Here’s an excellent take on the BBC’s coverage of the Hillsborough Inquest.
“Strange ‘bunch’ our old chums at the BBC. Having ignored South Yorkshire police’s many failings with regards to the Muslim paedophile grooming gangs in Rotherham, in the light of the Hillsborough inquest, they are now vilifying the force with something verging on glee.
For well over a decade, if you recall, South Yorks constabulary (and others) covered up the appalling sexual exploitation of some 1,500 under-age girls in and around the city of Rotherham.
As dereliction of duties go – leaving vulnerable girls to be sexually exploited by marauding gangs of Muslims – it takes some beating. Not according to the good old BBC. The astounding actions of South Yorkshire constabulary were quietly swept under the plush, BBC carpet. How strange.”
Here’s an interesting comment from one of our regular readers;
“EU all sound bites and slogans but no facts.
When will the BBC and other media outlets start to put some facts either in graphical or diagrammatic form to back up opinions and statements ? Any presentation would be welcome
It would appear their elitism extends to the point whereupon they believe the electorate and general public ” cannot understand complex matters”. For example what does ” we are better in than out mean”
or ” we shall be able to govern ourselves” actually refer to ?
The debate homes in on the following areas: Sovereignty; Trade; Immigration; EU Economics and Financing including contributions and rebates.
To date I have not witnessed one rational, reasoned argument backed up by indisputable facts. Is it completely beyond the wit for BBC Journos to shed their inbuilt, personal agenda to open the debate we all want ? Soon as someone voices an opinion that rubs them up the wrong way, they interrupt constantly and then side line into personalties and opinions. Pathetic.
British Steel ;Watched John Humphrey using phrases such as ” Yesterdays production cannot be valid in the future” Since when was he ever an expert in steel production and manufacturing. Simple factual research will show that Nissan, and Vauxhall use 50% of Port Talbot output. The onerous business, and green taxes in the UK are far higher than Sweden Germany, USA or France. That is a main contributor to 1 Million a day losses in addition to China keeping their work force happy to avoid unrest by dumping cheap steel.
Why don’t we have referendum on the BBC to see how many people today agree with the licence fee ? Then we can watch the smugness and supercilious similes get wiped off their faces as they face mass redundancy without a hint of compassion.
“On the BBC World Home page today. One of the ‘Most Popular’ news item in the list was apparently this one: “Hillsborough Justice hailed but not on front of Sun”. You go into look and yes that’s correct and not very sensible of The Sun. The Sun has a piece instead about an EU Cover Up/David Cameron.
BBC bias is getting ridiculous and as I am forced to pay for the privilege of the BBC, which I never watch, I am sick to death of having their (the Governments) bias shoved down my throat at every opportunity. This story is most popular because the BBC highlighted it in the list with an incitative tagline. Strange how their mention of the recent Dutch Referendum was barely mentioned but popular on all other news sites around the world.”
The government makes all sorts of claims about the threat to inward investment to the UK should we leave the EU’s clutches and the BBC does little to dispel such notions. Hence we bring you this piece of puffery from the government from last year in which they boast of their success in attracting record levels of investment to the UK…due to the government’s fabled long term economic plan, their hard work in chasing investment from around the world, the UK infrastructure, the regulatory system, the attractive tax rates, the skilled work force, the R&D levels…and the government strategy that gives the UK the competitive edge in the world…..what’s missing from all that is any mention of the EU which we are now assured is the main reason for investment into the UK…the closeness of the EU market and access to free trade via the UK. However in the full report again there is no mention that the EU is a factor in driving investment towards the UK and only one company of the many highlighted as examples mentions that it chose the UK as a base to export to Europe…but even that is open to interpretation.
The scale of foreign investment is a huge success story which shows that Britain is the place to do business and is more evidence that our long term economic plan is working. Securing investment from overseas is a key part of our One Nation policies to create thousands of jobs, provide security and opportunities for working people throughout the UK.
Trade and Investment Minister Lord Maude said:
2014 was an exceptional year for UK inward investment and we are proud to be bucking the global trend. The UK is a great place for entrepreneurs and corporations to put their energy, their ideas, their money and their talents to work. The Government will continue to work hard to attract investment from across the globe to further strengthen the UK economy.
UKTI statistics show that FDI into the UK came from more than 70 countries, including the world’s leading emerging markets.
Once the referendum is over I imagine the Government will return to boasting of its achievements and claiming all the glory for themselves. Funny how times change, then again it was only a few months ago that both Osborne and Cameron were saying they would be happy to leave the EU if they didn’t get major reforms of the EU….still waiting on that one.
A major new and serious complaint has been sent to the Director General of the BBC, regarding the Corporation’s persistent bias in reporting of climate change issues. The complaint is a massive 163 pages long, and is a joint submission from ten complainants. In addition, there are several technical annexes, totalling 125 pages.
