Normally the BBC settles for merely rewriting the past, or just ignoring whole chunks of it (1997-2010 for instance), but today the Beeb treated us to a glimpse into the future.…apparently the vast majority of the  human population will be consigned to the scrap heap living lives of unending poverty and misery whilst a gilded elite exploit us using powerful new technology and reaping all the rewards for themselves…those rewards which shall henceforth only be available to the hereditary class of the super rich who control and own that new technology.

A ‘hereditary class of super rich’ because social mobility is over, not a prediction but a fact apparently….and it is unlikely to ever return.  Not only that but living standards have been dropping for decades and there is a staggering, historic rise in inequality as the majority do not share in the wealth generated by growth…in fact we are all getting poorer not just standing still financially.

The Western economic model, Capitalism, has failed (er…China, India, Brazil?….and em..isn’t the UK the 6th biggest economy…with the USA, France, Germany, Japan and China leading the way…seems to me Capitalism works just fine…or at least how it’s meant to work).

The solution to inequality, we’re told.  is a global tax on the super-rich.

The solution is to up the taxes so much, to 80% or so, that people are incentivised to work even harder and so earn more…..no, really.

But there’s this warning…if the formal political systems do not provide the answers then the informal political ones will….Occupy is coming to take over Tesco’s in a town near you!

The BBC gave us what it billed as a look at an economic future governed by technology, but was in reality merely an excuse to peddle the Labour Party’s narrative on inequality, social mobility and higher taxes….

‘The Future is not what it used to be’ asks how the work force of the future will be changed by the advancements of technologies. How should governments respond to a jobs market which is hollowing out opportunities for traditional educated professions and how will rewards for innovation and income for labour be distributed without creating a society plagued by endemic inequality?

The programme was based on an intelligent question asking how will technology change the economy and our circumstances.   However whilst it did deal with that question it also used the opportunity to hijack the programme for a political rant about inequality and the super rich….the answer being super taxes and redistribution on a grand scale….not just presented as a theory but an urgent necessity based on the ‘fact’ life is now so terrible and only going to get worse.

It started with a clip from Obama on the stump telling us how he has spotted how unfair the world is and how he is aiming to fix it…just vote ‘Obama’!

Not sure why the BBC would think a politician on the stump is someone with a credible, trustworthy message but they did.

We then got onto the real meat…..Stiglitz, Piketty (the new Owen Jones, but more successful) and Diane Coyle (vice, now ‘acting’ apparently, chairman of BBC Trust, part time, on £77,000…but she thinks she can lecture us on inequality…and a business advisor to the Labour Party ).

All three agreed it’s over for us…and only a communistic, Robin Hood type sharing of the spoils will prevent Occupy rampaging across the Western world and turning our pockets out and dishing the contents out to all and sundry.

That was the problem with the programme, being hijacked by the Left, being told that inequality is worse than ever and rising rapidly, that we’re all doomed, that the only remedy is some form of communism.

But just how true is all that?

For a start what is ‘inequality’, just when is too much become too much? Are we really poorer than ever, have we actually gone backwards in our wealth? Has social mobility really ended?

It seems they have conveniently forgotten the past when Rockefeller’s roamed the earth and George Orwell could write Down and Out in London and Paris and The Road to Wigan Pier.

Life to be blunt, was shit for many many people.  And not so long ago either. The poorest now live lives inestimably richer than just a few decades ago by comparison.

And wages have risen since the 70’s not fallen as Stiglitz keeps trying to suggest…the fact that the rich may have gotten richer at a higher rate than you and me is neither here nor there to you and me…it makes not one jot of difference to me in my life:

However the final word was probably the most intelligent….and not from the usual suspects of left wing agitators that gave us the above nonsense…the final word was this….

‘People take refuge in strange ideologies when times are difficult, ideologies that don’t make sense but offer a free lunch.’

For some reason I couldn’t help thinking of Old New Labour and Ed Miliband’s populist list of things he’d really love to do if you’d only just vote for him.

Go on, give him a chance, you know it makes sense….the BBC certainly seems to think so.

