Category Archives: BBC bias

The BBC’s admiration from Obama continues with its slabbering reports on his Kenyan tour. The BBC were bigging up Obama’s determination to push the gay rights agenda to Kenya – this seems a matter of great importance to the BBC hacks for some odd reason. When Kenyan President Kenyetta responds by tweeting “There are some things that we must admit we don’t share. It’s very difficult for us to impose on people that which they themselves do not accept. This is why I say for Kenyans today the issue of gay rights is really a non-issue” the BBC responds by relegating this to one bland sentence at the end of the report.

The BBC broadcast a programme about a new railway line that threads its way through Jerusalem.  The BBC thinks this line is somehow so controversial that it may be the catalyst for a new war, a new intifada…..started of course by the Palestinians…but we’ll gloss over that….‘ ….it has only deepened the sense of resentment on both sides. Travelling through the old city, he comes face to face with the battle over one of the world’s holiest sites and asks, could it be the flashpoint for the start of another war?’

The tale of the train, by Adam Wishart, a ‘British Jew’, as he liked to keep reminding us as if to suggest that as a Jew any criticisms of Israel are therefore valid and all the more powerful, was in reality just an excuse to parade a long list of ‘issues’ that are clearly of concern to Wishart and the Palestinians.  It was a bit like decorating a Christmas tree with Muslim artifacts…at first glance maybe a genuine attempt at conciliation but is in fact a calculated insult.

This wasn’t really about the rail line and turned out to be a pretty one sided diatribe that forgot to mention Hamas or Fatah or any other Islamist organisation bombarding Israel with missiles….and the important fact that they all wish to wipe out Israel and create a Palestinian state ‘from the river to the sea’.

Which is a bit of an omission when he seemed so concerned about Israeli activists who wanted to increase the Jewish presence in Jerusalem…one was from the ‘Temple Movement’ which wants to rebuild the Temple on the Mount, the other a property developer who bought up land from Palestinians and built homes that were bought by Israelis…hoping to make Jerusalem de facto Jewish….note that he was buying land not bulldozing the occupants off it as the programme seemed to like to imply.

Apparently land was compulsorily purchased to build the rail line on…not as if that doesn’t happen here…reference HS2.…‘The department has written to all owners of properties that are very close to the proposed line of the route to inform them of the government’s decision, and the potential need to compulsorily purchase their property.’

Wishart tells us of a Palestinian who was offered compensation but refused the money for political reasons….Wishart tells us that the buying of the land ‘fits into a broader picture’ of land ‘seizure’….he also claims that the security barrier is in reality meant to cordon off the squalor and deprivation.

Note that frequently you can hear the Palestinians talking of the Yahood, the Jews, but the film doesn’t translate the words when they would be controversial, opting for a different, less obviously loaded and racist, term.

Wishart also concentrates on the Shuafat refugee camp.  He puts all the blame for problems there onto the Jewish Mayor of Jerusalem.  What Wishart doesn’t tell us is that it is UNRWA that runs the camp, created by the UN and Jordan when it was in control of the West Bank in 1965, and that Israel offered to hand the Shuafat area which includes the camp over to the Palestinian Authority but Palestinians themselves refused this ‘opportunity’…. ‘Nabil Abu Issa, head of the village of Muchtar, located a few hundred meters above the refugee camp, told the Post that he doesn’t see himself as a Palestinian. “We don’t want to be under Palestinian authority. We are Jerusalemites, we vote for the mayor and for the Knesset. We are part of this place and unless there are no two countries for the two people, we will stay here. It would be a mistake to hand over these villages; it would cause a mess and a bloodshed. What [would] happen if Israel gives us to the PA? How can a family prevent the rocket launchers from taking over their house and firing at Jerusalem? If I would have to, I’ll take my family and move to east Jerusalem, Jaffa or Haifa,” Abu Issa said. ‘

Ironically many of the problems are caused because Palestinians themselves actually want to move into Shuarat camp where the Israeli police and city authorities fear to tread and enforce the laws…they overload the limited infrastructure.  As residents of an area of Jerusalem the Palestinians get the valuable ‘blue ID card’ which gives them the same rights as Israelis and allows them to travel freely.  Shuarat is not what the BBC likes to label one of those ‘open prisons’.

