Worcester/ Gaza
Worcester and Hamas are twins!
(Well, Worcester and Gaza.)
Labour councillor Alan Amos, who first suggested the twinning, said:
‘Like many I have watched the plight of the people of Gaza, seeing them get bombed and bombed by Israelis with advanced military weapons.”
See! See what you’ve encouraged BBC? Not sure what the purpose of twinning is, but in this case it seems to be a political statement. Has common sense departed?
A town in England twinned with the terrorist ganster ridden hellhole that is Gaza?
The Tory council must be having a mental breakdown, crazy madness like this when our Army is fighting and dying in Afghanistan! These are the exact same ‘people’ who run Gaza with a rod of iron and by the gun, torture/murder/war crimes using women and children as human shields, every war crime in the book and now the insane council comes up with this!
Will they invite hamas gunmen over for tea and school visits?
Madness utter madness!
Gazans laugh and cheer when British troops die in action and this council wants to twin with the allies of our mortal enemies and while our Tommies are dying, killed by hamas allies?
I am lost for words!
Perhaps we could twin Liebour party HQ with Gaza and then give the IDF the co-ordinates 🙂
Alan Amos has lost his reason. Isn’t there some law preventing insane people holding public office?
Oh wait, we have an entire government run by idiots like that. Guess everything is hunky-dory then…
As a commenter on Melanie Phillips’s blog about the BMJ’s spat with Honest Reporting has pointed out, http://www.honestreporting.co.uk/articles/critiques/new/British_Medical_Journal_Attacks_HonestReporting_.asp
this sort of development is a small example of how “those with interests in demonising you-know -who and you-know-what are inserting themselves into every formerly credible organisation and using a process known in military circles as divide and conquer to achieve their objectives.”
Twinning Worcester with Gaza is in its own way a similar sort of development, a symbol of how this mindset has infiltrated almost everything.
As the commenter said, “Look what they have done to the UN and Amnesty International!”
Towns beside Worcester had better watch out for the arrival of crude home-made rockets™.
Hilarious!
I thought the whole point of twinning was partly to give schoolkids somewhere to go and be obnoxious on school trips and partly to allow Councillors in gruesome middle England towns with no decent restaurants to go and gorge themselves on French food.
I don’t think that Gaza boasts a single Michelen star and ‘elf and safety would probably put paid to any school trips on the basis that combined phosphorus bomb/having your head chopped off insurance is a bit pricey. Plus Gazan’s aren’t allowed out so no joy the other way either.
And I would’ve thought that Worcester is the last town in the country that would go in for Gaza sympathy being stoically Middle England to the point of tedium (ok maybe it’s just tedious). Next week – Camden hosts a Melanie Phillips appreciation festival headlined by the Levellers….
Cockney | 26.02.09 – 9:01 am
School trip.
I gather Hamas aren’t keen on music, dancing or smiling, either. Might be a way of dealing with rowdies, hoodies and disruptives,
And just imagine the souvenirs they could pick up on the way home. If they could get home.
Tory David Tibbut seems to think that Worcester can engage with hamas in culture/social activity/mutual learning/humanitarian aid?
How about bomb making/torture/murder/war crimes/terrorist activity/gangsterism/theft of aid/violent intimidation/hate propaganda for school children/persecution of Christians/Jew hatred/support for those fighting the British Army/racism/abuse of women/looting of aid/hostage taking/suicide bombing and all the other ‘activities’ that hamas engage in?
So a council that is elected by the people of Worcester to look after the interests of Worcester now want to spend scarce tax money looking after the interests of a known terrorist gang of cold blooded killers/bullies/torturers/cowards who hide behind women and children/war criminals?
This utter madness cannot be allowed to continue can it? Our Tommies are being killed and maimed by hamas friends and allies, Tibbutts may as well go to RAF Lyneham and spit on the coffins of our dead Tommies as they come off the C17s!
Perhaps Kidderminster should twin with Siderot? 🙂
Ah the left, dont you just love them!
Mailman
All I ask for is that when the councillors go over to visit Gaza, they do not tell their hosts the date of their arrival, and make it a surprise visit. Just arrive unannounced, get off the plane, go to the taxi rank, and say ‘Hi, can you take us on a quick guided tour ending up at the Mayor’s office please. He is not expecting us. We are visitors from England. We are not muslims.’
We would simply never see them again.
Beyond belief ! Utter scumbags.
Are Hamas running out of children ?
This is a Conservative council doing this. The Conservative Party, under normal circumstances, would be the sensible counter-weight to Labour’s stupidity, but these are not normal circumstances. The body politic of the UK is riddled with a cancer spread by vectors such as the BBC and Common Purpose.