But before you rush out to vote read this:

Britons happier than before financial crisis as contentment plummets in Europe – OECD

Looking up Diane Coyle’s Wikipedia entry and this is what came up today:

Diane Coyle, OBE (born February 1961), is a freelance economist and a former advisor to the UK Treasury. She is a member of the UK Competition Commission and is acting Chairman of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Thought that was odd…‘acting chairman’…since when?

The answer…someone didn’t waste any time updating the entry:

Lord Patten’s plea to save the BBC as he steps down

Outgoing BBC Trust chairman praises the corporation as a ‘precious and wonderful thing’, but fears it lacks backing of the main political parties

Lord Patten’s term in office had been due to end in April next year but he explained he experienced “serious chest pains” on April 27 and went into hospital. Diane Coyle, the vice-chairman of the BBC Trust, has taken over in an interim capacity while a successor is found.

Patten says:

In a letter to Sajid Javid, the Culture Secretary, Lord Patten said: “The BBC is a huge national asset which is part of the everyday fabric of our lives. It is not perfect — what institution is? It always needs to challenge itself to improve. But it is a precious and wonderful thing, a hugely positive influence which benefits greatly from the creativity and dedication of its staff.

“I have no reason to doubt that the leaders of all main political parties support the role it plays at the centre of our public realm. Most important of all, the British public enormously value the strength of its output, its independence and the contribution it makes to the quality of our lives.”

He will be sadly missed by all…I’m sure.

Jeremy Bowen doesn’t do things by half.  Not content with merely reporting the news, in his own inimitable way, he has decided to play his part in making it, and history along with it, replacing Tony Blair as Middle East Envoy and deciding Israel has logically no right to exist if Palestinians don’t get their demands answered.

His reply when asked about the possibility of a one state solution he replies:

So Israel won’t exist in 20 years or so predicts Bowen….remember a UN representative admitted a one state solution meant Israel would be destroyed.

Bowen made an appearance on ‘From Our Own Correspondent’ (7 mins 35) on which he was supposed to tell us of the new unity agreement between Fatah and Hamas and how it would alter things in the Middle East…instead he gave us a rather politicised, anti-Israeli, anti-Fatah,  pro-Hamas take on history…before finally getting to the ‘unity’ bit…which turned out to be yet more anti-Israeli guff.

Starting off by painting a picture of Gaza as an open prison, but not detailing the 60 years of war inflicted upon Israel, Bowen goes on eventually to enlighten us about the outcome of the recent thawing in relations between Hamas and Fatah……he starts by highlighting a story of a Hamas member who says he was tortured by a Fatah dominated police force.

This is just Bowen setting the scene to excuse what the BBC like to downplay…the massacre of Fatah men by Hamas in 2007….which the BBC at the time dismissed as Hamas ‘merely flushing out the corrupt and violent Fatah’.

How did Hamas do that?  By killing every Fatah member they could lay their hands on….they roamed the hospitals killing Fatah men, they took Fatah members to the tops of buildings and threw them off, they killed Fatah members in front of their families.

But for the BBC that was, and obviously still is, OK….Bowen excuses the violence today because he tells us Palestinians were sick of Fatah’s ‘excesses, corruption and ineptitude’….so Hamas slaughtered them.

There’s absolutely no idea from Bowen that Hamas tortured and killed at will….Bowen just gives the  impression that it is only Fatah who do such things…..a familiar ring to that line of thinking from Bowen as Hamas is a Muslim Brotherhood franchise and so must be ‘moderate’.

Bowen then latches onto a conspiracy theory to further excuse the violence….The USA was conspiring with Fatah to remove Hamas after the election in 2006….not mentioning that Hamas was, and is, designated as a terrorist organisation threatening to annihilate Israel.

Curiously I can find no report from the BBC from the time claiming this was due to a US inspired Coup….there are some from others…but the usual suspects, anti-Israeli and pro-Hamas. 

Bowen tells us that the Americans helped Fatah prepare a coup against Hamas but Hamas moved first and amid brutal scenes Hamas unceremonioulsy ejected Fatah from the positions of power it still held.