Wishart doesn’t like the security barrier.  He refers to it as the ‘barrier’…not a neutral term as it implies an attempt to create some sort of apartheid however there is a reason for that security barrier…..East Jerusalem’s Shuafat refugee camp a terrorist stronghold, security sources say.

Why did Wishart make this programme?  After all it’s an old story, one told by the Guardian last year….but that told a more nuanced tale than Wishart…Jerusalem’s light railway: commuting with a rifle through the conflicted city.

For instance the BBC’s narrative was that Palestinians don’t use this train and that it is mostly used by Israelis moving into Palestinian areas…..the Guardian’s narrative is less one-sided….

Men dressed in ultra-orthodox monochrome, under hats and coats even in the Middle Eastern summer, squeeze on board, averting their eyes from young women tourists in shorts and skimpy t-shirts. Religious Jewish mothers, hair bound in long winding scarves, with a brood of small children clutching at their ankle-length skirts, stand alongside Palestinian women in skinny jeans and elaborate hijabs framing carefully made-up faces and groomed eyebrows.

Israeli soldiers in uniform, some armed with guns and all apparently armed with smart phones, lounge on seats opposite Palestinian labourers heading for jobs in Jewish areas of the city. Christian pilgrims en route to Via Dolorosa and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site of Jesus’s crucifixion, mingle with Muslims heading to the sacred Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque, and Jews intent on praying at the revered Western Wall, the last surviving remnant of the Second Temple.

As for Israelis invading Palestinian areas and Palestinians being cut off by the railway…

The unintended consequence has been to make it much easier for Palestinians to get to the Old City. “It’s brought Haram al-Sharif [the site of the Dome of the Rock] closer to Beit Hanina and Shuafat,” says Seidemann.

And not just the Muslim holy sites, he adds; Palestinians are more visible in the west of the city than previously. “Has that united the city? No, but it’s an interesting change in the patterns of movement.”

The reverse is not the case. “The light rail has not brought Israelis into Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem. On the Israeli side, the patterns of movement have not changed at all.”

The main problem with the railway seems to be that it doesn’t run on the Sabbath…

That statement sits uncomfortably with the fact that Palestinians, who make up 37% of the city’s population, are deprived of this effective transport system on Saturdays, a normal working day for most of them, because the light rail does not operate on the Jewish sabbath.

Wishart finishes off his diatribe with clear evidence of what he intended with this film…

‘My journey has been heartbreaking.  When my grandparents campaigned for the State of Israel they hoped for a place of refuge, tolerance and equal rights for all. 

I just can’t believe this could be the place they dreamt of all those years ago.’

Maybe Wishart can explain the difference between his grandparents wishing to create the State of Israel by Jews in essence invading Palestine licensed by the UN and evicting the Palestinian residents and that of the settlers in the West Bank today.  Not a great deal of difference.  If his grandparents would have such qualms now why not in 1947?  He can’t paint his grandparents as ethical and humane people who campaign for equal rights and tolerance when they conquered and took over what was Palestinian land.  Maybe that’s what this film is all about…a great big guilty mea culpa.

On the same basis of land seized and a people unfairly treated where is his film about the creation of Pakistan and the even more horrendous events that unfold there?

I await it with interest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojugvuZdJek

‘Jihad is a basic requirement of Islam and living in Britain or having British nationality by birth or naturalisation does not absolve the Muslim from his or her duty to participate in jihad: this participation can be active service in armed struggle abroad and/or the provision of material and moral support to those engaged in such struggle anywhere in the world.’  Muslim Parliament

The Guardian has printed a ‘Muslim woman’s’ response to David Cameron’s speech on radicalisation.  She, Siema Iqbal, doesn’t like it, and, nor do most of the Muslim community it would seem.

Not the first time she has been involved in attacking anti-radicalisation moves by the government…

Muslim community rejects the State’s criminalisation of Islam and condemns moves to silence legitimate critique and dissent

This joint statement expresses a position with respect to the ongoing demonisation of Muslims in Britain, their values as well as prominent scholars, speakers and organisations.

We, the undersigned Imams, sheikhs, advocates, activists, community leaders, community organisations and student bodies of the Muslim community, make the following points in this regard.

