Before Naughtie’s hatchet job on Cameron he tried slipping the scalpel into Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt at 08:10.

Naughtie begins by telling us that the NHS and its future is at the heart of the General Election….which is why it important that news organisations like the BBC get their facts straight.

But do they?

Naughtie claims that the Kings Fund has said that the ‘government has produced an NHS that has run out of money and was operating at the limits of its abilities.’

The government produced an NHS? Aren’t the problems in the NHS due to an aging population, a population that is rapidly increasing due to Labour’s immigration policy, ever more expensive drugs and the increasing availability of modern, complex and expensive medical procedures that the Public demand?

The government hasn’t just maintained NHS funding but increased it…..so I can’t quite see how Naughtie can characterise this as the government’s fault per se.

Naughtie claims that the money has ‘been wasted on a vast reorganisation of the NHS.’

Hunt tells him that the reforms, as said by the King’s Fund, save £1.5 billion per year.

Naughtie says that ‘There’s no argument about the numbers’…despite him previously claiming there were no savings only ‘money wasted’ and then ignores his own statement and claims that ‘the idea that the reforms have saved money is an idea that most people in the NHS do not accept…the costs of reorganisation are very, very high indeed!’

So despite Hunt and the King’s Fund saying that the reforms save money, and Naughtie agreeing that there’s no argument about the numbers, he then completely dismisses that and goes on to claim that the costs are enormous.

Here is what the King’s Fund says (Odd how one thing the Fund says is the gold standard, the next it’s rubbish depending on whether it supports Naughtie’s view or not)…

The government estimates the total cost of the reforms to be in the region of £1.5 billion – mainly consisting of the financial costs of closing down abolished organisations, setting up new ones and making redundancy payments. But it is argued that this has been offset by cumulative financial savings from abolishing a managerial tier of the NHS and cutting the number of commissioning staff of nearly £5 billion over the parliament (and an estimated £1.5 billion per year thereafter).

Others have queried these estimates of both the costs (too small) and the savings (too big). And while estimating a net financial benefit from the reforms, the National Audit Office has questioned the detail of the government’s cost estimates.

As finances have tightened, the NHS has done well to generally maintain increasing trends in workloads. It is not surprising then that the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest productivity across the NHS in the UK (not just England) for the three years 2010 to 2012 has improved by 1.6 per cent per year. This is more than the long-run average of 0.7 per cent – but is much lower than the 3 per cent to 4 per cent per year needed to close the funding gap.

 

So he King’s Fund admits that the ONS says that there is a net benefit and that productivity has also increased.

But it also says this revealing statement….

Even with the net financial benefit, such organisational restructuring and reviewing of central budgets did not require the total reform or an act of parliament – the squeeze on funding would have been enough to ensure this would happen.

So the organisational restructuring and review of budgets would still have had to have happened due to the financial constraints….so there was no escape from them reform or no reform.

It is also notable that the NHS has the second highest approval rating in its history from the Public…that’s despite what Naughtie claims to be a very, very expensive and vast reform of the NHS.

It seems that Naughtie had his agenda and stuck to it regardless of the facts….so on the subject of the NHS, at the heart of the General Election, we get absolute rubbish from one of the BBC’s top interviewers on its premier news programme.

Might as well have Clarkson on the show punching those he disapproves of and raving about those he likes….about as informative as Naughtie and vastly more entertaining.

Andrew Neil remains one of the very few IMPARTIAL presenters on BBC political programmes. He treats all of those politicians who venture into his den with the same penetrating insight and is a pleasure to watch. Here he is exposing the vacuous heart of Labour economic policies, something I am sure that will not go down with at least some of his bosses at the BBC!

It’s interesting to consider how the BBC is treating the grotesque US surrender to Iran’s mad Mullahs as an act of supreme political statesmanship by John Kerry and his master, Obama.

