Further to David’s post below, here is a chance to share your views on the BBC coverage of the US election aka the Obama win the State Broadcaster yearns for! I’ll be commenting on it tomorrow morning on BBC Radio London at 8.05am

The BBC have long refused to talk about immigration to the UK and its downsides……they now do talk about immigration….but usually immigration in other countries.….where they cherry pick what they like as ‘proof’ that immigration is beneficial…and ipso facto will be to the UK.

The BBC of course sets the limits on the debate.…what can be talked about and indeed the way the debate is set up.

‘There is a complicated system of illusions and self deception that are the given framework for most discussion and debate.  And if you don’t happen to take part in this system of illusions and self-deception, what you say is incomprehensible.’

We had a discussion about immigration recently but it was Labour leader Ed Miliband’s guru, Prof  Sandel, who was wheeled on to bang the drum for immigration….sorry, to have an open debate about it….and we have this as a classic example of the BBC ‘fixing’ the way we perceive immigration…..they bring on a Mexican family, parents and all three kids, who have lived  illegally, …sorry, ‘undocumented’…in the US for 20 years.
Why do the BBC do this?….purely to make it all ‘personal’…..make an immigrant a ‘real person’ not just a statistic and the BBC think it’s going to be hard for someone to say they can’t come into the country….or if they do anyone listening to them will think they’re just plain old ‘nasty’ and ‘rightwing’…

‘Honest people will have to face the fact that they are morally responsible for the predictable human consequences of their acts.’

…..in other words  the BBC is fixing the debate so that it is hard for anyone to say anything the BBC disapproves of….or if they do they have to qualify it so much that it makes their statement worthless.

An interesting comment by the BBC presenter was that she thought that the illegal, sorry, undocumented, immigrants would be ideal Republicans…..with family and religion being at the centre of their values.

So Democrats don’t rate the Family and Religion then?  Which could account for a lot…..here in the UK as well.

Just adding to what David has already posted about Marr’s programme and the BBC’s coverage of the ‘Living Wage’.

All in all today on the BBC seemed like one extended Labour Party Political Broadcast.  We had Victoria Derbyshire giving an unopposed voice to the Fire Brigade Union who have a poster out now about The Cuts saying…. ‘They cut, You burn’.   Didn’t hear any voice to naysay their propaganda.

Then we get onto Ed Miliband’s latest wheeze…the Living Wage….a policy that seems in direct opposition to everything that Labour was meant to stand for….that the rich pay more and that money is redistributed to the less well off….in effect Big Business and the wealthy subsidise small business and the poorest.  The Living Wage, as said before, seems designed to end this relationship…..with Small Business  being forced to pay wages they can’t afford.

It may come as a surprise but we already have a living wage…it’s what you earn topped up by tax credits or any other allowances you might get .…..paid for by taxing the better off and big business….not to mention the NHS, schooling, the emergency services and any other service provided by the State…..pay for that lot yourself and the living wage would be have to be a bit higher than £7.45.

It was telling who the BBC brought on to prop up their propaganda on one show…..A Labour spokeswoman, Rachel Reeves, a TUC spokesman and the BBC’s own accountants, KPMG, who love the living wage.

As David has said not one critical voice was heard until ‘The World at One‘…Today did seem like a BBC show case for Labour’s exciting new policy.

Still no answer as to where the money comes from to pay for all this.

The BBC told us that ‘The Living Wage Foundation’ has announced that the Living Wage will rise across the nation…..you might have got the impression that this was a government body of some sort…rather than what it is…a campaigning pressure group for leftwing utopian dreams.

This, if anything, is a classic example of the power of the media….a pressure group working in tandem with a friendly media to push its own ideology…..and because the most powerful of the media give it their backing the politicians who might normally have doubts about it  all run scared and ‘sign up’ to it in the hope that the BBC et al won’t then make them look ‘nasty’ just because they ask a few questions such as ’where does the money come from and how many jobs will this cost?’…the BBC are happy to complacently assure us that the living wage would be ‘Lifting the poor out of poverty’ but refused to divulge who pays.