One thing that is notable is the drive to blame Islamophobia for the radicalisation of Muslims, and that they seek to silence the critics of Islam…and yet at the same time complain of Muslim extremists and radicals being censored…apparently it is vital to hear their voices….well the Guardian and BBC seem to agree with that.

She tells us that  ‘I used to hear the term “Muslim community” and think of a peaceful hard-working community who settled in the UK to create a better future for generations to come. Now I hear that and it paints a picture of a misunderstood, frightened community under attack and feeling the need to continually apologise and defend its religious beliefs.’

What the Guardian, nor the BBC that interviewed her, tells us is that she is an organiser and spokesperson for the islamist organisation ‘Mend’.

Issues she wants to press upon the politicians and the media?...’THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO RAISE MUSLIM ISSUES WITH ALL OF THEM – Hijab, Nikab, Halal slaughter, Islamophobia, Terrorism laws, Palestine, Kashmir etc.’

You get the picture.

The BBC were pumping this Mend propaganda out on one of their Asian network stations…

• Talat-Farooq Awan ‏@TalatFarooqAwan Jul 24

  “@siemaiqbal: My response to @David_Cameron http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/24/david-cameron-radicalisation-speech-muslim-woman … in @guardian #cameron #islam” hear Siema on @bbcradiomanc Sunday @ 6

Here is what Andrew Gilligan said about Mend and the Islam Channel..

Mend has its prescription for a better Britain as revealed in its Muslim Manifesto…

Government policy continues to conflate religion with extremism, casually linking it to British Muslims. This is dangerous for social cohesion and feeds into myths popularised by the far-right about Muslims.

This manifesto has been developed to encourage British Muslim participation in the general election by making policy initiatives and their impact more amenable to Muslim voters.

Commit to curbing the encroachment of counter-terrorism policies on civil liberties.Commit to support for an independent Palestine and end of Israeli occupation by December 2017.

Commit to furthering Turkey’s progress on the path to eventual EU membership

Commit to fostering social cohesion and community resilience to all forms of extremism; support de-radicalisation programmes that work with Muslim communities not against them.

Commit to supporting faith school provisions in the state sector for Muslim pupils and parents; support ‘twinning’ of faith and non-faith schools to encourage cultural exchange between pupils of different racial, religious, ethnic and other backgrounds.

Commit to developing teaching materials to educate young people on Islamophobia, racism and anti-Semitism; to fund projects to promote educational programmes on Islam awareness; to prioritise religious education in the national curriculum to prepare young people for life in a religiously plural society.

Commit to a review of the 2006 Racial and Religious Hatred Act as advised by the Law Commission’s Hate crime.

Essentially an Islamists dream ticket…pushing everything that would increase the influence, presence and power of Islam.

Here is another Muslim Manifesto…this time from a well known, popular ‘moderate’ Muslim in Pakistan…

The Islamic Manifesto
(A Declaration of War against the Present World)

This manifesto is, in fact, a declaration of war against the existing state of affairs. The objective behind its implementation is the manifestation of the actual truth so that the hollow concepts of law and politics, economics and sociology fashioned by the west be rendered meaningless.

It should be very clearly written down in the constitution of our country that the Qur’an and Sunnah shall be the supreme law of state to which the parliament and constitution itself must submit.

Here is yet another Muslim Manifesto, this time from the Muslim Parliament in Britain in 1990.  It illustrates how that mindset of Muslim superiority and the requirement to be separate from the Kufaar was always present…

It is a matter of deep regret that the Government, all political parties and the mass media in Britain are now engaged in a relentless campaign to reduce Muslim citizens of this country to the status of a disparaged and oppressed minority. We have no alternative but to resist this invidious campaign.

This manifesto attempts to provide a common text defining the Muslim situation in Britain. It also seeks to provide a framework for the healthy growth of all parts of the community as well as a common Muslim identity and purpose.

Of all the major religions of the world, Islam is the most “politicised”. At its inception Islam created a political platform from which Muslims were to launch themselves on a global role as founders of great States, empires and a world civilisation and culture. Political and cultural subservience goes against their grain. Yet in Britain today Muslims are being asked to accept subservience and the total disintegration of their identity, culture and religion, as the only real options open to them.

This manifesto is based on the following assumptions: 1. that Muslims in Britain have to accept neither subservience as their inevitable and permanent condition nor the disintegration of their identity, culture and religion; 2. that, despite being a minority, Muslims here can define and pursue goals compatible with the goals of the global Ummah, the world community of Muslims, of which they are an integral part.

