Beware the preacher man….I didn’t take that advise and was treated to a sermon about slavery last Sunday on R4 (13 mins)….should you be a slave don’t despair, have faith, Jesus saves….the manacles of every kind of slavery are hammered loose by the love of Christ….who will be your new Master, the living God, the God of light and truth and justice.  Praise the Lord.

However to more earthly matters slavery apparently is all that demeans human beings…Pope Francis says of modern slavery that it is an open wound on the body of contemporary society, a scourge upon the body of Christ.

It comes in many forms….human trafficking its worst manifestation, and a slavery to ideology and prejudice isn’t too hot but then we get to the real scourge of modern life….a slavery to consumption, a slavish belief in a materialistic world that disregards the supernatural dimension of reality, a slavery to the power of Darkness!

Gosh.

All very good but how do they explain this…

Church of England stores up riches on Earth

The value of Church of England property and shares jumped by £800m last year to nearly £5bn.

The church’s investments in multinationals and other companies which make up the bulk of its share portfolio have also attracted controversy.

 

Or this…

The Church of England’s investments are wide-ranging and complex.

They range from pieces of woodland used for timber to investment strategies run by some of the world’s biggest hedge funds, and stakes in big oil companies.

 

 

The Forces of Darkness indeed.

All that aside and the point of this post is nearing…the trendy Reverend Richard Coles was slapped down as he muttered similar sentiments as the above about the evils of consumption and materialism on Saturday Live.(26 mins)  Very funny it was too to hear his discomfort as he was contradicted by Trend forecaster James Wallman who talks about managing your ‘stuff’.

The goodly Reverend Richard Coles, on a goodly BBC salary, whitters worthily on about the ‘bonfire of the vanities’ long, long ago in Florence whenst the goodly citizens cast all their worldy possessions onto a bonfire lest they be tempted into sin.

The Rev tells us that this was a moral statement against luxury, a moral argument for making your life simpler and clearer…and it has a resonance today…no?

No.  Apparently not.

What James Wallman told us he’s not coming at this from a moralistic perspective.  It’s not about getting rid of all our stuff, it’s not anti-stuff, it’s not anti-capitalism, it’s not anti-consumerism, it’s anti-too much stuff.  You can’t find happiness, identity, status and meaning in things you want.

‘Oh’ says the Rev.  He’d just knitted himself a hair shirt.  Damn!

Giles Fraser no doubt provided a burly shoulder to cry on.

“We will not surrender; they cannot kill all of us.”

 

Agnieszka Kolek was in the cafe in Denmark that was targeted by a Muslim terrorist in the name of his religion.  She says “We will not surrender; they cannot kill all of us.”

The problem is that other people will, and have, surrendered on her behalf.  People in organisations like the BBC, and government, who make excuses for such terrorism and place the blame squarely on the ‘rest of us’ for it.

Note that a Jewish man was shot at a synagogue in Denmark by the terrorist…no doubt the BBC will be justifying his murder by virtue of his Jewishness and thereby must be guilty by association for the supposed sins of Israel…and therefore a worthy target…ala Tim Wilcox.

On that basis presumably Ukrainians can start shooting any Russians they see walking the streets of the UK in retaliation for Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine….and so on for any  other conflict in the world.

There is of course a connection to the 70 year war that the Muslims launched against Israel…and that is the extremely one sided anti-Israel coverage that the BBC broadcasts around the world knowing full well that it will whip up dangerous anti-Jewish sentiments amongst Muslims but still broadcasting it regardless.

The same BBC that goes out of its way to hide or excuse Muslim terrorism or just alien practises that are radical and extreme in a secular, modern demcracy based upon their religion just in case non-Muslims get the mistaken idea that Islam is a deeply violent and unpleasant religion.

Just why did the BBC spend £300,000 hiding the contents of the Balen Report which investigated their reporting in the Middle East?

Just what did it say?  About time we knew, about time the ‘open, transparent and accountable’ BBC let the world have a look.

The organised campaign of threats against Cathy Newman

This is criminal. And Channel Four and Streatham Mosque have both been silent over it.

Monsur Khan@Monsur_Khan

@cathynewman you lying piece of shit. Apologies are no good once the damage has been done. You are an absolute disgrace. Resign bitch!

MU@UddinMotin

@cathynewman go kill your self bitch!!

keremakyol@k_akyl

@cathynewman you know why.I hope you they kill you very soon #HarryIsPregnantFromLouis #1DTourCancelled #HappyWHDay #BocaTN #OTRALIVESTREAM

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻)@dizzy_thinks

RT @Barca1CampNou: @cathynewman Hope u and ur family die. U fuckin lying bitch. << bit harsh

mike dowson@mikedowson222

@cathynewman You disgusting, lying. war mongering, racist bitch.

Not just Channel Four and Streatham Mosque ignoring this…the BBC and Owen Jones have remained silent…well about the threats to Cathy Newman…they were quite happy to suggest Newman’s tweet was a threat to Muslims throughout the UK.

