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Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest
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newsnight: ( right now)
£100 million (of taxpayers services) spent on translation services
peterborough -> estimate £1million spent on translation.
court translations – 300 per cent rise in the past 3 years.
interview – bangladeshis (in the east end) are “disincentivised” to learn english.
“when you try to help us, you are harming us!!!”
its in the nhs that the largest amounts are spent on translation. 450,000 in the Newham NHS alone.
woooah – paxman just made mincemeat of the labour minister.
why he is tilting his head to the right?
weird.
WOOOAh
paxman just cut off the interview when the labour wanker started talking about the “far right”…
watch More4 now…starkeys last word.. discussing bbc bias
(just reposted here after reading the comment from aunty leftism)
I’ve just seen Starkey’s Last Word on More 4. He was discussing whether there was a ‘pinko’ bias at the BBC.
He certainly thought so.
He had Kelvin MacKensie, Marina Hyde and Greg Dyke on with him, and the accusation was made (by MacKensie) that the BBC news room was full of commies who read the Guardian. Nick Robinson was championed as a (lone) Tory, which was presumably meant to counter the pinko claim.
Greg Dyke said that he brought in a financial editor who was very right wing in order to counter the (then) current left wing financial team.
The debate was very quick (it was on More 4, after all!), and seemed to end with the claim that the BBC was actually pretty middle of the road. Starkey’s finishing quip was good – he said that we all know what happens to people who stand in the middle of the road
The Today programme is running a ‘Christmas Repeal’ – they want to know which piece of legislation is most outdated and least useful.
I suggested that they consider scrapping the Telly Tax.
Doubt that I will win 🙁
Somebody pick me up off the floor! I’m in a state of shock. On the Today Programme just after 7am, there was a report about the inter-Arab murderous violence in Gaza. The words “Israel”, or “Jews”, or “Israeli Army”, were not mentioned once.
I missed the coverage of the Translation Services costs.
Does anyone have a link to a story about it ?
The reason I ask is I wondered what percentage of that £100 million was providing BSL interpreters for deaf sign-language users. These translation services are essential. As a deafie myself, I would be pretty bloody annoyed if money for those services was cut just because some ungrateful sod wants his dole cheque translated into Somali.
The BBC and half a story;
Terrorism suspects still at large
Two terror suspects who breached control orders and went missing earlier this year are still on the run, Home Secretary John Reid has revealed. One of the men went on the run about four months ago. The other disappeared more than two months ago.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6169619.stm
and how the Guardian reported the same story yesterday;
Reid says two terror suspects still on the run
Two suspected terrorists who broke their control orders by removing their electronic tags and going on the run in August are still at large, the home secretary, John Reid, admitted yesterday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1970080,00.html
Like master like sycophant. It seems somebody at the BBC removed the Electronic snippet from their story;
The BBC and half a story.
Have I dropped through a hole arrived in a better place? Driving home last night in my Kraut gas-guzzler there was talk of illegal immigrants on 5 Live. Not ‘asylum seekers’, but ‘illegal immigrants’.
Later, I saw that Newsnight piece too, and when the Bangla ‘human rights’ lawyer was introduced, the heart sank. Has there ever been a ‘human rights’ lawyer who didn’t deserve to dangle from a rope? Well, waddya know, he was first class. When the whole film was dedicated to exposing the idiocy of translation services (in reality, a make-work scheme for liberals) I began to think I was pissed.
Who then pops up a little later on Newsnight? All round right wing fat bastard Jon Gaunt. Well blow me, what’s happened at the BBC? This is all quite dizzying.
TheCuckoo –
These translation services are essential. As a deafie myself, I would be pretty bloody annoyed if money for those services was cut just because some ungrateful sod wants his dole cheque translated into Somali.
I’d be as pissed of as anyone if some quat-chewing illegal immigrant went ahead of me in the queue for anything, but you have no more right to the contents of someone else’s wallet than your Somali does. In fact, in demanding that the government steals from others to give to you, you open the door for the government divert those ill-gotten gains away from you – it’s all a question of who deemed to be the most deserving when private property is being ‘redistributed’.
