Always interesting what the BBC employees find of interest….not necessarily in the course of their work but in a personal capacity…which is perhaps all the more telling…as on Twitter which they usually claim the views expressed are their own and not the BBC’s…and in the case of Huw Edwards he disclaims the retweets…which is just as well really:

Here he retweets the BBC’s favourite economist who tells us:

Inequality Is a Choice

 Joseph Stiglitz ‏@stiglitzian 14 Oct “Inequality Is a Choice” by Joseph Stiglitz http://nyti.ms/GWGrnq 

Here’s a taste of Stiglitz’s thinking and expertise:

Europe seems all too eager to follow America’s bad example. The embrace of austerity, from Britain to Germany, is leading to high unemployment, falling wages and increasing inequality.

Really?

We  know the BBC doesn’t like to admit the British employment figures are on the up….but what about Germany….is unemployment rising because of austerity?

In August, Germany’s adjusted unemployment rate fell to 5.2 percent, its lowest level in more than two decades. A total of 2.17 million people were unemployed, a decrease of 108,000 or 4.8 percent on a year earlier.

I’m no economist…but er…..obviously there’s something I don’t understand about that graph.

However the heroic up and coming countries are booming and making tremendous efforts to reduce inequality…aren’t they?

On the one hand, widening income and wealth inequality in America is part of a trend seen across the Western world.

Chile, Mexico, Greece, Turkey and Hungary managed to reduce (in some cases very high) income inequality significantly, suggesting that inequality is a product of political and not merely macroeconomic forces. It is not true that inequality is an inevitable byproduct of globalization, the free movement of labor, capital, goods and services, and technological change that favors better-skilled and better-educated employees.

Of course you could argue there is nothing new about inequality…..perhaps it has lessened….as more people become super rich rather than the super rich becoming poorer.

But how about those countries he claims have reduced inequality…Greece?  Well..it’s a basket case and can’t by any measure be included in the statistics.

What about Mexico?: (The country where Carlos Slim is the world’s 2nd richest person…after being the richest for 3 years)

Julio Don Juan makes $400 a month at a noisy, cramped Mexico City call center. Without a raise in three years, he says he had to pull his 7-year-old son out of a special-needs school he can no longer afford.

In some places he might seek another job. Not in Mexico, where wages after inflation have risen at an annual pace of 0.4 percent since 2005 — worse than other nations in the region including Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay, according to the International Labour Organization. Close to a third of Mexicans toil in the informal economy without steady income. Julio Don Juan says many would envy him.

The cheap labor that is helping Mexico surpass China as a low-cost supplier of manufacturing goods to the U.S. — and lured companies including Nissan Motor Co. (7201) — has restrained progress for many of the country’s 112 million citizens.

How about Chile…oh, there’s Mexico again:

A recent report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) showed income inequality in Mexico and Chile were among the widest of the 33 nations surveyed.

Oh..and what about Turkey..and Chile, and Mexico again?

Global Income Inequality: GlobalPost Puts America’s Gap Between Rich And Poor In Perspective

Among developed nations, only Chile, Mexico, and Turkey have higher income inequality than the U.S.

On the Gini Index, zero equals perfect equality and one represents absolute inequality in which one person owns everything.

Well…he got Hungary right, I’ll give him that one.

Good of course to see a BBC employee taking an interest in what is essentially the Labour Party narrative….the apparent ‘cost of living crisis‘ and inequality….but also perhaps learning their lines from one who has quite clearly mastered economics to such a high level that he doesn’t feel the need to base his thoughts on what is actually happening on the ground.

Is inequality the result of political decisions rather than Globalization as Stiglitz claims?  Just what are the major causes of a ‘cost of living crisis’?.…food prices and fuel…neither of which the government control to a great extent…and of course ‘Quantitative Easing‘ which raises inflation by devaluing the currency….introduced by Labour’s Gordon Brown…..it may have been necessary but the effects on spending power are being ignored, conveniently.  Globalization moved jobs to countries like China and India with very low labour costs…..reducing employment and incomes in developed countries.

In one respect Stiglitz is right…Labour’s immigration policy destroyed job opportunites and incomes in the UK….thus producing a generation without jobs or hope and even those in work found they were competing with low wage immigrants for their jobs…no wonder wages don’t rise.

So that is one political decision that increased inequality….but you won’t hear it from the BBC.

Stiglitz is wrong about austerity and unemployment, he is wrong about inequality and the countries which he claims are cleaning up their act….let’s hope no one at the BBC are formulating their news bulletins and current affairs programmes based on Stiglitz’s witterings.

Quite a few people have picked up on Grant  Shapps comments about spreading the Licence Fund around a bit more.

A good portion is already doled out to Channel Four, but of course that is merely the BBC’s inbred cousin with fewer inhibitions and a disturbing tendency for showing off in the rudest way possible.

Hardly a balance considering together they pretty well dominate political broadcasting in this country.