That the option of “integration” and/or “assimilation” that is on offer as official policy in Britain must be firmly resisted and rejected.

Maxim: Muslims must develop their own identity and culture within Britain and as part of a global Muslim community, the Ummah

Maxim: We are Muslims first and last.

Jihad is a basic requirement of Islam and living in Britain or having British nationality by birth or naturalisation does not absolve the Muslim from his or her duty to participate in jihad: this participation can be active service in armed struggle abroad and/or the provision of material and moral support to those engaged in such struggle anywhere in the world …. Survival within Islam is the only form of survival that has any meaning. If we protect Islam, Islam will protect us. If we weaken our links with Islam we shall be swallowed up.

Maxim: Only Islam can protect Muslims

 

Let’s hope no one takes Siema Iqbal seriously….hmmm…too late.

‘ We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.’

Tony Hall: the BBC is like James Bond

Of course Bond is world-renowned as a quintessential British cultural icon; an underappreciated force for good with his very special licence. Sound familiar?

Is the BBC like James Bond as Tony Hall suggests or more like Dorian Gray, the man who never changed because of a faustian pact with the devil, or maybe Dracula who sucked the lifeblood from people and shied away from the light of day in which he would wither and die?

Yolande Knell is up to her usual tricks…demonising the Israelis with this story of their apparent wickedness…Susiya: Palestinian West Bank village faces bleak end

What she presents us with is a narrative designed to paint the Israelis in the worst possible light….she gives us the facts for sure…houses are being built without permits, but the whole spirit of the piece is to suggest it is all so unfair and just one more example of the Israelis persecuting Palestinians.

Contrast that with how the BBC reports illegally built homes in Egypt…Egypt’s illegal construction time bomb.  

In this report we hear that the illegal homes are death traps and the authorities are neglecting their duties by not demolishing these homes…despite the huge rate of homelessness in Egypt…..‘Nasser Darwish, a professor at the Structural Engineering Department of Alexandria University.  He estimates that in Alexandria, right now, there are hundreds of buildings with major structural flaws, about 170 of which are in danger of imminent collapse and need to be evacuated immediately and demolished.’

The BBC concentrates on the dangerous aspect of many buildings but many of the homes are not death traps but just built illegally, many, just as the Palestinian ones are, on farm land…

Farmers struggle to uphold property rights in land dispute with government

The morning of 20 November began with a rude awakening for Mahmoud Fathy, a resident of the Houd al-Musullas area, in the rural inland of the Montazah district of Alexandria.

Some neighbours came to the house and told him two bulldozers had begun demolishing a building down the street and that his home would be next.

The bulldozers and security forces were dispatched by the Endowments Authority, to demolish what it said was illegal construction.

“The residents showed security forces their ownership papers, but the police said they are not responsible and ‘you can appeal it in court’”, Fathy said.

A differently nuanced narrative about Egypt comes from Reuteurs which concentrates more on the reason why there are so many illegal buildings in Egypt and their illegality not just the dangerous nature of the buildings..

‘When an explosion in one of Cairo’s calmer residential areas reduced a five-story building to rubble, residents feared it was the work of suicide bombers.

Actually, authorities were dynamiting unlicensed buildings, even though millions of Egyptians are desperate for housing – a sensitive issue that the country’s new president will face….Officials say at least 450,000 of these buildings were constructed without permits in the past three years….

“After the revolution many people started to build on land that is not theirs … The housing crisis has made people desperate to buy property as soon as it is available,” said Ahmad, an agent who helps people find homes in Cairo.

“This is a real problem. People put their life savings in these housing units and then overnight they will find out that these apartments do not belong to them.”

‘

Whilst Knell’s story about Israel gets frontpage billing on the BBC and is also on the world page this story from the Mail is nowhere to be seen…

Amazing pictures show police destroying an entire TOWN including grocery stores and a nightclub that had sprung up to support illegal miners in the Peruvian rainforest

It’s in the Mirror, and the Telegraph as well.

How about in Azerbaijan?

Azerbaijan: Stop Forced Evictions, Illegal Demolitions

Or Spain?…

Retired Britons’ ‘illegal’ homes knocked down in Spain

Or how about Saudi Arabia in 2012?….