Bowen tells us that the coup was organised by PA security commander Mohammed Dahlan who ‘escaped’….trouble is Dahlan wasn’t in the country at the time, he was having medical treatment in Europe…so how he organised a coup and set it in motion whilst not being there to command it…and then ‘escape’…is hard to imagine…unless you’re Bowen.

There were certainly plans to bolster the PA and channel funds to them…but this was as part of a bigger picture in developing the Palestinian ‘State’, bringing peace and security to it and to persuade Hamas to recognise Israel and give up its threats to annihilate Israel…and thence to negotiate peace with Israel.

There is no evidence that the US organised an actual coup attempt….that is merely a matter of interpretation.

Bowen’s overblown claim that the Americans were organising a ‘coup’  originated in a document obtained from an ‘Arab intelligence service’ by an Arab nationalist newspaper, Al-Majd, in Jordan in April 2007.

Bowen is claiming that this sudden revelation tipped the balance and forced Hamas to attack Fatah in Gaza in June 2007.
He no doubt would back his claim with the ‘evidence’ from this article in Vanity Fair in 2008:  The Gaza Bombshell
After failing to anticipate Hamas’s victory over Fatah in the 2006 Palestinian election, the White House cooked up yet another scandalously covert and self-defeating Middle East debacle: part Iran-contra, part Bay of Pigs.

(Note the article uses the same layout as Bowen…opening with a description of a Hamas man tortured by Fatah men)

Trouble with that is….they didn’t ‘cook up’ anything…the attempts to bolster the PA were already well under way long before any election put Hamas in charge.

Even MI6 (no comment!) were involved…..

UK’s MI6 ‘tried to weaken Hamas’

Leaked documents relating to the Middle East peace process suggest Britain’s intelligence service has been closely involved in attempts to weaken Hamas.

The documents, published by al-Jazeera, date back to 2004, before the militant group won elections in 2006 and took control of the Gaza Strip.

So no link to the al-majd document….and so no ‘US organised coup’ about to kick off that Hamas immediately had to tackle.

Bowen forgets to mention the main problem (Curious he forgets…as he wrote it in 2006):

US President George W Bush said the poll was a “wake-up call” for the Palestian leadership, but he hoped Mr Abbas would stay in power.

He said the US would not deal with Hamas unless it renounced its call to destroy Israel.

So if Hamas did renounce violence…the US would deal with them!  Undermines Bowen’s theory that the US were out purely to destroy Hamas.

Bowen also forgets to state that it was well known that all aid to Hamas was cut off in 2006 and it was channelled to the Palestinian Authority…so no surprise to Hamas a year later….nor does Bowen mention Hamas received its funding from Russia and Iran….Iran clearly stating it wants to finish off the State of Israel, and Russian no doubt would like to see America’s ally in the region taken out of the equation.

From USA Today in 2006:

The United States is pressing the Palestinian government to not only recognize Israel, but to renounce violence and form a national unity government with the moderate Fatah party.

Since Hamas took power in March, direct international aid to the Palestinian government has been largely cut off. Iran has provided the government with $120 million this year, boosting its influence among Palestinians.

Haniyeh (Hamas PM) called Iran, a longtime ally of Hamas, the Palestinians’ “strategic depth” because they were bound together in their fight against Israel.

“They (Israelis) assume the Palestinian nation is alone. This is an illusion. … We have a strategic depth in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said.

Why was Hamas refused funding?    Both Europe and the USA designated Hamas as a terrorist organisation…as does Israel:

Israel will not conduct any negotiation with a Palestinian government, if it includes any (members of) an armed terror organisation that calls for Israel’s destruction   Ehud Olmert Acting Israeli Prime Minister

Bowen then moves on to his main theme…criticising Israel….apparently Israel still runs Gaza and it can blockade Gaza in a way that is ‘devastating for the civilians’.

Then he finally gets to the point of the piece…the new agreement between Fatah and Hamas….Bowen claims that such unity will lead ‘to war crime prosecutions for Israelis and there’s BDS, or Boycott, Disvestment and Sanctions, the idea is for Israel to be as isolated as South Africa was in the 1980’s…that worries the Israelis more and more.’