Wonder when the BBC will get around to reporting this racism that the Spectator reports…..

The orthodoxy of the ‘safe space’ has now led to racial segregation at a British university

Props to Goldsmiths Students’ Union, for taking the ‘safe space’ concept to absurd new levels. Last week, one faction of the union hosted a screening of the film Dear White People and advertised it as being ‘for BME students’. For those not au fait with this lingo, BME stands for ‘black and minority ethnic’ – and the poster specifies that this screening is for students of ‘African, Caribbean, Arab, Asian and South American ethnic origin’. The union’s welfare and diversity officer and education officer both reiterated this message on Facebook and Twitter, then stated that before the screening, there was a BME ONLY social happening at Cafe Natura.

 

 

 

When Labour opened the borders to a tide of immigrants from Europe one consideration must have been how they would vote, once they became UK citizens, in any referendum on the EU.  The likelihood would have been, as Labour no doubt calculated,  that they would vote to stay in Europe….it is well known that immigrants usually voted Labour and indeed African newspapers would urge immigrants heading to the UK to do so…in the hope that Labour would continue to hold the doors open.

The BBC has famously, and admits as much itself, not reported truthfully on immigration and has hidden the real effects of immigration upon society.

Whilst it supports unlimited immigration to the UK and claims only benefits arise from such immigration they are more open about problems that for example refugees flooding into Lebanon cause the inhabitants, and the BBC frequently raises questions about Han Chinese immigration into Muslim areas of China…

While the situation is complex, many say that ethnic tensions caused by economic and cultural factors are the root cause of the recent violence..

Major development projects have brought prosperity to Xinjiang’s big cities, attracting young and technically qualified Han Chinese from eastern provinces.

The Han Chinese are said to be given the best jobs and the majority do well economically, something that has fuelled resentment among Uighurs.

Such problems do not exist in the UK apparently.

But now the BBC admits the truth, at least one aspect of it….those EU immigrants may help swing not just an EU referendum but the election as well….

General election 2015: The growing impact of the Polish vote

Many in the Polish community say the numbers have risen sharply. Fuelled by worries about an EU referendum and its potential consequences for them, growing numbers want to vote.

the anti-immigrant rhetoric coming from politicians – not just in UKIP, but the prime minister’s focus on immigrants and benefits too.

People are worried about an EU referendum, he tells me. Many Poles fear they will be kicked out of the country if Britain votes to leave the EU. They feel David Cameron wants “to get rid of the Poles”.

“Most people think that will happen,” he says. “First you close the border, then you deal with the people you have here.”

 

Labour’s long term plan is paying off and the BBC’s failure to challenge Labour’s secret immigration plot is having serious consequences…and not just in elections.

Labour stopped the Bank of England from regulating the banks…and spun it to the BBC in a particular way….and the BBC ‘bought it’ lock, stock and barrel apparently…according to a film only shown on Scottish TV as the Telegraph tells us..

The act that some economic experts argue contributed to the financial crisis was captured by a documentary film crew.

Gordon Brown’s economic adviser is seen telling a senior journalist that the Bank strongly objected to the plan to hive off regulation of the finance industry to a new watchdog – but they had no “choice” over the decision.

The then-30 year old is later seen jubilant after the BBC’s John Sergeant gave positive coverage of the move to create the Financial Services Authority, telling Mr Brown: “Sergeant bought the whole bloody lot.”

Mr Balls is then seen briefing Robert Chote, then a senior correspondent at the Financial Times. He is now the head of Office for Budget Responsibility, set up in 2010 by Mr Osborne.

Mr Balls tells Mr Chote: “The Bank wanted to have its cake and eat it. But it was made clear to it, many years ago, that if we were to move to independence then this would happen to regulation. They’ve made no secret of the fact they didn’t want it to happen. And they probably would rather it wasn’t. But that wasn’t really the choice.”

After Mr Sergeant repeated Mr Balls’ argument that the regulatory change was “automatically” linked to independence over interest rates on the BBC news that night, Mr Balls tells Mr Brown: “Sergeant bought the whole bloody lot. It was great.”

 

 

Sergeant might have ‘bought’ Labour’s spin but we’ve been payng the price ever since.  Cheers BBC for not doing your job and challenging Labour’s narrative…as always.

A man with vast quantities of stolen bank data sent the above email to the HMRC in 2008 possibly fishing for a payment to release the data to the tax authorities.

The Foreign Secretary in 2008, David Miliband, also received the same email direct to his office.  Why are there no questions about that?

The BBC and the Guardian set the hounds running when they cobbled together a story about HSBC and whipped it up into a feeding frenzy.  Which is odd really as the story is at least 5 years old and perhaps as much as 7 years.

As the story fitted in snugly with Labour’s election attack on tax evaders and narrative of Tories protecting their millionaire friends you might conclude that this was timed perfectly to fit into Labour’s election campaign….and just because Labour announced that it planned to attack tax evaders only a few days previously to the HSBC story resurfacing does not provide evidence of any collusion on the part of the BBC with the Labour Party.  It just doesn’t look good does it?

