Category Archives: BBC bias

This post suggested that the BBC’s take on May’s warning to Russia about interfering in Western politics was more supportive of Putin than of May, which is remarkable given the BBC’s relentless anti-Russia propaganda as it tries to claim Trump was handed the Presidency by Russian hacking and fake news….though we did suggest a reason for the BBC’s new found nuance about Russia….Corbyn, a fellow traveller, if Russia is a bad ‘un so is Corbyn.

Isabel Hardman’s take on things in the Spectator may back that suggestion up…..

Aside from the importance of taking a stronger stance on Russia, rather than suggesting to Vladimir Putin that he can really do whatever he fancies, this is also good domestic politics. It’s the trick that many leaders use of trying to unite their country around a foreign enemy, to distract from the domestic chaos. Britain knows this all too well, given the way Spain and Argentina use Gibraltar and the Falklands as devices for distracting from the problems of their own governments. In addition, taking a strong stance on Russia works well when your opposition is at best ambivalent about the way the country behaves and at worst supportive of some of its territorial ambitions. 

Hardman thinks it is sensible to tackle Russia, something the BBC seemed to disagree with, but she also notes that Corbyn is closely linked to Russia, thus it makes sense for May to remind people of what Russia is up to as it tries to subvert democracies and by association remind people of the type of ‘friends’ Corbyn likes to have around him.

No wonder the Corbyn fan club at the BBC went totally off message about Russia and fake news and instead doing a remarkable volte face defending Russia.

This video is interesting as RT talks to Corbyn when he became candidate for the leadership….he states that he is interested in tackling corporate tax loop-holes….around Europe, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man….hmmmmm…..Just why did the BBC target the Isle of Man so much and remember how the BBC focussed on who hacked Clinton’s emails rather than on the highly damaging content…..contrast that with how the BBC never once made any attempt to discover who hacked and who leaked the ‘Paradise Papers’…….might it be the Russians as they note what Corbyn says and obligingly provides him, once he is Leader, with the very thing he wants….and the BBC obligingly ramps up the rhetoric about the ‘rich and powerful’ with ‘secret investments’ and even a ‘secret British Empire‘…..we know that there was in essence little of actual significance and yet the BBC went to to town on it…and they refused to handover the papers to the government so that it could then investigate for itself….why not?  Just what was the reason for the BBC hyper exposure?  Did they want to shine a light on tax avoidance or were they merely putting out propaganda to bolster Corbyn’s narrative?……Why was Labour being given ‘better briefings than HMRC’?

Theresa May ‘frustrated’ at refusal of BBC and Guardian to hand over Paradise Papers evidence

The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman said: “Where journalists are advocating for further tax transparency we would wish to see that information rather than for it to be held back. Potentially it could help HMRC and other tax jurisdictions to investigate.”

James Cleverly MP said: “Anyone with evidence of wrongdoing should of course hand that information to the authorities so it can be properly investigated: at the moment it seems as if the Labour Party is being given better briefings than HMRC.“

Her Thatcherian nose quivered, as would that of a terrier scenting the breeze for sausages.

Nothing to do with BBC bias but why let a brilliantly observed, brutally honest and less than flattering portrait of Soubry’s most recognisable character traits go without a wider audience?…….

Old Soubry looked like she’d bitten a crab apple: QUENTIN LETTS watches pro-EU figures squabble in the Commons

David Cameron often mocks the Leave campaign for its disunity but in the Commons yesterday we had squabbling between top pro-EU figures.

Business Secretary Sajid Javid and his colleague Anna Soubry so went out of their way to berate Labour Europhiles, it was almost as if they wanted to create a diversion.

Old Soubry is an incorrigible pugilist. She could have picked a fight with Little Weed, this one.

Even before a word was uttered at yesterday’s Questions to the Business Department, she sat on the Government bench with her lips drawn into a fruity strop – a woman who had just bitten a crab apple.

Her Thatcherian nose quivered, as would that of a terrier scenting the breeze for sausages. La Soubry has been a Europhile since the 1970s, when she and her hot pants were a source of fever among Young Conservatives.

Her boss Javid is a more recent convert to the glories of communautaire socialism. Until the start of this year Mr Javid styled himself as a bold Eurosceptic.

