Listening to Nicky Campbell’s ‘Your Call’ (09:40)on Friday and was amused to hear Nicky leap to the defence of a beleaguered minority. You can have a long diatribe about Obama and his red lines being to blame for violence in Syria, you can say the Rebels used the chemical weapons, you can say Rebels are creating martyrs, and Nicky won’t say a word, but when you say Muslims are … Continue reading
The BBC is having to play catch up as their initial assessment of Miliband’s performance in regard to the vote over Syria was that he was the ‘architect of Camerons’ defeat’ and that he could now ‘walk tall’.….as Assad supporters fly the Union Jack in Damascus in celebration. The BBC’s two senior and important political reporters, Nick Robinson and John Humphrys, got it wrong. Apparently even the Labour … Continue reading
The Sunday Times (paywalled) says that the BBC has hired yet another Labour man…Godric Smith, Blair’s official spokesman between 2001 and 2004 and head of strategic communications until 2006. (mentioned in the Guardian in July) His PR firm, Incorporated London, has been hired by the BBC, without tender, to ‘help rebuild its reputation in the wake of the Savile scandal’. One of his jobs might be….explain how he was … Continue reading
Obama was trapped by his own Red Line on the use of chemical weapons in Syria…I note he now says action will only be taken if there are significant casualties resulting from the use of chemical weapons…..so presumably that is designed to give him a bit of leeway in not having to respond to attacks resulting in relatively few casualties. Obama is now seeking a vote in Congress to get … Continue reading
Thursday the BBC (on 5Live at least) actually performed its task of reporting the events and considerations leading up to the vote on any attack on Syria with a fair degree of balance…though Seamus Milne and Labour’s Madeleine Moon I thought got off lightly without challenge to their anti-war stance. Friday it all went pear shaped and normal service was resumed with the knives out for Cameron whilst Ed Miliband was being … Continue reading
Listening to 5Live today I heard a report about an attack on a school by a Syrian aircraft using some sort of incendiary bomb. Now I’m fairly hardened to images of war and the resultant carnage that results but I have to admit when I heard one man making his plea to the UN (10:14:30) it kind of stopped me dead in my tracks. Dear UN What kind of peace are you … Continue reading
Mark Mardell is having a little freak-out about his beloved Obamessiah’s relentless rush to war (or is it only a rush when Bush does it?), which I’m enjoying immensely. It’s caused him to reveal his ignorance on US politics and scramble to find something that makes sense to him. UK Syria vote leaves US asking ‘what’s so special?’ That’s Mardell’s concern here: how an intransigent Parliament is hindering the President’s … Continue reading
Sure none of you will have time to fill this one up…too busy applying for the newly vacant position of HR Director, BBC….or you could win the lottery this weekend….either way, you’d be in the money.
£320,000 per year for a Human Resources director. No wonder the BBC is 75% repeats. For what was Ms Adams paid so much money, what outstanding values did she bring to the BBC? Ms Adams was accused of a “dereliction of duty” for her role in authorising the pay-offs, and Conservative MP Stewart Jackson said the practice would be called “corporate fraud and cronyism” in any other … Continue reading
Remember back in February of this year, when the US government was facing an across-the-board 5% budget cut, known colloquially as the “sequester”, because nasty old Republicans wouldn’t bow down to the Presidents spending desires? At the time, the BBC’s US President editor couldn’t have been more cross, calling it a “toxic tale of cruel dismemberment and government by crisis”. Oh, how we were fed doom and gloom. The emotive … Continue reading
