Author Archives: David Vance

PEDAGOGICAL DILEMMAS

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Remarkably soft interview with EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom here. As the prelude Gavin Hewitt explains why “many people” see Schengen as a lofty EU achievement! Lovely Cecilia wants to see lots of people from North Africa come to Europe to do the jobs that Europeans just won’t do. I was impressed to hear her bring climate change into her desire to incorporate Africa into the EU.

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ACTIVIST JOURNALISM

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Let us be clear, anything that brings to light the mistreatment of the vulnerable is to be commended. The BBC has made headlines itself today by revealing a pattern of abuse in a private nursing facility. Four people have been arrested as a consequence. Good – that’s how it should be. Can we look forward to similar undercover investigations into NHS facilities?

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ON THE BALL….

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I was listening to a “debate” on the FIFA scandal on the BBC this morning (it was on “Today” close to 9am and Barry Hearn was one of the interviewees but there is no link to share with you) and I heard the BBC presenter Evan Davies make the remarkable suggestion that given the concerns expressed regarding the integrity of FIFA, perhaps the UN or EU should be invited in to run it.

Great idea! After all, the EU is renowned for its financial transparency and we all know that the UN is the world’s highest moral guardian. You can always rely on the BBC to argue for one world governance but this one amused me given just how mad the suggestion is. Maybe Dominique Strauss Kahn could fill the supranational role the BBC suggests, I hear he is going to be at a bit of a  loose end?

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OXFAM’S GREAT FOOD SCARE

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Leftist agitprop fake charity Oxfam has been given the run of the BBC this morning to warn us of apocalyptic increases in food prices of up to 50% (odd nicely even statistic, btw) caused by “climate change” (They’ve obviously abandoned the global warming line formulation and are now using the more sophisticated but equally unfounded “climate change”) Who would have guessed that one of the cures for this was “to invest in small farmers, especially women.”? This dreary nonsense which Oxfam recycles with regularity is never robustly challenged on the BBC, instead like so much of its output it is spewed out as an article of toxic tree-hugging eco-lunatic faith.

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CLASS WARS

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It’s a consistent theme on the BBC – the demonisation of anyone deemed “posh”. Did you catch THIS discussion on whether or not it is right to be rude to posh people? For a hint on where the BBC may stand on this I direct you to the sarcastic introduction by John Humphyrs “I shall now attempt the impossible; I shall invite you to feel sorry for posh people.” Anyone with a decent command of the Queen’s English is, by BBC definition, “posh” and open to a little class warfare from the comrades.

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SAINT VINCE

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Anyone catch “Any Questions” on the BBC this lunchtime? I listened to a few minutes of Saint Vince Cable playing to the loudly applauding audience by a/ Mocking Fox and Rupert Murdoch and b/ Pretending that “our” NHS must operate without those voracious reptiles from the Private Sector. Vince can rely on the BBC to at least try to keep his political career afloat.

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WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN…

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A man waves goodbye to a passenger on a bus heading into Egypt at the Rafah crossing (28 May 2011)
The BBC seem pretty euphoric about the decision by the Egyptian military to open the Rafah crossing into Gaza. Naturally this is presented as the most benign and enlightened decision one could imagine. Israeli concerns are mentioned but presented as more begrudgery, in true BBC fashion. The fact that Hamas can now get much needed armaments more easily is dismissed as a mere detail as we are all asked to join in BBC praise for the alleged Arab Spring. I heard James Naughtie on Today this morning waxing lyrical about the new Egypt. No mentions of the gang rape of Lara Logan in Freedom Square, no mention of the emerging Nazi Party, no mention of the looming triumph of the Muslim Brotherhood. A secular-ish Egypt is morphing into a new Iran and the BBC can see nothing wrong in that – after all – if you hate Israel you can’t be all that bad, right?

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THE POVERTY OF OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM

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I’ve been following the debate on the proposed changes to the allowable criteria schools can use when determining which pupils they will accept. What interests me is that the BBC frames the debate within a social engineering context leaving out any reference to academic ability. The Con-Libs seek to provide Academies and Free Schools with the ability to discriminate on an income basis – the poorer the family the better. Now I would have expected the BBC would provide a forum for someone who thinks this is morally and academically inappropriate but no such luck. It seems to me that so long as Government goes down an anti-academic social engineering pathway, the BBC gives it a bye. The fact that our Education system is corrupted as a consequence is a minor detail.

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