’…except for a few forgotten voices…..

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THE JOYS OF IMMIGRATION

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An annoyed B-BBC reader writes..

“In case anyone missed it, the Victoria Drbyshireshow on 10/01/12 had a typical discussion about the recent report stating that immigration had a negative effect on jobs (only for youths aparently).I did listen to as much as I could stand at the time,immigrants work harder, speak, read and write better than Brits,etc. (Not including journalists and their like obviously). This is to be expected of course and I am in no way remotely offended by such talk! I’m not allowed to be!

What really jumped out towards the end was a figure called Jonathan Portes from NIESR (yawn). After completely rubbishing Migrationwatch claiming that “they don’t understand statistics” he scoffs at Sir Andrew Green comparing Manchester with Windsor and the unemployment levels in each only to admit that of course there are far more people in Manchester seemingly unaware that he is AGREEING with Migrationwatch that more people in an area will inevitably mean less jobs! Well said that man! Still available on beeb site/ VD show and timed at about 1h13m in to programme”

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LOACH THE ROACH

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Socialist film maker Ken Loach
I see that that Ken Loach was been prominent across the BBC media estate this morning. This is in regard to a government review of the film industry that is expected to recommend that public funding be directed towards projects which are likely to be commercial successes. I heard Loach referring to “Cameron” during a TV interview this morning. I wonder what it is about the Jew-hating anti-American anti-capitalist Loach that appeals to the BBC? Thoughts on a postcard…

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YOU CAN BANK ON IT!

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Through the prism of the BBC, the Banks are the bad guys, solely responsible for our financial woes. The role of Labour in bringing about the financial crisis is being sanitised and in fact the Labour Government is

presented as being noble if not heroic for bailing out the Banks. But that is far removed from reality. B-BBC contributor Alan makes some interesting points here;
“A consistent theme from the BBC, one that you can hear day in day out, is that the banks benefited from borrowing funds at low interest rates made possible by the confidence provided by the government guaranteeing the loans. Such an angle of attack allows the BBC money ‘experts’ to attack not only the banks that needed a government bail out in 2008 but also those like Barclays that didn’t…..the criticism being because they also benefited from low interest rates and so should be forced to somehow make reparation for the sins of the banking sector as a whole. It is clearly more an ideological anti-Banking stance than one based on real ‘sins’ by the likes of Barclays.

If the banks obtain funds at low rates the whole economy benefits, businesses can borrow from the banks at lower rates and mortgages are lower….more jobs, more houses, higher GDP. The government’s stance now, not to guarantee the banks, is compounded by the government’s insistence on the banks having large capital reserves themselves…meaning less money available to lend to business…and what is lent is lent at higher cost. A report from UBS confirms this….and the damage being done to the economy by the government now refusing to guarantee the banking sector finances.

‘Banks being made riskier and Brits poorer, warns UBS’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9004507/Banks-being-made-riskier-and-Brits-poorer-warns-UBS.html

‘Comparing the BoE’s policy to that of the European Central Bank, UBS analysts warned the lack of an emergency scheme to support the UK banking system in the event of a new crisis already led to rapidly rising funding costs for lenders. Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group had to pay a very high price to access the debt markets. The impact of this on the economy has been profound. UBS says five-sixths of British private sector workers are employed by companies with no access to the bond market, while bank lending to the UK economy continues to decline. Noting recent Bank of England figures showing a decline in Britain’s foreign trade deficit, UBS said the authorities were ignoring “the lost GDP from inappropriately high cost of debt”. ‘ 

It is a shame that some in the BBC are so intent on making ideological attacks on capitalism that they fail to do their job properly….reporting the facts. Perhaps this is the outcome of having their very own government guarantee scheme ensuring their funding, the license fee, allowing a level of complacency and isolation from reality that breeds contempt for truth and the Public. Having to source funds commercially might make the BBC more accountable and responsive to the public’s requirements. Privatise them.

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WHEN PLURALISM IS INVISIBLE..

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A Biased BBC reader notes; 

“There has been a small and rather unedifying incident in the Knesset – the Parliament of Israel. Basically, an Israeli MK name of Anastasia Michaeli has thrown a plastic beaker of water over another Israeli MK called Raleb Majadele. She storms out. A security guard gets to his feet rather slowly, and does precisely nothing. Other MKs shout the Hebrew equivalent of “hey, that’s not on!”

Why is this story of any interest? Why would the BBC report it, somewhere on its website, it’s not a long story, a few lines and a link to the video, they’ve got plenty of room for it. ITN News has it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHO7iWXDc9A

The argument erupted after MK Danny Danon (Likud) called for the dismissal of the principal of a school in the Negev town of Arara, who took students on a human rights march held in Tel Aviv last month. The Knesset discussion was held following a Haaretz report that the Education Ministry reprimanded the Israeli-Arab high school. “You are marching against the state,” Michaeli shouted at Majadele, who answered back, “Shut up.” He then added, “She won’t shut me up.

The real interest is the different ethnic origin of these MKs. Anastasia – as her name reveals – is from Russia, a member of Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel our home) party. Anastasia was born a Christian in St Petersburg, married a Jew, they emigrated to Israel where she subsequently converted to Judaism. Mr Majadele is a Muslim Arab who used to be Minister of Culture and Sport, a member of the Labour party. As they bicker and argue in the Knesset, around them are seated a whole range of MK’s, men and women, Orthodox and secular. Arabs watching this on the BBC website, from Egypt, Tunisia and Syria, yearning for elections and democracy, would be gobsmacked – this is democracy, this is freedom, this is different people of different religions from different parties genuinely arguing, losing your temper??? No secret police rush in and drag you away to be tortured. The BBC could never afford to show ordinary Arabs this, or to explain it fully, their Arab advertisers on BBC Arabic TV would never stand for it.

