Wondered what your thoughts are on the BBC coverage of the Ukraine/Russia crisis? I get the distinct impression that the BBC favours those in Ukraine who are seduced by the entreaties of the EU. Lots of interviews with young Ukrainians in Kiev – a pro EU audience. I noticed that in the Commons yesterday, Conservative MP Peter Tapsell pointed out that the EU carried a degree of culpability for this situation given its endless expansionism “to the borders of Mongolia” That didn’t fly well with the BBC. Thoughts? Is it the case that like Nick Clegg, the BBC will always rally to the cause of the EUSSR?

Here you go, a brand new Putin approved Open Thread. The BBC will hate it…

I reckon the BBC must be getting anxious that once more their hero, Obama, is being utterly outflanked by Putin. I heard an American “expert” pundit on the Today programme just after 7.15am (Joe Klein, I think) bleating how Obama was running rings around the Russian President. He also was allowed to disparage the Republican Party when he was at it. The bias is so easy, they never even see it,

Wonder what the BBC will make of this…if anything…..Boris Johnson in the Telegraph….

The children taught at home about murder and bombings

Radicalisation is a form of child abuse, and the authorities must have the power to intervene

There is that fatal squeamishness about intervening in the behaviour of a “protected group” – in this case ethnic minorities, often but by no means always from the Horn of Africa. There are still Left-wing academics protesting that the war on FGM is a form of imperialism, and that we are wrong to impose our Western norms.

I say that is utter rubbish, and a monstrous inversion of what I mean by liberalism. On the contrary: we need to be stronger and clearer in asserting our understanding of British values. That is nowhere more apparent in the daily job of those who protect us all from terror – and who are engaged in tackling the spread of extremist and radical Islam.

Question is just what is ‘radical’?  A book that teaches you to think all non-believers are filthy, immoral and ignorant?  A book that tells you to kill the unbeliever?  A book that tells you to beat your wife? A book that teaches you to kill gay people?

A book that is used up and down the country and is held up as a book of peace and tolerance.

Curious what is considered radical, or not, these days…especially if you are on the Left.

Events in Syria, or the Ukraine or even China should highlight the dangers of ‘multi-culturalism’, importing many different peoples, religions and cultures.

The BBC is an ardent supporter of multi-culturalism.

Which is why it doesn’t report stories like this which might undermine the multi-culturalism narrative and ‘damage social cohesion’….via Harry’s Place and the Sunday Times….

Religion in schools:  Operation Trojan Horse

The Sunday Times (£) is reporting that an alleged conspiracy to destabilize some state schools in England, enabling them to be taken over by fundamentalist Salafists, is being investigated by both council officials and the police.

The documents suggest that the strategy, called Operation Trojan Horse, should be used in Bradford and Manchester as well as Birmingham. “We have an obligation to our children to fulfil our roles and ensure these schools are run on Islamic principles,” they argue.

The papers say the first step is to identify poor-performing state schools in Muslim areas; then Salafist parents in each school are encouraged to complain that teachers are “corrupting children with sex education, teaching about homosexuals, making their children say Christian prayers and mixed swimming and sports”.

The next steps are to “parachute in” Muslim governors “to drip-feed our ideal for a Muslim school” and stir up staff to urge the council to investigate. The strategy stresses the importance of having an “English face among the staff group to make it more believable”.

Allegedly, the schools targeted included Regents Park, Adderley Primary School and Saltley School, all in Birmingham.

Assuming the allegations are accurate, this is a shockingly calculating and underhand attempt to subvert the system.

Not shocking enough for the BBC to report though.

Allegedly, the schools targeted included Regents Park, Adderley Primary School and Saltley School, all in Birmingham.

Assuming the allegations are accurate, this is a shockingly calculating and underhand attempt to subvert the system.

Occasionally we have something off topic to amuse or amaze…hopefully.

Here is something, that despite being narrated by the Guardian’s resident Green guru, George Monbiot, is worth a looksee……

How wolves have the power to move rivers

The story of how a few wolves in Yellowstone Park transformed the ecosystem and even changed the course of rivers shows the impact that even small changes to an environment can have

Milipedia: n  Condition of a BBC journalist being unaccountably attracted to the person and policies of Ed Miliband

John Pienaar….what to say?  He just can’t seem to find a harsh word to say about young Eddy….or can he?

Today on ‘Pienaar’s Politics’  he had Ed Miliband on the rack for half an hour, he took no prisoners and cracked the whip…Miliband was given a proper roughing up over serious issues of State…the union take over of his party, Syria and the Russian invasion of the Ukraine and PIE.

Actually…no…I made that all up.  This is Pienaar photographed preparing for the interview….

Miliband was given the softest of interviews, not even an interview really just a series of soft questions designed to allow Miliband as much time as possible to sell us his pitch.

Paxman’s interview with Russell Brand by comparison had something of the Spanish Inquisition about it….and we all know how laughable that was as a serious bit of journalism.

Nobody should expect any such ‘inquisition’ from Pienaar for his favourite adopted ‘nephew’.

Perhaps this gives us a clue as to why Pienaar is so mellow…….

The programme started promisingly with the Sun’s political editor, Tom Newton Dunn, nailing it on the head saying….

‘What can they say, Obama, Cameron and Miliband, to Putin who is totally satisfied that he has called the West’s bluff on Syria.  The West blinked over chemical weapons, arguably a defeat inflicted upon the government by Ed Miliband and now Putin can do what he wants across the world without anyone caring.’

