Today had on Sir David Higgins urging us to buy into the HS2 lunatic express scheme…the quicker the better….time, as he said, is money!
Jim Naughtie didn’t press Higgins hard at all….and seemed to accept the basic premise that HS2 is the best way of spending £80 billion that the nation doesn’t have….never mind flood defences, road maintenance, broadband, improving the existing rail network and so on…all of which would be less controversial, far easier to accomplish and far more beneficial to far more people than spending £80 billion on ‘elite’ business executive’s own private train…which is what HS2 is in reality….just another version of the ‘Royal Train’.
Perhaps not bias but bad reporting or journalism not to challenge Higgin’s assertions….however the default position of not testing the claims results in the same effect of being favourable to HS2.
His claim that we must crack on with the project, which he is in charge of, otherwise costs will rise is an obvious political trick….not so obvious that Naughtie tackled him on it.
Higgins tells us that HS2 is “vital for the future of the country” and said it could be “a catalyst for fundamental change”.
No objections to that from Naughtie.
Higgins knows the project is in trouble, massively expensive and benefiting a select few and so his answer is the same answer that hucksters all over the world use…‘Buy now whilst stocks last’…..’Buy now as these fantastic bargain prices can’t last much longer!‘
Never mind consultation or the approval process…never mind what Parliament or the people think….drive it through, time is money.
The reality is Higgins doesn’t really care about the costs just with getting his pet project going and his well paid job, and his legacy, secured for years to come.
The real way to save money and not waste it..is not to do HS2….and what should really damn HS2 is that the backstabbing Vince Cable supports it….
Business Secretary Vince Cable said in an interview with the Observer on Sunday that there was a “compelling case” to speed up the extension of the HS2 rail link northwards.
The man who thinks a mansion tax is a workable, sensible idea.
The BBC’s web report pads Higgin’s claims out with more pro voices:
A Department for Transport spokesman said Sir David’s report “confirms that HS2 is the right project at the right price” but added that the report challenges the government to deliver the project more quickly and more effectively.
The Transport Secretary is due to respond to the report in Parliament later.
Shadow transport secretary Mary Creagh said: “David Higgins has made it clear that there are significant savings to be made if David Cameron gets a grip of this project and stops all these delays.
“The government must now act so this scheme can be delivered under budget.”
So everyone is in favour then…such a brilliant project.
The report does mention some opposition:
‘Waste of money’
Opponents of the scheme question how easy it will be to speed up the construction of HS2.
Richard Houghton, spokesman for HS2 Action Alliance said: “Bringing forward work will not be as simple as it sounds.
“Unless there are plans to circumnavigate the statute book, then a separate Hybrid Bill will have to be introduced.”
HS2 Action Alliance, which represents a coalition of groups opposed to the new rail link, says the project will be a “huge waste of money” and claims it will cause severe environmental damage, with the first phase alone having an impact on 130 protected wildlife sites.
That’s it then for the opposition….no real analysis….just ‘Not as simple as it sounds…and a few badgers might be inconvenienced’…….But then the BBC ducks back to the pro-side again….
Robbie Owen of Pinsent Masons solicitors, whose clients broadly support HS2, told the BBC that Sir David’s report was“incisive and powerful”.
“I think, in all, this [report] will hopefully help forge a much stronger cross-party consensus for the project,” said Mr Owen, the head of infrastructure planning and government affairs at the law firm.
“It’s crucially important to transform the economic shape of the UK and to try to rebalance the country away from all the emphasis on the South East,” he said. “We just can’t carry on as a country eking things out in terms of our infrastructure.”
The BBC’s report isn’t exactly dealing with the issues and is giving the pro-HS2 side a readymade platform to push their agenda unchallenged.
Milipedia: n Condition of a BBC journalist being unaccountably attracted to the person and policies of Ed Miliband
John Pienaar….what to say? He just can’t seem to find a harsh word to say about young Eddy….or can he?
Today on ‘Pienaar’s Politics’ he had Ed Miliband on the rack for half an hour, he took no prisoners and cracked the whip…Miliband was given a proper roughing up over serious issues of State…the union take over of his party, Syria and the Russian invasion of the Ukraine and PIE.
Actually…no…I made that all up. This is Pienaar photographed preparing for the interview….
Miliband was given the softest of interviews, not even an interview really just a series of soft questions designed to allow Miliband as much time as possible to sell us his pitch.
Paxman’s interview with Russell Brand by comparison had something of the Spanish Inquisition about it….and we all know how laughable that was as a serious bit of journalism.