To illustrate the point, could anyone imagine the ‘extremist’ BNP allowing Stoke to twin with Gaza. In fact, the ‘anti-semites’ of the BNP actually would be more likely to twin with Haifa. Who are the extremists now?
Letter to the councillors –
Dear Councillors
I am conducting a brief survey on attitudes to gay people in various countries, and I would be grateful if you would take my questionnaire to Gaza on your visit to that wonderful mini-country, which we aspire to become like ourselves here in Britain one day.
All you have to do is approach a few muslims at random and ask them a few questions about rights for gay people.
It should not take long. Just go up to one with a bushy beard and who is not smiling, get up close, and say ‘Hi, I am not a muslim and I would like to question your policy of killing gays.’
Grant:
“Are Hamas running out of children?”
Well, they do blow up so fast these days.
Such is the BBC’s euphemistic view of Islam that it is necessary to turn to sources like ‘Jihadwatch’ on a daily basis to fill in vital information about Islam which the BBC is inclined to avoid or to censor, such as, today alone, so far:
‘Jihadwatch’-
1.)”British Army fights British jihadists in Afghanistan”
[Extract]:
“They should have been prepared for this. This should surprise no one — except, of course, those who have actually believed that the mosques in Britain have departed from Islam’s traditional teaching and are not preaching jihad and Islamic supremacism.”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025019.php
2.) “U.K.: Thousands of Muslim men using welfare system to support multiple wives”
{Extract]:
‘… the Taxpayers’ Alliance, a lobby group, has complained: “Polygamy is not officially condoned here, so why should British taxpayers have to pay for extra benefits for men to have two, three or four wives?'”
“For that matter, how many traditional, monogamous couples and their children in Britain are suffering because of the recession while their government hemorrhages money to reward illegal behavior?”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025018.php
3.)”International poll: Muslims support strict Sharia, Islamic supremacism”
[Extract]:
“They differ with Al-Qaeda on the means, not on the goals.”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025017.php
Chuffer 10:09
A cracker ! You have made my day and I am still laughing !!!!
I can see that this example of gesture politics fits in with the BBC agenda but why divert the concentration of B-BBC from producing its continuous invaluable chronicle of BBC bias to highlight the lunacy of this particular Conservative council? There are lots of other blogs which will cover this story.
This is an example not of BBC bias but of the corruption of UK domestic politics to support terrorism and its apologists here and elsewhere (encouraged, it is true, by the BBC). It is no surprise that it is a Conservative council which is involved. It’s just another manifestation of the hollowing out of the Conservative Party so that its elected representatives have become a facet of the political class rather than representatives of the electorate. I suspect that the people of Worcester are more exercised by the effects of the recession on their lives than what happens in Gaza.
Unless sue can demonstrate that the BBC coverage of the story is biased there’s nothing here for B-BBC. Even this was a straightforward report concerning the “Worcestershire Palestine Solidarity Campaign”. I don’t think that, even if it existed, the “Worcester Israel Solidarity Capaign” would have received similar publicity from the BBC but such speculation would not, in my opinion, merit mention on the B-BBC blog. There are plenty of other egregious examples of BBC bias to exhibit.
I know you won’t post this – The conclusion anyone should arrive at from all that we see, hear and read. is that the only remaining course left to us is to vote BNP and stop buying a TV license!
Umbongo
I agree – this is a distraction, I fear.
Chuffer – it’s an old ‘un but still gets the giggles.
Worcester on sea?
I live in Huddersfield (yes, my girlfriend is called Flossy alright?) and we’re twinned with Besancon in France which consists of
1) Junkets
2) Anyone up for a junket?
3) Haven’t been on a junket recently.
This from the party of Dave? Yet still some wonder why the US has had a bellyfull of Britain.
As some American vulgarians are known to say, ‘Plucky little Britain can French kiss my royal ass.’ It’s a safe bet there’s an Israeli equivalent.
The imminent meeting between The One and The Cyclops will be rich in platitudes. Safe to guess that the twin-headed Frei/Webb thing may have a spot of bother with spin.
Umbongo | 26.02.09 – 11:11 am
Umbongo, I do take your point. You may be right. But I am very conscious that what I saw as a disproportionate emphasis by the BBC on the real and terrible suffering in Gaza, and the way they implicitly and overtly blamed, and blame, only Israel for almost everything that happens there, while giving Hamas a free ride and deifying the Palestinians. Don’t you think, in this case, hilighting the pernicious effect this is having – “infiltrating almost everything” – is also a valid point for B-BBC?
We do prioritise specific examples of biased reporting, but what’s wrong with allowing some leeway on matters such as this, and as Deegee suggested, incompetent reporting, and various other closely related issues?
