Presumably the BBC means “non-descript white” in the sidebar on ancestry here, because the last time I looked the rest of the people listed were also Australians: “Total population: 21 million Australian: 6.7m (38.7%) English: 6.4m (36.5%) Irish: 1.9m (11%) Italian: 800,000 (4.6%) German: 742,000 (4.3%) Chinese: 557,000 (3.2%) Greek: 376,000 (2.2%) Dutch: 269,000 (1.5%) Lebanese: 162,000 (0.9%) Indian: 157,000 Vietnamese: 157,000 (0.9%)” Note that this is an ancestry table, … Continue reading →

Paul Reynolds (sorry – ed) has a balanced and informative discussion of the US position on torture and its definition. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

After Natalie’s good analysis of what is wrong with the BBC’s coverage of the Sydney culture wars, I note the “See also” box at the top right of this page links to ‘Australia’s unease with outsiders‘. I note in this inflammatory and pernicious guff the sort of generalisations that would never be employed of “people of Middle-eastern background” (or insert desired trendy PC shibboleth): ‘They want the drawbridge raised – … Continue reading →

(see clip): Study this BBC Views Online article, Jail for ‘honour killing’ family, then complete the following sentence: The so-called ‘honour’ killers are ________. Clue: See this Times article, Family jailed for ‘honour killing’, for more details than BBC Views Online’s curiously abridged coverage. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Case A: thugs attack en masse at a beach in Portugal. The race of the attackers was not mentioned by the BBC, although the prim way that the story says that the municipal authorities believed that “the youngsters came from poorer suburbs of the capital” made me guess that they were not white before Tim Worstall, who lives in Portugal, confirmed it. The fact that they were black was the … Continue reading →

Matt Frei visits the home town of the American held hostage in Iraq. Amidst much tired hackish blather, he informs us that over 200 westerners have been kidnapped in Iraq, and that: “…one in three have been executed by their captors.” What a putz. Have the berks at the BBC no decency? To any reasonable human being these people were murdered – there is no other word for it. Simple … Continue reading →

, Yanks (like me) are thankful (but not really surprised) over stories such as this one. Will the Beeb deem it newsworthy? [Note to Beeb lurkers:It’s based an ABCNews poll (PDF) and methodologically sound (PDF). So, why not go ahead and report some good news for a change? I’m still capable of being surprised, even by the Beeb.] Hat tip: Instapundit Click through to read and contribute comments on this … Continue reading →

starting with the One O’Clock News with Anna Ford – who informed us about the outcome of a government investigation into the crash of an RAF Hercules “Jet” in Iraq (killing ten service people). How many decades has the Hercules (the C130 to our US cousins) been in service? What kind of plane did the Iranians crash just this week? Was it a jet? No. It has four large twirly … Continue reading →

. I can’t get used to these newfangled polls where it is positively encouraged to vote every day. You can vote for this blog as Best UK blog in the 2005 Weblog Awards. You can even vote for other blogs if you feel so inclined, although if you do one of¹ our fleet of dreaded Biased BBC detector vans will drive past your house in a menacing manner. It’s a … Continue reading →

Can you spot the missing word(s) from this BBC News Online article, Thousands march for HK democracy, about a major pro-democracy demonstration in Hong Kong? A. Yes, you got it, the missing word(s) are communism and variants thereof, with bonus points if you also noted the omission of any reference to the Tiananmen Square Massacre (sorry Beeboids, that would be the Tiananmen Square Tragedy to you). Click through to read … Continue reading →