Nobody should expect any such ‘inquisition’ from Pienaar for his favourite adopted ‘nephew’.
Perhaps this gives us a clue as to why Pienaar is so mellow…….
The programme started promisingly with the Sun’s political editor, Tom Newton Dunn, nailing it on the head saying….
‘What can they say, Obama, Cameron and Miliband, to Putin who is totally satisfied that he has called the West’s bluff on Syria. The West blinked over chemical weapons, arguably a defeat inflicted upon the government by Ed Miliband and now Putin can do what he wants across the world without anyone caring.’
A pretty damning statement about Miliband’s influence….Putin does what he wishes because Miliband ducked not the actual use of force but merely the threat to use it in Syria…leading to Assad remaining comfortably in place with no intent, or need, to negotiate and Putin doing as he pleases knowing no one will lift a finger.
Pienaar has always claimed that Miliband is leading the way….over energy price freezes and Syria. But Miliband’s ‘influence’ has terrible consequences…in Syria….
and as for an energy price freeze…that has consequences too…..via Bishop Hill…..
The loss arises from pollution taxes that are forcing the closure of old coal-fired plants. Big subsidies for renewable energy, meanwhile, have made even gas-burning plants, which are much cleaner than coal stations, loss-making.
The hit will alarm Whitehall, which is increasingly worried about the lights going out. Companies have stopped building new power stations amid a political and regulatory backlash, sparked last year by Ed Miliband’s pledge to freeze energy prices.
“I can think of a dozen very good reasons not to invest in the UK, and not one good one to invest here this side of the election.”
OK I’ve had a few jokes at Pienaar’s expense but the issues are serious…..and yet Miliband was nowhere near breaking into a sweat at anytime…except when he was shown up by a much more articulate and personable Jermain Jackman.
Pienaar was supposedly getting to the bottom of the union’s influence…but instead declared that the newly approved rules would mean that no one could call Miliband a ‘creature of the unions’…and the Tories couldn’t call him Red Ed any more.
Miliband is allowed to get away with calling his new rules ‘an incredibly brave step’…and then he says that ‘I’m not factional’.
Pienaar says nothing…Miliband not factional? The leader of a Party that bases its politics on generating class warfare and ‘them and us’ name calling? The Leader of a Party that is controlled by Unite, whose leader wants to end democracy and impose Communism ala Ralph Miliband?
Pienaar does suggest Miliband owes his leadership to Union power but doesn’t follow up and challenge Miliband’s answer…a pattern followed throughout the interview with a soft question and Miliband allowed to answer without fear of contradiction.
Again another pertinent question…this time about Miliband’s ‘One Nation’…Pienaar taking his cue from Labour MP’s who have disagreed with Miliband’s approach…..Pienaar asks what does it mean, what are the policies?…it’s an old argument that people are turning away from.
But there is no rigorous questioning of Miliband’s reply.
We then had Jermain Jackman, singer on the BBC’s ‘The Voice’ and Labour activist pop in.
He gave a good account of himself, managing to sound more plausible than Miliband himself….but had to be silenced when he said we should be using songs, poetry, scripts and dance to push the politics….probably all too close to the truth for the BBC which inserts subliminal politics into all its programming and loves to bring on a celebrity to give anti-Tory rhetoric a bit of street cred…or so they think….ala Labour’s ‘Cool Britannia’ no doubt.
Pienaar tells Jermain he’s great and he’ll have his pick of Labour safe seats.
It all turned into a bit of a Labour love-in with no real answers wrung out of Miliband….there was no mention of the big scandal of the week that has dominated the headlines….Labour’s connection to the NCCL and PIE in the 70’s and 80’s…an extraordinary omission.
Tim Newton Dunn’s opening accusation was also completely ignored despite it being an extremely serious one that utterly undermines Miliband’s credibility as a serious politician who can be trusted to take difficult and complex decisions.
Note that Miliband spoke ‘outside the BBC’…….because he wasn’t asked about it inside the BBC.
Playing it safe whilst thousands die and millions suffer.
Miliband’s stance on the Union’s, Syria and his populist energy price freeze him to be someone without a stomach for the fight, someone without the necessary grit and judgement to be the leader of a nation, someone who will duck from those hard decisions but still try to take the credit for being ‘reasonable and moderate’ as people die or are forced to flee their homes and country in their millions because someone like Miliband didn’t dare take that decision that could change things….and the BBC is there to watch his back telling us what a fine job he is doing…..
The BBC long ignored the Daily Mail’s revelations about Harman and Co at the NCCL. The BBC didn’t investigate the claims and only began to ‘report’ the story when Harman made her defence.
