Category Archives: London mayoral race

LOVING KEN, ALL THE TIME…

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There are claims from Andrew Gilligan and Guido that the BBC are running hard with the story of postal fraud in Tower Hamlets…..however it looks like they haven’t actually read the BBC report. B-BBC contributor Alan considers the actual facts of the matter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-17857850
In it the BBC gives the impression that it is Boris Johnson who might be benefiting from the frauds and his supporters running them, and that it is Labour and Tower Hamlet’s council who are having to ensure everything runs smoothly and legally.

Hardly a reflection of Gilligan’s own reporting……
Ken Livingstone’s supporters accused of ‘harvesting’ postal ballot papers
An investigation has been launched into alleged postal ballot fraud after claims that some of Ken Livingstone’s supporters have been “harvesting” postal ballot papers.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/london-mayor-election/9218506/Ken-Livingstones-supporters-accused-of-harvesting-postal-ballot-papers.html

and Gilligan says….
‘On Sunday I brought you news of alleged postal vote harvesting by Ken Livingstone’s backers in Tower Hamlets. Bengali voters in the borough’s Spitalfields ward told me how their postal voting papers were collected by workers for Gulam Robbani, a Ken-supporting candidate in a council byelection in Spitalfields on Thursday. This practice – which allows candidates to fill in their own votes on blank ballot papers, or destroy already-completed ballot papers which do not favour them – is prohibited by the Electoral Commission.’

No mention of the ‘Ken’ connection on the BBC…..or Lutfur Rahman and his shady practices…..but then the BBC has studiously ignored Lutfur Rahman’s activities for a long time….why? Anything to do with Islam/immigration is handled with a great degree of care, a carpet and a brush.  It would seem that the BBC are providing Ken Livingstone with some free anti-Boris black propaganda.

NO TIME FOR TEARS….

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The battle for London Mayor is in the finishing straight and the BBC are doing what they can for Ken but between you and me, I don’t think it is going to be enough. Biased BBC’s Alan exposes this instance of BBC selective reporting…

The BBC didn’t bother to investigate Ken Livingstone’s fake tears nor his fake video but they have had time for a jokey take down of Boris….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-17758245

They look at ‘branding’ of the candidates…or rather ‘candidate’ for only Boris gets the treatment….just another way of the BBC to give the other candidates free propaganda.

Wouldn’t Ken’s fake tears merit a look under ‘branding’ for they were clearly an attempt to portray himself as a man of the people who’ cares” too much?

However fortunately for us a small local paper has found the time and resources the BBC couldn’t to have a look at Ken’s little local difficulty.

Here is Ken’s video…obviously scripted….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpZaEVgNyDQ

And here is what the local journalist had to say…via Harry’s Place:

‘Local Micham journalist, Omar Oakes, has something of an exclusive.

Some of the people it seems were locals recruited near a community centre used by the local Labour Party, however…

Several actors were also filmed at various spots within Imperial Fields, such as a man sitting in the stadium itself, a builder having a cup of tea during the building of the club’s new all-weather pitch and a man speaking from the player’s tunnel, and a boxing trainer speaking from a newly built boxing club.

The most interesting case is the one involving “the mechanic”. It seems this man is not a mechanic. The real mechanic’s garage was hired by the ad agency who made the video. The real mechanic is not even a Labour supporter:

Neil McMullen, who has run the garage for 12 years, said he was approached by the agency on the Saturday before and they brought in an actor for the filming on Tuesday.

He said: “I was happy to help but I am not really interested in what politicians do – they are all the same aren’t they?

“He did fluff his lines a bit. He was reading from one of those cards that had his lines written on it.” ‘

This is his original:
http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/9659155.Made_in_Mitcham__Truth_about_Ken_s_video/

A Labour politician fakes tears and a video but the Labour supporting BBC don’t report it.

Guess with all this global warming we can soon grow bananas just like any other banana republic…we’ve already got the corrupt politicans and fellow travellers in the media.

