DC Alden, author of the excellent The Horse of the Gates, and a reader of this august journal (!) shares the following with us;

“I’m sure you’re probably aware by now but there was a newspaper review on BBC News this morning with a female Muslim blogger. She began with a piece about Christians offering sanctuary to Muslims wishing to leave Islam’s embrace. I didn’t catch the whole package but what I did see appeared bizarre. She claimed that Muslims who leave Islam are in no danger at all and in fact are free to choose whichever religious path they prefer. I think we  know that this is completely false and perhaps an attempt to paint Islam in a positive light in the wake of the obvious (and as yet unmentioned by the Beeb) Islamic terrorist attack in Belgium”

Anyone else catch it? Thoughts?

Gotta laugh at the do-gooding worriers of the BBC.

Honouring ‘International Women’s Day’ we get this from the BBC:

Dolly + Beyonce + Miley = Girl Power!

Fearne creates a Girl Power Playlist in honour of International Women’s Day, including tracks from the likes of Beyonce, Miley, Adele and even some Dolly Parton!!!

And there was this:

Girl Power: Going for Gold

I imagine Google could keep on churning out the links for quite some time…however it’s all got to stop…you know…all this ‘Girl’ nonsense….so derogative and insulting…belittles and demeans wimmin:

BBC in censorship row after the word ‘girl’ is cut from documentary

This item was posted by my colleague Mike Cunningham over on A Tangled Web and I think it warrants your consideration.

“Listening on the Beeb’s Today Programme to what must be considered a true favourite of the BBC’s way of group-think. The woman being interviewed had a son who had been kidnapped by the Nigerian Boko Haram bunch of criminal terrorists, and he had been killed during a rescue attempt. The woman was being interviewed as she had personal knowledge of these muslim killers, but she was saying that the Nigerian government should ‘open a dialogue’ with these fanatics, they should explore ‘areas of compromise’; and if necessary her son’s killers should be released as part of a deal with the Boko Haram bunch, who hold nearly three hundred girls from a school in Northern Nigeria.

When I state ‘true favourite of the BBC’s way of group-think’, I believe that this is what has been a total ‘belief’ tenet of the Corporation for decades. We must, in the eyes of the BBC, always compromise, always defer to others, never ever stand on principle, never ever argue or stand up for what we, as a nation, used to believe in or argue from a moral standpoint.

The woman whose son was murdered by these muslim killers is, of course, tragically mistaken in hoping for dialogue or compromise with any group who operates under the shadow of terror, or the bullet. The Nigerian government must, in my own view, organise and operate a policy of ‘search and destroy’ against the shadowy terrorists who seem to operate with impunity in the north of that burdened and corrupt country. They must operate as we, in Great Britain, singularly failed to during our own terrorist struggle; they should operate on a ‘shoot to kill’ policy, they should operate on the fact that ‘the only good terrorist is a dead terrorist’ with no bargains, no cushy prisons, no cosy deals, and they should never, ever, offer a place in Government if the terrorists would only promise to ‘disarm and place their weaponry beyond use’; mainly because we all know how weasel promises like that end up!“

Here you go, an really early Open Thread for your use!!! Try to restrict your European election analysis to THAT thread and let’s keep this for other issues. I am out of the UK on business for a few days, back mid week!

Right. It’s time for a new thread to discuss BBC coverage of the EUROPEAN elections results as they roll in! I see the Front National have topped the poll in France…

Biased BBC Graeme Thompson aka Hippiepooter offers us this!

Clearly, £ Stirling as “Britain’s currency doesn’t make the BBC happy.

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20140522-are-money-and-happiness-linked

The death of the Queen Mother couldn’t induce BBC presenters to wear black ties, but one suspects tomorrow’s euro-election results may well do so!”

Just a few confirmations of the usual casual bias or lazy thinking from within the Bubble.

Nicky Campbell on Friday declared that it was quite unfair of the Press to publish those photos of Miliband munching on a not very Kosher bacon sarny:

However…Miliband was on the stump looking for that photo opportunity to present himself as a man-of-the-people….he made a mess of it and showed bad judgement…so fair game.