So Bowen takes 95% of his time to explain away Hamas’ actions and to condemn Fatah and the US, and then moves on to tell us that Israel ‘devastates’ civilians in Gaza, but a unified Palestinian government will lead to Israel being prosecuted for war crimes and a rise in the BDS campaign.

Why has he linked these things?  It seems the only reason he links them to the unified (for now) Palestinians is as an excuse to mention them and raise their profile…he makes no mention of Palestinian war crimes and atrocities, nor does he question the BDS campaign’s legitimacy.

Why does he not raise the prospect that a unified Palestinian government might be in a better position to negotiate peace with Hamas persuaded to rein in its wilder elements.  A more hopeful scenario than Bowen’s entirely negative one…after all what good are war crime trials and BDS?  They seem only designed to ‘attack’ Israel.

Bowen’s conclusions seem nothing more than an excuse to promote the two ideas and damage Israel.

Remember who made these comments…‘most people would consider the Muslim Brotherhood as a force for moderation’….’it is wrong to stereotype them as Islamists’.

“What is new in the last year, and will be one of the big stories in the coming twelve months, is the way that Palestinian society, which used to draw strength from resistance to the occupation, is now fragmenting.
The reason is the death of hope, caused by a cocktail of Israel’s military activities, land expropriation and settlement building – and the financial sanctions imposed on the Hamas led government”

That last being a Bowen memo to the troops on Fri Jan 05 15:16:16 2007 …his final sentence gives the game away:

The result is that internecine violence between Hamas and Fatah is getting worse.

So…not a US inspired coup that led to Hamas/Fatah violence?

The BBC were quick to bring you, twice, a story about Jewish school children allegedly being traumatised when taught about the Holocaust.

The BBC though never seems to find the time to bring you any reports about the Palestinian education system….

…despite it being quite obviously traumatic…again for the Jews….guess the BBC only cares when it can paint Jews in a bad light….Jews teaching their children that the world is against them is a bad thing….but Palestinians telling their children to kill Jews…well, nothing to see here says the BBC.

Is that really why a peace settlement hasn’t been negotiated in the last 20 years…or is it more likely that this is the problem?:

In December 2006, Ismail Haniyeh, Prime Minister of the PA, declared that the PA will never recognize Israel: “We will never recognize the usurper Zionist government and will continue our jihad-like movement until the liberation of Jerusalem.”

That was in 2006….but just a few days ago things hadn’t changed:

Hamas won’t recognise Israel

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Hamas will never recognise Israel and will not accept the conditions laid out by the Middle East peacemaking Quartet, according to the Islamist movement’s deputy leader.

Speaking late on Saturday, Mussa Abu Marzuq said Hamas, which recently signed a reconciliation deal with the Western-backed Palestinian leadership in the occupied West Bank, would never agree to recognise Israel.

“We will not recognise the Zionist entity,” he said at a press conference in Gaza City

Recognising Israel is one of the key conditions laid out in the 2003 peacemaking roadmap of the Middle East Quartet, which brings together the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia.

The other two key demands are a renunciation of violence and acceptance of all prior agreements with Israel.

And considering the Israelis suspended talks because Fatah joined up with Hamas you might think that was the real problem:

The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, accused the western-backed Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, of forming an alliance with Hamas, which he called “a terrorist organisation that calls for the destruction of Israel” – and hinted at further retaliatory measures.

“What has happened is a great reverse for peace, because we had hoped the Palestinian Authority [PA] president Abbas would embrace the Jewish state, the idea of two nation states, Palestinian one and a Jewish one,” Netanyahu told NBC. “But instead, he took a giant leap backward.”

“If Abbas is back to doing business with an organisation that refuses to recognise Israel and believes in armed resistance, one cannot blame the Israeli government for abandoning the peace process.”

And yet Bowen thinks the major problem is the Settlements…Settlements are an issue but not the major one bearing in mind that the Palestinians have agreed to exchange settlements for other land handed over by Israel.