Andrew Marr’s show, ironically linked to the BBC’s ‘Free Thinking Festival’, was pure propaganda touching on just about every BBC sacred cause….Israel, immigration, climate change and a new world order…..and no ‘voices of dissent’ to challenge any of the BBC’s cherished sympathies.

The overall narrative was about how to change the political makeup of the West…they were talking about the lack of democracy in the West, carrying on the BBC’s seeming long term project  to challenge the legitimacy of Western democracy…..they spoke of the need for ‘consensus politics‘….but what that boils down to is a one party state where all Parties follow the same policies and the public don’t have a real choice…a dictatorship in essence….and because the main, most powerful media also are in on the ‘consensus’ there is absolutely no ‘opposition’….in other words the situation we have in Britain today where politicians force immigration, Europe, Islam and wind farms upon the people without allowing them a say.

This is of course an idea advanced by the BBC’s pet Marxist (aside from Mason), Martin Jacques, as posted about earlier…making the case for ‘benign’ dictatorship.

We are told by Marr and Co that everything is polarised now in the US…..political parties  don’t have the same policies as each other and that is terrible…. that’s a bad thing….I always thought that was kinda the way a democracy worked.

The problem is that America is too democratic….even Richard Black saw this as a problem……

THE US POLITICAL SYSTEM
Just about every other country involved in the UN talks has a single chain of command; when the president or prime minister speaks, he or she is able to make commitments for the entire government.
Not so the US. The president is not able to pledge anything that Congress will not support, and his inability to step up the US offer in Copenhagen was probably the single biggest impediment to other parties improving theirs.
Viewed internationally, the US effectively has two governments, each with power of veto over the other.
Doubtless the founding fathers had their reasons. But it makes the US a nation apart in these processes, often unable to state what its position is or to move that position – a nightmare for other countries’ negotiators.

Yes, Democracy is a bit of a nightmare unlike lovable old Chinese Communism.

Not only do we have polarisation of politics but we also have a polarisation of the media.…which is also dangerous….Fox News anyone?  Not the BBC or the Guardian of course.……we need to have a common reference that provides a common link to all…a Public Broadcasting Service that talks to everyone…..we absolutely need the BBC.

Unfortunately that is precisely what the BBC doesn’t do…and is the reason for this blog’s existence…the BBC speaks only for itself and its fellow travellers on the Left.  It not only refuses to allow discussion of the ‘Right’s’ issues but actively works to discredit anyone who dares to attempt to publish or broadcast such ideas and thoughts.

We were also told that we have no neighbourliness anymore….no doubt one of the evils of the consumer/capitalist/freethinking society…helping each other out is a new phenomenon….I’m not sure what planet they are living on but certainly where I live people are always swinging into action in the interests of that funny old thing called a ‘community’.

Here’s a thought though….should there be a lack of such communal empathy might that be a result of people having all responsibility for their own lives being taken over by the State?

We are also informed that we must have someone in charge who knows what it is to be poor or from an ethnic minority……how childish and simplistic….and merely parroting Miliband’s pathetic and discriminatory posturing……isn’t Miliband himself a ‘millionaire’?  Is Miliband black, or a woman, or gay, or Muslim or a Welsh hill farmer?  No?  then how can he speak for such people?   Surely he is ‘out of touch’.  A ridiculous notion and one the BBC should not be championing.

Then we had ‘Climate change‘…to tackle this we need a ‘Common Purpose’…we need to change course….that is, close down industry and build lots and lots of wind farms or else we will be inundated with 200m climate refugees by 2050….and storms like ‘Sandy’ which we all know was caused by man made global warming…..er except it  wasn’t.

Then we had….The Palestinians have a right to the land of Israel…presumably the Sikhs and Hindus kicked out of ‘Pakistan’ can have their lands back then?  No?  Oh and the  current Israeli government is wrong and dangerous…..it does not want a two state solution and that’s very worrying…the only Palestinians who don’t want it are fanatics and extremists.

No mention that Palestinians want to wipe the Jews off the face of the earth….and have been  trying to do so for at least 60 years…..with the help of their  Muslim  neighbours.