Now, bingo, he is right behind Mr Cameron’s Love Brussels gang. Careerism can do that to a man.

Mr Javid and Miss Soubry, perhaps wishing us to think of something other than the collapse of his principles, threw insults at the Labour leadership.

Miss Soubry went first, complaining that Jeremy Corbyn was not doing enough to campaign for Brussels. ‘He’d be better doing that than engaging in CND rallies!’ she thundered, in reply to a perfectly friendly question from Labour’s Ian Lucas (Wrexham).

Kevin Brennan, Labour frontbencher, protested that Miss Soubry should look at divisions in the Tory party. Miss Soubry, shaking her peroxide mane, snorted that ‘the Labour leader is failing in his duty to play a full part in the Remain campaign’.

The BBC tries its ususal trick of trying to assert something without any context…here that the government is in chaos and flailing around in need of a big reshuffle.  When JRM suggesed otherwise and gave examples from history to illustrate that what is happening is just normal and that much is beyond any PM’s control the presenter, Stephen Sackur, wanted to shut him up telling him…

‘I’d prefer to focus on whether this government can continue’

Well yes, that’s been the BBC’s focus for a long time as it tries to portray May as weak and her ministers out of control, a government in chaos, a government that must fall.  Any context would just get in the way of that narrative, a narrative intended by the BBC to put pressure on the government so that it dumps May and forces a general election….which the BBC hopes Corbyn will win.

Of course when JRM says something disagreeable to our BBC man suddenly it’s ‘Let me give you some perspective’….ah…now you want context and nuance and history!

The presenter then told us that ‘Boris surely has to go’.  Nice that the BBC can pick and choose ministers.  He then just confirmed what we know about the BBC, it only pays attention to what the EU thinks and reports that as gospel…..here JRM is asked if ‘You ever think how the British government is viewed in Europe?’…who cares?  Whatever May says is derided and scorned as madness, naivety or fantasy by the BBC…and in fact that’s just what we got here…..‘A World Trade Organisation Brexit is just fantasy’...again good of the BBC to decide things for us…did we really need a referendum?

Sackur must have choked on his own bile as JRM finished with a killer blow when asked if he is out of touch with the country [lol…BBC in touch?]….

‘If you take the Sun and the Daily Mail as the great barometers of British public opinion I am probably pretty in touch.’

From the BBC:

Greggs apologises after replacing baby Jesus with a sausage rollhttps://t.co/Zavp7kQ2xC

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) November 15, 2017

I dare not look on Twitter for the themed piss takes.

Apparently the BBC has apologised to all Muslims as it replaces Muhammed, who obviously can’t ever be shown, on HIGNFY with a tub of lard….

Ahhhhh…sorry…not ‘lard’ but ‘warlord’…..

Fortunately it was Salman Rushdie who was teamed up with the Tub of Lard [or is that a Fatwah?]….could have been a right old bake off otherwise….

The bullying begins. We want a good Brexit not a Hard ideologically driven Brexit #standupfordemocracy pic.twitter.com/VVfg8LmCiA

— Anna Soubry MP (@Anna_Soubry) November 14, 2017

The BBC reports:

Brexit rebels reject ‘mutineers’ attack

Pro-EU ex-minister Anna Soubry, described it as a “blatant piece of bullying that goes to the very heart of democracy”.

So Soubry wants to silence the Telegraph because she values free speech, open debate and democracy?

Question.  Why does Soubry not get into a rage about being called a ‘rebel’?  What’s the difference between that and ‘mutineer’?  Essentially the same except one has a romantic ring to it, the other undertones of disloyalty and treachery….but rebels are acting out both those ‘qualities’ in reality as they try to overthrow whatever it is they are trying to overthrow.

Guess it depends on who the messenger is…a lefty, anti-Brexit BBC or a supposedly right-leaning paper.  Which one will the pro-EU Soubry appease?  Soubry is a treacherous Tory.  The BBC defends her and her fellow ‘mutineers’ in its report.

Just for Soubry’s benefit…from the Oxford dictionary:

So let’s have some context that the BBC doesn’t bring…and it’s all about Soubry, she’ll like that because as we know, the world revolves around her and what she wants…. but we can  manage without her can’t we?….