We enclose a complaint from all of us about persistent partiality in the BBC’s coverage of climate change. From the outset, on the climate question the BBC has tended to reflect only one view – that of the climate science establishment who are promoting a view that man is causing significant global warming (which, with the plateau in temperature, has morphed into “climate change”, a term that is used to cover a wide range of weather events). It has excluded those whose opinions, though based on factual science and sound economics and logic, differ from the “official” position. The BBC has often promoted tendentious and scientifically illiterate but “politically-correct” opinions and has kept from the airwaves those who do not agree.
We and many others alongside us have come to the opinion that the BBC’s continuing bias on the climate question – its performance is too often like a scientifically illiterate, naïve, oft times emotive green activist organisation – is unacceptable and must now be brought to an end. In future, both sides in the climate debate must be fairly heard, whether BBC staff like it or not.
Good luck with that.
Second, it is interesting that Roger Harrabin doesn’t seem to have used the ‘97% of all scientists‘ stick to support his climate change campaigning and beat the Sceptics with…I’ve tried to find something from him but no luck. Now that is very telling if confirmed…Harrabin is a hardcore propagandist for the climate lobby and yet he seems to have taken a look at this ‘killer’ statistic and decided not to use it. Is that because he recognises the stat is bogus and essentially a lie? His non-use of the stat would seem to indicate that it is entirely worthless, and so obviously worthless that Harrabin knows he would get called out on it and he wouldn’t be able to justify its use…exposing him as a propagandist.
Third thing of note relates to that 97% claim. The BBC has frequently reported on fraud and corruption in science, both from the scientists and those who report on it in the scientific journals….but not once have I heard the subject of climate change come under scrutiny in a similar manner….will that change? …from WUWT:
After a decade of slow growth beneath public view, the replication crisis in science begins breaking into public view. First psychology and biomedical studies, now spreading to many other fields — overturning what we were told is settled science, the foundations of our personal behavior and public policy. Here is an introduction to the conflict (there is pushback), with the usual links to detailed information at the end, and some tentative conclusions about effects on public’s trust of science. It’s early days yet, with the real action yet to begin.
This crisis emerged a decade ago as problems in a few fields — especially health care and psychology. Slowly similar problems emerged in other fields, usually failures to replicate widely accepted research.
“Men only care for science so far as they get a living by it, and that they worship even error when it affords them a subsistence.” — Goethe, from Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann and Soret.
With what we know about the likes of the CRU after their emails were hacked, what we know about the 97% claim, what we know about the ‘hockey stick’ manipulations, what we know about the conspiracy to hide the medieval warm period, and the ‘decline’, it is fairly obvious that the ‘science’ of climate change may in fact be more about big, big money, politics, ego and corruption. With so many reputations, careers and lucrative research grants on the line there has long been a hard fought battle to silence the critics and those who question the status quo, the so-called ‘consensus’. You just had to see the BBC’s science journos’ united front that marched out to defend the CRU and climate scientist Phil Jones when the emails surfaced to understand the problem…some people were more interested in covering up for the sicentists than in exposing wrongdoing or bad science.
Maybe that will change as WUWT suggests and more and more of that bad science and bad faith is exposed. Again good luck with that. Climate change is a massive industry worth billions which has sucked in not just the scientists but the politicians and journalists as well as the cultural cheerleaders such as artists, actors, singers and writers who so usefully give a ‘human face’ to the science that they so little understand. They have so much tied up in climate change actually happening and being man-made that any criticism or undermining of that belief will only succeed if there is an equally massive turn of events that stops people in their tracks, radically alters their perceptions and dramatically proves the science wrong or maybe wrong. Again, good luck with that….glaciers advancing down Salford high street would be presented as conclusive proof of global warming I’m sure…..and as I said they will fight tooth and nail to maintain their privileges and the cash flow….as noted by Matt Ridley in the Times recently …and spot the hand of the Rasputin-like Richard Black in this (You can’t keep a good man down)…..via ‘Not a lot of people know that’…
The editor of this newspaper received a private letter last week from Lord Krebs and 12 other members of the House of Lords expressing unhappiness with two articles by its environment correspondent. Conceding that The Times’s reporting of the Paris climate conference had been balanced and comprehensive, it denounced the two articles about studies by mainstream academics in the scientific literature, which provided less than alarming assessments of climate change. Strangely, the letter was simultaneously leaked to The Guardian. The episode gives a rare glimpse into the world of “climate change communications”, a branch of heavily funded spin-doctoring that is keen to shut down debate about the science of climate change.
The letter was not entirely the work of the peers but, I understand, involved Richard Black, once a BBC environment correspondent and now director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, an organisation that spends more than £500,000 a year, largely trying to influence the media.
Of course there is one redoubt in the BBC where journalism is given a fair go…Andrew Neil holds the fort…and here explains, & his colleagues should read it, what good journalism is all about…
The Sunday Politics interview with Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey on July 14 provoked widespread reaction in the twittersphere and elsewhere, which was only to be expected given the interview was about the latest developments in global warming and the implications for government policy.