Pete-London
I don’t mind my tax money going to give Cuckoo some signing or to give a blind person a white stick and a dog.
I wouldn’t even mind if some of it was redistributed towards your forthcoming triple-bypass.
That’s if they can find a heart when they open you up Pete my lad.
I do draw the line though at quat-munching illegals insisting on getting their bomb making manuals translated on the Social.
Well done Newsnight.
One thing I noticed about the bbc’s reporting of Zara Phillips being chosen as the sports personality of the year on its website and on ceefax. They referred to her in the text as Phillips, not Miss Phillips or Ms. Phillips, just Phillips.
They do this in other areas too. I remember seeing a story on ceefax about the death of the last remaining Australian veteran of The Great War. He was referred to by his surname. It seems to be a common practice in the bbc.
However should the subject matter be about exploding plumbers (or failed exploders) then every courtesy is extended. It will be Mr. this and Mr. that. That goes for corrupt black dictators and politicians too. Its Mr. Annan this and Mr. Annan that.
The bbc supposedly agonises over the choice of its language and phraseology, so when something goes out I presume it is run through a ‘quality control’ check.
I can only conclude that this is a conscious decision on the part of the hideously ethnic and hideously homosexual bbc to be deliberately rude to normal white people.
jr perhaps you might be able to elucidate. By the way am I a member of what I believe you described in an earlier thread as ‘the motly crew’
More please Pete_London.
I could use some festive cheer!
Pete London
‘Has there ever been a ‘human rights’ lawyer who didn’t deserve to dangle from a rope?’
None that I can think of.
@Pete_London
You’re missing the point. If you’re deaf, learning spoken english isn’t just a matter of popping down to the local college and signing up for a lesson or two. Attempting to learn a language that you can’t hear – or indeed, have never heard – is very, very difficult. It requires a specialised form of speech therapy, for a start, and even then the results can be shaky.
Even if you could get thier speech up to speed, how do you expect these deaf people to hear what *you* are saying to *them*?
Doh!
I missed the coverage of the Translation Services costs.
Does anyone have a link to a story about it ?
TheCuckoo | 13.12.06 – 9:43 am
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm
Click on LATEST PROGRAMME
Or see FROM BBC NEWS >>
Translation costing public £100m
Watch Mark Easton’s report
Comment on report:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/2006/12/tuesday_12_december_2006.html
@Biodegradable
Thanks 🙂
TheCuckoo | 13.12.06 – 10:58 am
My pleasure! :+:
I have a question for John Reith.
In the previous open thread, you made the point that Hezbollah has support from among all the various groups in Lebanon (Sunnis, Shias, Christians etc.) and implied that this gives Hezbollah legitimacy.
There is just one problem with this, which is that the continuing existence of Hezbollah in Lebanon is in contravention of UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which called in 2004 for ‘the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias’.
Can I assume, then, Mr. Reith, that you are supporting Lebanon’s right to action (the legitimization of Hezbollah) in contravention of a UN resolution? Are you not, as a mouthpiece for the BBC on this site, in fact supporting the right of an individual nation to take unilateral action contrary to UN resolutions?
If so, how does this jibe with the BBC’s blanket condemnation of the US and UK’s unilateral action in Iraq?
I’d be interested to read your response!
Sincerely,
Rachel Miller
Pauls
I don’t mind my tax money going to give Cuckoo some signing or to give a blind person a white stick and a dog.
Great. Make out a cheque to whomever you like. Individuals, charities, even the Treasury will accept it. But please, speak for yourself, and don’t assume that my property is someone else’s for the taking becasue you don’t mind having your wallet lifted.
I wouldn’t even mind if some of it was redistributed towards your forthcoming triple-bypass.
Great again, and it’s much appreciated. But the difference is, it’s still your money and I have no right to it.
That’s if they can find a heart when they open you up Pete my lad.
Why do so many people resort to hurtful comments in here?!
TheCuckoo –
Even if you could get thier speech up to speed, how do you expect these deaf people to hear what *you* are saying to *them*?