The BBC on the other hand has been quick to report a story in the Times about Tory MP Peter Bone.
Curious what catches their eye.
Having said that Newsnight did put the boot into Harman……
Harman tells us that…..
“I think if there is anybody who has over the years supported indecency it is much more the Daily Mail than it is me and that’s the frank truth of it.”
Of course it was the Daily Mail that introduced 24 hour drinking, or a free for all gambling regime where gambling machines were as addictive as ‘crack’, or engineered the destruction of the economy or put young Brits on the ‘scrapheap’ preferring instead to import millions of cheap labourers.
Sorry no, my mistake…it was in fact Harriet Harman’s very own Labour Party that did that.
Unfortunately for Harman it’s not just the Mail that recognises she may have something to answer for…here’s the Telegraph in 2012:
‘….attitudes towards paedophilia in the 1970s were bizarrely relaxed – and not just in Catholic presbyteries or BBC dressing rooms. This was the era when activists on the radical Left lobbied long and hard for changes in the law to reflect a more “enlightened” attitude towards sex between adults and minors.’
The National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), which – in its evidence to the Criminal Law Revision Committee in 1976 – had said the following:
“Childhood sexual experiences, willingly engaged in, with an adult result in no identifiable damage… The real need is a change in the attitude which assumes that all cases of paedophilia result in lasting damage.”
In 1977, months before the future deputy leader of the Labour Party took up her post, the NCCL was quoted in the Evening Standard on the subject of the infamous Paedophile Information Exchange, the “information” in question being disgusting pictures of children involved in sex acts which members would pass to each other in plain envelopes. “NCCL has no policy on [the Paedophile Information Exchange’s] aims – other than the evidence that children are harmed if, after a mutual relationship with an adult, they are exposed to the attentions of the police, press and court,” said a spokesman.
Perhaps that attitude informed Harman’s take on photographs of children being OK…as long as there was no harm to the child…..but…..
“Our amendment places the onus of proof on the prosecution to show that the child was actually harmed,” she wrote.
So she thinks there is no prima facie belief that such behaviour is harmful and so should be allowed to continue unless proved harmful?
Very relaxed and liberal.
Also from the Telegraph, 2009….not a paper that Harman can try to dismiss as ‘puerile’ :
Harriet Harman’s political judgement has been called into question after it emerged that she once advocated the watering down of child pornography laws.
Whilst Newsnight did a reasonable job that hasn’t continued throughout today…None of the actual claims about the NCCL were aired in detail, instead we had Harman’s denials and defence and her tweeting of a Daily Mail story in a desperate attempt to throw a bit of mud back……
This is the actual Mail story in its Television and celebrity news section……
Personally, having read the Mail for years, I can’t say I’ve ever noticed it urging us all to go out and chase young girls in bikinis.
However, make of it what you want but if it is ‘titillating’ and the ‘sexualisation of children’ as Harman claims, and the BBC has repeatedly repeated that for her, then what to make of this from the Left’s own progressive little rag, The Huffington Post (prone to publish plenty of revealing photos as Guido reveals….and yet no disparagement from Harman just as she does as she dumps on the Sun for its page 3)…..
Follow Video , Courtney Stodden , Courtney Stodden At 12 , Courtney Stodden At 13 , Slidepollajax , Young Photos Of Courtney Stodden , Celebrity News
A new batch of photos became available today that were taken when Courtney was about 12 or 13, her mother Krista Stodden told Celebuzz.
While some of Courtney’s poses in these older photos are still suggestive, there is no denying that she actually looks like a teenager. One of the photos is of Courtney with her older sisters Ashley and Brittany in a hot tub, who their mother says are both married with husbands their own ages.
The Huffington Post publishes photos of Courtney Stodden when she was 12 or 13 and link to the same picture that the Mail reproduced:
Other Media publications aren’t averse to a bit of ‘titillation’ either…the Guardian celebrating Kate Moss being the ‘object of our gaze‘ and ‘turning heads’ since she was 14…..
Croydon-born beauty has been the object of our gaze since she was 14but shows no sign of losing her place at the top
and the BBC isn’t averse to using her, though older (19), in its own celebrity news where we see that a half dressed, drinking and smoking Kate Moss is…
Kate Moss: Crazy, sexy, cool
Link via a proxy server as this BBC Worldwide site not available in UK:
The BBC has been ‘pouring’ over Harman’s story all day…and yet manage to shed little light on the issues.