But at least we now know….only a government that has policies the BBC agrees with is valid and acceptable.

Marr is well named….’Marring’  …to spoil or impair….a suitable description of what he does to the reputation of the once great BBC now brought so low.

Compare and contrast the BBC version with the Daily Mail version. What was it about the three accused – Mohammed Adulkadir Osman, and TWO unnamed 17-year-old friends – that made the BBC choose not to mention them?

(h/t to open thread commenters)

The BBC has been to the fore in providing a platform to those such as the Milibands and Boris Johnson who advocate the neo-Marxist nonsense of “a living wage”. Boris was on Today this morning waffling about it and Miliband got plenty of coverage too. These Statists all line up bully business into buying out more so they can feel all good inside. Now then, my beef with the BBC on this is that it does not provide the same platform to those people who oppose this “Living Wage” oxymoron on the basis it will be the death of many UK businesses. From a Conservative point of view people may wonder at Johnson’s embrace of this example of latter day Marxism but then again, perhaps that is why the BBC tolerate Boris?

Let’s start another week on Biased BBC with a NEW Open Thread for you to detail instances of the bias that so characterises the BBC. Over to you!

Notice the BBC are crusading for what THEY claim are “Stateless” children who come to the UK perfectly legally but then “fall through the cracks”. Gosh, they cannot even claim welfare or housing benefit. Strikes me that the BBC and those advocacy “charities” it links to in this article are playing a bit fast and loose with the facts here.I suggest that many of the alleged “Stateless” should not BE here in the first place and the BBC might do better to investigate how they got here and WHY they travel THOUSANDS of miles to reside in our country? Is the weather that so attracts them? Might they be just one more example of the Welfare Tourism that Labour bequeathed us?

Anyone else out there catch Andrew Marr’s “Start the Week” this morning? It was an appalling left-wing fest featuring former Irish President and UNophile Supremo Mary Robinson and Michael Ignatieff. We had the usual BBC endorsed mix of climate change advocacy, a bit of US bashing, a generous soupcon of Israeli bashing (Well, with Mary Robinson in the house what else do you expect?) and, of course, “human rights” evangelising. Oh, and mustn’t forget Ignatieff telling us how MUCH we need the State Broadcaster!!! What amused me was Marr’s obvious admiration for quite contrary Mary as she – and “the Elders” (Gotta love that ) travel round the world spreading their gospel of human rights and climate change..first class of course ..in those BIG planes. Not even a hint of irony….

Anyone catch Andrew Marr’s “Obama; what happened to Hope?” elegy for President Narcissus on BBC2. Loved the casual demonisation of the Tea Party.  Had to laugh at Marr’s references to “the old magic” ……I can only hope that if Romney wins, grief councillors will be on hand for the distraught BBC.

David beat me to the draw on our secret Marxist’s pro Chinese political system eulogy….I had been laughing so much since first reading it that I didn’t dare bash out a piece on it in case I choked on my own incredulity.

Others are not so credulous as our Mr Jacques:

China’s economic destiny in doubt after leadership shock

The forces of reaction and economic folly threaten to prevail in China. The long political arm of Jiang Zemin has reached out from the shadows to thwart reform, with huge implications for Asia and the world.

It is a bit remiss of the BBC not to mention Martin Jacques’ background….might seem kind of relevant when he is beating the drum for the world’s biggest Communist state.

I was particularly taken by a few comments of his that were exceptionally ill-founded:

In my first talk I explained that China is not primarily a nation-state but a civilisation-state. For the Chinese, what matters is civilisation. For Westerners it is nation.

Really….tell that to the Taiwanese…or the Japanese who are currently battling with China not over cultural ideals but some very concrete islands….for ‘national ownership’…or the Tibetans who are all ‘Chinese’ now.

Here he tells us:
Take the economy. China’s economic rise – an annual growth rate of 10% for more than 30 years – has been masterminded by the Chinese state.
It is the most remarkable economic transformation the world has seen since the modern era began with Britain’s industrial revolution in the late 18th Century.