I always make a point of ignoring the deaf.
Woahhh! Joke alert there. While I’m feeling all soft and gooey, I may as well explain my earlier comment. I’ll do it now before the feeling passes. I’m perfectly happy for my tax money to go on certain (minimal) services for the deaf, blind and disabled: i.e. BSL interpreters, guide dogs and wheelchairs. However, this is predicated on the notion that the beneficiaries aren’t feeling sorry for themselves and are making a go of life instead of sitting on their arses shoving taxpayer-funded pizza into their mouths all day. Don’t feel discriminated against, I hate all lazy dole merchants.
But we have to be careful here. You see, if you asked 100 people what ‘essential’ services from the proceeds of theft from hard working taxpayers, you’ll get 100 different answers, most of which won’t be ‘essential’. The only genuinely essential services I want my tax money to go on are planes, ships, bombs and guns to defend my country against uppity foreign regimes.
When you start extending what taxpayers’ money is spent on, you end up where we are now. Income tax was famously imposed only to pay for the Napoleonic War, 200 years later we’re having to pay for a translator to help out that Turkish woman who featured on Newsnight last night. She’s been in this country for five years and can’t speak a word of English (apart from “my riiiights”). She must live in Middlesbrough. The only words she needs to know are ‘airport’ and ‘sod off’.
I digress. The reason why Gordon Brown is able to strip private pensions of £100 billion and rising, and why he’s able to thieve £500 billion each year from hardworking people is because everyone thinks that their own pet interest is essential. They happily hand over proprietry rights to their own property to politicians yet bitch when governments use that power for purposes they don’t like. The same people who opposed going into Iraq are much the same people who have worshipped at the alter of state power all their lives. Well, suck it up, fools. If you don’t want governmets to abuse power, don’t let them have it in the first place. If you don’t want them to spend money on bombing other countries then don’t ask the government to steal it in the first place for your own interests.
By the way:
On the previous open thread I gave an account of the smear campaign against The Observer’s journalists as part of a plot to force the paper’s then owners, Lonrho, to sell it to The Guardian • which, in the event, is exactly what happened on 1 June 1993.
I named as being victims of this vile campaign several Observer journalists. For those interested here are the links to my two posts on the subject:
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/116561585021593760/#321493
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/116561585021593760/#321513
I’m afraid I forgot to include in the list another victim of this campaign, the freelance journalist Peter Wickman. In 1986 Peter penned a superbly researched article about his investigation in Egypt into the background of Mohamed ‘Al’ Fayed. Not only is this the funniest investigative piece I’ve ever read, it serves as a devastating indictment to the crummy, lazy, self-serving ways of the British Press.
Later the DTI Inspectors dispatched their own investigators to Egypt to check Peter’s research. They found it to be faultless. Given the impact of his work on the findings of the 1990 DTI Report into Fayed’s acquisition of Harrods, he and The Observer’s financial staff should have won every press award going. However thanks to the said smear campaign, coupled to widespread sour grapes this doughty team generated throughout the press for having exposed its failings, none of them won a blind thing.
Peter should have won Reporter of the Year for his work. For those interested it’s entitled: “In search of the Fabulous Pharaohs” and I commend it to anyone who has a sense of humour or an interest in the workings of the British media. Here’s the link:
http://www.guardianlies.com/Pre-DTI%20press/page46.html
.
Rachel Miller | 13.12.06 – 11:38 am
1. In the previous open thread, you made the point that Hezbollah has support from among all the various groups in Lebanon (Sunnis, Shias, Christians etc.) and implied that this gives Hezbollah legitimacy.
No I didn’t. What I did was to point out that General Michel Aoun’s (Christian) party also took part in the demonstration calling for the present government to resign. They weren’t there to support Hezbollah; they were there chiefly because they want the electoral law changed. (And, of course, they want Aoun to be President.)