Do you think it seriously dilutes B-BBC’s message? I’d like to discuss that.
I think it’s symptomatic of the
dumbing down of the UK.
Councillor thinks ‘ah bay-bees’ how sweet. Those evil joo’s. How can I spend council tax payers money on a meaningless gesture…and so it goes.
Institutionalised anti Semitism is now seemingly a core British value.
Never mind that the people who started the rocket war eight years ago (and finally got the response they provoked / wanted) are Hamas.
Remember those marching twits in London “We are all Hezbollah now”?
Hard to believe that our own people support these 13th Century kiddie fiddler religionists isn’t it.
Do you think it seriously dilutes B-BBC’s message? I’d like to discuss that.
Sue | 26.02.09 – 12:05 pm | #
Absolutely. It’s 100% speculation. You can’t take one thing and link it to something else without any evidence whatosever and expect it to do anything other than chime with people who also daydream in a similar manner.
These posts are just your thoughts.
These posts are just your thoughts.
Sarah Jane | 26.02.09 – 12:22 pm |
And what should they be?
This has nothing to do with the BBC. Very spurious.
This has nothing to do with the BBC
After decades of sowing multicultural crap to the four winds and blowing it around the globe?
Baffling, I’d say.
This is nothing Shepherds Bush is twinned with Sodom and Gamorrah.
Anonymous has a point in that the BBC have not yet actually twinned themselves with Gaza yet. Personally, I think if the BBC does twin itself with a city it is more likely to be Mecca, or a cave in Afghanistan where their best friend lives.
The relevance to the BBC is that after years of grovelling to Islam in this country, the BBC has managed to make the councillors’ bizarre behaviour seem normal to the politically correct.
Message to the BBC – look at Britain today. Are you pleased with your handywork so far? How far down the toilet are you planning to take us?
Garden Trash.
Surely that must be ..
Shepherds Bush is tripletted with Soddom and Gamorrah
Stuart,
I didn’t want to get into troilism,some of the beeboids are supposed to be working.Don’t want them rushing out en mass into the bush.
You can’t take one thing and link it to something else without any evidence whatosever and expect it to do anything other than chime with people who also daydream in a similar manner.
get real sarah jane you only have to watch the piss that passes for drama on the bbc (never mind the news) to understand the same mindset pervades the bbc as the labour council in question.
‘Like many I have watched the plight of the people of Gaza, seeing them get bombed and bombed by Israelis with advanced military weapons.”
Where do you think Alan Amos got this? Do you think he went to Gaza? No, he watched it on the telly.
Spurious, tenuous, all these accusations have been made before.
And Sarah Jane, are you concerned with the efficacy of B-BBC now? Do let us know which examples of bias are, in your opinion, the very best.
Umbo 11 11 am:
Even this was a straightforward report concerning the “Worcestershire Palestine Solidarity Campaign”.
———————————-
Even this was NOT straightforward reporting by the BBC – nothing is.
It was, curiously, filed under the heading of FAITH. What this has to do with religion is anybody’s guess. In the BBC’s mind, though it obviously does. Odd way to view the story.
Sue,
Proof of bias, as I have said here before, requires you to take a neutral stance, to quote your hypothesis without hyperbole, and then to observe and document the evidence. This site claims that the BBC is biased, which is a two-tail test, it should perhaps instead claim that the BBC is biased towards the left, or to Islam, or to track multiple axes of potential bias. It needs to document evidence of each potential bias, and to keep them independent – to say that it’s bias towards Islam is also a bias to the left requires further burden of proof that the left are fundamentally pro-Islam.
Further, something that this story has suffered from, you need to avoid claiming that the bias in something non-BBC related is due to the BBC’s own bias. You cannot claim that the councillor is only taking these actions because the BBC told him to, via television and radio bias, without proving that the BBC is biased in the first place and that he then responded to this bias by taking his actions.
A fundamental change would be required to make this site effective at proving bias. Have you considered for instance, that instead of cherry picking BBC stories that you think are biased, taking a news story of the day covered in a variety of newspapers, TV bulletins and radio reports, and then analysing the BBC’s own coverage, ALL of the coverage, on the issue?
Sue/Millie Tant
I agree that the actions of the “Conservative” councillors are caused (in part) by the tsunami of morally and politically relativist drivel produced by the BBC. I also agree that nothing the BBC does is absolutely straightforward: it is “institutionally biased” in the same way Macpherson accused the police of being “institutionally racist”.