Would Campbell have said it was unfair coverage if the PR stunt had come off and the Press had reported what a superb way with a bacon sandwich Miliband had…his statesmanlike consumption of it a shining example of his man-of-the -people credentials?

In contrast Campbell made absolutely no mention of the blitz on Farage by just about every single paper and broadcaster.

On From Our Own Correspondent the ever reliable source of bias or notably daft comments (remember Fort Hood) Mark Mardell told us that in the UK the words ‘Liberal democrat‘ describes a party and are not an insult.  Really?  He’s been out of the country too long.

Later Peter Oborne on a ‘Week in Westminster’ looked at UKIP….quite balanced (from Oborne not the politicians)  even though he is a cheerleader for UKIP….but what was of interest was a final word (24 mins) from Stephen Glover from the Mail who panned the BBC’s coverage of UKIP during the election run up….the Media class are just as out of kilter with the public as the politicians are…and yet the BBC itself does not look at this question preferring to talk only of the politicians lack of connection to the ‘country’.

Following on from that what of John Humphrys’ interview with Osborne on Saturday? (08:36)

Humphry’s sole narrative was ‘Will the Tories do a deal with UKIP?’

A fair question and the answer is rather strange…the Tories did a deal with the far left lentil munchers but won’t do a deal with the natural allies politically and philosophically of the big C Conservatives.

The real question of course is if they aren’t going to do a deal with UKIP how are they going to attract those voters who like UKIP’s policies on immigration and Europe.

From what Osborne said you could infer that he was going to ignore those voters and rely on people just not wanting Miliband in power…his election plan is to basically say if you vote UKIP you’ll get Miliband…but we’re not changing our policies on immigration and Europe.

So despite his slogan, ‘Listen, Respond, Deliver‘, he’s not going to do any of those things…but of course nor are Labour.

But Humphrys didn’t ask the question…Humphrys concentrated on the solution being the deal with UKIP…but if no deal….what policy changes will the Tories introduce to win those UKIP voters?….that surely is the big central question that needs answering but Humphrys didn’t notice the inference that Osborne & Co are going to ignore UKIP voters

Is it just me or is the new iPlayer a complete shambolic mess?

The old one wasn’t perfect by anymeans, clunky but usable, but the new one is abysmal, confusing and hard to navigate and find anything…browsing wasn’t a delight before, now it’s just a lucky dip or a grind through the hidden listings…almost as if they didn’t want you to find things to watch.

Pretty certain it won’t grow on me.

Hope they have some money left in the kitty for a revamp of the revamp.

Why does UKIP not attract so many voters in London?

The BBC tells us:

Demography

Neil Hamilton said London was “difficult territory” for UKIP because it was so “cosmopolitan”. Earlier it was put to the party’s communities spokesman, Suzanne Evans, on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the party had some difficulty appealing to Londoners because they tended to be “cultural, educated, and young” – reportedly a direct quote from one of her fellow UKIP spokesmen. The party was “increasingly” attracting such people, she replied – but not yet in London. After much criticism of her role in these exchanges, Ms Evans said she was emphatically “NOT saying non-Londoners [are] ‘thick'”. But there is no point denying that most research and polls suggest the party has significant support among older voters – a demographic group that is both growing in size and remains more likely to vote.

Curiously whilst the piece is titled ‘Demography’ there is no mention of immigration…..London being merely ‘cosmopolitan’ as Neil Hamilton describes it…the BBC ventures no thoughts on what that might actually mean.

And note the photograph….the BBC have managed to find a photo with not a single obviously ‘ethnic’ face in it.

What is going on in London is precisely the effect that Labour intended to engineer across the whole country eventually….a land ‘ethnically cleansed’ of the native Brit and now populated by those with no loyalty or relationship with the historic land and its people and whose votes will swing elections.

Importing millions of Europeans was no ‘mistake’….one reason for doing so was that any future referendum on our relationship with Europe could hinge on a few votes…therefore importing people who come from ‘europe’ and have an affinity for it and who in all likelihood would vote to stay closely tied to Europe is an obvious strategy.