Sheila Fogarty said she would be keeping a close eye on what would no doubt be the dominant news story today.….and yet not much of interest came forth despite the underwhelming, lacklustre efforts of John Pienaar to explain things…..just the usual repetitions of Harman’s denials and counter smear against the Mail….but as shown above that’s a classic case of hypocrisy from Harman…shame the BBC gives it so much credence.
This BBC report does little to enlighten us as to the ‘evidence’ that the NCCL did act in concert with the PIE….neither quoting from nor linking to any of the documents that are fairly damning for the NCCL and which the Mail has revealed in its own stories.
This is the best the BBC can do:
The newspaper initially accused her of having “tried to water down child pornography laws” during her time at the National Council for Civil Liberties
And that’s despite having the documents available themselves as Newsnight stated in the interview with Harman.
It does look like the BBC is doing a fine job, Newsnight aside, in covering up for Harman and downplaying the claims whilst highlighting her own claims about the Mail.
How times have changed when they tried to smear Lord MacAlpine without any evidence or bothering to talk to him personally…but then he was a Tory.
The BBC should really check what the real people think:
You may see the relevance of this photograph of Muslims making the Quenelle gesture when you listen to this broadcast about the decisive battle against Muslim invaders into Europe…
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of Tours. In 732 a large Arab army invaded Gaul from northern Spain, and travelled as far north as Poitiers. There they were defeated by Charles Martel, whose Frankish and Burgundian forces repelled the invaders. The result confirmed the regional supremacy of Charles, who went on to establish a strong Frankish dynasty. The Battle of Tours was the last major incursion of Muslim armies into northern Europe; some historians, including Edward Gibbon, have seen it as the decisive moment that determined that the continent would remain Christian.
We heard that the owner of Zoopla was Jewish…but no indication of Anelka’s religion.
Anelka was quoted as saying this was an anti-‘system’ gesture not anti-religion….strange choice of word there by Anelka.
Lucy Grey, the BBC presenter, then asked ‘Is this Opportunistic of Zoopla?‘….Suggesting perhaps they weren’t really offended…that there was nothing to be offended about?
The equivocation, scepticism and lack of depth as to the nature of the Quenelle made me have another look at the subject…..
The BBC were slow to realise the significance of Zoopla’s move, reported 4 days ago but barely noticed by the BBC.
That seems to have changed today as it is given a prominent place on the Frontpage:
The BBC however still have problems with deciding whether the ‘Quenelle’ is anti-Semitic or merely an ‘up you‘ to government. (Wonder how they would take it if it was a Tea Party member who made a similar salute?…the BBC’s disdain for white, anti-government Americans being well known).
Nicolas Anelka may or may not have known what he was doing with his Nazi-like salute, but his great friend, the French comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala, almost certainly does.
Dieudonne is smart. Very smart. He’s smart enough to invert an idea, and invent a gesture, and direct them towards the same place – modern anti-Semitism.
Newsnight had a look at this with its now infamously coy description of the Neo-Nazi Alain Soral as merely a ‘writer and film-maker’ and a close friend of Dieudonne. Paxman does says twice that the gesture is anti-Semitic but allows Soral to get away with several references to the ‘Zionist lobby’…or the ‘System’…Paxman should have been asking exactly what he meant by that as it was clear it was being used as a euphemism for Jewish….the ‘System’ also a euphemism…as Dieudonne claims the ‘System’ is being run by Jews. Soral himself says ‘That’s the question’….except Paxman doesn’t take him up on that.
We are told supporters of Dieudonne say if there are no disturbances at Dieudonne’s shows, and there hasn’t been we are reassured by the BBC, then what is the problem?…even if it was anti-Semitic?
The problem might be that it is not only people in the theatre that see these performances…Newsnight itself admits that You Tube broadcasts of the shows get 2 million hits a week….just how many of those viewers then become ‘poisoned’ (using Sarah Montague’s description of the supposed effect of the EDL’s own statements) and then go on to act out their prejudices for real?
And what of Soral? He is a well known Neo-Nazi….Newsnight even flashed this picture of him making the Quenelle salute at the Holocaust memorial up on the screen:
And yet Paxman made no link to that during the interview.
Dieudonne made the gesture when he headed his own anti-Zionist campaign in the European elections in 2009. French media trace it further back, to one of his performances in 2005. It came to greater prominence in September when two soldiers were photographed appearing to make the gesture outside a Paris synagogue.
There are thousands of examples posted online, some at sensitive sites such as the Auschwitz death camp, and Dieudonne’s fans can be seen repeating it outside his theatre.