Has he never heard of Japan, or Taiwan, or South Korea or Hong Kong or Brazil or India?   All countries that have turned from agricultural backwaters into booming industrial powers.

Here he tells us of the love of the Chinese people for their government…a family member….

‘The Chinese idea of the state could hardly be more different.
They see the state as an intimate, or, to be more precise, as a member of the family – the head of the family….What’s more, they perceive the state not as external to themselves but as an extension or representation of themselves.’

Presumably that ‘family member’ looking after them is ‘Big Brother’.

And there’s more:
‘The fact that the Chinese state enjoys such an exalted position in society lends it enormous authority, a remarkable ubiquity and great competence.’

Really?   I thought it was the massive number of Commissars and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army that, er, meant the State enjoyed such ‘respect and authority’.

As for ‘competence’ creating the Chinese economy….well yes…that of Western Businessmen who have moved their factories lock,  stock and barrel to China for the cheap labour…..the real reason the Western economies are in dire trouble is not the Banks…but the businessmen…and this is the reason we are seeing the ever increasing gap between the rich and the rest in the West……

“There are two systems in collision,” said Ralph Gomory, research professor at NYU’s Stern business school. “They have a state-guided form of capitalism, and we have a much freer former of capitalism.” What we have seen, he said, is “a massive shift in capability from the U.S. to China. What we have done is traded jobs for profit. The jobs have moved to China. The capability erodes in the U.S. and grows in China. That’s very destructive. That is a big reason why the U.S. is becoming more and more polarized between a small, very rich class and an eroding middle class. The people who get the profits are very different from the people who lost the wages.”

Not an analysis you hear too often, or at all, on the BBC….but one that is probably the most important truth about the Western economies.  The BBC are so intent on bashing bankers that they ignore the real story.

Here in another article he tells us that China is a religion of peace…..

I don’t think we should assume that China will throw its weight around militarily the way the US or the European nations have.

Tell that to Tibet, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Africa.

Naturally he is following in the footsteps of many other BBC favourites…and not a few BBC staffers:

Mr. Soros even went so far as to say that at times China wields more power than the U.S. because of the political gridlock in Washington. “Today China has not only a more vigorous economy, but actually a better functioning government than the United States.”

“Sometimes you look at countries like China and you think, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to be an autocracy in times like these?'”    Matt Frei, Americana, September 20, 2009

The New York Times’s Thomas Friedman finally gets to where he’s been wanting to go all these years. Everything would be so much better if we could just submit to the benign rule of an enlightened elite:
‘One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century.‘
And of course the ever quotable Andrew Marr:
“..the final answer, frankly, is the vigorous use of state power to coerce and repress. It may be my Presbyterian background, but I firmly believe that repression can be a great, civilising instrument for good. Stamp hard on certain ‘natural’ beliefs for long enough and you can almost kill them off.”

BBC climate change advocates seem particularly attracted to the imposition of dictatorial rule in order to plaster the landscape with wind turbines and close down business:

This recent radio broadcast by the BBC’s “Ethical Man” Justin Rowlatt and tell me whether you find it as scary as I do.
‘I have a feeling that climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while.‘
Here’s Rowlatt’s opening:
‘Climate change is a divisive issue. I believe that it is a
real threat and needs to be tackled. I know many people disagree. But
whatever you believe you should be concerned about how our society
responds to the issue because there is a growing view that mitigating
climate change means we have to change our view of democracy.’

And of course we couldn’t leave out the sadly no longer with us, Richard Black:
‘In a nutshell: does the way humanity governs itself need a series of tweaks or a complete overhaul, in order to meet the broadest ambitions of improving the lot of the planet’s poorest, safeguarding nature and making the global economy more sustainable? This might appear undemocratic; but …..‘

All in all I think Mr Jacques needs a regrade for his effort….he seems to have been given far too high a degree of respect from the BBC…..perhaps, looking into the crystal ball he should go for another line of work….for a time when China does become a democracy and allows people like him to say what they like on the national broadcaster’s platform.