Monthly Archives: April 2008

PRINCE WILLIAM AND THE BBC.

  By David Vance | April 30, 2008 - 6:37 am | ,
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I’m sorry I won’t be able to blog more today but I have other pressures on me however I did want to quickly draw your attention to the way in which John Humphrys introduced an item on Prince William’s flying visit to Afghanistan on the Today programme this morning at around 6.50am. He lined the report up by suggesting that “some people” (ie Beeboids) might say that the reason for this visit to the war-zone is a cynical attempt to get over the bad publicity William has incurred in the past week or so regarding the use of military helicopters for private use. I felt this was totally gratuitous and a crude attempt to undermine the Prince’s efforts. Humphrys must know that such arrangements are not slotted in with but a few days notice but then again “some people” can’t resist the opportunity to put the boot into the Royal family. BBC bias? You bet.

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I don’t think they were truly committed to a non-judgemental therapeutic approach to offenders, either.

  By Natalie | April 29, 2008 - 7:52 pm |
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I thought the caption to the top picture of this piece from Rod Liddle about the sanguinary characters that have occupied both the dock and the bench during the long history of the Old Bailey was rather a laugh. I doubt the caption was written by Liddle; he has his faults but prissiness isn’t one of them. [CORRECTION: "Newshour" points out that it is Rob, not Rod Liddle who wrote this.]

UPDATE: The caption now reads, “Before newspapers, the Proceedings were widely read by the public”. Bo-ring. And not, I think, really true – newspapers really got going at about the same time as the Old Bailey’s Proceedings did. Still, that’s by the by. Back to that changeable caption. The google cache gives the orginal version, namely:

Judges were exclusively male and drawn from the public school system

Hat tips: PaulS and Moonbat Nibbler.

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JERSEY – IS IT HELL ON EARTH?

  By David Vance | April 29, 2008 - 12:45 pm | , ,
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Nobody would condone the abuse of children and I would hope that any individuals involved in such depravity are given the maximum punishment available. But do you think the BBC really has it in for Jersey? I see another story being run today on the arrest of a pensioner on rape and indecent assault allegations going back thirty years. This arrest has got nothing to do with the ongoing investigation into what may have happened at the Haut de la Garenne children’s home but it all helps throw more dirt at the reputation of Jersey. I have listened to quite a few BBC stories on this island in recent months and NONE of them were in any way complimentary. I suspect that the fact that the island offers tax-haven status to some wealthy people offends the good little neo-Marxists in Al-Beeb and so any chance to stick the knife in is not missed.

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We Know Where You Live …

  By Laban | April 29, 2008 - 8:28 am |
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Is it just me, or is the BBC’s current ‘It’s all in the database‘ money-with-menaces ad wonderfully Orwellian ? The background siren, the dog barking, the knock on the door ?

This site has an interesting video of a licensing official stepping perhaps beyond his remit.

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THOSE WICKED CAPITALISTS.

  By David Vance | April 29, 2008 - 7:15 am | , ,
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None of us, I suspect, enjoys paying high prices for our petrol, but the announcement by Shell and BP of record profits this morning has been met by official dismay at the BBC. All morning there has been studied rumination over just how greedy these oil companies really are and why it is that with such large profits they cannot lower the price of the petrol that they sell on the forecourt. There has been precious little discussion on the fact that 60% of the forecourt price of petrol goes to Mr Broon and his grasping greedy government. I wonder why it is that the BBC does not question why government has failed to give us a break by taking a smaller cut of what the motorist is asked to pay?