Both Anelka and Dieudonne say it is an anti-establishment symbol of defiance. But the French sports minister, Valerie Fourneyron, was one of many to disagree with the footballer’s interpretation, saying it was sickening and incited racial hatred.’
We were told in one interview with an ‘expert’ that it was the ‘Far Right, radical Muslims and youths from the Banlieues’ who are following Dieudonne in big numbers….so that’ll be the Far Right, radical Muslims and lots of other Muslims from the Muslim Banlieues then.
Just what are the BBC hiding with this constant refusal to admit ‘normal’ Muslims are making the gesture…such as Anelka?
Here Anelka Tweets his excuse:
Another ‘supporter’ of Dieudonne doing the Quenelle outside the Jewish school in Toulouse where a Muslim killed some of the pupils.
But Anelka is a good friend of Dieudonne….and here he is once again making the salute…this time in a theatre, so presumably he is there to see the show……he must be under no illusions exactly what Dieudonne means…..
“L’Antisémite,” directed by and starring the French comedian Dieudonné, was, according to Le Monde, co-produced by Iran:
After images that hold Auschwitz up for derision, we see the shoot of a film centered on an alcoholic and violent character who is disguised as a Nazi officer for a costume party. The Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson appears as himself for a few minutes, the Shoah is personified as a saint.
Tell me you’re not an anti-Semite. My love, it’s a sickness. You have to be truly cured. For the children. Anti-Semitism is the worst thing that could happen to them.
Then, on camera, Dieudonné says:
You’re right, my dear. I’m an anti-Semite. It’s clear the Jews control everything—the media, finance, politics. We no longer have a choice. We must—
and he turns to camera and, staring into it, says—
exterminate them.
Now you might be thinking that he’s just acting, those words or sentiments are merely what’s in the script…..but have a look at this Press TV interview Dieudonne has done…..once he gets onto the ‘Zionist Lobby’…you will soon note the exact same sentiments towards them as on the film as a whole…..
He says…...I will be happy to celebrate the destruction of Israel…the Jews are the greatest Mafia in the history of mankind….we should always fight against those who do bad in the world…and those who created the State of Israel.
So is the Quenelle just ‘anti-System‘?
To Dieudonne the ‘System’ is the Jews, the Zionist Lobby which ‘runs the world’…..so anti-system is merely an evasive subterfuge for saying anti-Semitic.
Jean-Yves Camus, a French academic who studies the extreme right, told the Independent the quenelle has become a “badge of identity, especially among the young, but it is doubtful that all of them understand its true meaning”. He says Dieudonne has become the hero of a movement convinced the world is run by Washington and Tel Aviv.
A 20-year-old Greek footballer has been banned for life from playing for his national team after a controversial goal celebration in which he appeared to give a Nazi salute. The player says he hadn’t understood the meaning of the gesture – but is it possible, in 2013, for a European to be so poorly informed?
Many parties on the fringes of European politics employ elements of neo-Nazi symbolism, he says, although they present it as something else to stay on the right side of the law.
In particular, those groups have managed to infiltrate sport in countries such as Germany, Austria, Italy and the UK.
“Football culture is symbolically rich and neo-Nazi-type gestures and symbols have become immersed in certain of those cultures… It’s obvious what they represent.”
In 2005, the then Lazio striker Paolo Di Canio received a one-game ban for a raised-arm salute.
Contesting the ban, he described himself as a “fascist” but “not a racist”.
“I made the Roman salute because it’s a salute from a comrade to his comrades and was meant for my people,” he said.
Matthew Goodwin, associate professor of politics at the University of Nottingham, and a specialist in political extremism, thinks that it is inconceivable that young Europeans could be entirely ignorant of the associations of neo-Nazi symbolism.
“Europe still displays a fascination with Nazi Germany – its paraphernalia and culture is still very heavily present. There is the popular culture, the films – the symbolism is still represented,” he says.
In Greece, in particular, it is “incredibly doubtful” that people don’t have notion of what the symbolism or gestures mean, says Goodwin – partly because of all the fuss over Golden Dawn.
“It’s not a marginal issue,” he says.
“Naivete and ignorance is difficult to digest in modern Greece.”
Once again the BBC refers solely to the ‘Far Right’.
Of course Muslims would never think of doing such a salute….and if they did, the BBC would never report it…….
Hezbollah and the Mullahs of Iran.
Hamas reaching for the TV remote.
“The Hamas credo is not just anti-Israel, but profoundly anti-Semitic with racism at its core. The Hamas Charter reads like a modern-day ‘Mein Kampf.'”