The Sunday Politics remit and interview duration means we are able to carry out proper forensic interviews on such matters.
It is becoming a hallmark of our programme, whether it’s challenging the global warming assumptions of the climate change secretary, the NUT’s historic resistance to school reforms by Tory and Labour governments, or the activities of the leader of the English Defence League.
Many of the criticisms of the Davey interview seem to misunderstand the purpose of a Sunday Politics interview.
We did come at Mr Davey with a particular set of evidence, which was well-sourced from mainstream climate science. But it was nothing to do with advocating a “position”.
First, the Sunday Politics does not have a position on any of the subjects on which it interrogates people.
Second, it is the job of the interviewer to assemble evidence from authoritative sources which best challenge the position of the interviewee.
There is hardly any purpose in presenting evidence which supports the interviewee’s position – that is his or her job.
It is for viewers to decide how well the interviewee’s position holds up under scrutiny and the strength of the contrary evidence or points put to him or her.
Taking an opposite or challenging position from the person being interviewed is pretty much standard practice in long-form broadcast interviews.
But the contrary position has to be based on reputable evidence.
The intriguing question of whether the president’s dual colonial inheritance – of Kenyan and Irish ancestry – is helping reshape America’s supposedly “special relationship” with Britain.
The BBC’s own Nick Robinson thinks it’s a question worth asking as he’s doubtful about Obama’s allegiances and priorities…
Confronted directly by the BBC’s political correspondent, Nick Robinson, with the assertion that “unlike many of your predecessors, [you] have not looked towards Europe, let alone Britain,” the president yesterday denied any cooling had taken place.
Sunday morning on R4 we had Paddy O’Connell (10 mins 30s) putting the boot into Boris for being ‘a racist’. O’Connell had on Shirley Williams and Michael Howard to discuss Obama. Williams told us that she was ‘ashamed of the extraordinary comments’ made by Boris.
O’Connell didn’t challenge Williams on her claim and ask her to justify why she thought Boris was racist instead he tried to badger Michael Howard into distancing himself from Boris’ comments….
‘Can you just help us with this Lord Howard?…..Shirley Williams is concerned about the tone of the Mayor of London’s remarks, the ‘part-Kenyan’, I think he even said ‘Keenyan president’, do you distance yourself from Boris Johnson’s remarks about the background of President Obama?’
Where to start? Since when has Shirley Williams been the nation’s goto moral arbiter? The same Shirley Williams whose politics the Public roundly rejected and who would like to see Communism take over in the UK? Why does O’Connell use Williams’ remark as the baseline truth? O’Connell’s default position is that she is right and Howard should distance himself from the remarks…which is quite extraordinary conclusion if you have actually read Boris’ remarks and note that they are entirely innocuous and reasonable…especially when you consider, and have knowledge of, any context. O’Connell clearly falls short there…but what’s new for BBC presenters who think pious grandstanding and holier-than-thou comments are a good substitute for actual facts and analysis?
The real problem isn’t Boris but the likes of Williams, and indeed O’Connell who doesn’t seem capable of thinking for himself. It is their own comments that are in effect ‘racist’…Boris is blond and white, he’s supporting Britain and therefore he is ‘racist’ by default regardless of what he actually says…this is reverse racism by Williams and O’Connell….all White people are inherently racist is the line.
As for the ‘Tone’ of the debate….perhaps the BBC should be more concerned about politicians who cynically and deliberately play the race card to attack and discredit opponents, and to close down debate, rather than engage with their arguments…especially when the alleged racism is nothing more than an outright lie conjured up by the likes of Williams. Surely there is an important issue of freedom of speech and the tricks used to suppress it….tricks used by the BBC itself as here and deployed many times against Nigel Farage.
Of course context and a bit of history, a bit of connected thinking, is beyond the likes of the BBC’s O’Connell who seems more interested in attacking Boris than in putting the record straight. Has anyone ever raised the subject of Obama’s ancestry and its influence on his outlook? No…oh hang on….maybe…
Sir David Manning, who was Britain’s ambassador to Washington from 2003 to 2007 in testimony to a House of Commons foreign affairs committee, said that Obama “comes with a very different perspective” from other presidents.
“He is an American who grew up in Hawaii, whose foreign experience was of Indonesia, and who had a Kenyan father,” Manning said. “We now have a Democrat who is not familiar with us.”
So he thinks Obama’s non-European roots may shape his thinking….Sir David Manning…what a bleeding racist scumbag!!!
Let’s have a look at what the BBC itself has said about Obama and his Kenyan roots, his ‘Kenyan blood coursing through his veins‘…..do people think they are relevant and could they in any way have influenced his thinking?…..BBC racist scumbags!!!!…
His meteoric rise to political fame has propelled the name Barack Obama onto the lips of millions of Kenyans. He has Kenyan blood coursing through his veins and has been adopted as a Kenyan national hero, who just might become the most powerful man in the world. Barack Obama has never lived in Kenya and he has visited the country just three times. The Kenyan blood comes from his father, Barack Obama senior, who was born in the remote village of Alego where he herded goats as a child.