It didn’t take long before the BBC struck back in its report…11 lines in and they came up with this:

A BBC spokesman said transparency and freedom from political pressure were key to the BBC’s future.

Clearly trying to paint this purely as ‘political interference’  rather than a measured and appropriate scrutiny of the BBC when it has shown itself to be out of control over the last year.  The BBC weren’t so keen on ‘freedom from political pressures‘ when it jumped aboard the Leveson band wagon and joined in the highly political attempts to stop Murdoch buying up BSkyB.

The trouble with that position is that the BBC plays politics itself, it inserts itself into the political arena not merely reporting but attempting to pressurise politicians to change policies by painting them in as bad a light as possible as often as possible…it is almost a political party in its own right….even admitting as much during Thatcher’s era when it positioned itself as the ‘official opposition’ because Labour were so dire.

At the very least the BBC has become the broadcasting arm of the Labour Party when it comes to undermining welfare reforms…the ‘bedroom tax’, or knocking any economic success…the ‘wrong sort’, questioning employment rates …a ‘puzzle’, or attacking ‘rotten’ free schools.

Last week we had a minor classic of an example of the BBC trying to influence events and policies as Mishal Husain (Husband, Meekal Hashmi…an ‘active Lib Dem’)  was interviewing William Hague who was talking about peace talks on Syria in Geneva next month.

Husain seemed intent on a particular point…getting Iran into the peace talks……

She asks:  What about Iran where there are positive signs as far as the leadership (?) are concerned?  Is that the key? [to the peace talks]

Hague says:  If Iran could play a more constructive role it would be helpful…and if it accepted the same criteria for the negotiations as all other parties did……

Husain goes on:  So are you inviting the Iranians to Geneva then…it would be the obvious thing to do if you’re serious about bringing them into the fold and using their influence.’

Hague’s answer was essentially ‘no’...unless Iran entered into negotiations starting from that common basis, which they haven’t so far agreed to.

However the BBC news bulletins straight away began reporting that Iran was likely to be included in the talks.

Husain tweets:

Mishal HusainVerified account ‏@MishalHusainBBC  Iran could be invited to next month’s Geneva talks on Syria @WilliamJHague #r4today

And yet that wasn’t what Hague said…he came into the interview with no such intentions and you could tell from his answers that he had no intention of inviting Iran if at all possible.

This is the BBC making up news as it goes along, creating stories that it then headlines….this ‘Iran to be invited to peace talks’ was a story purely created by the BBC.

Maybe it was Husain, first week in the new job, trying to make a splash.

What was also of interest was this from Husain:

‘…the pressure has been taken off Assad, he’s very comfortable…more comfortable than ever before since this conflict began’

Well yes….he’s pretty much safe now from military action to topple him by the US et al.

But why?

Essentially because Miliband ducked the military option:

MPs have rejected possible UK military action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government to deter the use of chemical weapons.

David Cameron said he would respect the defeat of a government motion by 285-272, ruling out joining US-led strikes.

The US said it would “continue to consult” with the UK, “one of our closest allies and friends”.

France said the UK’s vote does not change its resolve on the need to act in Syria.

Russia – which has close ties with the Assad government – welcomed Britain’s rejection of a military strike.

Will the BBC be asking Miliband to explain how he has allowed Assad to stay in place and reinforced both Russia’s and Iran’s influence in the region?

Not so far.

UK GDP figures for Q3 are due later this morning and it seems they will be positive, further underlining UK economic recovery. This is bad news for labour and bad news for the BBC. I caught an item on the Today programme this morning where the idea was being floated that ALTHOUGH growth did seem to be happening, it’s the wrong sort of growth apparently. I wonder do the BBC listen to British Rail? Anyway, watch what happens as we go through the day and see how long before the BBC trots out the “cost of living” meme being retailed by Miliband and co. Now that Plan B is dead an buried, the Labour party and it’s broadcasting arm are out to ensure that welcome economic news is pricked by all kinds of inane accusations about “cost of living” trials and tribulations.

You would need a heart of stone not to laugh at the collective mindmelt the BBC finds itself in as its former hero, Obama, is accused by Merkel and Hollande of outrageous invasion of privacy via telephone spying. Can you imagine the BBC anger had this revelation came out has Bush been President? But it’s President Narcissus in the White House so the BBC has to be nuanced and so it tries to keep Obama and the NSA well apart, even though the buck clearly stops on his desk. In a sense this is a non-story since nations have spied on each other throughout history, but the BBC likes to take a pro-European position on most issues but this one is a tad tricky for them.

Folks, I am reminded that the Common’s Select Committee on CMS announced on 22 October that it is to hold an enquiry into the future of the BBC. The deadline for written submission is 6 December. Anyone seeking to make a submission should note that they have until the 6th December to address the future of the BBC.

Here we go with a new and on-time Open Thread. Off you go…!