The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine has been an Islamic Waqf throughout the generations and until the Day of Resurrection, no one can renounce it or part of it, or abandon it or part of it.
Nothing is loftier or deeper in Nationalism than waging Jihad against the enemy and confronting him when he sets foot on the land of the Muslims. And this becomes an individual duty binding on every Muslim man and woman; a woman must go out and fight the enemy even without her husband’s authorization, and a slave without his masters’ permission.
Peaceful Solutions, [Peace] Initiatives and International Conferences[Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement.
I swear by that who holds in His Hands the Soul of Muhammad! I indeed wish to go to war for the sake of Allah! I will assault and kill, assault and kill, assault and kill
From Harry’s Place….just so we know what’s what and who supports who….
Anelka is not the first French footballer playing in England to make the gesture. Samir Nasri and Mamadou Sakho were also photographed in this way, although Sakho later tweeted that he had been tricked and didn’t realise its true meaning.
‘French footballers’?
Anelka is a Muslim, Sakho is a Muslim, Nasri is also Muslim…why no mention….not relevant?
Mamadou Sakho (L), Tony Parker (C), and Samir Nasri (R). Photos: Screengrab/Slate/Youtube/DieuPharaon/AstuceFoot
The Quenelle is clearly intended by Dieudonne to be an anti-Semitic salute…the evidence is just too overwhelming to say otherwise….pity the BBC doesn’t seem too keen to look hard into this and seems more concerned to deflect people off into looking at the ‘Far Right’ whilst failing to mention that three footballers who made the gesture are all Muslim.
The BBC fails in its obligations to inform us and bring us the News…instead bringing us a version of the news that bares only a passing resemblance to the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Hiding the fact that some Muslims maybe anti-Semitic is an insult to everyone…..the BBC were quick to report the exaggerated claims of the Muslim pressure group ‘Tell Mama’ about alleged incidents of anti-Muslim attacks but seems all too keen to sweep under the carpet incidents of anti-Semitism, all too willing to ascribe it to some other intention or to blame some other convenient scapegoats.
Andrew Gilligan in the Telegraph tells us the truth about ‘Tell Mama’…and about the BBC…
“Over the past week or so, these sorts of hate crimes have noticeably increased in number and, in many instances, become more extreme.
“The scale of the backlash is astounding … there has been a massive spike in anti-Muslim prejudice. A sense of endemic fear has gripped Muslim communities.”
The media, especially the BBC, have accepted the claims without question. A presenter on Radio 4’s influential Today programme stated that attacks on Muslims were now “on a very serious scale”.
Yet the unending “cycle of violence” against Muslims, the unprecedented “wave of attacks” against them from strangers in the street, the “underlying Islamophobia in our society” – all turn out to be yet more things we thought we knew about Woolwich that are not really supported by the evidence.
Always leave ’em laughing~
Obama and the two star performers were in fact posing for a picture doing the well-known “brush off the shoulders” hip-hop move at a NYC fundraiser, which has no connection to the quenelle.
At an International Council meeting in Canterbury, UK, Amnesty International debates and rejects the proposal to recognize as prisoners of conscience people who use or advocate the use of force in opposing oppressive regimes.
This means people like Nelson Mandela are not recognized as prisoners of conscience.
Amused to hear Nelson Mandela put into the same category as Nick Griffin this morning (08:58) by one of Mandela’s oldest friends, who knew him for 63 years, and who told us that Mandela was angry with the Whites, for obvious reasons, but also angry and suspicious of the Indian immigrants in South Africa in the context of the new African nationalism that was being propagated….Justin Webb said that’s interesting…that’s a side of him we don’t hear much about..and oh we ran out of time.
Yes…there’s a lot we don’t hear about Mandela these days.
The BBC rarely misses a chance to mention that Mrs Thatcher thought that the ANC was a terrorist organisation and a bunch of Communists….the intention explicit…to demonstrate just how bad a woman Thatcher was…because Mandela was a saint….today on Any Questions we had some good lady, Jeanette Winterson, mention it (1 min 30 sec)…adding ‘Lest we forget‘….amusing really because as she condemns Thatcher she is telling us how we should adopt Mandela’s virtuous values of inclusiveness, standing against prejudice, and his ability to meet his enemies around the table….no such inclusiveness when it comes to Margaret Thatcher then? Mandela, who used extreme violence to serve his purposes, is a latter day saint, Thatcher who disliked his methods, and opposed Apartheid, is evil…funny old world.