Aoun has traditionally been Hezbollah’s most fierce enemy. He has recently established a ‘rapprochment’ with Nasrallah based on some common ground – mostly uncontroversial stuff about electoral reform and better democracy. The ‘price’ Aoun paid for this was to fudge the issue of Hezbollah’s arms. The fudge (in simplified terms) is roughly that he sticks to the idea that Hezbollah should disarm but won’t press for it until Israel returns the Shebaa Farms. (Interestingly, Aoun still has on his website an interview from 2002 where he criticized Hezbollah for Syrian-sponsored terrorism. It’s here:
http://www.tayyar.org/files/gma2/aoun120902_CPN.htm
2. the continuing existence of Hezbollah in Lebanon is in contravention of UN Security Council Resolution 1559
Not quite. The continued existence of Hezbollah’s armed militia is in breach of the resolution. But Hezbollah is also a legally constituted political party in Lebanon with (I think) 13 MPs in the Parliament.
3. Can I assume, then, Mr. Reith, that you are supporting …….contravention of a UN resolution?
No.
Are you not, as a mouthpiece for the BBC on this site, in fact supporting the right of an individual nation to take unilateral action contrary to UN resolutions?
I am not a mouthpiece for the BBC. I frequently defend the BBC here – but in a purely personal capacity.
4. how does this jibe with the BBC’s blanket condemnation of the US and UK’s unilateral action in Iraq?
The BBC has never issued any condemnation – blanket or otherwise – of the coalition’s invasion of Iraq.
Thanks for that, Pete_London, your generosity is truly staggering.
I’d love to stay and chat, but I’m off now to pick up my dole cheque, grab a pizza, then it’s down to the pinko audiologist so that he can teach me how to pretend to be deaf. That way, I can con the system out of more of your hard earned cash.
Thanks for that – I appreciate it. Do you prefer Deep Pan or Thin’n’Crispy?
Pete London
‘I always make a point of ignoring the deaf. Woahhh! Joke alert there.’
I really am warming to you, our views are not dissimilar on a range of things. I recall an pre-pc era when Rowan Atkinson demonstrated the deaf persons telephone ringing notification system.
Anyone who has dealt with the detrius of humanity will always retain a black humour.
Jonathan Miller: Thats not the famous Jonathan Miller of Loxwood is it?
jr
‘Why is it that the cognitively-challenged element on this blog can’t get their heads around the fact that ‘bias’ is the noun and ‘biased’ the adjective? ……………… Keep drooling over your plasticine, numpties.’
You’re at it again, collective ad hominem when losing the debate. It’s as if you were trying to compete with the ‘ya boo sucks’ level of intercourse that your sycophantic acolyte, the meedja studies student, so ably demonstates. Can’t you raise your game back to where it was 6 months ago or are you becoming worn out?
TheCuckoo
Thanks for that, Pete_London, your generosity is truly staggering.
Well thanks, I try my best. I’ve long had standing orders to give to a number of charities I appreciate and hope to see continue. I’d give more, but Gordon Brown steals so much from me that I can’t afford to. Imagine that eh, someone redistributing their own money without the guiding hand of kleptomaniac politicians. Whatever will individuals think of next?
I’d stop going to the pinko audiologist, if I were you. He’ll have you speaking Urdu in no time – try ordering a pizza then.
TPO
I can’t deny that some black and insulting humour does tickle my funny bone. Frankly, it’s what gets me through the day sometimes in Blair’s Britain. My only worry in here is that I do forget to add to the ol’ biased-BBC debate.
Speaking of our favourite broadcaster, can someone tell me if I overdid it in the pub last night?:
Turkish Airlines gets the hump
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6175893.stm
A job well done is worth celebrating, but Turkish Airlines say staff went too far when they sacrificed a camel. To mark the last delivery of 100 aircraft, maintenance workers clubbed together to buy the beast – and then consume it. The sacrifice took place at Istanbul international airport.
You see, that Marstons Country Scrotum is strong stuff, and I fear my eyes are playing me up. Each time I look at that page, it tells me that a bunch of workers at Istanbul Airport sacrificed and camel and ate the thing.
JR:
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it’s spelt “rapprochement”.
Hang on, my eyes aren’t deceiving me. After telling us that airport workers in Istanbul sacrificed a camel, we get:
Camel is eaten in Turkey, while the sacrifice of animals – usually sheep – is performed during the Festival of Sacrifice, marking the prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son when God ordered him to.