Anna Soubry…the most pugnacious, bullying, lying, divisive Tory MP?  Maybe.  Crying that she is being bullied as the Telegraph outs her and her collaborators for being ‘mutineers’ on Brexit….quite happy though to name call and label Brexiteers as “ideologically driven”…seems a bit of ‘bullying’ there by her own standards….oh, and May is “very foolish” for putting a date on Brexit…despite Soubry making endless demands for ‘certainty’.  She also dismisses the government position of ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’ as ‘madness’.  She is also quite happy to call Brexiteers ‘Plotters’...hmmm…so accusing them of being like Guido Fawkes [the real one]?

You say mutineers, I say plotters…let’s call the Brexit thing off!

Soubry claims she is doing everything she can to bring about Brexit, to respect the will of the people, and yet everything she does and says indicates the opposite…she is out to stop Brexit in its tracks….Brexit will be ‘hugely damaging’ and a ‘serious threat’ she whinnies.  Not only that but she is entirely contemptuous of the Leave voters whom she thinks are stupid, uneducated and racist…..they have been ‘been tricked, lied-to and conned’ by the ‘lies and baloney’ of the Brexiteers.  Apparently she thinks ‘white working class’ Leave voters have ‘probably never even seen a migrant’ and that “we have unleashed something” through the EU referendum.  Ignorant racists the lot of ’em.

Lovely woman.

She tells us ‘I am proud of my loyalty to my party and my country.’  A woman who threatened May with the pleasant prospect of her jumping ship and leaving the Tory Party if May didn’t acquiesce to her demands for a ‘soft Brexit’ [ie no Brexit].  So, ready to abandon her Party and do all she can to make negotiations with the EU extremely difficult with the intention that they fail….not much loyalty to either Party or country there…..and promising that the government will get a ‘nasty shock’ when she and her fellow mutineers vote against government policy.

So who is bullying who here?

And it was only yesterday that she monstered May yet again…

Soubry makes SHOCK claim Theresa May is ‘PANDERING’ to hardline Brexiteers in TV outburst

Her comment is no different to the Telegraph’s in effect…except the Telegraph is reporting, doing its job, and she is attacking her own PM…mutineering.

Yes, indeed.

This is how much she respects democracy and the result of the referendum…

Anna Soubry: I only backed EU referendum vote because Remain was supposed to win

Anna Soubry told the Guardian she would not have supported the plebiscite if she thought it would lead to the withdrawal of the UK from the EU.

She said: “[I backed it] only because I thought we would win. Obviously I wouldn’t have been if I thought we would lose, let’s be honest.”

#standupfordemocracy my arse!

No surprise the BBC’s Times Remain propagandist, Sam Coates, is also cynically dismissive and snooty about the Telegraph’s frontpage…

Oh. Yes. Right. Fine. Good. Cool. pic.twitter.com/Rr3ealT3dv

— Sam Coates Times (@SamCoatesTimes) November 14, 2017

Ironically Soubry is now embracing being a ‘mutineer’…it’s a badge of honour she thinks……

.@Anna_Soubry tells the House she regards this as a badge of honour https://t.co/6Gy2L1fWWQ

— PARLY (@ParlyApp) November 14, 2017

Has Lord Hall Hall been handed a large brown envelope of roubles, has he been on the vodka, has he been seduced by a Russian temptress and rudely compromised?  Who knows but the BBC is suddenly very Putin friendly as it mocks May for her warning to Russia to stop interfering in British democracy.  What a turn around by the BBC.

It was only a week ago that the brilliant Nick Robinson was giving us alarming news that both the Brexit referendum and the general election had been hacked by the Russians….indeed the BBC and MPs have been hot on the trail…

British MPs have asked Facebook if it has evidence of paid-for activity by accounts linked to Russia at the time of the Brexit referendum.

And of course we know of the BBC’s relentless and massive coverage as it tries to smear Trump with allegations of  ties to Putin.

How different today though in this highly dismissive and almost mocking report on May’s statement….a very odd tone and slant on things from the BBC….

Russian politicians dismiss Theresa May ‘election meddling’ criticism

Senior Russian politicians have dismissed accusations by Theresa May that Moscow has meddled in elections and carried out cyber-espionage.

