Remember this: Saturday Live on the 16th had an interesting little report. (about 0945)…all the way from the delightful People’s Republic of North Korea. John McCarthy hears about the Arirang or Mass Games in North Korea’s capital Pongyang;  a dazzling display by thousands of marching, dancing, skipping, gymnastics and… flip charts. He talks to visitors to the games photographer Jeremy Hunter, former diplomat James Hoare and tourist Tony … Continue reading →

    “Our first responsibility is to make money for our clients….and nothing is more important than oil.” Jeremy Grantham….Bob Ward’s boss and also that of Lord Stern.     ‘Something funny’s happening to the weather’.   Just some things to consider when reading BBC exclamations that man made climate change is here…     What to believe eh? No Arctic ice?…and yet ice is increasing….drier, colder winters?…..and yet winter … Continue reading →

Better late than never, here you go, a new Open Thread.

You might wonder why it is that despite its vast resources, and all those world class journalists, the BBC seem to have missed THIS explanation of why the Somerset Levels flooding. Turns out the Environment Agency (Under Labour quangocrat control since 2000) planned to flood the Levels. How awkward for those INTENT in turning this tragedy into one more excuse to advance the AGW agenda… As I explained on the … Continue reading →

  What’s in a name? Build a wall and it seems the most pressing problem is how to define what that wall is intended to do….what to name the construction…..all very difficult if you have an agenda whilst trying to appear not to have.   In Northern Ireland walls that keep the warring parties apart are ‘Peace Walls’…and they’re still being built….as this BBC report from 2013 reveals: New ‘peace … Continue reading →

Q1   Chair: Good morning. This is the second session of the Committee’s inquiry into the future of the BBC. I would like to welcome the former chairman of the BBC board of governors, Gavyn Davies, and the former director-general, Greg Dyke.Let us start with a general question. Since you both left the BBC, which is nine years ago, coming up to 10, what do you think of how the … Continue reading →

    “I don’t like monopolies and we are facing a situation where the BBC has an increasing monopoly on creative matters.” John Birt     Michael Grade calls for smaller BBC Ex-Channel 4 chief says no one could be successful in role of director general and corporation must outsource business Michael Grade has said the BBC has become “unmanageable” and called on licence fee money to be used to … Continue reading →

Adding to David’s post on the BBC being too right wing….based on a report by a left wing academic funded by the BBC Trust….       From The Independent The BBC has been accused of yielding to political pressure since the last election and allowing a right-wing bias to emerge in its journalism. The serious criticism by a distinguished media professor suggests that the BBC has compromised its impartiality … Continue reading →

Whilst doing a little D-I-Y armed with my trusty drill, I decided to listen to The News Quiz on BBC Radio 4 earlier today. This programme was an extenuated sneer against the Conservatives and with “regular” Jeremy Hardy, Phil Jupitus and Sandi Toksvig herself, all we got was cheap political ad hominem dressed up as “satire” It’s hard to imagine that once upon a time this programme was funny. A … Continue reading →

The BBC has a long record of being hostile to religious spokesmen if they dare to speak up for what we can call “orthodox values” If a Bishop somewhere chirps up expressing disagreement with gay marriage, he can be assured a rough ride (whoops) however if a Cardinal attacks Welfare Reform, he can be certain that the BBC will smile upon him!