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OPERATION SAVE GORDON

  By David Vance | April 29, 2008 - 7:04 am | ,
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. Have you noticed the flurry of BBC interviews granted to senior Labour Ministers in advance of this weeks local council and London Mayoral elections? I watched Gavin Esler conduct a simpering interview with Nulabour harridan Hazel Blears on Newsnight last evening and she got away with blue murder with but the mildest of rebukes coming back from Esler. It’s as if we are living back in 1997 and the BBC have reverted to get Labour back into power mode. This morning, on Breakfast news, I watched the dreadful Harriet Harman do a repeat performance. It’s 1997 all over again. The reality is that Labour has been in power for over a decade now and carries full political responsibility for many of the ills that afflict this society but BBC interviewers seem reluctant to go in and challenge them the closer we get to the elections. I suggest that this is a foretaste for what we will experience when Prudence Brown finally is forced to call a general election. The real challenge for the Conservative Party does not lie with Labour or the Lib-Dems, it lies with a biased national broadcaster which when all is said and done wants to see the neo-marxists in Labour stay in power in perpetuity. Operation Save Gordon is underway – watch it grow.

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No Paradox

  By Natalie | April 27, 2008 - 10:57 am |
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. Instapundit seems pleased with this story by the BBC’s Justin Webb. Mr Webb has been a frequent target of this blog, as you’ll see if you do a search for his name. Nonetheless recently there has been a conscious effort by Mr Webb to address mindless anti-Americanism, and the BBC’s anti-Americanism in particular. Good for him.

But he isn’t out of the bubble yet. Mr Webb sees the fact that lots of guns can be combined with a safe atmosphere. He sees it and reports it – many of his colleagues have not stretched the skin of the bubble so far. However the only cause suggested for this tranquility is the lack of public drunkeness. For all I know that is so, but it is far from unusual for people outside the bubble to put forward another cause: the guns themselves. As Instapundit quoting Heinlein said, “An armed society is a polite society.”

I’m not saying Mr Webb should have stated that hypothesis as fact. But it could, and should, quite easily and naturally have been included as another potential explanation. After all, an apparent solution to a paradox ought to be part of a story about a paradox.

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SMARTER THAN THE AVERAGE POLAR BEAR!

  By David Vance | April 27, 2008 - 10:37 am | , ,
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Interesting to note that the BBC is running a story here informing us that Polar bears are “at risk” in Canada. It’s all very carefully worded but the impression given is that the “climate change” which “may” be threatening these animals in the Canadian wilderness is anthropogenic in origin and thus requires “a plan” from the Canadian government. Just one slight problem – contrary to the content of this report – the Polar bear population in Canada is INCREASING! Do we need “a plan” to stop that as well – maybe a bear cull? Who knows – the BBC doesn’t report such inconvenient details since they rather melt away the whole AGW agenda at play here.

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HIBERNIANISATION.

  By David Vance | April 26, 2008 - 6:25 pm |
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It’s my view that the BBC plays an active role in the “greening” of Northern Ireland and I have commented here before on stories that run on the Northern Ireland portal which have NOTHING to do with Northern Ireland. This evening the LEAD story on BBC NI concerns a house fire in the Republic of Ireland. On what basis has such an event ANY relevance to Northern Ireland? None. But the BBC is determined to use the Northern Ireland site on a 32 county basis and that, my friends, is a clear political bias.

UPDATE: The BBC has now moved on from the above story and is instead running a story about an industrial dispute - in the Repubic of Ireland. Hibernianisation.

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SOAK THE RICH.

  By David Vance | April 26, 2008 - 8:16 am | ,
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It says plenty about the BBC values when even a Labour Minister in the shape of John Hutton, Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, comes across as an economic libertarian! We’re talking John Humphrys again folks, and an interview he conducted with Hutton this morning on the “Today” programme. It started off on the topic of the planned strike at the Grangemouth refinery but then it moved on to discuss a favoured BBC topic – the need for government to take action to punish “the rich.”