We are the envy of the whole continent and as for our cousins the Nigerians, this is the ultimate humiliation. They will never be able to live this one down. Then there is Kenya and I ought to tread gently for there might be some raw emotions here, since there are blood claims.
US officials complained Kenyan students were becoming “anti-white” in the year Barack Obama’s father enrolled at university, previously secret files released at the National Archives in Kew reveal. The motives behind this enterprise, therefore, seem more political than educational,” the note stated. “The arrival here of these students, many of them of indifferent academic calibre and ill-prepared for the venture, is likely to give rise to difficult problems.”
Did Obama’s father pick up an anti-white attitude from his father? You may guess as much from what Obama himself says about his grandfather’s life under British rule…..the ‘foreign masters’.
So we can all appreciate our own identities, our bloodlines, our beliefs, our backgrounds — that tapestry is what makes us who we are.
My grandfather, for example, he was a cook for the British. And as I went through some of his belongings when I went up-country, I found the passbook he had had to carry as a domestic servant. It listed his age and his height, his tribe, listed the number of teeth he had missing. (Laughter.) And he was referred to as a boy, even though he was a grown man, in that passbook.
A young, ambitious Kenyan today should not have to do what my grandfather did, and serve a foreign master.
He also said this…which is interesting in light of his desire for Britain to be subservient to the EU empire….
[The] arc of progress — from foreign rule to independence; from isolation to education, and engagement with a wider world. It speaks of incredible progress.
Brexit then, freedom from foreign rule, would be ‘incredible progress’? Cheers Bro.
Does the treatment of Black people throughout history by Whites weigh heavily on his thoughts, and does it reflect in his policies? Yes to both those…here he is on the Confederate flag…to him a symbol of racism and slavery…hence it should go…..
Look at us in the United States. Recently, we’ve been having a debate about the Confederate flag. Some of you may be familiar with this. This was a symbol for those states who fought against the Union to preserve slavery. Now, as a historical artifact, it’s important. But some have argued that it’s just a symbol of heritage that should fly in public spaces. The fact is it was a flag that flew over an army that fought to maintain a system of slavery and racial subjugation. So we should understand our history, but we should also recognize that it sends a bad message to those who were liberated from slavery and oppression.
The President-elect’s relatives have told how the family was a victim of the Mau Mau revolt
Barack Obama’s grandfather was imprisoned and brutally tortured by the British during the violent struggle for Kenyan independence, according to the Kenyan family of the US President-elect.
Is the Times being racist or just reporting the facts?
Here is the type of conversation Obama had with his grandmother….would this and the likes of the previous report colour his views of Britain in any shape or form?…..
[Quoting his step-grandmother:] Like other boys, your father would be influenced by the early talk of independence, and he would come home from school talking about the meetings he had seen. Your grandfather agreed with many of the demands of the early parties like KANU, but he remained skeptical that the independence movement would lead to anything, because he thought Africans could never win against the white man’s army. “How can the African defeat the white man,” he would tell Barack, “when he cannot even make his own bicycle?”
It would be perfectly normal to suppose he might have some antipathy to White folks despite his mother’s colour, and that would impact upon his thinking even if subliminally. Clearly race issues loom large in his thinking as we’ve seen time and time again during his Presidency….it is almost inconceivable that how the British dealt with his grandfather didn’t have some impact upon his thinking in some shape or form.
However Boris didn’t actually say that…he only stated that there were many suggested reasons that may possibly have led to Obama removing Churchill’s bust from pride of place in the Oval Office….he made no suggestion hmself…and the one he concentrated on was that Churchill was possibly thought irrelevant for the modern age…which of course he denied.
From all the above examples, from ambassors, to Kenyans, the Guardian, to the BBC itself, Obama’s Kenyan heritage is clearly important to them and to him. How is that they can all raise the subject and tell us how his the ‘Kenyan blood coursing through his veins’ shaped him as a person and yet Boris can’t mention it in a passing comment that didn’t actually reflect his own personal view?
What if Paddy O’Connell’s great grandfather being beaten black and blue by the Black and Tans in 1916 and Paddy subsequently had misgivings about Britain due to that?…would that be racist to say such a thing if it were true at all at all? If it were true I’d bet that it was a subject that would bubble to the surface every now and again and a bitter tone about ‘the British’ would enter the conversation….a man whose sentimental emotions are near the surface….
Paddy O’Connell struggled to compose himself following a reading of a love letter from Emilie Blachere to Remi Ochlik, who died alongside Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin in the besieged city of Homs last year.
