Author Archives: David Vance

THERE’S NOTHING LIKE A DAME

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Episode image for Eliza Manningham-Buller: Freedom
Biased BBC contributor Alan makes the following points.

“The BBC reports that the chairman of the Afghan High Peace Council, Burhanuddin Rabbani, has beenkilled with several other people in a bomb attack in Kabul, officials say.’

Strange how the real world catchs up with us. Eliza Manningham Buller has beenlecturing us on the need to engage with the Taliban, to negotiate andpresumably compromise (as soon as we leave Afghanistan you can be sure theTaliban won’t be compromising or working in ‘coalition’) in the BBC’s ReithLectures.
 
Only today did she restate that position….’In this lecture I want to arguethat states should, wherever possible, seek political solutions andreconciliation.’….how negotiation brought peace to Northern Ireland….’Lookat Northern Ireland, where former terrorists are in government. We should welcome this, not damn it.’….only of course there is nopeace in Northern Ireland…the war continues, it just isn’t reported as muchand as with militant Islam, government ministers prefer to sweep uncomfortable,inconvenient facts under the carpet rather than have to deal with them….haveAdams and MacGuinness left the IRA?

I imagine it is quite hard to negotiate with someone whose only intention is tokill you and to re-take power. Why would the Taliban negotiate? If we are offering negotiations it can only bebecause we are ‘losing’…therefore if the Taliban are winning why compromise? Yet again she takes up the cudgel against our foreign policy (another BBCbete noir) saying it incites Muslims to radicalise….Muslims who are under thecosh of dictators in their own countries attack the West because we supportthose dictators.

Except that when we depose Saddam Hussein it is those very radical Muslims whofight to keep Saddam and his regime in power.

You must despair when you listen to Manningham Buller….a woman at the heartof the Establishment who is quite clearly so out of touch with reality….butunfortunately is so representative of much of the mentality within thatEstablishment….no less at the BBC with which her views chime and resonateexactly.”

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EVANS ABOVE!

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It’s never a good morning on the BBC Today programme if there is not a little further demonising of Rupert Murdoch so cue this little knockabout between Humphyrs and Harold Evans. As you can guess, Humphyrs just teed up the lines and Evans let rip into the evils of the corrupt Murdoch empire. The BBC has gone way beyond satire on this issue and in truth it has revealed ITSELF to be the monster it sees in Murdoch. It is using its OWN power and dominance to smash what Murdoch as built up as an opposition to the BBC empire, and the only result will be an even more powerful BBC.

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AN ARRESTING INSIGHT!

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There is a side to modern Britain that the BBC is very careful NOT to explore. Every now and again we get a glimpse of what lurks in the post-modern shadows, as the mobs rampaging through several of our major cities last month vividly demonstrated. Even then, the BBC would not countenance the suggestion that something was very wrong with the people concerned. No, blame it on the police, blame it on the banks, blame it on the boogie even – just do not blame the feral thugs, and the gangs, and the criminal instincts involved So, I thought this description of modern Britain over at the Police Inspector blog worth sharing quite simply because you will never see it or read about on the £3bn + a year BBC;

“In Ruraltown, the elderly are like dirty, damaged vultures. They converge at awful jumble sales. They rummage and fight for socks and underpants that have been torn from the stiff corpses of their previous ancient occupiers. 

In Ruraltown, I saw a dead woman in the doctor’s surgery waiting room. No one noticed until closing time. 

It is always cold and dark. Unemployment in Ruraltown is, of course, staggeringly high. This part of Ruralshire is so divided along class and racial lines that it is hardly the old shire at all but a collection of tribal groupings. 

Some of its outlying towns are concrete wastelands too terrible to describe. People travel miles to jump from our multi-storey carpark. They truly do. 

Ruraltown is where the people of Ruralshire go to die. Ruraltown is twinned with Auschwitz, I know who got the better deal. If you have a dozen screaming kids, tattoos on your face and neck, a slot machine addiction and you love frozen chips and microwaved pizza, come to Ruraltown. 

I defy you to find one person smiling, or even anyone who isn’t thinking “Why am I here? Why am I here? Why am I here? Please someone kill me,” over and over again, then holding their breath until they pass out. The crowning glory of Ruraltown, though, is its people. They will happily kill you with an axe while you wait outside the local chippy for a deep-fried Mars bar. 

Black Lace refused to play here. Burger King actually closed down their High Street store because they had more trouble than any other town in England. Pre-pubescent skiprats and abusive old women in Kappa track suit bottoms hurl insults and beg for shrapnel from passers-by. In Ruraltown, English is a second language. 

Welcome to my patch.”

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MY SHARIA

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One of the many benefits of the BBC is that it helps educate us lesser mortals. For example, did you know that many Muslims do not understand Sharia? Here is the helpful BBC article concerned and a little excerpt for your morning edification;

“Sharia is a now a familiar term to Muslims and non-Muslims. It can often be heard in news stories about politics, crime, feminism, terrorism and civilisation. All aspects of a Muslim’s life are governed by Sharia. Sharia law comes from a combination of sources including the Qur’an (the Muslim holy book), theHadith (sayings and conduct of the prophet Muhammad) and fatwas (the rulings of Islamic scholars). 

Many people, including Muslims, misunderstand Sharia. It’s often associated with the amputation of limbs, death by stoning, lashes and other medieval punishments. Because of this, it is sometimes thought of as draconian. Some people in the West view Sharia as archaic and unfair social ideas that are imposed upon people who live in Sharia-controlled countries. 

Many Muslims, however, hold a different view. In the Islamic tradition Sharia is seen as something that nurtures humanity. They see the Sharia not in the light of something primitive but as something divinely revealed. In a society where social problems are endemic, Sharia frees humanity to realise its individual potential.”