Representatives of six world powers are intensifying talks with Iran on its nuclear programme, ahead of a 31 March deadline for a deal. The US secretary of state and German and French foreign ministers have all cancelled their travel plans in a final push for an agreement. Representatives from China, Russia and the UK are also at the negotiations. US officials say all parties have agreed to a “step by step approach” to the deal, but sticking points remain. The world powers, known as the P5+1 group – the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany – want to ensure that Iran cannot develop nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, back in reality and certainly not for BBC output…

“The tons of spoken and printed verbiage poured out on the Iranian nuclear issue and ongoing diplomacy year after year have exposed, rather than disguised, President Obama’s willingness to sign a nuclear deal with Iran – however bad and whatever the price.
The inescapable conclusion is that the US president has come around to accepting the reality of a nuclear-armed Iran. As seen from Washington, America never stopped India, Pakistan and North Korea from becoming nuclear powers, and has therefore decided it can live with a fourth – Iran”

Whether Israel can live with it seems of little interest to Obama, and the BBC seem prepared to hail the deal that will be reached in Switzerland as a breakthrough when it is in fact a breakdown of any vestigial political principle by Saint Obama.

I don’t watch Top Gear nor am I a fan of Jeremy Clarkson. I do enjoy some of his written articles and it is pretty clear he is not a part of the BBC Hive, despite the massive popularity of the programme he presents. What bothers me is that ever since the BBC took the decision NOT to renew his contract (he was not “sacked”) the BBC have run endless attacks on Clarkson by all hues of politicians and alleged “comedians.”  Clarkson cannot defend himself and whatever one thinks of what he did do/didn’t do – It seems odd to me the BBC has not found one commentator that will defend him.  It’s only a week since Nigel Farage found himself at the end of such very public bullying by a group of hard leftist extremists and the BBC saw fit to present this as amusing. The truth is too many in the BBC wanted to get Clarkson and he was fool enough to give them what they wanted.

Jim Naughtie has run the BBC rule over the Labour and Conservative leaders to see how they measure up.

Any guesses?

Here’s the Miliband run down…..though not running him down in the slightest.  It takes 4 minutes before Naughtie can find anything critical to say of Miliband and then it’s only to ask if he is a bit indecisive…the answer of course being absolutely not…it’s a sign of intellect and considered thought.  The only other critical word that Naughtie could come up with was ‘defensive’…but then again is that critical or was it intended to give the impression of Miliband being under unwarranted and unfair pressure from attacks on him by his opponents?

The first part of the piece was in fact not really about Miliband but about his family and background…adding, as Naughtie might have said, ’emotional colour’ to the story, value added sympathy for Miliband.  We heard of him being steeped in the leftwing politics of his family which almost had the flavour of a crusade…and we had a clip of Ralph Miliband attacking the vested interests of politicians, the military and big business….so trying to link father and son’s ideologies despite Miliband trying to distance himself from that in his attack on the Daily Mail.

Naughtie suggests that this might seem like a sort of privileged background but, Naughtie tells us, Miliband had to read up on the politics, argue his position and trade ideas…going to Oxford University as his father wanted….so a good, obedient boy doing his duty to his father….and one who is up for a political argument….has Naughtie moulded that to fit in with Miliband’s claim that he is up for the fight?

All the people brought on to discuss Miliband praise him or at least have nothing negative to say…Damien McBride suggests that Miliband was a fish out of water in the Brown camp….alluding to Miliband claiming to be a new kind of politician?  We know of course, because the BBC tells us, that we all hate the ‘old politics’, so Miliband must be a breath of fresh air!

We hear that Miliband is not a fan of the ‘dark arts’ of politics or the Media gladhanding…neither is he a fan of shortermism in politics….and indeed yes, he’s a different kind of politician..one that wants to think about the world.

Tessa Jowell, a supporter of David Miliband, didn’t say why she didn’t support Ed but told us that David only wishes Ed well…so that’s alright then, despite all the backstabbing the love’s still there…David forgives, so should you.

Jowell later tells us that Miliband is resilient, calm under fire and has his own brand of authority and that people see through the attacks on his personality.