I can’t think why Thatcher thought that about Mandela and the ANC:
It must be because Thatcher is Thatcher…because it is hard to argue with her point……indeed even Amnesty International thought along the same lines….something all those pious worthies grandstanding and basking in the reflected glory of Nelson Mandela seem to forget or are ignorant of: At an International Council meeting in Canterbury, UK, Amnesty International debates and rejects the proposal to recognize as prisoners of conscience people who use or advocate the use of force in opposing oppressive regimes. This means people like Nelson Mandela are not recognized as prisoners of conscience, although campaigns continue against the inhumane conditions of his imprisonment.
Mandela never renounced violence nor apologised for it…in fact he still supported killing long after his release:
The BBC has repeatedly told us in the last two days that South Africa is a nation at peace…the legacy of Nelson Mandela…..ignoring the government sponsored murder campaign against whites…and indeed Black opponents of the government.
Around 3000 white farmers have been killed, and many more other whites, and the number of farmers reduced from 60,000 to half that number as they flee the country.
And of course this method of dealing with political opponents was invented by Mandela’s ANC:
It is remarkable how a man who, though admittedly having a good cause, adopted terrorist methods is being whitewashed, sanitised, scourged of his past sins.
How might that have happened and who rewrote history?
“This is how we turned Mandela from a black terrorist into a black leader.”
The anti-apartheid hero was on a US terror watch list until 2008 and while still on Robben Island, Britain’s late “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher described his African National Congress as a “typical terrorist organisation.”
That Mandela’s image has been transformed so thoroughly is a testament to the man’s achievements, but also, in part, to a concert that took place in London 25 years ago this week.
For organiser Tony Hollingsworth the June 11, 1988 gig at London’s Wembley Stadium had very little to do with Mandela’s 70th birthday, as billed.
It had everything to do with ridding Mandela of his terrorist tag and ensuring his release.
“You can’t get out of jail as a terrorist, but you can get out of prison as a black leader,” he told AFP during a visit to Johannesburg.
Many insisted the focus remain on sanctions against the apartheid regime.
“A lot of people were criticising me for sanitising it,” Hollingsworth remembered.
Eventually Terry convinced the ANC and Hollingsworth convinced Simple Minds, Dire Straits, Sting, George Michael, The Eurythmics, Eric Clapton, Whitney Houston and Stevie Wonder into the 83-artist line up.
With that musical firepower came contracts for a more than 11 hour broadcast.
“We signed with the entertainment department of television (stations). And when the head of the department got home and watched on his channel that they were calling Mandela a terrorist, they called straight to the news section to say, don’t call this man a terrorist, we just signed 11 hours of broadcasting for a tribute about him.”
“This is how we turned Mandela from a black terrorist into a black leader.”
Aah yes….TV executives.
And where have we heard that attitude before….‘we can’t say that about him…because we have a tribute show to go out?’
Oh yes, from the BBC, Newsnight, and Jimmy Savile.
As noted in the previous post the BBC made a curious omission in their programme about the Kennedy assassination…..forgetting to mention that Oswald was a Communist…whilst also making less than subtle intimations that seemed intended to suggest the Republicans may have shot Kennedy.
The BBC’s attitude towards all things American (B.O. besides) today is probably neatly summed up by this appraisal of other American’s view of Texas as judged by Peter Watson at the time, too big, too brash, too rich, too successful:
Mystery and infamy surround Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who shot US President John F Kennedy in Dallas, 50 years ago. So it’s odd to visit a city where people remember him clearly and fondly – and refuse to believe he is guilty.
…..it was somewhat unnerving to hear so many good things about a person whose name is associated with one of the most infamous acts of our era.
I met one of Oswald’s former workmates, Vladimir Zhidovich, at a local cafe. He, like everyone else, told me how Oswald was a “good guy” and he couldn’t imagine him a murderer.
As we parted, he asked a favour. If I ever go to Texas, he asked, would I lay some flowers on Oswald’s grave, from him and the other colleagues at the radio factory?
I still haven’t made up my mind what to do
Yep…that’ll go down well in the US….a BBC journo laying flowers on the grave of a man who killed their president.
Charming piece of pro-Muslim propaganda brought your way by CBBC Newsround;
Non-Muslims are being asked to try wearing a hijab, a type of headscarf, for a day to find out more about why women wear them. World Hijab Day calls on non-Muslim women to try out life under the traditional head scarf. Some people think women should not have to cover their hair or face and think it is unfair because men don’t have to wear them.But for many women around the world, it is an important show of their faith.