The BBC would be terrified to reveal that Israel is ethnically mixed, it’s not all Jewish, that many Arabs and Muslims are MKs, members of 18 different political parties and, good gracious, even Ministers. Wouldn’t suit the BBC’s leftwing anti-Israel agenda at all, the only news fit to show from Israel is Israeli “soldiers”, ie school-leavers doing compulsory military service, against “Palestinians” ie people who happen to live on the West Bank. Forget any other news from Israel, far too educational. Uhhhh…. isn’t part of the BBC’s Charter something about “educate”??

They would also be revealing that Mr Majadele took his drenching with very good grace, didn’t seem to get annoyed at all. And now the Speaker of the Knesset has suspended Ms Michaeli for one month. And she has apologised. And personally, I would tend to agree with Mr Majadele’s point of view. But the great thing is they’re all free to argue about it, not like in Arab countries.”

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BBC VALUE FOR MONEY

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Does the BBC provide value for money? It thinks it does and got Deloittes to provide an “impartial” report that proves this. However a Biased BBC reader who is a professional accountant take issue with what is claimed….


THE ECONOMIC IMPACTOF THE BBC

First I must emphasise that I have only read the executive summary, and brieflyat that, so my comments below may be flawed.  I can not afford to spendmuch time reading this.

Good to see the Chief Operating Officer mention in her forward “theprivilege of licence fee funding” which allows the BBC to project itsinfluence widely. Deloitte explain in their report that they have taken information andexplanations from the BBC at face value, with no corroborative work or even areview of its reasonableness.

METHODOLOGY

Gross Value Added (GVA) is total value generated for the UK economy.
Direct Value Added (DVA) is the BBC’s wage bill plus any surplus.
Net Value Added (NVA) is the additional value added to the UK economy becauseof the licence fee funding method rather than the alternative of advertising.

Points about Value Added
A company’s value added is the total amount of value added by all a company’sactivities. It is:
sales – payments to suppliers

It’s use is dubious for an organisation which does not rely on willingcustomers with competitive alternatives to provide its income.
Traditionally it has been used by companies to show that it’s employees receivethe bulk of its wealth creation.
If the BBC wishes to test their Value Added in the marketplace, they shouldchange to a subscription only service.

Spillover effects are the positive effects of BBC spending on otherorganisations.

But we need to remember that anyone who is allowed to take other peoples moneyby force will have a positive value added and spillover effect by simplyspending this money.  However the trade off is that those persons deprivedof their own money are denied the opportunity to spend and generate value addedand positive feedback.

The report states that a higher multiple is used to calculate the GVA of BBCspending than to calculate the GVA of alternative consumer spending.  Inplain English it is simply assumed that the BBC generates more value addedwhen spending other people’s money than those people would generate by spendingit themselves.  Possibly there is an attempt to justify this somewhere inthe full report.  But in my experience, those who work hardest for theirmoney spend it more wisely than those simply presented with it, because theyvalue it more.

CONCLUSIONS?

The BBC seems to have chosen the assumptions underlying Deloitte’s report andDeloitte have not assessed their validity.  The assumptions appear to havebeen chosen in order to achieve the desired results.  Is it just me, ordoes this remind you of mainstream climate change models? Again, I am not sure of the validity of a value added analysis for anorganisation whose customers are compelled by force to pay up. Words such as “estimated” and “approximation” seem to cropup regularly.  Not sure whether the word “arbitrary” may be moreappropriate?

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BRILLIANCE?

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Anyone else catch Miliband on with Humphyrs this morning? To be fair to Humphrys, he did challenge Miliband but then again Miliband is so abysmal that even the BBC struggle to make him look good. The interesting bit for me is when Humphrys starts talking about the late Robin Cook who “brilliant” and “everybody” recognised as leader material? (Around 17mins) Really? Isn’t this an instance of John Humphrys admitting that at that time, he was a fan of a senior Labour politician? Is this what passes for studied impartiality?

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ON A ROLLS…

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A Baised BBC reader notes;

“There was anextraordinary interview around 6.15am today with the CEO of Rolls Royce Motorswhich has had a record year, doing particularly well in China. “But surely it’s not a good idea to sell such gas guzzlers”,”Yours cars are out of tune with the times” “Of course, you’renot a British company any more” and so on. Carping and sneering all theway. Not “Well done, how many jobs have you created, how much did you earnfor the UK?”. If I’d been the CEO (an very polite German gentleman) I’d have said “Sopresumably you would like us to sod off and move production to Germany”.

Scandalous.

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THE JOYS OF IMMIGRATION

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Sir Andrew Green continues to do a fine job over at Migration Watch and he was on the BBC this morning discussing the latest report which suggests that the number of “migrants” working in the UK who were born in Eastern Europe rose by 600,000 since the so-called A8 countries joined the EU in May 2004 while youth unemployment rose by almost 450,000 in the same period. Danny Sriskandarajah, director of the Royal Commonwealth Society, was up against him and given the first and last word in the interview. I thought Sir Andrew was very calm and meaured whereas Sriskandarajah was verging on the hysterical. He dismissed the idea of a causal link between these figures, derided the analysis carried out by Sir Andrew, and then said it was up to UK employers to provide the “right” kind of employment for British youth.

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