‘Ibrahim’? Who the f-f-flippin heck is ‘the prophet Ibrahim’?! I think those Godless swine at the BBC will find that it’s Abraham in this bloody country, even though it’s going down the pan pronto.
If you don’t want governmets to abuse power, don’t let them have it in the first place. If you don’t want them to spend money on bombing other countries then don’t ask the government to steal it in the first place for your own interests.
Pete_London | 13.12.06 – 11:44 am | #
Quite Right.
Pete_London, people like you are the justification for the BBC. Are you sure you are not John Reith in disguise, working your hardest to show every possible odious feature of right-wingers? But what is truly staggering is that after making repeated “jokes” about ethnicity, murder, mass murder and disability – jokes, I have to tell you, that are about as funny as three rusty crutches – you then whine when others make “hurtful remarks”. Didn’t they teach you where you come from not to dish it out if you cannot take it? Not to get in the kitchen if you cannot stand the heat? Of all people I find absurd, the people who mouth off and then whine because others treat them on the same level are the most absurd.
To Infection.
Dear Friend, I’m going to pick you up off the floor. It isn’t the fist “violent love story” between Hamas and Fatah, most of these stories don’t reach BBC. Burried deep inside BBC debris, you may find that on Monday 3 sons of Fatah police officer, aged between 6 and 10, were killed inside their father’s car on their way to school. Probably, the shooters were after their father. Imagine BBC reporting on such casualties caused by Israel. Are we up? Meanwhile the qassam rockets continue to land in Israel, not reported by BBC (see debka.com, or arutzsheva.com).
A job well done is worth celebrating, but Turkish Airlines say staff went too far when they sacrificed a camel.
To mark the last delivery of 100 aircraft, maintenance workers clubbed together to buy the beast – and then consume it.
The sacrifice took place at Istanbul international airport.
Uncritical of Muslim excess as usual, ,the BBC manage to report this story http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6175893.stm as if it were no more than some festive High Jinks.
Getting right into the spirit of the Camel Chow Down on the Main Runway, the BBC chime in helpfully
“some say camel meat tastes like ‘coarse beef”
Do they?
Does it?
…..and do you recommend that we have fries with that? or just ordinary roast potatos?
Good ol` Turkey, all they want is join the EU and eat Camel Meat off the Baggage Reclaim Carousel at Terminal 3.
Now just imagine if some British Airways Christians had sacraficed a Lamb or two in a Gate Gourmet hangar on the Perimeter Road at Gatwicks North Terminal.
Would the BBC helpfully provide a little picture with the caption “Some say it goes really well with Mint Sauce”.
Thought not.
Pete London
I missed it first time round.
Camel is eaten in Turkey, while the sacrifice of animals – usually sheep – is performed during the Festival of Sacrifice, marking the prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son when God ordered him to.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6175893.stm
In Britain he is still known as ABRAHAM. Good grief talk about the bbc and dhimmi.
By the way you seem to have quite a fan club following on this site, listening to Fabio I can almost visualise you giving your bust of Mussolini its daily buffing.
Fabio
That ‘hurtful remarks’ thing – that was a jokey comment too. Irony and sarcasm are easily lost in threads.
But don’t worry about me not being able to take it. Having grown up as the cleverest, best looking and most charming lad in school, I’ve had to deal with my fair share of jealous barbs. I’m still trying to figure though why I’m a justification for the BBC.
SiN
A job well done is worth celebrating, but Turkish Airlines say staff went too far when they sacrificed a camel.
That’s one of the funniest lines I’ve ever read. If I was a transvestite, I’d be wetting my knickers.
TPO
… listening to Fabio I can almost visualise you giving your bust of Mussolini its daily buffing.
That’s what cheap Filipino maids are for. That, and taking my dog ‘Tebbit’ out for his stroll.
