Category Archives: EU

CZECH MATE

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A B-BBC reader notes;

“The BBC claims here that the President, Prime Minister and people of the Czech Republic are all against the pact.

“The country’s influential – and Eurosceptic – president, Vaclav Klaus, has already told Mr Necas he will not sign Czech accession to the fiscal compact. So even if the Czech prime minister wanted to join it (he doesn’t), the president would not let him.” “even if the Czech people were in favour of more budgetary oversight from Brussels (they are not), simply organising a referendum could take months, possibly years.”

But then the BBC attributes the rejection to Mr Necas’s Civic Democrats..

 “…who are, like Britain’s Conservatives, deeply divided over Europe. Like the Tories, the Civic Democrats are plagued by a right-wing, viscerally Eurosceptic fringe.”

I don’t know if what they say about Czech politics is accurate or not, but I do know that opinion polls show a clear and consistent majority of Britons opposed to the EU. To the BBC however MPs who represent the majority constitute a plague and visceral fringe. The BBC’s choice of phrasing tells you everything you need to know about where they are coming from on the EU issue. They don’t seem to be at all aware that their blind obedience to the Brussels agenda shows that it is they who form the visceral fringe of opinion.” 

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THAT ISOLATED FEELING

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The BBC has one dominant running narrative since Cameron rightly vetoed the latest Merkozy plot. It’s all about the UK being “isolated”. It’s news bulletins have been loaded with this theme and even this Sunday morning, Nick Clegg is on the Marr show, chiming that isolation is bad news and being fed question after question which lays to the Europhilia of the Lib-Dems. We have even witnessed Michael Heseltine being brought back to our screens to warn us of the dangers of saying NO to the Eurocrats. Labour has been (rather pathetically, I must add) reinforcing the notion that Cameron has caused us unmitigated doom and gloom by…erm..standing up for our nation. The amusing aspect of this is that if one believes the polls, the British people overwhelmingly support Cameron, something one would never know from the biased BBC coverage. At moments like this, critical moments in our history, the BBC aligns itself with those who hate the idea of a free and sovereign Britain. When one reflects on that, it’s hard to conclude that the BBC is anything but the enemy within, using our money to undermine our Nation.

PS I note that Marr did not ask Clegg how he felt about UKIP going past the Lib Dems in the polls. Evidently some news is more equal than others.

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THE PRYCE IS NOT RIGHT!

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You would need a heart of stone not to laugh at the BBC’s horrified reaction to Greek PM Papandreo’s decision to hold a referendum on the alleged “austerity measures.” Could it be that even Greece has no confidence in the EU? Heaven forbid. Anyway, the BBC wheeled on Vicky Pryce, former head of the government’s economic service, to tell us that the Greek people were “suffering terribly” because of the horrendous austerity imposed upon them (e.g paying taxes) and that perhaps Papandreo could win the referendum because, after all, the Greek people desperately want to stay in the EU (BBC meme alert) (BTW Ms Pryce is the former wife of Chris Huhne, and came to her office care of Labour, a few details the BBC conspicuously forgot to mention).

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HAGUE "THE EUROSCEPTIC"?

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The BBC has been very happy to promote the comments of William Hague as being those of a “leading Eurosceptic”. Why? What has he ever achieved to merit such a reputation? He is quite clearly part of the Cameron rolling roadshow which pretends it is Eurosceptic but insists that the time for expressing such is never “quite right”. The BBC had Bernard Jenkin on here this morning and very eloquent he was. But is ensured that Hague got the prime time slot here from which he was able to propagate the leadership line that it is the “wrong time and wrong place” to even contemplate discussing our relationship with the EU. It strikes me the BBC delights in exposing Conservative splits on this issue but then again if Cameron had any guts he would stand up to EU propagandists like the BBC and ensure the will of the people was heard.

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HOBSON’S CHOICE

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If you use the BBC News website’s ‘Search’ function, as many do, you’ll find that broad categories have a right-hand section where BBC editors recommend sites ‘elsewhere on the web’ for readers to investigate. Some of these (usually links to newspapers or news agencies) are regularly updated. Others are much more permanent choices, staying up for several months. The three examples below have been the editor’s choice for over half a year now (at the very least). Do they provide BBC Online readers with a fair spread of opinion? Hardly.