The fact that this BBC report misses out or downplays two essential facts that undermine Labour’s narrative is neither here nor there…..

HSBC whistleblower: There are ‘more revelations’

He came across as credible, assured and clear in what he is trying to achieve.

Nothing less than a “battle against secrecy”.

And now Herve Falciani has revealed that far from this week being the end of the story, there is still plenty of information that is likely to come out about HSBC.

 

So we have a ‘whistleblower’ who is ‘credible’ and in a ‘battle against secrecy’….could do no better than start with the BBC itself then I suppose.

But he wasn’t a ‘whistleblower’ he was a thief out to make money from the data theft….he tried to sell the data to other banks and it isn’t unknown for governments to pay for stolen data such as this.

The BBC mentions this in passing but allows Falciani to dismiss it uncallenged…

Critics of Mr Falciani – and there are many – say he is a whistleblower who comes with a health warning.

They say he stole the HSBC data when he worked at the bank and originally hawked the information around for money.

He denies both allegations.

“It is wrong,” he said. “They try to kill your reputation, like the mafia. It is already starting to be proved to be wrong.

 

Then we get onto the emails he sent to the UK in 2008….or email as the BBC here reports…

The BBC has seen an email obtained by Le Monde that Mr Falciani sent in 2008 to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

It offered details of clients in what was described as a large private bank in Switzerland.

He told me that HMRC did not respond, despite a follow up phone call to the tax evasion hotline.

 

The BBC says…

There are now questions about why HMRC didn’t respond and why it has taken so long for the information to become public.

 

What the BBC report makes no mention of is the same email was sent to the Foreign Office which also denies having received it….and yet the BBC does not mention that here…nor do they raise any questions as to why the Foreign Office didn’t respond to the email…that’s the Foreign Office run by Labour then in office…

It’s not as if the BBC don’t know such an email was sent….in another report they admit that…

The email addressed to the private office of the foreign secretary followed exactly the same format.

An FCO spokesperson said: “We have checked our systems and have no record of receiving this email.”

But even in this second report the BBC still then ignores the obvious questions about the email sent to Labour’s Foreign Secretary and instead asks merely about the one sent to the HMRC…

The UK tax authority has been under fire from MPs on the Public Accounts Committee, who accused tax officials of failing to deal with the matter adequately and ignoring Mr Falciani’s 2008 email.

During a parliamentary committee hearing on Wednesday, Lin Homer, head of HMRC, was questioned forcefully over whether the tax authorities had received a communication regarding HSBC’s tax arrangements.

Ms Homer said she had “no knowledge” of an email in 2008.

A spokesperson from HM Revenue and Customs said on Thursday: “HMRC has not found a record of receiving an email or any phone call from Mr Falciani in 2008.

 

Why is Labour’s Foreign Secretary not ‘under fire’ from the BBC and indeed Labour’s own Margaret Hodge, head of the Public Accounts Committee?

Who you might ask was Foreign Secreatry in 2008?

Ed Miliband’s brother…

Just a bit awkward for Labour eh?

I’m in Belgium when you are reading this so wishing you all a great weekend and catch up on Monday. Here is where you detail the bias.

Three days ago we said this about the HSBC revelations…

And yet Labour didn’t object to Stephen Green being made a Peer or a Trade Minister…and said nothing about tax evasion and HSBC in 2010.

How can they now demand an explanation from the Government about Green’s elevation without admitting they must have turned a blind eye themselves…after all they were in government for 13 years, regulating the Banks all that time, and they probably knew about HSBC’s activities since 2008…..they were sent information from the ‘whistleblower/thief’ but now deny having received any information…can that really be true?

Maybe the BBC should ask a few questions.

 

Just listened to ‘Wake Up To Money’ and they mention that Le Monde has published the email….an email to the UK in 2008…under labour.

Not a single mention of Labour being in charge by the good Mickey and Andy.

And curiously low food prices and fuel prices are a bad thing……and purely a result of market forces, nothing to do with government…however when prices were high and wages stagnant it was the government’s fault…and again it was a disaster.

Astonishing and highly disproportionate……

An independent consultation suggested that the corporation could be given access to “new data sources” to help make collection of the charge more efficient.

A spokesman confirmed that as well as publicly available records, the databases could include information from banks, utility companies and other sources as long as it was considered “proportionate”.

The data would feed into the TV licensing Authority’s database of 31 million households, which it has been building for the last 26 years.

From the Telegraph:

BBC ‘bias’ hinders immigration crackdown, says report

The BBC’s bias in favour of immigration has been a key block on the Government’s ability to tighten control on Britain’s borders, a report has claimed.

MigrationWatch UK, which campaigns for tougher migration rules, said the Corporation was guilty of a “strong bias” and even a reluctance to address issues raised by immigration.

A report also warned there was pro-immigration in parts of the Civil Service including the Treasury, “irrespective of the impact of immigration on population growth and on the lower paid”.