The Archdhimmi of Canterbury Rowan Williams has been using the Today programme to waffle on about the growing gap between “the rich and the poor” in the UK and clearly Humphrys has much sympathy with this view – all good socialists together and all that. He kept trying to get Hutton to accept that those who make large amounts of money using other people’s money needed their actions further regulated, if not their incomes capped. Hutton, to his credit, pointed out that it was not the role of government to dictate how private companies rewarded their employees, to Humphrys obvious chagrin. I found Humphrys obvious disdain for those who work in the City amusing, given that last time I checked the BBC itself was in receipt of £££billions extracted under threat from the UK TV owning population. Maybe it’s the BBC fatcats such as dear John that need their incomes capped, and their activities further controlled?

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SEND IN THE UN!

  By David Vance | April 25, 2008 - 3:23 pm | , , ,
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You have to laugh at the BBC’s slavish devotion to the world’s MOST corrupt organised hypocrisy – the United Nations. No sooner does the US reveal that North Korea and Syria have been working together to produce Boy Bashar’s very own nuke facility than the BBC rushes out to tell us that the UN is going to have to “investigate” this claim and that the International Atomic Energy Agency has already criticised the US for withholding this intelligence until seven months after Israel bombed the site. (Mm, I wonder why that might have been then?) Note how quickly Israel and the US get criticised and the charming “ulterior motive” sub heading towards the end of this pusillanimous report.

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General BBC-related comment thread!

  By David Vance | April 25, 2008 - 10:27 am |
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Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. This is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It’s your space, use it wisely!

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HUMPRHYS ON HUDNAS.

  By David Vance | April 25, 2008 - 7:52 am | , ,
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Wonder did anybody catch John Humphrys interviewing the spokesman for the Israeli government on the Today programme early this morning? Talk about a visceral dislike! In essence Humphrys interview was sheer shilling for the Hamas hudna, and he seemed determined to try and get the Israeli government spokesman to say that if Hamas stopped firing rockets – for even a few days – then Israel would respond by lifting the current blockade of Gaza. Not a mention of the overnight murder of two Israelis by “militants” from Humphrys. No, Hamas were being given the kid gloves treatment whilst Israel was being roughed up. I thought his interview was shallow, biased, and had an atmosphere about it that was downright unpleasant. As it happens, I think John Humphrys is a very good interviewer but when he is talking to someone representing Israel, his standards appear to fall – as they most certainly did this morning. What IS IT about Israel that so offends the Beeboids?

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THE DOG IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

  By David Vance | April 24, 2008 - 7:26 pm | , ,
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I am sure we are all familiar with the curious incident of the dog in the night time from the Sherlock Holmes story.”The dog did nothing in the night-time.” said Inspector Gregory “That was the curious incident,” remarked Sherlock Holmes.

Interesting to read in the Telegraph and see on Sky News that the Conservative Party has opened up a massive 17 point lead in the opinion polls over dismal Mr Broon and his NuLabour ragbag collective. More interesting to scan the BBC’s politics page and see if you can find this news. They just can’t quite bring themselves to accept that the writing is on the wall for Labour, can they? I am no supporter of David Cameron and his lily-livered brand of conservatism BUT surely to goodness this lead over Labour is a major news story and deserves some degree of reporting prominence? My thanks to reader meggoman on another thread for putting me onto this. Maybe the BBC have reported it – but if they have it is far from obvious!

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THE VANISHING BUTTERLIES.

  By David Vance | April 24, 2008 - 8:01 am | ,
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I am sure that many readers will share my view that the Butterflies which frequent our British countryside are an attractive adornment and we should do what we can to ensure that they flourish. However the population of UK butterflies fell last year as a result of a wet summer. It happens and of course it is regrettable but the one thing that we can ALL be clear about is that the wet summer of 2007 had NOTHING to do with AGW. And so, I read the BBC’s report on this and sure enough – the “Biodiversity Minister” (Turn in your grave, George Orwell) Joan Ruddock gets to assert that “Butterfly populations also indicate the speed and extent of climate change.” It’s remarkable the way in which the AGW agenda is promoted at every opportunity and no rebuttal is permitted. We may seek biodiversity but assuredly when to comes to the topic of “climate change” diversity of opinion is not required.

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