The fightback continues… against Boris

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The BBC is leading the way in blunting the Conservatives’ revival with this special coverage of… well, what exactly about Ray Lewis? Headlined “Mayor’s aide in sex claims enquiry” it’s never clear what the sex claims are in fact. The article is filled with something else on the financial side apparently pursued by the oh-so-upright Church of England back in the 90’s. It’s basically a mess of conflation. The usual suspects, the rat pack of journos, can be heard on the BBC’s televised clip from Deputy Mayor Ray’s press conference- Jon Snow et al getting very snooty indeed. Boris is getting a going-over and the BBC is desperate to be in the vanguard.

I didn’t notice this level of zeal, or even any interest at all, in the case against Lee Jasper.

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Culture of corruption?

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As people have been pointing out in the comments (thank you very much), The Feral Beast has revealed that emails which led to the exposure of ex-London mayor Red Ken Livingstone’s racial right hand man Lee Jasper had already been handed to the BBC’s Tim Donovan and rejected as “of no news value”. One year after Donovan’s rejection, this “non-news value” was turned into scoop-of-the-year by an old friend of this blog’s, Andrew Gilligan*. Jasper resigned, Red Ken lost the mayoral election- and the BBC were left counselling their public “And what is your concern about Boris?”

I wonder why the BBC didn’t consider Red Ken’s corrupt crony a newsworthy story. Maybe, in the light of recent stories about BBC junketing, they just thought it was business as usual in NuLabour’s Britain? As DB rightly points out in our comments, Donovan certainly considered it a story later on, but I did notice that in Donovan’s account the potential criminality of Lee Jasper and misuse of hundreds of thousands was well in the background of the story.

*This blog-member is happy to acknowledge Gilligan’s success, having rather worried about putting the boot in when Gilligan was floored by Hutton.

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AFTERMATH.

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Well, it’s the morning after as the dust settles and what have the BBC been saying? Well, they have been struggling to get past a sentence about Boris Johnson which does not contain the word “buffoon” for starters. Then we have them giving Jack Straw – the Chemical Ali of the Labour project – being given an easy ride on Today where he was allowed to babble about how great Labour had been but how it had been damaged by not listening enough and those pesky global financial pressures. You could feel the pain in the interviewers tone, I doubt champagne corks popped last night at Broadcasting House. I also noticed two stories that the BBC have not bothered much about following the results of the London elections. First the success of the BNP. Whether you like them or not – and I don’t -nonetheless their performance was quite credible and worthy of more coverage. It got virtually no coverage. Why? Also the crushing defeat at the poll by Saddam Hussein’s cheer-leader George Galloway has hardly been mentioned. Surely the BBC wouldn’t want to minimise the rejection of this nauseous specimen?

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BYE BYE MR BROON AND AU REVOIR KEN!

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Sorry for the lack of output from me here these past few days but normal service is resuming! Hey – have you been following the BBC’s coverage of the Local Council and London Mayoral elections? Some hilarious stuff – did you see Jeremy Vine’s performances late last night? Cringeworthy! Makes Peter Snow seem good. These results must be such a nightmare for Al-Beeb as Labour are humiliated across the country and it’s looking like Boris is going to dethrone the gruesome Livingstone in London – fingers crossed. I’ve heard some very easy rides being given to those Labour Minister suckers forced to come to camera – Alan “Postie” Johnson was given the most gentle of interviews on the lunchtime news. Did you see it? Tonight should be great stuff as the dawn of the end of Ken becomes apparent and the BBC have to see their beloved Jihad supporting Mayor take a hike..post your highlight of the election coverage…!

UPDATE ONE:

Just as Sky News are making it clear that Boris will win, the BBC are still equivocating on the Mayoral result as of 10pm. The line being taken is that Ken Livingstone WON the last time despite Labour, now he “may” lose because of Labour! Looks like the BBC will berate Labour but still loves the IRA supporting Jihad understanding Jew hating Livingstone.

UPDATE TWO. It’s now 10.30pm and Newsnight are still in denial mode. The air of depression is obvious although I noted that the lead item was prefaced with the description of Boris being a clown, a joker and chat-show host. Better than being a terror-supporting anti-semitic goon, eh?

UPDATE THREE. It’s now 10.45 and Newsnight are now in full-on “Save Gordon” mode. Ruth Kelly, a vision in pink, is being allowed to talk tripe and commentator Michael Crick has been saying that in a way this was not unexpected.

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LONDON’S BRILLIANT PARADE.