The difference is that Macpherson had no evidence to come to that conclusion* whereas B-BBC provides evidence day in and day out of bias both institutional (specific “lines” are pushed continuously eg anthropomorphic climate change, Israeli evil/Palestinian sainthood, “it’s the bankers wot done it”) and personal by individual journalists (eg Frei, Bowen, Harrabin). I would prefer to see B-BBC keep producing the solid evidence rather than be tempted into the swamps of speculation thereby handing ammunition to the various trolls who would love to see B-BBC’s (and its commenters’) energies dissipated in fruitless discussion of causes and effects.
* = Macpherson used the (unproveable and, more to the point, undisproveable) concept of “institutional racism” because he couldn’t prove that the police, either generally as individuals or by organisational design were “racist”.
ipreferred
Every time there is a comparison of how the BBC treats a story with how other meida cover it – the usual conclusion is that the BBC is skewed leftwards. Try reading the threads.
Sue did not say that the BBC is the “only” cause of the Worcester nonsense. But BBC TV and radio coverage of events in Gaza always presents the Palestinians as the victims. You surely cannot say that the BBC is not a very large influence in forming opinions.
It’s pretty easy… in a socialist big brother / nanny state (and that’s what the UK has become under NuLab) the individual isn’t responsible for their actions.
I fully subscribe to Sue’s view that the MSM has played a full part in painting hamas as victims who deserve our sympathy. Hence Al Beeb has assisted in creating the problem. Why not build a bomb factory in Worcester???
Or why not take some long range missiles and send them and their payload over to Israel (from Worcester)? That would allow Al Beeb’s friend Ahmedinejihad to focus on welcoming back the 12th imam.
I guess it’s time to boycott Worcester Sauce.
Sue
There you are – the post from ipreferred 2:02 pm proves my point. Once you get away from providing solid evidence and specific examples you are in danger of being diverted into a cul-de-sac of fruitless discussion.
Keep listing the examples of bias. The more B-BBC (and the commenters) list the less trolls have to say. AFAIIC trolls should be ignored anyway but speculation as to cause and effect just gives them (spurious) justification for, among other things, “helpful” suggestions for improving the blog.
JohnA,
Those threads are half-decent, there should be more of them, but they need to be story-centric, not BBC-centric. Every such thread has the BBC showing bias, which is the purpose of this blog, but also makes it quite clear that the blog is editorialising, not analysing. Whether you like it or not, the BBC must sometimes get it right, must sometimes approach stories neutrally and to only ever consider the cherry-picked items is poor sampling, statistically.
Umbongo,
I don’t quite see your point, if we don’t address the issues of cause and effect (of BBC bias) then what do we achieve other than martin-esque outbursts of hatred? To improve the BBC you need to understand why it became biased, and to observe whether the effects of that bias were denigrating to the country/society/your choice.
Finally, anyone who claims that the entire MSM is biased is clearly an outlier on the normal curve of opinions. If everyone opposes your views, maybe it’s because you’re in a minority? Nobody is trying to deceive reality, well, except perhaps for AtlasShrugged..
Have you considered for instance, that instead of cherry picking BBC stories that you think are biased, taking a news story of the day covered in a variety of newspapers, TV bulletins and radio reports, and then analysing the BBC’s own coverage, ALL of the coverage, on the issue?
ipreferred | 26.02.09 – 2:02 pm | #
Yes, like Hugh did (what happened to Hugh?) – it makes the point rather more effectively, whereas this, just doesn’t make any point at all. Other than some Worcester councillors are obviously loonies.
I speculate that if the BBC didnt exist at all, and Fox was the only news outlet on the planet, then county and local councils would still be have employees who think twinning with Gaza is a good idea.
The other end of the telescope…
Posting opinion as evidence, cutesy EC reference, maybe Ed will look kindly on me 😛
Sarah Jane
Your point is simply not credible.
If Fox was the only news channel, it is unbelievable to think that the Worcester nonsense would have been nodded through – it would have been stamped on fast.
I read in the Press Gazette that Peter Horrocks, the head of BBC newsroom, is taking up the BBC World Service directorship. I can only hope this is Thompson trying to shift the BBC news bias away from the left. But then again it is the BBC.
JohnA – that my point is not credible – is my point. It’s an opinion with little evidence to back it up. Like Sue’s post.
Anyway, it seems there are many forces at work here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,3958990,00.html
“Conservative MP caught with trousers down on Hampstead Heath hounded out by local activists swings to the left.”
Of course it’s all the BBC’s fault. I mean it just is isn’t?
Sarah Jane
You have now swerved from the dubious to the fatuous.
Looking at recent threads the post from David Vance about Humphrys saying Spring is early “because of global warming” [citation needed] is plausible evidence of an institional mindset at work at the beeb.
This is not. It’s ‘if a butterfly flaps its wings’ stuff.
(oh and I at least bothered checking out Amos to see what his form was)