Type in ‘Climate Change’ and the two other sites permanently linked to are:
The Met Office
Greenpeace International

Type in ‘Wind Farms’ and the permanent Editor’s Choices are:
Renewable UK
“Renewable UK, formerly the British Wind Energy Association, the professional body for the UK’s wind and marine industries, providing news, links and downloadable resources”
Yes2Wind
“Learn about the Yes2Wind campaign to use wind energy to tackle global warming”
(Incidentally, there is also a No2Wind website, which the BBC chooses not to link to).

Finally, type in ‘European Union’ and the only other site on the web permanently linked to is:
Europa
(the official website of the European Union)

P.S. Happy Easter!

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EU FAIR PLAY?

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Credit where credit is due. BBC Radio 4’s Analysis programme last night examined what would happen if the UK left the EU, and they made a near-decent fist of the territory, giving prominence to both UKIP’s Lord Pearson of Rannoch and the Conservative withdrawalist, Daniel Hannan. There were, inevitably, some problems, with balance and some silly, unchallenged contributions from EU fanatics.

But this is normally a taboo subject for the boys and girls at the BBC – during the European elections back in June, for example, there was virtually no discussion at all of the topic, even though at least 55% of the British people do want to leave. So is this a sign of things to come? I wouldn’t hold your breath. Just as with climate realist Ian Plimer’s appearance on Today last week, one swallow does not make a summer. The programme smacked of fig-leaf tokenism. And most of the BBC’s coverage of Europe regards anyone who is less than a full-blooded federalist as a right-wing, xenophobic buffoon.

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"You can’t be racist towards white people"

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Here’s BBC favourite Jo Brand during an interview with stand-in host Phil Williams on Radio Five Live’s Simon Mayo Show yesterday:

Jo Brand: My personal opinion is that you can’t be racist towards white people. You can be prejudiced about them but being prejudiced isn’t an illegal act whereas being racist can be.

Phil Williams: Don’t you think racism is just being derogatory about a race, regardless of the colour?

Jo Brand: No I don’t. I think the definition of racism also encompasses political power. So you can’t be racist towards a race that’s politically more powerful than a minority. That to me is the correct definition of racism. I think you can be prejudiced towards a group of people who are more powerful than you, but I don’t think you can be racist towards them.

Have at it.

(The guest immediately before Labour Party luvvie stalwart Jo Brand was Labour Party luvvie stalwart Patrick Stewart. Both just happened to have signed a letter condemning the Tories for their links to the Polish Law and Justice Party. Coincidence?)

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EU HAVE TO BE KIDDING…

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Is it just me or did you also find the prattle of a Eurocrat of the efficacy or otherwise of the election process in Afghanistan a tad hypocritical? Mr Semple represents an organisation which consistently ignores the wishes of those European people that vote against EU policy so he is no position to lecture the Afghans on anything. I know that the BBC consider the EU to be a paragon of virtue and goodness, second only to the United Nations in high esteem, but it seems to me that it might do better to have someone from the Afghan government on to explain how the EU might give democracy a chance.

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An inconvenient vote

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Graham Dines of East Anglia Times weighs in on on the BBC’s (lack of) coverage of UKIP in the Norwich North by-election.

Out of fairness to the BBC, I can see how they are straining to accommodate the unpalatable rise of the Conservative opposition. They need some solace and we can’t expect them to reflect the full range of sentiment opposed to theirs, can we? Can we?


“Just why the BBC decided that the Greens were more meritworthy than UKIP is not difficult to discern. It’s all down to the unpalatable policy of quitting the EU. UKIP goes against the authorised version of Britain’s relationship with Europe and therefore should be ridiculed.”

UKIP are still pressing the BBC over their denial of UKIP’s evident electoral appeal (which many commenters here noted independently, as well). It seems to me utterly unsurprising that the Beeb would violate due impartiality during an election- the very time when they ought to be able to hold themselves together. They fail in every other so-called ideal which farcically underpins their public remit.

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WHAT THE BBC WON’T COVER…

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BBC bias by omission is much their preferred route. A news story which combines the twin dangers of Islam and the EU is not one that the State Broadcaster is interested in considering. So, instead we get to read about Berlusconi’s matrimonial disputes. It’s always a question of conformance to the narrative.



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