Author Archives: David Vance

DC Alden, author of the excellent The Horse of the Gates, and a reader of this august journal (!) shares the following with us;

“I’m sure you’re probably aware by now but there was a newspaper review on BBC News this morning with a female Muslim blogger. She began with a piece about Christians offering sanctuary to Muslims wishing to leave Islam’s embrace. I didn’t catch the whole package but what I did see appeared bizarre. She claimed that Muslims who leave Islam are in no danger at all and in fact are free to choose whichever religious path they prefer. I think we  know that this is completely false and perhaps an attempt to paint Islam in a positive light in the wake of the obvious (and as yet unmentioned by the Beeb) Islamic terrorist attack in Belgium”

Anyone else catch it? Thoughts?

This item was posted by my colleague Mike Cunningham over on A Tangled Web and I think it warrants your consideration.

“Listening on the Beeb’s Today Programme to what must be considered a true favourite of the BBC’s way of group-think. The woman being interviewed had a son who had been kidnapped by the Nigerian Boko Haram bunch of criminal terrorists, and he had been killed during a rescue attempt. The woman was being interviewed as she had personal knowledge of these muslim killers, but she was saying that the Nigerian government should ‘open a dialogue’ with these fanatics, they should explore ‘areas of compromise’; and if necessary her son’s killers should be released as part of a deal with the Boko Haram bunch, who hold nearly three hundred girls from a school in Northern Nigeria.

When I state ‘true favourite of the BBC’s way of group-think’, I believe that this is what has been a total ‘belief’ tenet of the Corporation for decades. We must, in the eyes of the BBC, always compromise, always defer to others, never ever stand on principle, never ever argue or stand up for what we, as a nation, used to believe in or argue from a moral standpoint.

The woman whose son was murdered by these muslim killers is, of course, tragically mistaken in hoping for dialogue or compromise with any group who operates under the shadow of terror, or the bullet. The Nigerian government must, in my own view, organise and operate a policy of ‘search and destroy’ against the shadowy terrorists who seem to operate with impunity in the north of that burdened and corrupt country. They must operate as we, in Great Britain, singularly failed to during our own terrorist struggle; they should operate on a ‘shoot to kill’ policy, they should operate on the fact that ‘the only good terrorist is a dead terrorist’ with no bargains, no cushy prisons, no cosy deals, and they should never, ever, offer a place in Government if the terrorists would only promise to ‘disarm and place their weaponry beyond use’; mainly because we all know how weasel promises like that end up!“

Here you go, an really early Open Thread for your use!!! Try to restrict your European election analysis to THAT thread and let’s keep this for other issues. I am out of the UK on business for a few days, back mid week!

Right. It’s time for a new thread to discuss BBC coverage of the EUROPEAN elections results as they roll in! I see the Front National have topped the poll in France…

Biased BBC Graeme Thompson aka Hippiepooter offers us this!

Clearly, £ Stirling as “Britain’s currency doesn’t make the BBC happy.

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20140522-are-money-and-happiness-linked

The death of the Queen Mother couldn’t induce BBC presenters to wear black ties, but one suspects tomorrow’s euro-election results may well do so!”

I’m on the Jon Gaunt radio show tomorrow morning at 11.20am discussing the Jasmine Lawrence debacle. A quick reminder..

Jasmine Lawrence, a channel editor at BBC News, has been removed from playing any part in the corporation’s coverage of the European and local council elections after tweeting a derogatory comment about Ukip.  Lawrence, who has now shut her Twitter account, posted a tweet on Wednesday that said: “#WhyImVotingUkip – to stand up for white, middle class, middle aged men w sexist/racist views, totally under represented in politics today.” The tweet was posted the day before the local and European elections, which the BBC is covering for the first time from studios at its Hertfordshire home in Elstree, following moving out of Television Centre in West London. Lawrence subsequently deleted her account but the corporation has taken the incident seriously and launched an investigation.

Lawrence was plainly showing her bias and for that reason alone she should be SACKED, not just taken off news coverage whilst this is a hot potato for the BBC.  And it cuts to the chase of the entire issue of the BBC. I can FULLY understand why she has a viewpoint and she has a right to express it. However, and this is the kicker, in doing so she betrays the visceral bias that lies at the heart of SO MANY within the BBC and therey validates our call for the BBC to be stripped of its right to take our cash through the license tax to fund this bias. My view is she should be allowed to say what she wants BUT not at my expense. So the BBC either enforces total neutrality or accepts it is institutionally biased and allows the free market to take a view on this via a subscription fee or suchlike? Your thoughts?

Here’s one to focus comments on BBC coverage of the local council and European elections. I sat up and watched the early coverage from the BBC last night, and I thought it was ok but this morning, on Today, they were busy pushing the “protest and angry” voter line. Over to you….

Well, here you go, a brand new shiny Open Thread to see us off into the weekend. Enjoy

Hi everyone. I have been away for a short break and even better, a complete break from the BBC. Just back in time to listen to the lead story on BBC Today this morning trot out some asinine excuses for Boko Haram’s actions in Nigeria. It appears that “Poverty” and the acts of the army are to blame for the savagery carried out there.  Nothing to do with Islam, oh no…..

Monday morning arrives and with it comes this brand new Open Thread for your completion! The floor is yours….