Got that. Meanwhile back on Planet Islam;

RIYADH — A Sudanese man was beheaded Monday in Madina after he was convicted of practicing sorcery, the Interior Ministry announced. Abdul Hamid Al-Fakki “practiced witchcraft and sorcery,” which are illegal under the Shariah law, said a ministry statement. Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under the Shariah law enforced strictly in the Kingdom

It all makes so much sense.
Hat-tip to Alan!

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PFI REVISIONISM

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The 8.10am item on BBC Radi 4 Today is a wonderful example of the BBC doing everything possible to defend the previous Labour government’s many follies – in this case the poorly negotiated PFI schemes that now cause so much misery in the NHS. Humphrys was on top form and before we even got to the interview with Andrew Lansley, there was a set up interview with  John Appelby of the Kinh’s Fund who insisted that in the “greater scheme” of things, the “few” billions added by PFI “investment” were nothing to worry about. Cue Lansley and an onslaught from Humphrys which demonstrated both a woeful lack of economics (unsurprising coming from a denizen of State largesse) and a real determination to try and defend Brown and Balls. It would be touching were it not so blatantly biased. Oddly enough, although I have waited for almost 4 hours there is STILL no link to this part of their programme, the inefficiency is staggering.

Following on from this, a Biased BBC reader notes;

“The BBC are going big on the disastrous PFI contracts which will cost us Billions extra. I looked at the comments on the story http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15010279 but was surprised at the comment which was the ‘Editors Pick’. 

9. Tony
3 HOURS AGO
“I have huge admiration for our health service, to my mind one of the best in the world. We can argue and complain about the past funding issues for ever more. I as a tax payer would love to pay a little more tax to keep it out of private hands but whilst it remains a political issue regardless of political colour, nothing will change. Lets all pay a bit more for something we all rely on.”

This was in vast contrast with the main body of comments.

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LOVING NICK

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Sorry for lack of posts, but not been well for the past few days.

BBC coverage of the Lib-Dem Conference has not helped my mood. You can tell just how much the BBC are lapping up the tribal trash being served by by Cable, Huhne and now Clegg. Attacks on “right wing” Conservatives are particularly well covered, with the bashing of the Tea Party being given an extra Bruce bonus. You can tell how the BBC were rhapsodic about Cleggs defence of the Human Rights Act, Huhne’s drive to put our collective lights out, and Cable’s attack on the imagined evils of capitalism.

As if this was not irritating enough, the BBC is also relentlessly bigging up the notion that we need more of that “quantitative easing” to boost the “growth” that is not there.(Remember how well it is working across the Pond?) This neatly dove-tails with the Ed Balls/Stephanie Flanders inane narrative that now is the time to spend ourselves out of the..erm…spending induced recession! Entertainingly the BBC is also forced to report that Government borrowing in August was a record high. Ah, those savage cuts, if only we could see them!

Meanwhile, up in Bonny Scotland, the BBC gives the SNP budget a big two thumbs way up. In particular, the plan to impose a tax on “big Supermarkets” has been met with a wave of BBC enthusiasm. Way to go – tax the private sector even more in order to keep all those State sector jobs in Scotland alive and well.

Across the pond, Obama has invoked the ire of the BBC for being “on the wrong side of history” for not running with holocaust denier Mahmoud Abbas and his plan to get Narnia UN recognition. I saw Jeremy Bowen was there to point out that violence “could” result from the US choosing to stand in the way of those peace-loving residents of Hamastan.

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RUFFLED FEATHERS?

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B-BBC contributor Alan notes the following;

“Watching a film recently on the BBC I spotted the name ‘Michael Nyman’ in the credits for musical composition. His name rang a bell and Google delivered the goods on him.

“He is a prodigious anti-war campaigner who works with the Stop the War Coalition and directs much of his energy towards promoting this stance in his public work.”

 From his diary:
‘Tuesday
I sat down at the piano and wrote a five-minute piece of music called Thanks but no thanks, Gordon – a minor protest about government plans to replace the Trident missile.
Wednesday
Lunch with gallery-owner Michael Hoppen to seek his advice about becoming a photographic dealer. Later I went to St James’s Church, Piccadilly for a benefit for Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith, a medical officer who believes the Iraq war is illegal. I improvised on the piano, trying to express an idealised plea for peace.’

I remembered him from an appearance on the Today programme which told us the BBC had actually commissioned him to write an anti-war piece for them…..how does the BBC get away with that….pure blatant politicised propangada? How much do you want to ruffle feathers? asks the BBC….

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/listenagain_20070309.shtml
‘The latest work from Michael Nyman, “Handshake in the Dark”, was commissioned for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, and received its world premiere at the Barbican in London last night. Rebecca Jones reports.’ 2007. The work is ‘controversial’ says Naughtie…..based on a poem by an Iraqi to his brother captured by the americans (and thought dead)…and is anti-war. Nyman says…’these are disreputable times, wars going on, politicians making terrible illegal decisions about things so this has to be the my anti war piece… it deals with the pain, shock and terror of war.’

What was amusing was scrolling further down the Today programme schedule and you find this prescient(?) diamond of analysis……

 2007
‘The EU will be 50 this year. To mark the occasion a document called the Berlin Declaration has been drawn up. We ask Mark Leonard who wrote the book, “Why Europe will run the 21st Century” and Neil O’Brien Director of the Eurosceptic think tank “Open Europe” what they would like to see in the Declaration.’ Leonard tells us that…’Type Europe and crisis into Google and you get 54 million entries (now 625 million!) but in eyes of an historian it is a miraculous success….so I say bring on the crisis as this is when Europe shines.’

Shining brightly?

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