Category Archives: Uncategorized

Tonight Question Time comes from Inverness.

Everyone is welcome to come along but I want to make it clear I want best behaviour, no ad hominems. Or else.

On the panel we have the most convoluted, adjusted and argued-over panel for many a year.

On the panel, Deputy First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon MSP, former leader of the Liberal Democrats Charles Kennedy MP, Labour’s leader in Scotland Johann Lamont MSP, Conservative former Secretary of State for Scotland Lord Forsyth, Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips and the actor Alan Cumming.

Or not. Possibly.

In fact, TheEye will defer to a post on the ever-entertaining Subrosa blog which details the shambles. It’s worth reposting in full here although TheEye would encourage you to also head over there and show your appreciation on my friend’s excellent site.

This week there has been quite a stooshie about tonight’s Question Time which is due to be broadcast from Inverness.

The SNP MSP Kenny Gibson made a formal complaint about the imbalance of the panel, with two supporters of independence and three guests from the No campaign. Originally Johann Lamont and Michael Forsyth were to be joined by Melanie Phillips, the Daily Mail columnist.

The BBC’s reason for including Ms Phillips was because the programme discussed UK issues.

This is the first Question Time since the launch of the Yes campaign and the announcement that Alistair Darling will head the No campaign. Flying a London-based journalist to Inverness to represent the UK is lamentable although predictable.

Couldn’t they have engaged the services of that prominent journalist frae Dundee if they were desperate to provide a UK view? I believe Mr Cochrane resides in or around London.

But Kenny Gibson’s complaint has not gone unnoticed by those of influence at the BBC. Ms Phillips is to be replaced by Charles Kennedy who will join Nicola Sturgeon, Alan Cumming, Michael Forsyth and Johann Lamont. This will be Ms Lamont’s first appearance on QT and it will be interesting to see how she performs.

The panel balance is now reasonably fair but it would have been even fairer if someone from the ‘undecided’ camp had been included. Lesley Riddoch is one who would fit the bill but there are plenty others who may welcome the opportunity to challenge both sides.

Update: Nicola Sturgeon has withdrawn and will be replaced by Alex Neil and Melanie Phillips will appear. Thanks to Grogipher for keeping an eye on Twitter.

Sooooooo basically nobody has a clue who is turning up. It is, as Subrosa observes in her Comments section, changing by the hour.

There is no This Week this week. It’s replaced by something called Proof which is billed as “A young woman is concerned about having inherited her deceased father’s insanity.”

That’s what you get from watching the BBC, love. Turn over and save yourself. Make us a cuppa whilst you’re in the kitchen, eh?

Oh, and CoverItLive has changed format and might play up tonight – apologies if it does but it is not our fault.

A note on Moderation: We have been extremely relaxed here (rightly) with a policy of free speech and rolling banter. It’s going over the top a bit recently and people need to calm down. We *are* going to start restricting un-modded status and not just letting every comment through. Some are becoming potentially actionable. Fun at the time, maybe, and especially after a good few beers – but your site admins are legally liable under some circumstances and that’s not a good thing for us.

Don’t do it. Ta.
Continue reading →

I was shocked to read this tweet by Jonny Dymond about a Wall Street Journal op-ed from June 1:

A ringing reminder of the joy of Hayek in today’s #wsj. Always good to see freed defended.

— Jonny Dymond (@JonnyDymond) June 1, 2012

The exception which proves the rule at last, and in the interests of fairness and credit where due I have to point it out. This doesn’t mean all previous charges of bias are null and void, of course. And it certainly doesn’t mean that the other numerous biased tweets from 45 other Beeboids aren’t worthy of complaint. Those stand on their own merits, regardless. The article Dymond refers to can be seen here (sorry, behind the paywall).

Maybe somebody could as him what he meant.

I’m on the BBC this morning discussing the alleged story carried in The Guardian (where else?) about the firm Close Protection UK, which provided security services for the Jubilee celebrations, and which says it is going to investigate reports that it left unpaid workers stranded in London during the Jubilee celebrations.

Obviously four days of non-stop celebration of Monarchy must have stuck in the caw of the BBC and it’s print wing – The Guardian because it’s clear to me that this is  not so subtle way of raining (a little more!) on the Jubilee Parade whilst attacking the Coalition and those evil capitalists who abuse the unemployed by…erm..providing them with work experience. It is well seen that Prescott is leading the charge on this story into the abuse of non-workers. Today places the story as its LEAD item. 8.10am Normal service is resumed.

My line is to attack the BBC for giving such a non-story such major publicity. The fact is that those in receipt of Benefit SHOULD be asked to give something back to the taxpayer who fund them and one night helping prepare for the River Pageant seems very reasonable. The meme that something for nothing is OK has to be challenged although that is a BBC article of faith which I will confront on Nolan in about an hour’s time.

Well, anyone who endured the BBC’s coverage of the long weekend of National celebration of Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee won’t need me to tell you how awful it was. The BBC decided to treat is as a kind of rolling “One Show” with lightweight presenters asking inane questions. This contrasted with the excellent images the BBC provided. I enjoyed this from Stephen Pollard …

At various points during the day we were removed from the flotilla to hear from Sandi Toksvig, Griff Rhys Jones and Omid Djalili. Tess Daly, the Strictly Come Dancing presenter, was in Battersea Park with a bunch of cross-dressers (no, I’ve no idea why either). Anneka Rice was standing on the Millennium Bridge with some amateur artists. And there was an interview with a clearly startled new mother at St Thomas’ Hospital (it’s on the river, geddit?). The intellectual high-water mark was the former political correspondent John Sergeant talking to the actor Richard E Grant, who then read some Wordsworth.