Rumours of Castro’s welcome demise abound again.
http://www.deadcastrodance.com/
http://www.babalublog.com/
More on Castro
http://pajamasmedia.com/2006/12/rumors_fly_of_castros_death.php
However I’m surprised that Matt Frei hasn’t zoomed in on this story. Its tailor made for the unbiased bbc;
CASTRO IS DEAD: CIA RUNS CUBA
Fidel Castro died in 1981, and was replaced by a look-alike CIA plant
http://www.uncoveror.com/castro.htm
In general, the language and tone of these comments is edging downwards.
While we do not expect perfect amity, please, everyone, cut down on insults – both to each other and to third parties such as political and ethnic groups. And please also cut down the swearing.
If you don’t, it would not, in fact, be a great loss to humanity for me to delete the whole thread. It might be rather fun.
Hurry!
Only 4 Days 3 hours remain.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BRONZE-BENITO-MUSSOLINI-ON-HORSEBACK_W0QQitemZ170059812572QQihZ007QQcategoryZ1212QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item170059812572
Fabio, I agree that Pete’s jokes do cut right to – and probably through – the bone, but I think there is an irony there; an irony indeed that our spatially-challenged friend TheCuckoo understands. There was once a time when comedians could make completely tasteless jokes at any poor b@stard’s expense without fear of a queue of “offended” folk appearing within seconds. In fact, go to a Comedy Store or such like near you and not that much has changed out of the way of the BBC cameras.
Now, in public at least, thanks to the Left, most jokes are banned except those against Americans, Jews or Christians – where laughter is measured on how offensive they are. Plonkers like Jeremy Hardy have become rich by telling a million and one variations of the “Bush is a Pillock” joke. Shame he couldn’t extend his cutting edge bravery to Ahmediminagaybar or Castro. The World is a much poorer place for this anxiety not to cause offence – perhaps the thing the BBC is more guilty of than anything. Ask yourself, who was more offended by Pete’s crude deaf joke – you, or TheCuckoo? I am surprised that you belong to the “Ban all offensive jokes” brigade.
And Pete’s tirade on taxes has rung truer than anything I’ve read for a while.
SiN
LOL
Natalie
Whilst not being a swearer I suppose I’m guilty of stirring.
Admonishment accepted (at least I don’t have to pay for it here)
Natalie, my post was under construction before I read yours. While I stand by my views, point taken.
TPO
However I’m surprised that Matt Frei hasn’t zoomed in on this story.
Matt Frei’s been too busy buffing up Barak Obama’s image. I said in here a couple of weeks ago that Obama was Frei’s pick for the Presidency. As the BBC’s man in Washington, we may have to put up with alot of Obama in the next couple of years:
Washington diary: The next president?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6173373.stm
The beginning of this Newsnight report kinda demolish the BBC’s argument of not publishing the Mohammad cartoons because it might have caused offense to some people.
The end of the report shows that any offense towards Jews or Israelis must be framed in the context of benefit/harm done to Palestinians. As if that’s the defining standard on which one has to base his judgement. It never (maybe not never but rarely) occurred to BBC producers to turn to other, more representative Jews, or *spit* Zionist *spit* Israelis for comment on such issues.
The middle part of the report was quite good.
TPO
In Britain he is still known as ABRAHAM. Good grief talk about the bbc and dhimmi.
You could argue that Abraham and Ibrahim are different people with converging stories. Whether the endangered son was Isaac (Jewish/Christian versions) or Ishmael (Muslim version) AND whether Abraham/Ibrahim settled in Israel or Saudi Arabia (building the Kaaba) are not minor details.
For once the Beeb may have called it responsibly and even the reference to Prophet Ibrahim and not the Muslims’ prophet Ibrahim is reasonable in context.
IMHO, a funny story but let’s move on to weightier concerns like bad jokes.
bbc take on the US today: US Democrats mull climate change
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6200748.stm
Something they missed: Democrat flunks his first intelligence test
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/13/wreyes13.xml
deeqee
You could argue that Abraham and Ibrahim are different people with converging stories
You could argue, but I don’t. It all happened circa 1500BC to 1750BC so can anybody be sure? Personally I prefer the Hollywood version to the bbc’s.