In his first tweet in over a year BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott seems to think that a parody article about Sarah Palin at the Daily Currant is real:

Sarah Palin is reported as claiming that Jesus Celebrated Easter, telling his apostles how to "convert homosexuals". http://t.co/5UmjiePasB

— Robert Pigott (@PigottRobert) October 24, 2013

He’s in good moronic company – Piers Morgan fell for it too (and then pretended he knew all along it was fake).

It’s not the first time a BBC journalist has been duped by a bit of lame satire that fits newsroom groupthink prejudice about US conservatives. BBC Brazil had to apologise when its lefty US correspondent Lucas Mendes wrote an article about a Texan GOP senator without realising the original information was a parody.

And in the all-too-likely event Pigott claims he knew the Palin article was a parody, why choose this as the topic of his first tweet since September 2012?

Sorry this is a tad later but off you go…

Will in the comments notes this from the Telegraph:

Anyone heard of ‘Ovo Energy’?

Probably not.

Which raises the question why would the BBC give them a nice little spot on its UK News page and ‘report’ their comments without challenge?

In this post I noted that energy minister, Ed Davey, had said:

‘Rising gas prices have been the cause of rising energy bills at the moment.’

Thoughtful in the comments linked to a BBC ‘report’ saying:

Wholesale energy prices ‘not going up’, says Ovo Energy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24606614

Stephen Fitzpatrick, MD and founder of Ovo Energy, said he had not seen wholesale prices rise for about two years.

“If they’re buying more expensive gas, more expensive electricity, in a large part we think this is because they’re selling it to themselves”.

The BBC’s write up is short and based purely on what ‘Ovo’ said.

However in the actual interview the BBC interviewer stated that ‘independent sources say that wholesale prices have gone up 8%.’

Question….Why is that counter point not in the write up?

Ofgem…the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets…so presumably they know what they are talking about, said this:

Facts about wholesale costs

• Wholesale costs are the biggest component of the average bill, as shown in the pie chart above.
• Over the last ten years, wholesale electricity costs have risen by around 140 per cent and gas costs by 240 per cent.
• In the last year, wholesale costs have risen by around £10 to £610 of an average annual dual fuel household bill.
• The wholesale price of gas for use this winter is 8 per cent higher than the price of gas for use last winter.
• The wholesale price of electricity for use this winter is 13 per cent higher than the price of electricity for use last winter.

Gas 8% higher than last year.

Electricity 13% higher than last year.

And yet the BBC allow Ovo to claim there has been no rise in 2 years.

Which is odd really because a quick perusal of their own website tells us this:

Now I don’t know about you but as I read that it tells me that wholesale prices for both gas and electricity have gone up in the last twelve months.

So when Stephen Fitzpatrick, MD and founder of Ovo Energy, said he had not seen wholesale prices rise for about two years he was lying.

Perhaps he forgot his company’s little boast:

‘We try our best to be open and honest with our customers, so we thought you may be interested to see what the prices actually are on the wholesale market.’

The cost of gas has risen by 240 per cent over the last ten years, according to Ofgem, acting as the main driver of rising energy bills.

This graph shows that in 2011 prices were under 60 and are now nearer 70 pence per therm:

So just why did the BBC, despite knowing wholesale prices have gone up allow him to get away with that and give his company a prime spot on their website?

As the company claims it is ‘greener’ than most, using more renewable energy, is it possible that the BBC were giving it a little nudge in the Public’s consciousness?…maybe the BBC pension plan has invested in this little company…who knows.

It certainly fits in with the BBC’s own agenda…helping out the ‘little guy’ against Big Business and it can’t hurt that Ovo is just that little bit greener.

This from the Energy and Climate Change Committee might also help judge why prices have risen…..

The main driver behind energy price rises has been wholesale gas and electricity costs, but
network charges, energy and climate change policies, and company costs and profits also
contribute. In future, DECC estimates that its energy and climate change policies will add 33% to the average electricity price paid by UK households in 2020, in addition to any potential wholesale price rises.

DECC suggested that the main drivers of recent increases are: wholesale energy costs,
estimated to have contributed at least 60% of the increase in household energy bills between 2010-2012; network costs, supplier operating costs and profit margins, estimated to have contributed around 25% of the increase; and the costs of energy and climate change policies, estimated to have contributed around 15% of the increase.11 Energy supply companies argued that the majority of the costs which had contributed to energy price rises are outside their control.

In its recent report, Estimated impacts of energy and climate change policies on energy
prices and bills bills, DECC reported that the average gas prices paid by UK households in 2012/13 were 5% higher due to Government energy efficiency policies such as the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) (see table 10 10). They claimed that the estimated impact of  policies on household gas prices was expected to remain broadly unchanged to 2020.

The average electricity price paid by UK households in 2012/13 were 17% higher due to Government energy efficiency policies and the added cost of  supporting renewable energy.

In the future, DECC estimated that the impact of these policies on the electricity price could increase to 33% in 2020 (in addition 20 to any potential wholesale price rises).