After the end of the poem, which was read by Miss Blachere herself, the airwaves were plunged into silence for about 12 seconds before the presenter regained enough composure to speak again.
Ironically O’Connell works for the BBC which relentlessly peddles the same sort of narrative that they denounce Boris for supposedly arguing [even though that’s not what he said], of historical wrongs leading to modern violence…how many times has the BBC told us that Muslims in the UK are so concerned about the Crusades, the ‘carving up of the Middle East by Sykes Picot’ and the various wars ‘against Muslims by the West’ that such feelings have led to radicalisation and terrorism. And yet they vehemently discount any suggestion that Obama might be similarly effected by the historic oppression of ‘his people’. Seems like the BBC just makes it up as it goes along, picking and choosing narratives that suit their own agenda….defending Muslim terrorists or attacking anyone who wants to leave the EU as racist little Englanders.
The BBC, in league with the Government peddling pro-EU propaganda and carrying out witch-hunts and public show trials and lynchings of those it considers ‘enemies of the State’….The European State of course.
Here is Obama’s friend and mentor…Jeremiah Wright….telling us Obama does not ‘fit the mould’….the mould being white, European, rich and privileged…If you’re judged by who your friends are…….
Hi all. Monday morning comes early and this is a NEW Open thread for you to detail the bias. The BBC have spent the last few days salivating over the Obama visit so I took some pleasure when I was on BBC5 Live on Saturday night pointing out that no one with any sense would pay attention to this has-been Brit Hater, deployed by Cameron in a desperate effort to scare us into staying in the EU. I also think it interesting to read that Andrew Neil has discovered that there is NO queue of any Nations seeking to obtain a free trade deal with the US.
Obama was sending a clear signal about strategic priorities. “His [Michael Froman] appointment is further proof that trade issues are front and centre for this administration.
Trade Agreements can create opportunities for Americans and help to grow the U.S. economy.
The United States has free trade agreements (FTAs) in effect with 20 countries. These FTAs build on the foundation of the WTO Agreement, with more comprehensive and stronger disciplines than the WTO Agreement. Many of our FTAs are bilateral agreements between two governments. But some, like the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement, are multilateral agreements among several parties.
The bulkiest results of Uruguay Round are the 22,500 pages listing individual countries’ commitments on specific categories of goods and services. These include commitments to cut and “bind” their customs duty rates on imports of goods. In some cases, tariffs are being cut to zero. There is also a significant increase in the number of “bound” tariffs — duty rates that are committed in the WTO and are difficult to raise.
The BBC seems remarkably sanguine about Obama’s threat and indeed seems to think it is worth repeating endlessly but without any critique of what Obama is saying….here the BBC randomly inserts the phrase into a report on other things Obama said but which are otherwise unrelated…
US President Barack Obama has urged young people to “reject pessimism and cynicism” and “know that progress is possible and problems can be solved”. Speaking in London, he said: “Take a longer, more optimistic view of history.”
Earlier, the US president visited the Globe theatre and watched actors perform scenes from Hamlet. It came a day after he said Britain would be at “the back of the queue” for US trade deals if it left the EU.
No need for that, nothing to do with the report.
There’s scant discussion on Obama’s claims of the glories of the EU being the result of Britain’s membership..
“The UK is at its best when it’s helping to lead a strong European Union. It leverages UK power to be part of the EU. “I don’t think the EU moderates British influence in the world, it magnifies it.”
The BBC suggests that the Brexit campaign needs to answer questions raised by Obama, curious that the BBC doesn’t similarly interrogate the Remain camp when they make sweeping claims of doom and anarchy if Britain goes independent and gave Osborne’s dodgy dossier from the Treasury a free pass with hardly a look askance.
Mr Obama reflects on “what went wrong”, saying: “There’s room for criticism, because I had more faith in the Europeans, given Libya’s proximity, being invested in the follow-up.”
Mr Cameron, he said, became “distracted by a range of other things”. He also criticised former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, saying he had tried to claim the spotlight.
He also criticised what he called “free riders” in the interview, saying European and Gulf countries were calling for action against Gaddafi, adding: “But what has been a habit over the last several decades in these circumstances is people pushing us to act but then showing an unwillingness to put any skin in the game.”
Hang on though…a few weeks later, a week before he is due to come to Europe to peddle Cameron’s script on the marvels of the EU, he sees it all differently…..
Asked for his worst mistake while in office, Mr Obama named the failure to plan for the aftermath of Col Gaddafi’s ousting as Libyan leader, which sparked years of instability that are only just showing signs of easing.
What can have changed? Is he on the campaign trail for Cameron and any old cynical about-face will do? People will forget won’t they?….looks like the media has forgotten, so maybe he’s right and he’ll get away with it as the headlines are full of his dire warnings about Brexit.