Looking forward to CBBC pushing “World Wear a Cross Day” where Non Christians are encouraged to try out life wearing a crucifix.
Thanks to GCooper in the comments who points out this revelation (science writer Maurizio Morabito has unearthed a list – once hosted on the IBT’s website and now stored in the Wayback Machine‘s cache of the internet.) that the BBC tried to hide…and it’s a funny thing…can’t see many of the ‘best scientific experts’ amongst that bunch….lot of environmental pressure groups, businessmen, academics, media and charities….just a shame we don’t have a transcript of what they said:
BBC Television Centre, London
Specialists:
Robert May, Oxford University and Imperial College London
Mike Hulme, Director, Tyndall Centre, UEA
Blake Lee-Harwood, Head of Campaigns, Greenpeace
Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen
Michael Bravo, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge
Andrew Dlugolecki, Insurance industry consultant
Trevor Evans, US Embassy
Colin Challen MP, Chair, All Party Group on Climate Change
Anuradha Vittachi, Director, Oneworld.net
Andrew Simms, Policy Director, New Economics Foundation
Claire Foster, Church of England
Saleemul Huq, IIED
Poshendra Satyal Pravat, Open University
Li Moxuan, Climate campaigner, Greenpeace China
Tadesse Dadi, Tearfund Ethiopia
Iain Wright, CO2 Project Manager, BP International
Ashok Sinha, Stop Climate Chaos
Andy Atkins, Advocacy Director, Tearfund
Matthew Farrow, CBI
Rafael Hidalgo, TV/multimedia producer
Cheryl Campbell, Executive Director, Television for the Environment
Kevin McCullough, Director, Npower Renewables
Richard D North, Institute of Economic Affairs
Steve Widdicombe, Plymouth Marine Labs
Joe Smith, The Open University
Mark Galloway, Director, IBT
Anita Neville, E3G
Eleni Andreadis, Harvard University
Jos Wheatley, Global Environment Assets Team, DFID
Tessa Tennant, Chair, AsRia
BBC attendees:
Jana Bennett, Director of Television
Sacha Baveystock, Executive Producer, Science
Helen Boaden, Director of News
Andrew Lane, Manager, Weather, TV News
Anne Gilchrist, Executive Editor Indies & Events, CBBC
Dominic Vallely, Executive Editor, Entertainment
Eleanor Moran, Development Executive, Drama Commissioning
Elizabeth McKay, Project Executive, Education
Emma Swain, Commissioning Editor, Specialist Factual
Fergal Keane, (Chair), Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Fran Unsworth, Head of Newsgathering
George Entwistle, Head of TV Current Affairs
Glenwyn Benson, Controller, Factual TV
John Lynch, Creative Director, Specialist Factual
Jon Plowman, Head of Comedy
Jon Williams, TV Editor Newsgathering
Karen O’Connor, Editor, This World, Current Affairs
Catriona McKenzie, Tightrope Pictures catriona@tightropepictures.com
BBC Television Centre, London (cont)
Liz Molyneux, Editorial Executive, Factual Commissioning
Matt Morris, Head of News, Radio Five Live
Neil Nightingale, Head of Natural History Unit
Paul Brannan, Deputy Head of News Interactive
Peter Horrocks, Head of Television News
Peter Rippon, Duty Editor, World at One/PM/The World this Weekend
Phil Harding, Director, English Networks & Nations
Steve Mitchell, Head Of Radio News
Sue Inglish, Head Of Political Programmes
Frances Weil, Editor of News Special Events
“Alas no BBC exec available”. Well, it’s such a hassle to go down to the Newswatch studio just to mouth “You’re wrong, we’re right” in a variety of ways for ten minutes.
Hey, perhaps they’re planning a sequel in which the street is flooded with dozens of diversity officers, climate change advisers and other assorted wastes of space, paid for by taking all the residents’ money and then maxing out their credit cards for good measure. That wouldn’t be any more ludicrous than Nick Robinson’s stupid programme.
UPDATE. I see James Delingpole has given the programme a good kicking in the latest Spectator. Extract (subscriber-only until next week):
“Then, a subtitle appeared on the screen saying: ‘Do you see how vital, caring, nurturing and important a role the State plays in your lives? Well, DO you, citizen?’ And then an extendable finger came out of the side of the TV set and prodded the viewer really hard in the ribs…
[The BBC’s] default position, the length and breadth of its programming from the World Service to Springwatch to CBBC, is that Big Brother is your friend, the public sector is good and the private sector bad. And the real joke is, we actually fork out for this brainwashing, 24/7, 365 days of the year.”
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