The problems are much deeper than the shallow, simplistic accusations Bowen makes in his Tweets…it’s a very selective choice of what was in the Ynetnews article in which the American’s attitude was called into question.

The US did indeed try and blame the settlement issue for a failure of talks:

The American version of why the current round of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians failed is fundamentally different to the one presented by Israeli officials. The list of those to blame for this failure is also very different. From the US perspective, the issue of the settlements was largely to blame.

You can get an inkling of the US attitude to Israel, apart from Obama not seeming personally interested, in this comment by one of the American team:

“One of the Palestinians who participated in the talks told an Israeli participant: ‘You don’t see us. We’re transparent, we’re hollow.’ He had a point. After the second intifada ended and the separation barrier was built, the Palestinians turned into ghosts in the eyes of the Israelis – they couldn’t see them anymore.”

Ynet: It almost sounds like you wish for an intifada.

“Quite the opposite, it would be a tragedy. The Jewish people are supposed to be smart; it is true that they’re also considered a stubborn nation. You’re supposed to know how to read the map: In the 21st century, the world will not keep tolerating the Israeli occupation. The occupation threatens Israel’s status in the world and threatens Israel as a Jewish state.”

However, earlier in the interview one said: “I guess we need another intifada to create the circumstances that would allow progress.”

Ynet: The world is being self-righteous. It closes its eyes to China’s takeover of Tibet, it stutters at what Russia’s doing to Ukraine.

“Israel is not China. It was founded by a UN resolution. Its prosperity depends on the way it is viewed by the international community.”

Not quite sure why the way Israel was created is relevant…either it is a sovereign, legitimate nation or it isn’t, regardless of its origin.

The American team give a version of events that favours only the Palestinians and damns the Israelis…here even when Abbas rejects the deal it’s still the Israeli’s fault:

He was willing to give the process one final chance, but found, according to him, that he has no partner on the Israeli side. His legacy won’t include a peace agreement with Israel.

“In February, Abbas arrived at a Paris hotel for a meeting with Kerry. He had a lingering serious cold. ‘I’m under a lot of pressure,’ he complained. ‘I’m sick of this.’ He rejected all of Kerry’s ideas. A month later, in March, he was invited to the White House. Obama presented the American-formulated principles verbally – not in writing. Abbas refused.

“The claim on your side that Abbas was avoiding making decisions is not true. He wasn’t running away, he was just stuck.”

Not Abbas’ fault at all then.

No wonder Bowen wants to draw attention to this interview…unattributed by name to anyone…just ‘the team’of American negotiators beating up on Israel….bearing in mind their boss, John Kerry, used the phrase ‘apartheid state’ in relation to Israel.

Question is why would Bowen like to point to the Settlements as the major issue rather than Hamas’ refusal to recognise Israel and its stated desire to wipe Israel off the map?

Well then, I have of course been following the BBC’s coverage of the arrest and subsequent release of Gerry Adams. What struck me was the almost palpable euphoria expressed by SOME BBC correspondents when Grisly was released last evening.

The Today programme this morning summed it all up when, during an interview with one of Jean McConville’s children, the interview seemed struck dumb when he said he did not trust Gerry Adams. Further, he added that in 2005/2006 Adams had brokered meetings between him and IRA men. The interview interrupted to suggest they HAD BEEN in the IRA but obviously they were no longer. Mr McConville explained they were in IRA in the present tense.

The BBC has long sanitised the likes of Adams and McGuinness and the very idea that Gerry the Peacemaker is actually a terrorist godfather whose IRA are dripping in the blood of innocents such as Jean McConville, who it kidnapped, tortured and murdered in cold blood.

Why does it not ask Adams how can it be that if he was not in the IRA, others who were said he was their leader? Why does not it not ask Martin McGuinness, who by his own admission WAS  an IRA commander, what exactly did he command be done? Why does the BBC give every impression of being pro-Sinn Fein???

I see the BBC is now actually leading the campaigning against Sugar.