US officials trying to rebuild and stabilize postwar Europe worked from the assumption that it required rapid unification, perhaps leading to a United States of Europe. The encouragement of European unification, one of the most consistent components of Harry S. Truman’s foreign policy, was even more strongly emphasized under his successor General Dwight D.Eisenhower. Moreover, under both Truman and Eisenhower, US policymakers conceived of European unification not only as an important end in itself, but also as a way to solve the German problem.
The use of covert operations for the specific promotion of European unity has attracted little scholarly attention and remains poorly understood
Marshall suggested that European countries in need of aid should join in drawing up a program for presentation to the United States. Great Britain and France invited twenty-two countries to participate in a conference to draft a blueprint for European reconstruction. Sixteen nations responded, forming a Committee for European Economic Cooperation.
DECLASSIFIED American government documents show that the US intelligence community ran a campaign in the Fifties and Sixties to build momentum for a united Europe. It funded and directed the European federalist movement.
The documents confirm suspicions voiced at the time that America was working aggressively behind the scenes to push Britain into a European state.
The State Department also played a role. A memo from the European section, dated June 11, 1965, advises the vice-president of the European Economic Community, Robert Marjolin, to pursue monetary union by stealth.
It recommends suppressing debate until the point at which “adoption of such proposals would become virtually inescapable”.
When reporting the words of Obama perhaps the BBC should be making more effort to put a bit of context into that and remind us that the EU is one of the Americans’ pet projects so that we can judge his words more fairly.
So far, the mounting Falklands conflict has been met with deafening silence from Washington. …..[which] demonstrates an extraordinary level of indifference towards America’s closest ally.
Obama is keen to appease the likes of Hugo Chavez as part of his policy of engagement with dictatorial regimes, and does not want to rock the boat in Latin America. Thirdly, the alliance with Britain has been given extremely short shrift by the Obama team, who seemingly care little for the Anglo-American partnership or the broader transatlantic alliance. It is at times of crisis that you know who your real friends are.
Obama….Keen to appease dictators and those who run oppressive regimes…but quite happy to throw the democratic Brits to the sharks….and now keen to appease the EU and push the UK under a Euro-bus.
At 07:09 this morning on the Today programme we had a little heads up on the EU and Obama, and again no dismay or surprise at Obama’s blackmail but they did insist the Brexit campaign had to answer questions raised by Obama, though the BBC itself wasn’t bothering to tackle what he said in any critical way despite telling us that ‘controversy reigns over his words’. The BBC seems to hold the Brexiteers to a higher standard than the EU’s fellow travellers when having to explain themselves.
We heard later on from Justin Webb that the US doesn’t want to make free trade deals with individual countries and prefers to make them with big blocs…..not true….
The United States-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) entered into force on January 1, 2005. U.S. two-way trade with Australia was $26.7 billion in 2009, up 23 percent from 2004. U.S. goods exports were $18.9 billion in 2009, up 33 percent from 2004, and U.S. goods imports were $7.8 billion, up 3.5 percent from 2004.
Jon Sopel thinks that, ‘you know what’, Obama said what he said about the back of the queue not because he was trying to help Cameron, no, no, but because he believes it…and even when he leaves office that will be the US policy. Just a little helpful nudge from Sopel for the Remain campaign there.
Webb has usually managed to hold the line on Europe and give a balanced presentation on the Today programme but it all went a bit awry in this interview with the former head of UK Trade & Investment Sir Andrew Cahn and Former Labour Foreign Secretary and a member of Vote Leave Lord Owen.
Webb starts his interview well….raising an ‘important point’ that we do good trade now with the US that works perfectly well for us and that’s not likely to get worse if we leave the EU.
It goes down hill from there generally as Cahn feeds us a line that Britain created the single market, that Britain made Europe enlarge itself eastwards and it was Britain that made Europe liberal, and that Obama wants that influence to continue making Europe a more liberal, open, free trading place benefiting from Britain’s political wisdom [LOL]…you might be sceptical about that long list but Webb wasn’t insisting to Lord Owen that ‘Look Lord Owen, you’d want that wouldn’t you?’ suggesting that Webb was onboard with that argument however false and self-serving it is.
Lord Owen suggests that the EU will inevitably collapse due to the flaws in the structure of the Eurozone and we should leave rather than be dragged down with it. Webb grabs that idea of an EU falling apart and turns it on its head suggesting that Obama is saying ‘look at the state of Europe and we can’t afford to have a Europe without Britain in it’….Webb adds ‘..and that is quite telling isn’t it’.…thereby not only twisting Lord Owen’s point to defend the EU but raising his own interpretation from an interesting question to a point of fact….that the EU will be in peril without the UK. Why would that be? It’s primary raison d’être was to be a mechanism designed to defang Germany and prick the arrogance of the French and thus keep the peace. There was no role for Britain envisioned in that original purpose other than to encourage German/French entente cordial with a bit of cheerleading from the sidelines. Webb does note though that Cahn doesn’t deny that that the EU is a ‘sinking ship’ but Webb goes on to tell us we have the ‘best of both worlds’ being placed where we are right now which you might see as a pro-Remain statement.