Saudi Grand Mufti calls for churches to be destroyed

The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia has called for all churches in the Arabian peninsula to be destroyed.

The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia is not some marginal figure, rather he is the chief religious authority of the Saudi Kingdom, and Saudi Arabia is one of the leading countries in the Sunni Muslim world. The Mufti’s words will surely be taken seriously by many. We ought to take them seriously too.

Or how about Saudi Arabia in 2015?….

Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti wants churches destroyed

This is the Grand Mufti talking. It is not some bearded loon, or some fringe extremist, but rather the chief religious authority of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, home to the two holy mosques and so on. So this man speaks with authority. It is as if the Archbishop of Canterbury had spoken.

The Grand Mufti is appointed by the Saudi government. The Saudis are allies of us Brits and the Americans.

Why the BBC fascination with a small, illegal village?  Is it coz it’s the wicked old Israelis beating up on the defenceless Palestinians again as the BBC would like us to believe?

John Redwood asks ‘Why does the BBC ignore England?’ and why does it instead seek to promote the European project of regionalising, and diminishing, the UK?

Actually the web link says ‘Why does the BBC hate England?’, which is probably about right.

Here are his thoughts…

When the Culture Secretary gave his statement on the future of the BBC, I spoke for England. I asked if we could have a BBC England to match BBC Scotland? I pointed out that many of us do not want a BBC seeking to split up our country and trying to foster artificial senses of regional identity. As we move towards more England only decision making at Westminster, we need a BBC England news to cover it.

I will submit further evidence to the review to show the need for BBC England. My area is lumped into BBC South, so we see a lot of news stories about seaside resorts all along the south coast that have nothing to do with inland Wokingham. Meanwhile, we have to switch to BBC London to see things going on 20 miles down the road that are of more relevance to us. My part of the world is variously called Thames Valley, Rest of the south east, the south, London and the south east, the home counties, the three counties (Bucks,Berks and Oxon), and mid Berkshire. No wonder there is no great sense of regional loyalty, when there are so many differing boundaries and descriptions, and when none of these places have sports teams, Councils or representative figures to speak for them. There is no Head of the Thames Valley (apart from the Chief Constable)or First Minister of the south – I am pleased to say – and no Mayor of the three counties or Lord Lieutenant of the Home Counties.

In my area people relate to the UK, to England, and to Wokingham Borough or West Berkshire. There is also a loyalty to the royal county even though it has no Council. The County does have sports teams, ceremonial events and various dignitaries and its own historic sense of identity.

The BBC needs to work with the senses of identity that people feel. England is increasingly aware of itself and of its needs and abilities. The BBC is not even struggling to catch up. The BBC seems determined to cling to old twentieth century ideas of balkanising England and helping the EU split us into regions which mean nothing to us.

‘The BBC Charter and Agreement expressly allows the acceptance of funding from the profits of BBC Worldwide and other BBC commercial services, funding from the Open University for appropriate programming and online services, and co-productions. ‘

 

The BBC’s main defence of its raison d’être is that it is a resource for all the creative industries of the UK without which that industry would wither and die…or at least wilt considerably.

However BBC Worldwide is fully commercial and provides the BBC with a good chunk of its funding, and then there’s the BBC studios and post production facilities, also a fully commercialised subsidiary of the BBC, which works hand in hand with those creative production companies to produce their ‘award winning’ content…

Creating and preserving award-winning content

We work with media companies to create and manage award-winning content across all genres for a wide range of platforms and broadcasters, including ITV, Channel 4 and Sky, as well as the BBC.

From providing best in class HD TV studios and innovative post production workflows to industry leading digital media services, distributing, managing and adding value to content.

We are flexible in our approach and work with projects of all shapes and sizes.

As a fully owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, our teams have a deep understanding of programme making and media handling.

Talented experts are at the heart of our operation and can guide and advise you through the whole process.

Much BBC content is actually produced in partnership with other commercial broadcasters, the film about the Mississippi posted earlier was made in partnership with Discovery Channel which really invalidates the claim that no other broadcaster would produce the range and quality of programmes that the BBC does….other broadcasters are just as interested in, and capable of producing, unique, interesting, high quality programmes.

