We hear endless sob stories on the BBC about tenants having to move house due to the governments ‘bedroom tax’….or spare room subsidy reduction if you prefer. We hear the ‘vulnerable’ are being targeted and discriminated against, the poorest in society victimised and cities being ‘cleansed’ of the poor. Well you can argue about that endlessly but what about at the other end of the scale….those high earners who refuse … Continue reading
Harriet Harman suggested a cap on ownership of the media but wanted to exclude the BBC from such considerations: No, the BBC is not included…there is all the difference in the world between a privately owned broadcaster and a public broadcaster which has its own mechanisms for accountability [ha ha] and no I don’t include it as a monopoly…it’s not a private monopoly. I put it on one side….the … Continue reading
The BBC more often than not will reveal to us, in the interest of transparency and impartiality, that a think tank is right leaning. It is a rarity to see left wing think tanks or charities similarly defined. I have yet to hear The New Economic Foundation so described despite being not just left leaning but out on the fringes of the loony left, the Resolution Foundation or … Continue reading
Kebab Time has some taxing questions for Labour…I wonder if the BBC has any…though Labour’s Margaret Hodge threatening legal action if the BBC asked any questions about Stemcor’s tax affairs silenced them pretty quickly….that and the fact that they weren’t very keen to ‘kebab’ her any way. Kebab Time posts this from the Times: Will Hodge be demanding Labour cough up some of that £24 million they took … Continue reading
The Energy and Climate Change Committee published its thoughts on energy companies and pricing today which the BBC has concentrated on….but the ECCC also released its latest publications on smart metering.…they will cost us £12 billion…but save us £18 billion….because that’s the way government, publicly funded ,computer projects always work…they always come in under budget and save us money…don’t they? The BBC has been running quite a few studies looking at … Continue reading
Just been treated to Nicky Campbell talking to Ed Davey about energy companies in relation to the Energy and Climate Change Committee’s highly political statement that the companies are not doing enough to make company profits transparent. Campbell fully accepted that statement and didn’t challenge it in the slightest and only wheeled in Ed Davey to confirm the statement and back it up with yet more government waffle. … Continue reading
The BBC has been hailing the efforts of John Kerry in the past few days as he cobbles together another doomed set of “peace talks” in the middle east between Israel and Palestinians. The BBC have been pontificating about the tough choices that BOTH sides have had to make to even get this far. On examination (mine!) this reduces down to Israel releasing 100 Palestinian criminals (bad call, btw) and … Continue reading
When it comes to the ongoing friction between Spain and Gibraltar, and in particular the current bully boy tactics used by the Spanish Government to inconvenience Gibraltarians crossing the border, it will be interesting to see the BBC approach. I thought this was a pretty fair commentary on it but am aware that Today are covering it later this morning and one can’t help but feel rather in the Argentina/Falklands … Continue reading
Yes, here is an Open Thread ON TIME! Enjoy it and fill it.
BBC Sunday Morning Live was particularly appalling this morning. The lead debate asked whether whether Muslims were being demonised. We had Mehdi Hasan asking the question and talking over everybody else. We had Anne Atkinson who agreed Muslims were being demonised and Douglas Murray who opined that they weren’t. We had Fiyaz Mughal, from Tell Mama, lined up to back the meme but when the poll result came in, once again … Continue reading
