Well, the thought crossed my mind when I read John Simpson’s apologia for Saddam, in which he maintained that the British in Iraq during the 1920’s and the reign of Saddam were comparable. To quote Simpson: ‘Saddam Hussein’s notion of governing a restless, difficult country like Iraq was that it could only be done with ferocity. In that he was no different from the presidents and kings before him; no … Continue reading →

This Times story covers the Birmingham riots which killed one man on Saturday. A second man was shot dead in the same area on Sunday, but it is not clear whether that was related to the riot. The starting point for the riots was an alleged rape of a 14 year old Jamaican girl by a man or men of Pakistani origin. I say “alleged” not merely to cover myself … Continue reading →

news stories about the outraging of Muslim sensibilities, such as “US Guantanamo guard kicked Koran“, or the latest insult in Afghanistan. Stories of outrages against Christians fare somewhat worse. The continiung demonstrations by thousands of Muslims outside a Coptic church in Alexandria, the stabbing of a nun and the reported (by this Coptic weblogger) deployment of army units against the demonstrators are nowhere reported on the BBC News website. Although … Continue reading →

says this BBC headline. Other possible headlines not used by the BBC: “People worldwide love Hollywood, governments don’t.” – since the article itself admits that 85% of world spending on cinema tickets goes on Hollywood productions. This story is about some new UNESCO convention that gives governments, notably the French government, more power to attempt to circumvent the spontaneous preferences of their people and to make yet another doomed attempt … Continue reading →

, according to TotallyJewish.com: An internal corporation email sent on Monday revealed that the 39-year-old, who has come under considerable fire for a perceived anti-Israel bias in her coverage, will leave Jerusalem in December to start a new posting in Johannesburg. While Israel government press office director Danny Seaman said the corporation, rather than any one person of having been guilty of “shoddy” journalism with regards to Israel, he told … Continue reading →

Surely where a fifteen year-old has died and people are convicted for manslaughter the headline should be Two-year term for Aimee killers – pathetically lenient sentences or not. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

, the ever miserable Caroline Haw-Hawley managed to get out of the BBC’s private enclave in central Baghdad to report from Halabja, largely bemoaning: “but it’s not for this that Saddam’s going on trial, at least not yet, relatives of the five thousand Kurds massacred in Halabja in March 1988 will have to wait for their day in court, the first legal proceedings against Saddam are for separate killings in … Continue reading →

, the presenters announced “and we’ve got a new phone number, 020 8535 1000…” – what they didn’t mention was that their old phone number was one of the many 0870 disguised premium rate rip-off numbers (where the caller pays the recipient at high rates, often paying to be held in a queue!) that have proliferated across the BBC, government departments and second-rate call centre operations across rip-off Britain over … Continue reading →

, Alan Connor of News Online (a sometime follower of Biased BBC), has written an interesting article about the relevance or otherwise of David Cameron’s privileged education and the ever-shifting public perceptions of class, private education and Old Etonians. The following comment from the (Don’t) Have Your Say selection below Alan’s article caught my eye: Old Etonians ruin the fabric of society. Oxford is infested with them like an old … Continue reading →

So says this BBC story by Alfred Hermida. It continues: It is seen as arrogant and determined to remain the sheriff of the world wide web, regardless of whatever the rest of the world may think. It has even lost the support of the European Union. Like David Davis has even lost the support of Gordon Brown. It stands alone as the divisive battle over who runs the internet heads … Continue reading →