Category Archives: BBC bias

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.”

Read more here

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.

A B-BBC reader writes;

“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.”

Here you go, a new Open Thread to detail the bias!

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.

UK wins a record number of investment projects and maintains position as top investment destination in Europe

Prime Minister David Cameron said:

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 few notes on climate change…..

Firstly there’s a 163 page complaint gone in to the BBC about its coverage of climate change…I imagine the reply will be somewhat briefer.

Major New Complaint Submitted To BBC Over Climate Bias

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:

Climate science might become the most important casualty of the replication crisis

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’…

Climate change lobby wants to kill free speech

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…

Andrew Neil on Ed Davey climate change interview critics

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.

A young, ambitious Kenyan today should not have to do what my grandfather did, and serve a foreign master.

Obama

Yep, what happened to Obama’s grandfather under British colonial rule doesn’t hang heavily at all on his thoughts at all.

Though the racist, dog-whistling Guardian in 2009 seemed to think so…

Could Obama’s dual colonial heritage spell the end of the special relationship?

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…

Here’s a British Ambassador to Washington on Obama and whether his world view is shaped along European lines or by other influences…

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!!!!…

Here’s the BBC commenting in his trip to Kenya in 2008….where we are told he has ‘Kenyan blood coursing through his veins’….

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.

Here we have a report that tells of his ‘blood claims’ in Kenya….

Jealous pride

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.

Then we get to Obama’s father and how he reacted to the ‘White world’……

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’.

These are some comments made by Obama in a speech to Kenyans in 2015….

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. 

Here is the Times in 2008 reporting that…

Beatings and abuse made Barack Obama’s grandfather loathe the British

December 3, 2008

Ben Macintyre and Paul Orengoh

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….

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 makes a blatant threat that if we vote for Brexit we’ll be at the back of the queue for trade deals.

So, let’s be clear…do what Obama says or else.  So much for a special relationship.

Back last year the US said there would be no deals…so ‘back of the queue’ seems like an improvement in some ways, however it is clearly a staged threat designed to get the headlines and scare people into voting to stay aboard the sinking ship….the US is in fact, like the EU, very, very keen to sign up countries to free trade deals…

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.

And of course does much of its work through the World Trade Organisation whose rules are designed to free up trade and minimise tariffs…

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.

UNDERSTANDING THE WTO: THE AGREEMENTS
Tariffs: more bindings and closer to zero

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.

What of the EU and security?  Does the EU make us safer?  Curiously Obama didn’t think so in March…

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.

What the BBC doesn’t point out is that the EU was always an American project as much as anyones with massive sums of money and support propping up the status quo from day one….

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

The CIA admits as much itself…

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.

From the Telegraph…

Euro-federalists financed by US spy chiefs

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.

And remember just how much our ‘friendship’ with the US meant in 2010 when the sabres were rattling over the Falklands again…

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….

Free Trade Agreements Australia

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…..