Two thirds of people support a ban on sugary drinks in all UK schools and academies, suggests a poll carried out for the BBC. The Populus poll of 1,000 adults in Britain also found more than four out of 10 people would support a tax on sugary drinks. And 59% said warnings on packaging – similar to those on cigarettes – would encourage them to eat more healthily. Six out of 10 wanted supermarkets to stop promotions on unhealthy food.

Now, whether or not one approves of sugar (I don’t but then again I am diabetic and have little choice!) surely the BBC has absolutely NO mandate to campaign either FOR or AGAINST??

Bank Holiday arrives and so does this! Enjoy!

Here the BBC reports the latest news on the Trojan Horse plot:

‘Trojan Horse’: Head teachers’ fears over six schools

 Head teachers believe there were “concerted efforts” to infiltrate and run about six Birmingham schools in line with hardline Muslim principles.

The head teachers’ union, NAHT, has been working with about 30 members in 12 Birmingham schools over claims of a plot known as Operation Trojan Horse.

General secretary Russell Hobby said he had serious concerns about events in half of these schools.

He said he believed the Trojan Horse letter was fake but it did refer to some incidents that appeared to have happened in some schools.

Mr Hobby will address the matter in his speech this weekend, saying that it is neither a cause for panic nor a cause for comfort.

He will say: “A tight network of religious leaders of the Islamic faith has made a concerted effort to get involved in the running of schools, and to strengthen the power of governing bodies to have a dominant influence in shaping the character of local schools.

“It is not clear that they have done anything wrong just by doing this. Indeed, such actions are officially encouraged.”

Firstly….the BBC once again reports that the belief is that the Trojan Horse letter is fake.

The problem with that is that the letter is not a fake, it reiterates everything that the man at the centre of the claims, Tahir Alam, laid out in 2007 in the Muslim Council of Britain’s ‘guidelines’ for schools to follow if they had Muslim pupils attending.

The BBC makes no mention of those guidelines, and never has in its reports concerning the Trojan Horse plot…a surprising omission considering that they provde conclusive proof of the intentions of Alam and his cohorts in the MCB…..a man who also claims the letter is a fake…“a malicious fabrication and completely untrue”.

Wonder just who the fake is really?

How many education authorities adopted those guidelines?

This one certainly did:

This is from Ealing Council:

So just how far spread is the problem?  Clearly it could be country wide and not just limited to areas with a Muslim majority…any school with Muslim pupils could be adapting itself to run under Muslim rules rather than secular or Christian ones….and it seems the rest of the pupils have to adapt also….which is a rather curious way of operating….are their cultures and beliefs and values so unimportant that they can be cast aside under pressure from Muslim activists?

How easily we cast aside our own society and culture……as illustrated by Hobby’s revelation and attitude:

“It is not clear that they have done anything wrong just by doing this. Indeed, such actions are officially encouraged.”

As indeed Ealing Council demonstrates.

Therein lies the problem…the Establishment are in a mess….on the one hand they encourage Islamisation (in the interests of cohesion and integration),  on the other they proclaim they are horrified by it.

And the BBC does its best to not report what is really going on and the threats and claims of victimisation used to keep the pressure on the appeasers who continue to cede ground and allow further Islamisation of the West under threat that not to do so will alienate and anger Muslims….who will then do what?

That’s what the likes of the MCB subtly hint at isn’t it…inter-communal conflict…..not so subtle blackmail….do what we say because we can’t control the ‘youth’ if you make them angry!

Iain Dale was reported to the police and ‘Tell MAMA’ for anti-Muslim bigotry by Mo Ansar after a little spat on Twitter which Iain Dale relates here:

The Truth About Mo Ansar

One comment about Mo Ansar in particular that stood out was this:

‘I know of three BBC programmes who won’t entertain him as a guest’

Raises the question why those programmes refuse to ‘entertain him as a guest‘ and why programmes like Nicky Campbell’s still do when he has so little of real substance to offer?

And just for your entertainment here’s Mo’s letter to the fuzz complaining that his dignity had been violated, an experience that was unwanted, humiliating and offensive and he wished to pursue criminal charges for being called a gobby prick, a smear, amongst others,  based on his Islamic identity:

It’s dated April 1  and sounds like a joke but apparently it’s the real thing.