On Monday night, Mrs May accused Moscow of “planting fake stories” to “sow discord in the West”.

She said Vladimir Putin’s government was trying to “undermine free societies”.

Russian senators accused the UK’s PM of “making a fool of herself” with a “counterproductive” speech.

And it goes on in that vein….May being rubbished at every word…and then there is James Landale’s ‘analysis’, Landale, the Remainer’s and anti-Israel lobby’s favourite useful idiot.

Analysis by BBC diplomatic correspondent James Landale

There are some countries in Europe that believe the West should engage more closely with Russia.

They argue the European Union and the United States should better understand Russia’s point of view, its belief that it is threatened from all sides.

And that more should be done to accommodate this sense of vulnerability, by softening Nato’s approach and reducing sanctions.

Well, not Theresa May.

Ah….what?  Other EU countries want closer ties with Russia….but…‘Well, not Theresa May’.  The poor old vulnerable and threatened Russians must be mollycoddled not warned off about its aggressive attempts to subvert our democracies?  Blimey…changed tune there…when Trump suggested warmer relations he was roundly condemned…and note one of his team is being pilloried right now for allegedly having spoken about sanctions being lifted…which he denies I believe.

This is Landale being pro-Russian and anti-May…astonishing no?  Not as if the Germans weren’t on the alert…

Germany on guard against election hacks, fake news

But hang on, who were they concerned about?

German Researchers Accuse Americans, Not Russians, of Meddling in Its Elections

The ‘Alt-Right’ of course…never mind that the US government had been hacking Merkel’s own phone for years…with the connivance of the German intelligence service….any thought that Merkel, raised in East Germany and an enthusiastic ‘Young Communist’ is the Russian’s most successful agent?  This might help you down that conspiracy route…from the New York Times:

German Election Mystery: Why No Russian Meddling?

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s summons to Germany’s top cabinet ministers and senior military and intelligence officials for a meeting of the Federal Security Council signaled trouble. Such gatherings are rare, typically occurring only when the country faces a grave threat like a terrorist attack.

There was just one item on the agenda that day last spring: how to protect Germany’s upcoming parliamentary elections from Russian cyberattacks. At the time, it seemed almost inevitable that Germany would suffer the same fate as France and the United States, where, officials say, the Kremlin attempted to alter the results of presidential elections with “fake news” and spear phishing attacks.

But on the eve of Sunday’s elections, the Russians have done something few expected: they have largely disappeared.

Not a mystery really, Merkel was almost a dead-cert to win, Why rock the boat when your top agent is once again going to be leader of the most powerful country in Europe?

Landale seems to specialise in stories that are designed to damage May and her government these days….hoping that it will fall and an election have to be held?….resulting perhaps in Russia’ other favoured son, Corbyn, getting into No10.

Bit of a coup that.

It is odd that with Merkel’s background there is no rabid campaign to link her to Putin whilst Trump is accused at every turn on the absolute flimsiest of ‘evidence’…most of it paid for by the Democrats….and the BBC paid absolutely no attention to the contents of the ‘stolen’ emails that revealed a huge amount of controversial and damaging information about Clinton.

Guido has been highlighting racist comments by a Labour MP for some time now….did this appear on the BBC main news?  I can’t say….it has appeared on the BBC local radio with Vanessa Feltz questioning the MP…..the story doesn’t make the BBC front page, UK page nor the England page…you  have to go to the London page to find it…

Emma Dent Coad MP apologises over ‘racist blog post’

A Labour MP accused of writing a “racist” article about a London Assembly member has apologised for “any offence caused”.

Emma Dent Coad wrote a blog piece in 2010 in which she labelled Shaun Bailey a “token ghetto boy”.

Ms Dent Coad told BBC Radio London she had been quoting “an Afro-Carribean” constituent in her blog.

Can’t imagine such reluctance to splash such a story on the frontpage for days on end if it had been a Tory or UKIP politician.

The nasty party?  Dent Coad calls a Black Tory racist names and wants to hang Tories…and Dennis Skinner (H/T StewGreen) wants to take an axe to Brexiteers….

Reason,logic and persuasion isn't working.