A pretty damning statement about Miliband’s influence….Putin does what he wishes because Miliband ducked not the actual use of force but merely the threat to use it in Syria…leading to Assad remaining comfortably in place with no intent, or need, to negotiate and Putin doing as he pleases knowing no one will lift a finger.

Pienaar has always claimed that Miliband is leading the way….over energy price freezes and Syria.  But Miliband’s ‘influence’ has terrible consequences…in Syria….

and as for an energy price freeze…that has consequences too…..via Bishop Hill…..

Deepening Energy Crisis: Britain Has Become ‘Uninvestable’, Analyst Warns

The loss arises from pollution taxes that are forcing the closure of old coal-fired plants. Big subsidies for renewable energy, meanwhile, have made even gas-burning plants, which are much cleaner than coal stations, loss-making.

The hit will alarm Whitehall, which is increasingly worried about the lights going out. Companies have stopped building new power stations amid a political and regulatory backlash, sparked last year by Ed Miliband’s pledge to freeze energy prices.

“I can think of a dozen very good reasons not to invest in the UK, and not one good one to invest here this side of the election.”

OK I’ve had a few jokes at Pienaar’s expense but the issues are serious…..and yet Miliband was nowhere near breaking into a sweat at anytime…except when he was shown up by a much more articulate and personable Jermain Jackman.

Pienaar was supposedly getting to the bottom of the union’s influence…but instead declared that the newly approved rules would mean that no one could call Miliband a ‘creature of the unions’…and the Tories couldn’t call him Red Ed any more.

Miliband is allowed to get away with calling his new rules ‘an incredibly brave step’…and then he says that ‘I’m not factional’.

Pienaar says nothing…Miliband not factional?  The leader of a Party that bases its politics on generating class warfare and ‘them and us’ name calling? The Leader of a Party that is controlled by Unite, whose leader wants to end democracy and impose Communism ala Ralph Miliband?

Pienaar does suggest Miliband owes his leadership to Union power but doesn’t follow up and challenge Miliband’s answer…a pattern followed throughout the interview with a soft question and Miliband allowed to answer without fear of contradiction.

Again another pertinent question…this time about Miliband’s ‘One Nation’…Pienaar taking his cue from Labour MP’s who have disagreed with Miliband’s approach…..Pienaar asks what does it mean, what are the policies?…it’s an old argument that people are turning away from.

But there is no rigorous questioning of Miliband’s reply.

We then had Jermain Jackman, singer on the BBC’s ‘The Voice’ and Labour activist pop in.

He gave a good account of himself, managing to sound more plausible than Miliband himself….but had to be silenced when he said we should be using songs, poetry, scripts and dance to push the politics….probably all too close to the truth for the BBC which inserts subliminal politics into all its programming and loves to bring on a celebrity to give anti-Tory rhetoric a bit of street cred…or so they think….ala Labour’s ‘Cool Britannia’ no doubt.

Pienaar tells Jermain he’s great and he’ll have his pick of Labour safe seats.

It all turned into a bit of a Labour love-in with no real answers wrung out of Miliband….there was no mention of the big scandal of the week that has dominated the headlines….Labour’s connection to the NCCL and PIE in the 70’s and 80’s…an extraordinary omission.

Tim Newton Dunn’s opening accusation was also completely ignored despite it being an extremely serious one that utterly undermines Miliband’s credibility as a serious politician who can be trusted to take difficult and complex decisions.

Note that Miliband spoke ‘outside the BBC’…….because he wasn’t asked about it inside the BBC.

Playing it safe whilst thousands die and millions suffer.

Miliband’s stance on the Union’s, Syria and his populist energy price freeze him to be someone without a stomach for the fight, someone without the necessary grit and judgement to be the leader of a nation, someone who will duck from those hard decisions but still try to take the credit for being ‘reasonable and moderate’ as people die or are forced to flee their homes and country in their millions because someone like Miliband didn’t dare take that decision that could change things….and the BBC is there to watch his back telling us what a fine job he is doing…..

This one is early! But I can see the existing thread is bulging at the seams so here you go, a NEW thread. Warning – if trolls appear let me know and they will be squashed.

You can rely on the BBC to provide a platform to those who push the AGW agenda and the more extreme the scale of this, the greater the platform!

What are the greatest global threats to humanity? Are we on the verge of our own unexpected extinction? An international team of scientists, mathematicians and philosophers at Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute is investigating the biggest dangers. And they argue in a research paper, Existential Risk as a Global Priority, that international policymakers must pay serious attention to the reality of species-obliterating risks. Last year there were more academic papers published on snowboarding than human extinction. The Swedish-born director of the institute, Nick Bostrom, says the stakes couldn’t be higher. If we get it wrong, this could be humanity’s final century.

Incredible stuff, detached from any fact based science but dressed up in the doomsday rhetoric of the global warmers.

Interesting to see the BBC’s Mark Easton tweet the following chart which he says shows WHY the Coalition government’s promise to get net migration under 100k by 2015 is beyond its control. He has a point but he also misses a bigger point

Mark seems strangely mute on the more obvious fact that the HUGE surge in Immigration from the EU since 2003 until 2009 took place under the impervious gaze of Labour. Our problems can be directly traced to LABOUR.