What of the claim that the EU has protected us from fighting with each other? What really kept the peace?…Well you might think that having hundreds of thousands of US and British troops in Germany kept the peace and a German constitution that restrained military adventurism, never mind the constant threat of Soviet tank armies sweeping across the border which no doubt concentrated minds and stopped infighting…nowt to do with the EU structure as such, more to do with NATO….and never mind that Germany is now the dominant country making all the calls economically and on immigration…Germany’s unilateral decision to invite in the world will destroy Europe and in no way make it safer….and of course it is the same Obama whose foreign policy it was to stand back and let the war in Syria escalate and watch without concern as millions of people fled their homes and head towards Europe… Obama possibly not unhappy to see a white Europe invaded by people from the Middle East and Africa.
The most telling statement againsts staying actually came from the pro-Remain Cahn as he admitted that the Euro single currency was a historic mistake that is at the heart of the EU’s problems.
No exploration of that major admission…..if that is the case what is the answer? It can only be the reintroduction of national currencies and economic flexibility. Which means that EU political and economic ‘ever-closer union’ would have to be halted and a more flexible approach adopted allowing countries to swiftly adapt to changing circumstances instead of being hog-tied to the German mega-economy that forces them into poverty whilst Germany reaps all the rewards.
The EU needs to reform massively, the ‘reforms’ that Cameron claims he got were laughable and nothing more than a political con-trick. Without Britain leaving and forcing the EU to concentrate on the matter there will never be any genuine reform and the ideologically driven attempt to force so many vastly different nations into one ill-fitting Euro-empire will flounder on the rocks of the EU mandarins’ arrogance and ambitions.
Perhaps that is what is missing from the debate…just what is wrong with, and how badly wrong is, the European Union? Not only that but what are the risks attached to staying in the EU? All the attention is on the so-called risks of leaving but of those of being ever more closely tied to that ‘sinking ship’ are generally ignored when they are very, very relevant as the EU heads towards ever-closer union and will inevitably try to drag Britain in with it along with signing up to that ‘historic mistake’ of the single currency….made all the harder to refuse with a ‘remain’ vote.
Below is the BBC’s Katty Kay’s little party political broadcast on behave of the Remain campaign…..
The president’s former chief economic adviser defended Mr Obama’s decision to weigh in on Brexit so forcefully. It’s a bit like when your sister goes out with a bad date, Austan Goolsbee told me, you just have to say something. Truth is though, most Americans are not very focused on the June 23rd vote on whether Britain should stay in or leave the EU. They should be, Mr Goolsbee argued because there are knock on economic consequences. Anything that adds uncertainty to the global financial system poses a risk and Brexit, he says, does that because we don’t know what the impact will be on British and European banks’ ability to operate across continental borders.
Something mysterious happened when Barack Obama entered the Oval Office in 2009.
Something vanished from that room, and no one could quite explain why. It was a bust of Winston Churchill – the great British war time leader. It was a fine goggle-eyed object, done by the brilliant sculptor Jacob Epstein, and it had sat there for almost ten years.
But on day one of the Obama administration it was returned, without ceremony, to the British embassy in Washington. No one was sure whether the President had himself been involved in the decision. Some said it was a snub to Britain. Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan President’s ancestral dislike of the British empire – of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender. Some said that perhaps Churchill was seen as less important than he once was. Perhaps his ideas were old-fashioned and out of date.
Well, if that’s why Churchill was banished from the Oval Office, they could not have been more wrong.
Funny how all the pro-EU lobby pick out one remark out of many, and a remark that wasn’t one that Boris claimed to think himself, he was merely reporting various motivations for Obama, if it was him, and it was, to remove the Churchill bust.
The BBC isn’t too bothered with nuances or indeed truth….they just lay into Boris for his ‘racism’ as much as any other pro-EU, partisan, self-interested party. The idea of course is to distract you from what Boris had to say about the hopeless EU regime…how many people just know about these claims of racism against Boris and never read the whole article in The Sun? Any thoughts that this is just a highly politicised attack on Boris from the EU’s useful idiots? Shame the independent, honest and trusted BBC joins in with the anti-Boris slurs……
Downing Street is cockahoop tonight, not just because of President Obama’s backing for the Remain campaign, but because of his elegant slapdown of Boris Johnson.
Mr Johnson raised eyebrows by referring to the president’s Kenyan roots, questioning whether that meant he had Britain’s best interests at heart. He also reminded Sun readers that Mr Obama had removed a bust of Churchill from the Oval Office, a story that didn’t escape the British press at the time.
Mr Johnson’s comments were branded offensive and insensitive by many but the president didn’t resort to even mentioning them. Instead, he spoke about how much he loved Winston Churchill, and why he had moved the bust of the former prime minister to his private residence, where he sees it every day.