Thinking about 'burying the hatchet' with some of the MP's on the opposite benches. pic.twitter.com/sAqlZUWyrI

— Denis Skinner (@BolsoverBeast) November 14, 2017

Today we hear that it will be a catastrophe if an effective customs system is not in place by the time Brexit comes about….long queues and food rotting at the ports.

Why though might there not be an effective system?  The BBC does tell us….

MPs warn of Brexit customs ‘catastrophe’

The Public Accounts Committee warned of “huge disruption” to businesses, “massive queues” at Dover port and food rotting in lorries at the border.

The committee’s report urged the government to commit the “relatively small” sum of £7.3m to upgrade the existing system to cope with this increase if the move to the Customs Declaration Service (CDS) was delayed.

So some upfront funding, a tiny amount, is needed to fend off catastrophe.  Hmmm OK, not unexpected.  In fact people were demanding that not long ago in October and the request was rudely rebuffed by our pro-EU Chancellor Philip Hammond.

Brexit chaos as Philip Hammond refuses to budget for ‘no deal’ days after Theresa May announces plans

Preparations for a “no deal’ Brexit have been plunged into further confusion after the Chancellor said it would be irresponsible to start spending billions of pounds now.

Philip Hammond is refusing to open up the Treasury coffers yet, just days after Theresa May announced emergency plans to avoid border meltdown for businesses and travellers.

Those plans would involve spending huge sums of money on new IT systems and border processes, lorry parks and extra staff – when the Treasury already faces a daunting Budget “black hole”

So an anti-Brexit chancellor is doing all he can to make Brexit a disaster, a ‘catastrophe’, and does so in complete opposition to the PM.

And yet the BBC makes absolutely no reference to this?  No mention that it is the pro-EU chancellor’s refusal to do anything that would ensure Brexit works that could lead to ‘catastrophe’?

How odd that the pro-EU BBC should fail to mention that when the PAC Chair says HMRC ‘should be banging on the doors of the Treasury.’

May should have ‘reshuffled’ Hammond months ago.

The BBC waffles on about a great deal here…and yet the main point of the PAC is the funding…it is the Chair’s only real point….

Chair’s comment

Comment from Public Accounts Chair, Meg Hillier MP:

“Failure to have a viable customs system in place before the UK’s planned exit from the EU would wreak havoc for UK business, trade and our international reputation. Confidence would collapse amid the potentially catastrophic effects.

HMRC is under considerable pressure to deliver the new Customs Declaration Service in time, but it does not yet have funding to increase the capacity of CDS to deal with the consequences of Brexit—nor to develop contingency options.

This is deeply worrying. HMRC requires a relatively small sum to upgrade the current CHIEF system—a move which would provide some peace of mind to traders, many of whom are still operating with limited information and in great uncertainty.

HMRC tells us it is merely ‘in conversation’ over CHIEF upgrade costs when, on behalf of business and the British public, it should be banging on the doors of the Treasury.

HMRC must press the case to secure this funding now and ensure that, if other plans fail, customs will be fit for purpose.”

As Brian Sewell said about the BBC’s output:

We deserve better. It’s patronising rubbish.  The BBC clearly think it’s good to have programmes presented by people with no knowledge or experience.  There’s no debate, no critical discourse or differing viewpoints.

Oh dear….complete rubbish from the BBC who have allowed Labour’s Douglas Alexander  to find out ‘why we’ve become so polarised as a nation and what we can do about it. His time as a politician convinced him that government alone cannot mend Britain’s divisions. So what can we do as a society and as individuals? ‘

Apparently the only group that is segregated in Britain is white Britons…..of course that is due to our racism and discrimination towards others….Poor Pakistanis can’t move to rich white areas because of lack of life opportunities due to racism of course…nothing to do with their own choices……we must deal with our negative attitues to minority groups.  Yep this programme is all about white racism….and of course Muslims are the biggest victims.  A huge lie of course….Muslims are the most segregated communities, communities that breed radicalism and extremism due to their ‘ism’ and political and social views that incubate within.