We also had pop singer Paloma Faith discussing drag queens and vomiting, for the more heavyweight coverage.

I notice the BBC was forced to cover this on Today this morning but you can tell that they think they got it right. God help us all and God Save The Queen.

God save the #Queen – no one else would bother.Photo by @NicolePowers of @SuicideGirls yfrog.com/h09fdyjj

— Greg Palast (@Greg_Palast) June 5, 2012

Judging by the past weekend I think there are a few million people who would take issue with that sentiment. Question is – how many people would be willing to save pissant lefty ego-cock Greg Palast?

Oh dear.

“The verdict is in and it isn’t good. The BBC’s coverage of the Thames Pageant has been trashed in today’s papers, and rightly so.

The Corporation has in the past set the benchmark for broadcasters around the world when it comes to covering great state occasions. Last year it did a superb job on the Royal Wedding, for example. But yesterday was a car crash, or rather a sinking with all hands. From the moment one of the BBC’s commentators referred to the Queen as “Her Royal Highness” you knew it was going to be a stinker.”

Read more here.

A Biased BBC reader has sent me this very interesting analysis of BBC spin on BBC alarmism over possible football crowd problems in Poland.

“With just a week to go before the start of the 2012 European Championships, the BBC stands accused of spreading alarmism over concerns regarding crowd trouble and racism at this summers tournament. Patryk Malinski felt that there was plenty left to be desired in this particulate programme.

Last Monday evening the BBC broadcast their programme Panorama: the Stadiums of Hate in which they made a huge step towards biased and sensationalist journalism rather than objective, factual reporting. The BBC journalist, Chris Rogers, spent two months in Poland and Ukraine, the host nations of this year’s European Championships, and his main aim was to prove that football fans in both countries are mindless racists, and together with his guest, Sol Campbell, they tried to convince the viewers that going to those countries to watch the competition may somehow be unsafe and that potential fans from other countries may even risk their lives should they go to Poland and Ukraine. The programme, however, was so full of inaccuracies and generalisations and, as a Pole, I feel the need to respond.

Read more here please.

Biased BBC contributor Alan raises the folllowing point;

“A distinct case of hypocrisy from CIF when they tell us such ‘ravings’ from ‘Right Wing’ blogs created Breivik…..murdering non-believers, exterministic rhetoric, genocide…..where have we heard a case made for that  before?  The Koran.

If anyone reading this is in the fortunate position of being on a BBC programme and you raise the question of religion and violence or religious believer’s attitude to other religions or non believers and the BBC presenter tries to close you down for touching on a subject they won’t go near and suggest you are being racist or Islamophobic then draw their attention to this:

How Christian fundamentalists plan to teach genocide to schoolchildren
Good News Clubs’ evangelism in schools is already subverting church-state separation. Now they justify murdering nonbelievers. The CEF’s new emphasis on the genocide of nonbelievers makes a bad situation worse. Exterminist rhetoric has been on the rise among some segments of the far right, including some religious groups. At what point do we start taking talk of genocide seriously? How would we feel about a nonreligious group that instructs its students that if they should ever receive an order to commit genocide, they should fulfill it to the letter?

And finally, when does a religious group qualify as a “hate group”?

When the Koran is being taught in madrassas, Muslim faith schools, in people’s homes and in the mosques, and that Koran teaches the faithful to kill the non-believer, to subject non-believers and people of other religions to discrimination and not to make friends with them…is it not time to ask openly and frequently just when does a religious group qualify as a “hate group”?

BIASED BBC has just had another really successful month, our biggest ever, with in excess of a quarter of a million visits. I wanted to thank you all for supporting the site and for coming here. Along with my fellow writers, I try my best to provide you with daily output and then leave it for you to take the issue wherever you want. What makes this site so good is the quality of the comments and I am in your debt for providing such great insight on a daily basis.

A spin off from the blog has been the “Liveblog” that usually accompanies Question Time. One of the reasons I started this was it allows us all the chance to talk directly in real time to each other and flag up some of the outrageous bias that accompanies that programme. I also know that it’s also a weekly chance to relax a bit and make mock of the BBC and some of the Lilliputians that pop up on the programme! HOWEVER, I am increasingly unhappy about some of the comments being left. These are pure ad hominem, and they distract from the event. We live in a blog world where hostages to fortune cannot be given and there are people out there who wish the site did not exist, or could be classified in ways that would minimise our impact. I also think that we leave ourselves open to the charge of being hypocrites if we demand the highest standard of the BBC whilst lowering our own standards. So, I am unsure if I want to continue the LIVEBLOG, and seek your opinion. I will only continue with it if I can be assured people will not post offensive, possible actionable ad hominem. I am happy with witty comment, I don’t mind mild sexist comments, or even plain silly comments – but we HAVE to stop the nasty stuff once and for all.

You are all cordially invited to join in the fun for this evenings Labour Party broadcast  Question Time Liveblog. Adding their weight to the National debate will be Alan Duncan, Stella Creasy, Mark Oaten, Fraser Nelson and Victoria Coren. Strong alcohol is advised if you aim to last the entire duration or, alternatively, prayer.