Author Archives: David Vance

SHAPPS WITH ICE

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Anyone listen to this encounter between John “I like to interrupt” Humphyrs and Conservative Minister Grant Shapps? The hostility shown towards Shapps is really visceral but I was glad that he did not take it all lying down and fought back against the smearing that Today excels at doing. The “social housing” riff is simply a narrative that allows Today to attack the Coalition and employ the talking points Labour provides them.

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SOME BROWNS MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS?

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When the BBC areputting excess pay under the microscope will they consider all such examples ofexcess….or just politically convenient one? Only joking…

Via Guido Fawkes:

Some easy money for Gordon Brown….an hours speech and its champagne on thefirst class flight home…..
 •£48,166.00 for a speech to Visa International.
•£36,639.66 for a speech to Credit Suisse in Miami, Florida.
•£36,018.18 for a speech to Comtec Med in Geneva, Switzerland.
•£35,873.94 for a speech to World 50, Inc in New York.
•£36,174.63 for a speech to PIMCO in Newport Beach, California.
•£36,174.63 for a speech to Economic Club of Michigan.
•£36,146.29 for a speech to Skybridge Capital in Las Vegas.
•£36,292.84 for a speech to Citi Latin America in New York.
•£36,224.88 for a speech to Pershing LLC in Miami.

Compare these other ‘Brown’s’ in parliament and their financial interests andbenefits:

BROWN, Rt Hon Nicholas (Newcastle Upon Tyne East)
Nil.
 BROWN, Lyn (West Ham)
8. Land and Property
One quarter share in a holiday cottage in Ambleside, Cumbria.

with that of:
 BROWN, Rt. Hon. Gordon (Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmregmem/111031/brown_rt-hon-gordon.htm

Gordon Brown has made over one million pounds this year in declared earningsand benefits…..to his company….
‘Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown Ltd; company set up to provide administrativesupport for Mr and Mrs Brown in their ongoing activities.’

He states ‘I am not receiving any money from this engagement personally. It isbeing held by the Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown for the employment of staffto support my ongoing involvement in public life.’
 Does his ‘staff’ include himself and his wife? Just what company director’s paydo they take out of the company? A question you may or may not hear on the Toady programme soon….meant the’Today’ programme but seems a suitable moniker.

Interesting that the Director of Public Prosecutions says he is investigatingwhether to prosecute bankers….why not politicians who deliberately abusetheir position for personal or party advantage.

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BECAUSE HE’S WORTH IT?

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Biased BBC reader Alan picks up on this post by Steve Barclay as to whether a BBC manager could be paid £1 million pounds! Recession? What recession?

John Smith, Chief Executive of BBC Worldwide.

Mr Thompson was explicit in saying that no BBC manager is paid over a million pounds in total remuneration. He denied explicitly that Mr Smith was paid anywhere near the million pounds figure, saying “no that is not correct”.

Below are enclosed pages from the BBC Annual Review 2010/11 for BBC Worldwide which suggest that total remuneration may well be around the one million pounds mark

The BBC Worldwide 2010/11 Annual Review states that Mr Smith was paid a base salary of £440,000, together with £276,000 under the annual bonus scheme (he took half i.e. £138,000 this year and deferred the other half until 2014, with the potential if he meets performance targets of receiving an extra 25% on top of the deferred £138,000 taking it up to £173,000). He also collected £134,000 this year from a deferred bonus from earlier years.

In addition to his base salary and annual bonus, Mr Smith received £172,000 this year from a profit sharing plan. He also had £14,000 in taxable benefits, possibly the company car and private medical insurance for which he is entitled under his contract. This suggests a total income this year paid to him by the BBC of £898,000. Indeed that is the figure the BBC themselves put in their 2010/11 Annual Review.

Mr Smith is also allowed, during office hours it appears, to act as a non executive director of Burberry plc for which he earns a further £65,000. I do not know if he donates this to charity, but the enclosed annual review says executives are entitled to keep the income from one non executive director so this may further top up his earnings.

On top of this income, Mr Smith also receives payments into his BBC pension. The fund is currently valued at £3.3 million (Mr Smith is 52 years old and has worked for the BBC for over 20 years). It is unclear how much has been paid into the pension this year by the BBC, but the pension fund value has increased by £69,000. The BBC could have paid more or less than this into his pension, as this figure will be shaped by the the underlying performance of the pension fund impacting overall value.