We hear of two men washing cars next to each other chatting away, rubbing along…a Somali and a white Brit….but wait…there is no deeper relationship…because the white man is from the BNP….remarkable how they can find a BNP member these days.  No thought of course that a Muslim Somali might not want to mix more socially with the ‘Kafir’? Or as Trevor Phillips might say…’It is not Islamophobic to wonder if such a closed community might have nurtured a fatally narrow world-view. No one in France now doubts that the sickening violence that left a dozen dead in the Charlie Hebdo shootings was at least in part a consequence of the disastrous segregation of the French banlieues, the ghettos to which many Muslims have been consigned.’

Left-wing propaganda about refugees and immigrants by a Labour politician given freedom to peddle his schtick on the BBC…..we need ‘neurological hacks’…singing, dancing and eating together….this will bind us all with the ‘other’….more Muslims on Strictly and Bake Off!  Trouble is many of the radical Muslims did ironically originally mix until they became more religious when that stopped and they self-ghettoised themselves….and then self-detonated…..er….boom, boom, as Bail Brush might say.

The BBC told us that Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs all got along famously in India before Partition [no thought as to why Muslims wanted Partition to separate themselves then?]….and thenn they murdered each other with great abandon…those ‘good neighbours’ slaughtering each other with enthusiasm.  Superficial friendship doesn’t overcome the ideology deeply ingrained into people who will always ‘defend’ their own.  The BBC refuses to accept this and instead thinks reducing ‘poverty’ or combatting what it protrays as discrimination will solve all this.  Alexander finishes by telling us the biggest divide in Britan is the wealth divide between the rich and the poor [no irony on a BBC that pays people £700,000 for chatting a couple of hours a day on the radio] but we must also all go out and hold hands with immigrants…have some close encounters with the ‘Other’…you might like it.

Naive, highly politicised nonsense that is just Corbyn and Muslim propaganda.

I have never rated Nick Robinson, he seems to be too pleased with himself and is all too often careless with the facts.  The more I listen to him the more I get that impression confirmed.  This morning is no different as he treats us to a torrent of negative disinformation about Brexit along with Mishal Husain who uses a discussion about robotics in agriculture to scaremonger about agriculture dying in this country #duetoBrexit and all produce having to be imported at exhorbitant prices….no indication that the government says workers will come in on seasonal work visas to work on the farms as they used to do….and paradoxically the guest mentions that these jobs will be the first to go when things get automated…so why do we need these low skilled EU workers?  Oh and we’re being squeezed….worst this century….inflation due to Brexit.   Apocalypse now!

Robinson was talking about the ‘new’ revelation that Parliament will get a vote on the Brexit deal and if they reject it there will be a ‘no deal’ exit.  Robinson must read this blog as he made a meal of emphasisng this was ‘new’…but it’s not as we pointed out yesterday.  Old news that the BBC recycles as terrifying alarmist news about Brexit.

Note the tone and language used….the PM is using a ‘threat’ to pro-EU rebels whereas Tory pro-Brexit ‘rebels’ are the ‘threat’.  Robinson and Kuenssberg continually use the term ‘crash out of the EU’….pretty perjorative and alarmist along with ‘cliff edge’.  Robinson has a technical term to describe the situation….apparently Parliament has to ‘like it or lump it’...a somewhat dismissive and negative term to use.

We also get the twisting of the narrative….Leave based its campaign upon ‘taking back control’  and of course sovereignty….Remain and the BBC try to use this to say that denying Parliament a significant and effective say in what Brexit should look like is a contradiction of this.

The lie to this is of course that ‘Parliament’ consists of mostly Pro-EU MPs who will use any chance to amend and water down Brexit so that Britain doesn’t in fact leave the EU in any meaningful way….we will still pay huge amounts into the EU, still be subject to the ECJ, still be open to mass immigration.

This situation has already arisen as Labour and Remain Tories table hundreds of amendments to the EU bill going through Parliament right now in an attempt to thwart Brexit.

Giving Parliament complete control over Brexit will mean there is no Brexit…..thus the paradox and malignant result of doing so.

‘Parliament’ of course forgets that it is there to implement the will of the People, the People that decided we will have ‘Brexit’…..they voted to leave the EU regardless of the alarmist scaremongering by the Remain campaign given so much airtime by the BBC.

But how would you describe ‘sovereignty’?

Maybe like this….Sovereignty can be understood as the authority of a state to govern itself, and determine its own laws and policies.

Not then….Parliament able to ride roughshod over the will of the people?