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Poor old Boris Johnson. The Conservative Party’s candidate for the Mayoral election in London is much unloved, according to a report the BBC ran this morning on “Today.” The item started out by saying that whilst the race between Boris and Red Ken (The Jihadist’s friend) “was close” (i.e. Boris was ahead but the BBC just can’t quite bring itself to admit that) the influence of the minor parties could be significant in terms of where second preferences go to. Guess what? Yes – none will be going to Boris.

The BBC interviewed the Green Party (Free insulation for all!) candidate who urged voters to support Livingstone after voting Green, The BBC then interviewed the Respect Party candidate who urged “Muslims and ethnic minorities” to support Livingstone after voting pro-Jihad. So far, so bad for Boris. Then there was the BNP and guess what? – yes, THEY are urging people to vote Conservative second. (Damned with faint praise?) The only caveat is that the BNP candidate himself ISN’T urging voters to support Boris so even that is lukewarm support. The UKIP candidate wouldn’t endorse Ken or Boris nor would the Christian Choice candidate. All in all – a desert of support for the Conservatives. Of course I am sure that the BBC is entirely neutral as to who it would like to see elected to this influential position – aren’t you? I am equally sure that the BBC would never dream of seeking to influence the second preference vote in a desperate attempt to save Livingstone. Aren’t you?

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Bias in the bones.

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It was interesting, I thought, to listen to Helen Boaden’s comments in response to the comments of Robin Aitken and others on the Talking Politics show highlighted by Andrew below. Boaden’s comment about impartiality not being a “state of grace” I thought especially revealing. I mightn’t actually have to think too hard to think of a few apples which the BBC ought not to bite, or commandments they shouldn’t break.

For instance, one might be that “people sceptical of the political contruct of EU centralisation of national powers shalt not be referred to as being “in opposition to Europe” or any other such false witness be borne regarding their position.” It might be especially relevant when their concerns are purportedly being aired. Background here.
The idea of being “in opposition to Europe” is patently ridiculous, debasing language as well as ideas.

There is no question of treading on eggshells here, provided the BBC’s attitude is right.

Then again, another commandment might be: “thou shalt not consider the opinion of someone interesting purely out of concern for their racial background and in defiance of other factors”, as is highlighted here by Mr Dale for example regarding this article.

“”Black MPs spurn Boris for Mayor”.

It is actually a “story” about two Labour MPs, Dawn Butler and Diane Abbott both saying that they do not support Boris Johnson. I may be wrong but Labour politicians saying they will not be supporting a Conservative is as relevant as the announcement that David Cameron will not be voting for Gordon Brown. What is the BBC playing at?”

And those would be just two commandments. Very modest I think. I am sure others can think of more.

Update: As Jonathan in the comments points out, the article has been changed from
“Black MPs” to “Labour MPs”. Chalk one up for Mr Dale. Now we can see that the article has no sense whatsoever once the BBC’s racialist presumptions are taken out of it- it was prejudice appealing to prejudice and now it’s nonsense appealing to, well, hopefully not too many people.

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Bothering Boris.

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The Beeb haven’t exactly taken kindly to the news that their oldest of old favourites, Red Ken, may have a challenger as Mayor of London.

They’ve quickly produced a little factfile of what they call “Boris Johnson’s Media Scrapes”. I don’t suppose it will affect Boris much, but the Livingstone profile given by the Beeb describes Ken flatteringly as an “outspoken anti-establishment figure known in Britain for introducing congestion charging to free up London’s traffic clogged streets” who “has never been afraid of controversy”.

Nick Assinder meanwhile, wonders whether Boris “is “appropriate” or, more pointedly, “safe enough” for a seriously heavyweight job – and London mayor is often said to be one of the four or five most important and powerful political jobs in the land.“.

So according to the Beeb that isn’t a question for Ken? Ken’s appropriateness in welcoming Sheikh Al Qaradawi who justified suicide bombing, or his chum Hugo Chavez, is just not, apparently, on the BBC’s radar as crunch-time for Ken approaches.

The post of London Mayor in this elected form is a relatively new one. Ken has been doing all sorts of things which a proper scrutiny might have found him condemned over. Ken’s real legacy for London is as yet unproven. Some balance over this would be welcome.

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