The president didn’t just back the prime minister’s case, but smoothly and – without breaking a sweat – took the most well-known leader of the Leave campaign down a peg or two.
Kuenssberg is either in love with Obama or the EU, maybe both. Boris is not in the race it seems. Not much ‘journalism’ there…..just salacious tittle-tattle, inuendo and ‘smears’ of her own…note how Kuenssberg gets it wrong about the bust in the corridor…it was never in the Oval Office.
The BBC targets Boris even more obviously with this attempt to link Boris to racism and smears….
US president Barack Obama has hit back after Boris Johnson’s comments about his “part-Kenyan” ancestry.
Mr Johnson said the removal of a bust of Churchill from Obama’s office was seen by some as a sign of an “ancestral dislike of the British Empire”.
The comments in article for The Sun were branded “idiotic” and “deeply offensive” by Churchill’s grandson.
Mr Obama made clear his admiration for Britain’s wartime leader in pointed remarks at a press conference.
He did not mention Mr Johnson by name but said he had a bust of Churchill outside the Treaty Room – his private office on the second floor of his official residence.
Note the BBC only later admits that Soames is on the Pro-EU side and one of Churchill’s busts was removed from the Whitehouse……
A Churchill bust lent to President George Bush by Tony Blair was removed from the Oval Office along with other art lent to the Bush presidency after Mr Obama’s 2009 inauguration “as is common practice at the end of every presidency”, the White House said at the time.
Boris was right…the bust of Churchill was removed from the Oval Office and sent back to the British embassy…but a second one remains…in a corridor at the White House. Boris only referred to the bust with pride of place in the Oval Office in his piece….a reference made by all the media when the bust was removed.
As for complete facts..is it Boris or the White House that got it wrong?…here’s the White House telling it like it isn’t….
The bust of Winston Churchill has a prominent place in the White House — in the Residence, outside the Treaty Room.
Lately, there’s been a rumor swirling around about the current location of the bust of Winston Churchill. Some have claimed that President Obama removed the bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office and sent it back to the British Embassy.
Now, normally we wouldn’t address a rumor that’s so patently false, but just this morning the Washington Post’s Charles Krauthammer repeated this ridiculous claim in his column. He said President Obama “started his Presidency by returning to the British Embassy the bust of Winston Churchill that had graced the Oval Office.”
This is 100% false. The bust still in the White House. In the Residence. Outside the Treaty Room.
Hopefully this clears things up a bit and prevents folks from making this ridiculous claim again.
Except no it doesn’t….the bust being talking about, from the Oval Office, was sent back to the British embassy….as the same person has to admit in a later update….
Update:
Since my post on the fact that the bust of Winston Churchill has remained on display in the White House, despite assertions to the contrary, I have received a bunch of questions — so let me provide some additional info….The version lent by Prime Minister Blair was displayed by President Bush until the end of his Presidency. On January 20, 2009 — Inauguration Day — all of the art lent specifically for President Bush’s Oval Office was removed by the curator’s office, as is common practice at the end of every presidency.
I’m sure the British government would have allowed Obama to keep hold of Churchill had he wanted to…as the Telegraph reports…
When British officials offered to let Mr Obama to hang onto the bust for a further four years, the White House said: “Thanks, but no thanks.”
So Obama dumped Churchill…he admits he removed it to make way for one of Martin Luther King…
“There are only so many tables where you can put busts otherwise it starts to looks a little cluttered.”
As the first African American president, he said, a bust of Martin Luther King would be “appropriate”, to remind him “of all the hard work of a lot of people who somehow allow me to have the privilege of holding this office”.
What about the ‘controversy’ about those comments about Obama’s ‘part-Kenyan’ ancestry’? Boris was laying out a list of other people’s arguments as to why the bust had been removed…and as Martin Luther King replaced him and Obama made specific reference to race as to the reason he chose that bust race is an issue raised by Obama himself ….and a bit hypocritical of the Guardian to attack Boris…London mayor under fire for remark about ‘part-Kenyan’ Barack Obama when in 2009 they themselves asked this…
Earlier this week it was noted that the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, in describing Gordon Brown’s visit to the White House, appeared to demote the two countries’ “special relationship” to merely a “special partnership”.
That phrase, “special relationship”, was coined by Winston Churchill, whose bronze bust, sculpted by Sir Jacob Epstein, was prominently displayed in the Oval Office. When Obama moved in, the statuette was politely returned to the British embassy as surplus to decorative requirements.
When the bust was removed from the White House the BBC of course sided with Obama explaining that Obama was “looking forward not backward”. Which is why he put a bust of long dead MLK on his desk instead….perhaps that is why he titled his memoir… ‘Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance’.
When both the Guardian and the BBC report this tripe as if it were an honest comment you know we are being lied to..
Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell called for Mr Johnson to withdraw his comment, writing on Twitter: “Mask slips again. Boris part-Kenyan Obama comment is yet another example of dog whistle racism from senior Tories.”
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