Author Archives: David Vance

YOU CAN’T TRUST ‘EM

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Anyone catch the BBC 10 O Clock News just now? They ran coverage of the Cameron speech at the Conservative conference. Then, they cut to a small vox pop in Bolton and would you believe it but the people they found couldn’t quite bring themselves to support the Conservatives. Peter Mandelson will be pleased! Good old Auntie.

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NICE MAN JACK

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When he died, the BBC paid fulsome tribute to him. Why even living saint Tony Benn declared him “one of the finest men I have ever met.” I refer to Trades Union baron Jack Jones. Then, a week ago, the BBC informed us that “he was briefly considered by the Soviet KGB as one of their agents, according to an official history of MI5.” Panic not, dear reader, because ” he only passed on Labour party documents, not secrets, and was last paid by the Russians in 1984.“

So, Jack may have “briefly” been on the KGB payroll but heck, he was only passing on Labour documents, harmless stuff surely?

‘Fraid not. It appears that nice man Jack sold British secrets to the Soviets for 45 YEARS. Not sure how that can be passed off as “briefly”, can you? Also as f0r those innocuous sounding “Labour documents” they included plans for nuclear disarmament, military secrets, the private opinions of Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan, and – crucially – the names of those in politics and the unions whom Comrade Jack believed might help the Communist cause. Notably, the files are said to contain slurs about people in every position of British public life – including key figures in the Armed Forces, MI5 and MI6.

Let us hope the BBC now moves to provide a somewhat more rounded portrait of this much loved…er… traitor. In the interests of balance, of course.

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QUESTION TIME LIVE!

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Well, Question Time is back this evening and there is an interesting panel of pundits in the form of Yvette Cooper, George Osborne, Sarah Teather, Sir Stuart Rose and Ian Hislop for us to discuss. I imagine the boot will be put into Osborne so I trust he is well prepared. Hope you can join the liveblog at 10.35pm!

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NOT ALL HATE SPEECH IS EQUAL…

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Stephen Fry is never off the BBC, much favoured luvvie and yet he has come out with some comments that if made by others would see them labelled as hate-mongers and banned from the BBC. However it all depends on who the targets of such offensive comments are, of course;

Stephen Fry has delivered an insulting attack on Catholics and Poles which grotesquely misrepresents historical fact and which, if levelled at almost any other targets, would probably be characterised as a “hate crime”. Fry, who joined Labour luvvies in signing an open letter protesting against the Tories’ alliance in the European Parliament with the Polish Law and Justice Party, said on Channel 4 News: “There’s been a history, let’s face it, in Poland of a right-wing Catholicism which has been deeply disturbing for those of us who know a little history and remember which side of the border Auschwitz was on”…

Gerald Warner deftly exposes the scale of the ignorance shown by Fry here but will the BBC show any interest in this? I doubt it. So long as “right wing Polish Catholics” can be insulted and history re-written by a luvvie whose self inflated importance is only equalled by his annual income, what’s the problem? Where’s the bias? The bias lies in the fact that Fry can get away with making these sort of calculated slurs and still be lionised by the BBC.

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THOSE GAY CONSERVATIVES…

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So, Evan Davies trots along to the first Conservative Gay Pride bash in Manchester last night where blogger Iain Dale was compere. (There was also a Conservative Muslim Forum apparently but no report on it.) What gets me is that the context of the debate the BBC sets is always about how progressive one is about advancing the status of Gay Rights. Why should private individuals sexual preferences get ANY such elevated position (whoops!). Is there anybody out there who thinks the gay lobby may already be pandered to excessively and if so, why are they not provided with a voice? The BBC meme is that Gay Rights is something we must all embrace here. What gives them the right to say this? I have no issue with gay people other than the simple observation that what they do in their private lives is not any of my business nor any of my political concern.

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NO PORRIDGE

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A recurring BBC meme is that Prison is “a bad thing” and that better results are obtained by keeping criminals out of jail. So when the Prison Governor Association (PGA) urges government to scrap one year sentences essentially for economic reasons, you can be sure this will receive a warm welcome with the State Broadcaster. Naturally there is A concern expressed but it is that those guilty of even worse crimes might end up getting…GASP…even longer sentences.

Why does the BBC not put up one of the millions of people who have been at the receiving end of burglary, assault or abuse and ask how THEY feel about what the Governors suggest? It is perfectly reasonable for the BBC to provide the PGA with a platform for their liberal wishes (A “six month” sentence is more like six weeks in reality, we are casually informed during the Today interview) but why not allow some balance? I suggest that there are many millions of people who would like to see criminals punished more severely and yet that view point is given scarce prominence on the BBC. Why?

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DROPPING THE PRETENCE

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I commend this post by my colleague Andrew McCann over on A Tangled Web to you. Andrew is able to listen to the atrocious 5LIve more than I and so he gets to endure the full-on bias from that particular broadcasting delight. Give it a read, I think he makes some excellent points.

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STRICTLY HYPOCRITICAL

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My thanks to B-BBC reader Martin for bringing up the curious reluctance of the BBC to take action against Strictly Come Dancing judge Anton du Beke who referred to contestant Laila Rouass as “a paki.” This compares with the alacrity with which the BBC moved to dismiss Carol Thatcher following her “golliwog” comment. Now then, I see no reason why Du Beke should be dismissed for what was a clumsy but not a nasty comment on the rather beguiling Ms Rouass, but since a precedent was set in the case of Carol Thatcher, surely it has no choice but to axe their Strictly star? Perhaps Arlene Philips could be brought back in his place?

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