As you can see from Andrew Bowman’s post further down, Kevin McNamara, a left-wing Labour MP, has distinguished himself by saying that Michael Howard’s views about gypsy encampments and the planning laws have “a whiff of the gas chamber about them.” For various reasons I am not Michael Howard’s biggest fan, but I do think that saying that to a man whose grandmother was murdered in the gas chambers of … Continue reading →

The BBC’s Britain’s Streets of Vice series is being repeated on BBC1, starting tonight with Sex in the City, described by Radio Times as follows: Sally Magnusson tells the story of a young prostitute struggling with her addiction to crack cocaine and heroin, one of more than 5,000 women thought to be working on the streets and risking violence, disease and a criminal record It’s on at 11.05pm – it’s … Continue reading →

(Realplayer, 224Kbps) spent its first seven minutes covering the Conservatives proposals for dealing with the problem of illegal traveller camps built in contravention of planning laws, both on their own land, and, more often, on other people’s land, often in the green belt. All the usual leftie hot-button words were used – racism, bigotry etc., with lengthy Going Live! reports from Vikki Young in Essex (with Michael Howard) and John … Continue reading →

Recently, a rather odious Conservative MP, Jonathan Sayeed, now expelled from the party, has been mentioned several times on BBC News Online, with headlines such as Sayeed to stand down as Tory MP and Tour row MP loses Tory party whip. BBC News Online’s coverage of old Seedy has been fulsome and detailed, leaving no doubt that Sayeed was, to use their term, a Tory. Compare and contrast this with … Continue reading →

was the headline in a news summary by Philip Hayter on BBC News 24 just now, followed by a brief mention of the Conservatives plans to reform the law to protect homeowners and the environment from the blight of illegal traveller encampments. This surprised me – the last thing the Conservatives would want to do is go anywhere near starting a race row, particularly knowing how the shrill harpies of … Continue reading →

to Andrew Bowman’s earlier post about CBS reporting of the meeting between President Bush and the McCartney sisters, I received an email from Fausta Wertz of the Bad Hair Blog, pointing out this post. Shamefully, this morning’s BBCA newscast, after reporting on the above, invited a former SF/IRA public relations man. His position was that the women were puppets of political opponents, nearly the same exact words Martin McGuinness, Sinn … Continue reading →

, the BBC ‘will cut 1,500 extra jobs’. This is one set of redundancies (sorry, ‘cuts’, as the News Online hacks call it) that’ll be given the full treatment whenever possible by BBC News staff. On with the reform! Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

This evening’s CBS Evening News with Dan Blather, sorry, Bob Schieffer, as repeated on Sky News in the UK, covered the meeting of Robert McCartney’s magnificent sisters and partner with George Bush at the White House today, as well as the exclusion of Gerry Adams (the well known member of the IRA’s seven-man ruling Army Council, along with Martin McGuinness). The refreshing thing was that, unlike the BBC, CBS told … Continue reading →

reporting from Beirut on yesterday’s record demonstration opposing the presence of Syrian forces in Lebanon. Her report was also shown on BBC News 24. BBC News Online also covered the protest. In ‘Record’ protest held in Beirut, they reported: Nearly one million people gathered for an opposition rally in Beirut, officials say – a month after the death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The demonstration surpassed recent pro-Syrian rallies … Continue reading →

by Nicholas Vance over at Last Night’s BBC News about a Steven Sackur report on the first anniversary of the Madrid bombings. A taster: Mr Sackur would do well to avoid making sweeping generalisations about Muslim opposition to terror, just as he would never dream of making sweeping generalisations about Muslim support for terror. Further, absolute statements opposing terrorism are often far less impressive once one understands how terms like … Continue reading →