This BBC report might give a clue as to the reality of that suggestion:

Elections 2014: Poles seeking to get their voices heard

May’s local and European elections will see record numbers of Poles going to the ballot box in the UK. With up to half a million votes up for grabs, is it time British politicians took them seriously?

Lucas Szlek came to the UK from Poland as a 16-year-old with his parents in 2001. Having spent most of his adult life in Britain, he is standing as a Labour council candidate in Southampton.

“I think voting in the democratic election is part of integrating with British society,” he says.

“I believe lots of Polish people share the same principles as the British people and I think part of integration with a society is to contribute to the further decision making in Britain for everyone.”

Research by Polish City Club and Ipsos Mori suggests 72% of Polish people currently in the UK intend to stay. Is Mr Szlek pointing to a future where greater Polish representation will be a natural element of Britain’s political scene?

Daniel Kawczynski, for now Britain’s only MP of Polish origin, hopes so. “I do see Parliament changing and evolving… to properly reflect the changing nature of British society,” he says.

The 2011 census showed there are more than 600,000 Poles in the UK, and all EU citizens have the right to vote in both local and EU elections.

“These elections definitely will be those elections that Poles participate in, in the largest numbers, I think, throughout the last 10 years,” says Mr Byczynski.

Not least because the issues affect them.

“We cannot talk about relations with the EU and ignore the voice of the main immigrant group,”” he says.

But before it is assumed this means votes in the bag for the pro-EU campaign, the research by Polish City Club and Ipsos Mori paints a more complicated picture.

They found that half of Poles in the UK were intending to vote, but 50% of those were yet to decide who for.

“If the parties canvass their votes, they will receive support – even from a minority group called the Polish friends of UKIP,” Roger Casale, chairman of New Europeans, says about the Polish community.

“Very few politicians seem to have understood this. Yet the number and the concentration of Polish expat votes will change the outcome of elections in many marginal seats.

“Some Polish candidates have enough support to win even as independents.”

The Daily Mail reports:

Why Britain bombed Germany with copies of the Beveridge report: Dream of a welfare state ‘helped bring down Hitler’

• RAF crews dropped copies of the Beveridge Report on occupied Europe
• The report was seen as a psychological weapon to undermine morale
  
• Senior Nazis thought Britain had accepted the theory of ‘national socialism’

British airman dropped copies of the plan for a post-war welfare state on Nazi German to demoralise the population in an audacious propaganda exercise.

Copies of the 1942 Beveridge Report were translated into German and flown by RAF bombers to Berlin and jettisoned over the city.

A new book by authors John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldrige uncovers the secret war-time story of how the RAF dropped leaflets instead of bombs.

According to the book, Nazi officials decided that they would not give any publicity to the Beveridge Report, even though one suggested ‘our enemies are taking over national socialist ideas’.

‘Our national socialits ideas’?  But we’re always told that the Nazis, the National Socialists, weren’t socialists.  They were obviously deluding themselves then.

The Nazis were socialists, Labour are socialists….might explain why Labour were so keen to fling open the borders and let half of Europe march in here….success at last!

Might also explain this……

Michael Gove’s wife Sarah Vine: ‘I thought of sending our kids to Italy to get away from hatred’

The wife of education secretary Michael Gove told an audience how she has considered sending her children to live in Italy to shield them from the “hate” directed towards their father in the UK.

“There are a lot of people who really, really hate Michael who send emails saying, ‘I hope you die’,” she said.

Her conclusion:

“I used to believe that socialists were nice but misguided. Now I know that they are not nice at all. They are very vicious and aggressive people who do really horrible things.”

But who might have contributed to that atmosphere of hate directed at Gove and his family?

Could it possibly be the BBC?  Listen to ‘The Now Show’ any week and you might hear Gove compared to Hitler or some such….or HIGNFY….no slouches in mocking the Gove.

Curious though how quiet the BBC is about this story…can’t find any mention of the hate directed at the Goves by those nasty socialists.