Naughtie says the polls might suggest otherwise but the reply is that his stance on some subjects has caught people’s imagination…the attacks on Murdoch and the Mail and the price freeze on energy for instance.

Naughtie asks if the Public will decide where to place their vote based on ideas and not the man.

Despite that Naughtie then goes on to ask, considering that politics is a tough business, has Miliband got what it takes?

The answer naturally enough was yes, Miliband is absolutely tough enough!

All in all an easy going, sympathetic assessment of Miliband with little of note to say in a critical vein…nothing about Syria or the Unions or the total lack of credibility of his major policy announcements from the energy price freeze to pre-distribution or his latest idea to cap the profits of private companies working for the NHS….an impossible task….just ask those who seek to tax Amazon and Co….and nothing about the serious ructions in the Labour Party about his leadership, and no mention that Europe is just as contentious inside Labour as inside the Tory Party.

David Cameron had in contrast a much rougher ride from Naughtie (08:44) who derided Cameron, his upbringing, his personality and his policies, and the people who came on to discuss Cameron were mostly lukewarm, damning in their faint praise or hostile to him whilst Miliband’s were all on-board and on-message.

Naughtie began by saying that the ‘some might say’ overprivileged Cameron was a pragmatist and not an ideologue…but it wasn’t a good pragmitism..it was based upon Cameron’s lack of believe in anything.  This set the scene for the rest of the piece in which Naughtie constructed the case against Cameron to prove Naughtie’s initial claim.

Naughtie asks Andrew Mitchell ‘Of whom is [Cameron] a son?’

Mitchell suggests MacMillan as a possibility…Naughtie claims that many in the Tory party would regard MacMillan as a man who believed in nothing and just wanted to keep the show on the road…remarkable that Naughtie has that to hand….perhaps he already knew ‘MacMillan’ might be the reply to his question about Cameron being the ‘son of’…and had his putdown ready as he asks ‘Is that Cameron’s essence?’

We are told by Naughtie that Cameron harks back to the era of MacMillan who was a man of the ‘regiment, the gentleman’s club and the grouse moor but who liked his politics stripped of ideology.’ Another put down and an allusion to Cameron’s alleged distance from real life.

The Tory Party is divided we are told….and reluctant to support a man who will not fight a battle of beliefs.

Naughtie asks if Cameron cares about what his backbenchers think…we hear not.  Naughtie has his cue and takes that not caring about what the backbenchers might think to Cameron not caring about anything and says that ‘not caring’ is a badge politicians don’t like to wear but it is inescapable that Cameron likes to glide above the fight…..Naughtie then claiming Cameron doesn’t care…..suggesting an aloof aristo out of touch with the world and the people….hmmm…a Labour message.

We hear that it is inevitable that Cameron carries the stamp of his Etonian school days and that his critics see him as a Flashman character…cue helpful clip of what the BBC believes is such an attitude.

We then hear, after being told that Cameron likes to dodge a fight about his ideals, that he is too aggressive and relishes a fight.

Then it’s rapidly on to his management style or lack of…apparently Downing Street is not a perfectly tuned machine, it’s run on instinct and depends on last minute decisions rather than considered and measured thought….more short term reactionism than long term planning.

Naughtie happily accepts that description and then claims that such a way of running things has consequences…such as the apparently disastrous NHS reforms that Downing Street didn’t seem to be in charge of…Cameron is not a good manager and didn’t realise what was going in…really? or is that just a BBC fantasy?

Cameron, we are told, is distant, ramshackle and lazy in his approach to government.

Naughtie slams him with a sly comment that ‘no one doubts his cleverness’ and goes on to describe the Tory Party as completely split and unmanageable….no mention of Labour’s own internal squabbles in Miliband’s hagiography which are just as serious.

Naughtie then goes back to his original contention, now ‘proved’, that Cameron is more a pragmatist than a man with any beliefs.

Pretty damning for Cameron whilst Miliband gets away without a mark on him.  Miliband is thoughtful, longterm, and has an ideology that he believes in and will fight for…Cameron is a failure as prime minister, a charlatan just looking to stay in power and willing to do and say anything and adopt any short term policy to do so.  Business as usual from the BBC.