So taking his total take home pay this year of £898,000, the difference between the annual bonus he drew this year and the amount deferred to 2014 (£39,000) albeit subject to future performance, his earnings from Burberry of £65,000 which he may keep, and the pension contribution roughly estimated at £69,000, Mr Smith as a BBC lifelong employee might well be earning over or close to one million pounds whilst holding a £3.3 million pension pot. Whatever the total amount, it is vastly different to the amount paid to BBC local radio staff.

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NOT SO SUPER, COMMITTEE

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Well then,Stateside the “Super Committee” tasked with reducing the massive US deficit has, predictably, failed to agree on a plan. Naturally the BBC rows in behind Obama’s view that this is entirely the fault of the Republicans, as this report makes abundantly clear. Mark Mardell is grasping at straws for The One here as he prays the fewer people respect Congress than Obama.

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POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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The politics of envy feature large on the BBC radar. Give this debate a listen of you get a chance, it’s on the subject of whether “excessive deals for the UK’s top bosses is having a corrosive effect on the economy, for companies as well as society as a whole.” I have also been involved in BBC debates on this topic and the BBC are determined to present “big bosses” as vampires, feeding off the poor oppressed workers. Heather McGregor gives a spirited defence of the free market system so despised by the BBC and I loved her withering reference to communist Cuba and “fairness”. The irony is that I suspect there are plenty within the BBC who do think that the Cuban collective model is superior to that which has enriched this country. I also note the BBC never asks whether excessive deals for the UK’s top PUBLIC SECTOR bosses is having a corrosive effect on the economy?

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FROM PIG TO MAN…

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Wonder if you share my..ahem..surprise…that Allegra Stratton, the former political correspondent at the Guardian, has been appointed political editor of the BBC’s Newsnight programme. 
BBC..Guardian..BBC. Let me quote Orwell..

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

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SHAW DROPPING

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Thanks to B-BBC contributor Graeme Thompson aka Hippiepooter for this item;

My jaw dropped listening to Danny Shaw on 5Live Breakfast this morning. He was reporting on a Guardian story concerning the IPPC investigation into the police shooting of the gangster Mark Duggan.

On the basis of partial evidence leaked from the IPPC investigation, The Guardian drew the firm and incendiary conclusion that Mark Duggan was unarmed when Police opened fire on him.

Basically, in my view, Danny Shaw mullahed the Guardian for this. He took the Police line against them.

I believe Danny Shaw’s name has cropped up a few times here in relation to accusations of bias, and justifiably so if I’m not getting confused with another ‘Shaw’ (apologies if I am), but when a BBC journalist puts himself ‘out there’ in the interests of responsible reporting, particularly when it’s the Guardian that’s ‘getting it’, he does the British public a tremendous service and there’s no better place than this to give him the applause he deserves.

Judge for yourself: 02:17:14

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NORTH OF THE BORDER

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Some interesting thoughts from a Biased BBC reader North of the border;

“You may be interested to note that BBC Scotland has virtually shut down on all comment facilities on their ‘news’ threads. 

Blether with Brian has pulled its comment section because the punters were not buying the pro-Labour spin being generated by the Tangerine Jelly as he is known to us Scots. 

BBC Scotland in conjunction with Ian Gray (aka Elmer Fudd) ran a number of stories about how the Scottish Government was going to close down Abertay University in fact both the Tangerine Jell and Elmer had bits of paper to prove this was the case – one month later it is clear that was never the case – in fact the very opposite. 

Then there was Joanne Lamont’s (Labour MSP aka Stairheid Rammy) tale of terrible doing by the Scottish Justice Minister over a rape case she had ‘just become aware of’ according to the BBC. Turns out the rape, the case and its outcome all happened prior to 2007 when Labour’s Cathy Jamieson was Justice Secretary. The Glasgow Evening Times also ran the story and were forced by the girl’s family’s lawyer to print a retraction as yet nothing from the BBC or the Labour Party. 

You may also take a look at the BBC Scotland’s tampering of an interview with Ally McCoist, the Ranger’s manager, to make McCoist appear sectarian. Another is a clip purporting to show John Swinney shaking his head at a statement put forward by Alex Salmond when the actual Holyrood TV section shows that Swinney was shaking his head at a load of tosh being spouted by Ian Gray of Labour.”

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