When it is a ‘fully owned commercial subsidary of the BBC’ that is generating work for the creative industries that pretty much negates the claim that the licence funded BBC is the sole institution that is capable of being the main generator of that creativity….especially when the commercial BBC Worldwide actually provides so much of the BBC’s funding and the Open University also pays into the BBC for its educational services….so again not from the licence fee.

Mike Cunningham, one of my fellow writers on A Tangled Web posted this review of the BBC Today programme this morning and I wanted to share.

“This morning, courtesy of the BBC’s Toady (sorry) Today Programme; we were treated, if that is the appropriate term, to selective segments of propaganda disguised as news items; I term them ‘propaganda’ because only one side of an argument is given or portrayed; with absolutely no chance of a considered discussion, especially from opponents of whatever subject is being discussed. They ranged from an impassioned critique of an EU Commission proposal to harmonise Wildlife protection measures; to the maundering pronunciations of a Lame-duck US President on why the United Kingdom must remain wedded to the European Union.

• A five minute report on the evils of gambling in Australia, and how awful it was, and all that compulsion, ‘n everything: innit?
• We heard how Prez. Barack Hussein Obama is heading back to his (Partly) ancestral homeland of Kenya, and how excited he was to speak of the ‘entrepeneurs’ who were enlivening the Kenyan business culture: and we then heard from two of Kenya’s ‘business elite’ about how successful they were, and it was all due to capitalism; or sleight of hand, or something ( No mention of the billions stolen by the larcenous Kenyan governments; but thats all because ‘boys will be boys’, and that).
• Some RSPB woman commenced  an impassioned critique of an EU Commission proposal to harmonise Wildlife protection measures; and how it was all wrong, and the birds were all doomed, and it was just terrible!
• A Sutton Trust spokeswoman declared that ‘social mobility’ was at risk because Academy schools in England were unable to improve the results of their ‘disadvantaged’ students. No mention was made of two facts which may impinge on those same results: it was possible that the whole idea of ‘Comprehensive education’ was actually ‘shit’ and; the other possibility was that the kids were either uninterested, or just plain thick!
• We were told that Chris Froome, a cyclist, was believed to be loading up with high-performance chemicals and drugs during the ‘Tour de France’, which I discovered was a form of mental torture for millions of fat Frenchmen who just could not get over the fact that yet another Englishman was beating the crap out of their fellow countrymen.
• Glaxo SmithKline informed us all that they had discovered a vaccine for malaria, but it would only be suitable for kids over one year old. It was also implied that, because the African countries where malaria was endemic were very, very, poor; lots of liberal idiots believed that GSK should give this vaccine away, despite this medication costing literally tens of millions to invent and produce, and GSK should not be allowed, under any circumstances, to actually make a profit!
• Obama featured once more, in an interview in the White House (oh how they must hate that name) and stated that Great Britain must stay in the European Union, becozz its such a good place, and becozz of ‘trade’, and becozz of the UK’s former lap-dog approach to America’s military adventures; spoiled only by our blunt refusal to bomb Syria’s Assad.
• We were then told of the dicovery of a planet named ‘Kepler-452b’ and how it was just possible that life may exist outside our Solar System, and how exciting this was, and how squillions more money was needed for more ‘research’, and telescopes, and things like that!
• Some bloke then was interviewed about some snake, or it may have been a lizard, which had lived some hundred million years ago, which had been re-discovered in some museum in Germany; which was ‘dead interesting’ and also exciting; or something.
• The NHS also featured, and we were told how Emergency Care  stuff and things were gonna’ get better, but not, unfortunately; for a long, long time; probably about the same length of time as the snake’s remains had been in the museum!

Here you go, a NEW Open Thread to see us off into the weekend! Hope you are enjoying the new environment, once we all settle in I think it will be great! Detail the bias here please.

Is anyone surprised that Obama – the lame duck inhabitant of the White House – should choose the BBC to give his edict to the British people that we should stay mired in the EU? I was on BBC London this morning and pointed out that it was a disgrace that Obama used a willing BBC to subvert the likely outcome of the EU referendum in 2017 – when he will not even be President. I am sure that Cameron was aware Obama was going to use the power of the BBC to get this pro-EU message out – and this is the sort of instance where the BBC can suit the PM as he angles to keep us locked IN the failing bankrupt inept EU.