Via Bishop Hill.…the BBC’s idea of balance in reporting climate change…they are investigating sceptic’s claims about the science….and yet they are all pro-climate change people on the programme…Mark Lynas is an author and environmental campaigner, Mike Hulme is professor of Climate and Culture at Kings College London and Dr Helen Czerski is a broadcaster and ‘bubble physicist’ at UCL.

@SellaTheChemist @theresphysics @MichaelEMann @4589roger @guynewey And actually, it’s v. balanced in sense that there is no “skeptic” voice.

 

But also look at this…Climate propagandist Michael Mann complains...

.@guynewey @BBCNews The @BBC‘s entire framing is ill-premised and misleading:

Note the bit about ‘the well documented pause in the warming of the climate since 1998’….it’s now disappeared from the programme blurb….it is now ‘the well documented slow down of the climate since 1998’…

Amazing what a quick moan on Twitter can do to influence the BBC.

The BBC, as David has mentioned, has made yet another election attack on the Tories with claims of a ‘revelation’…

Election 2015: Conservative benefit cut options leaked

The Conservatives are considering options for scrapping several benefits, Department for Work and Pensions documents seen by the BBC suggest.

The leaked files, commissioned by Tory officials, also suggest a regional benefits cap and taxing disability benefits as ways to help cut £12bn from the welfare budget by 2017/18.

 

 

Strange that that is another very old story that the BBC that has disinterred at a convenient time for Labour…from the Telegraph in January 2014.….

George Osborne pledges £12bn cuts in Government welfare spending after next general election

Chancellor George Osborne announces plans as part of a package of cuts after the 2015 election worth £25 billion in total

‘News’ from the BBC or propaganda?  Then again they tried the same tactic when they attempted to stitch the Tories up with a 5 year old story about HSBC and Lord Green…only to find out that their very own head of the BBC Trust,  Rona Fairhead, was responsible for auditing HSBC’s books and is still employed by them on a mega salary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aqNBEpdao4

The BBC is being strangely quiet about events surrounding the three little Jihadis who skipped off to join Isis.  The BBC has until recently been bombarding us with tales of distraught families and police and security service failures.

What anyone with a questioning mind might have asked is how the parents of these girls remained in the dark about their intentions, or possible intentions, when their close friend, Sharmeena Begum, had already left for Syria in December.

In light of the fact that she was a close friend of the girls and that the parents must have known each other, especially in such a close community in which news would travel very fast, is it really likely that the three girl’s parents had no idea that the friend had left to go to Syria and that therefore their own daughters might be susceptible to whatever ideas led to that friend leaving to join ISIS?  Apparently it is entirely possible they knew nothing….and the BBC reported such blessed ignorance without challenge.

The BBC was more than happy to swallow whatever guff the parents came up with about their own lack of knowledge and how it was all the Police and MI6’s fault.  Yet another example of the BBC looking to absolve the Muslim community of any blame….the BBC’s thinking is that if the parents are found to be at fault it will reflect badly on the whole community and Islam itself…therefore don’t turn over any stones and uncover anything uncomfortable.

Not all people are so deliberately naive….the Telegraph reports that Social Services, again not the parents, had to intervene in yet another case of ‘radicalisation’…

Mr Justice Hayden made the move following an application from social services bosses at the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

He was told that social workers had raised concerns that the girls might flee to areas controlled by the Islamic State

 

The BBC hints at the parent’s part in events..

A number of adults involved in their care have also had their passports seized.

There was evidence to suggest family members in the case had not been “full and frank” with social services, the judge said, and that the girls were becoming “more radicalised”.

Why no mention of Abase Hussen? (see below)  It would seem to be an ideal place in a BBC report to mention his own extremism.

The BBC are themselves being less than ‘full and frank’ with us…it’s not as if it isn’t an important subject…the reasons behind the radicalisation of British Muslims….something which is central to all debate on this subject.

Why for instance do they make no mention of this story from the Mail?….

Father who blamed police for not stopping his daughter joining ISIS, attended 2012 rally led by hate preacher Anjem Choudary and attended by Lee Rigby killer

Sensational footage has emerged showing the father of one of the three schoolgirl ‘jihadi brides’ at the head of an Islamist rally led by hate preacher Anjem Choudary and attended by Michael Adebowale, the killer of soldier Lee Rigby.

The video shows Abase Hussen marching at the front of the demonstrators, behind a banner reading: ‘The followers of Mohammed will conquer America’.

He was filmed chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ amid dozens of protesters and standing just yards away as the American flag is burned.

Kind of an important revelation that the father of one of the ‘radicalised’ Jihadi Brides was himself a ‘radical’.  The BBC has been trying to downplay the part Islam has to play in the radicalisation of Muslims and by distancing the girls’ radicalisation from their families and their own culture tries to place the blame elsewhere..on internet extremists, MI6 and the Police, or foreign policy….never putting the blame where it belongs.

The BBC’s lack of interest in the father’s extremism is strange when you consider their recent indepth look at Jihadis…

Tracking Britain’s jihadists

Guess they’ll be adding him to the list one day.

The BBC’s ‘tracking’ of Jihadis is yet another attempt to mislead the audience…the BBC presenting the ‘radicalisation’ merely as a result of people in one location who are friends with each other and encourage each other to join up…failing to mention the underlying reasons that make them decide to do that…

So what does the data tell us? For a start, many of those who have gone to Syria or Iraq have done so in clusters.

Take Ifthekar Jaman’s hometown of Portsmouth, for example.

This cluster relied on friendship and geography – but there are also ties developed via social media.

We know that Jaman played a key role in the movement of a cluster of young men from Cardiff and Manchester.

Friendship and online links have both played a role in the decisions of 11 girls and women to travel to the region, such as the four teenagers from east London who went missing in recent months.

….but it’s not some ‘Famous Five’ adventure as the BBC wants to portray this as…the radicalisation has ideological roots based on well known Islamic obligations put upon Muslims by their religion that the BBC doesn’t explore.

The BBC dismisses claims that they are ‘hard-core’ jihadis if they travel to Syria…

Late last year, some security chiefs across the West thought that the numbers going to the region were levelling off because many would-be travellers had now come to understand the true nature of the self-styled Islamic State’s aims and barbarity.

That meant those still determined to go were hardcore jihadist sympathisers – and they were presumed to be a small group.

Whether that analysis still stands is open to question.

 

You know what, I don’t think it is open to question…if you travel to the Middle East to join an organisation whose brutality and fundamentalist ideology is unmissably well known then you have to want to be a part of that….pretty ‘hard-core’ I’d say.

The BBC is playing fast and loose with the facts…giving us ones it wants us to have, hiding less convenient ones and those it can’t hide it tries to bury under equivocations and claims of the facts being ‘open to question’.

I thought it was interesting the way the BBC present the “news’ that the Conservative Party are considering options for scrapping several benefits, Department for Work and Pensions document.

The leaked files, to the BBC (SIC) commissioned by Tory officials, also suggest a regional benefits cap and taxing disability benefits as ways to help cut £12bn from the welfare budget by 2017/18. The Conservatives insisted the proposals were not party policy. Labour’s Rachel Reeves said the public had a “right to know” the plans. The shadow work and pensions secretary has written to the Conservatives demanding they explain what welfare cuts they intend to make.

Look at the image the BBC selected to lead the story…

Cruel Tory bastards, right? Vote Labour, right?

At every turn, the BBC is trying to present sensible economics from the Conservatives in the worst possible light. In the face of excellent economic news on just about every front, Labour needs the BBC to do what it can to minimise the advantages to Mr Cameron.

Most polls indicate that Cameron emerged as the winner in the Channel 4/Sky debate last evening. But at 6.30am this morning and then subsequently across its news channel, the BBC handed the victory to Miliband. Remarkable.