102 Responses to OPEN THREAD

  1. David Preiser (USA) says:

    We are well and truly screwed:

    Debt Panel Co-Chair: Failure Would Be ‘Huge Missed Opportunity’


    The Republican co-chairman of the bipartisan deficit panel said Sunday that the members’ inability to strike a deal is a “huge missed opportunity,” while refusing to say definitively that the committee had failed.

    Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, and Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., another member of the so-called Super Committee, both said on “Fox News Sunday” that members are not giving up on striking some semblance of an agreement before a Wednesday deadline.

    “There’s still time on the clock,” Becerra said.

    But the committee has a matter of hours to submit a plan in order to give congressional budget scorekeepers enough time to review it. The de facto deadline could be as early as Sunday night. While Hensarling said lawmakers are “not going to give up hope” and continuing to talk, he did not dispute suggestions that the committee was headed for failure.

    “Nobody wants to give up hope — reality is to some extent starting to overtake hope,” Hensarling, R-Texas, told “Fox News Sunday.”

    Get ready for the BBC to tell how this is all the Republicans’ fault because of their ideological intransigence or some such.  And there will still be no mention whatsoever that their beloved Obamessiah has still failed to present, never mind get passed, a real budget in three effing years, two of them with His own party in complete control of Congress.

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    • john in cheshire says:

      David, am I being naive in wondering why any government, not just the USA, would not want to pass legislation to ensure each administration has to balance its budget each year?

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        There have been attempts in the past to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, and probably will be again, an Amendment being the only way to officially and seriously give Congress that duty.  It’s no easy feat, as not only is it something that has to pass both Houses of Congress, but two-thirds of State legislatures have to approve it.  That’s a big deal, not easily accomplished, especially with so many States living large on Federal subsidies.

        As lovely as it sounds, I’ve always been dubious about it because anything that would actually get approved would be so filled with loopholes that it will be ineffective at best, exploited by politicians for personal gain at worst.

        Newt Gingrich had a slightly better idea with his “Contract with America”, which actually forced Bill Clinton to triangulate and get a balanced budget.  That was, of course, temporary.  The best thing we can hope for, I think, is that enough of the voters hold all politicians accountable at every election, and the politicians feel that their careers are over if they don’t do it.

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        • Louis Robinson says:

          Surely by now everyone knows the “super comnittee” was set up by the Obama administration will the sole purpose of failing. It’s failure to reach agreement is the result that provides Him with an election talking point.  David’s statement: “Get ready for the BBC to tell how this is all the Republicans’ fault because of their ideological intransigence or some such.” is exactly what the Presidents line will be for the next year. The BBC will swallow and repeat that message like the toadies they are.  

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  2. David Preiser (USA) says:

    You know your movement’s over when:

    Man throws aluminum water bottle at UC Berkeley student’s face


    A man threw an aluminum water bottle at a UC Berkeley student Thursday evening on campus, causing minor injuries to the victim’s face.

    At about 5:09 p.m., the female student was approached by a man at “the northeast exterior of the Haas Pavilion,” according to a UCPD crime alert. The man asked the suspect if she was going to the protest on Sproul Plaza, and when the victim answered “no,” the suspect yelled at her.

    “People like you are the reason that California is in debt,” he said, according to the crime alert.

    The suspect then threw a full aluminum water bottle at the victim’s face.

    And this (re-posted from previous open thread before it disappears):

    Occupy Wall Street protesters stay at $700-a-night hotel  
     
    Hell no, we won’t go — unless we get goose down pillows.  
     
    A key Occupy Wall Street leader and another protester who leads a double life as a businessman ditched fetid tents and church basements for rooms at a luxurious hotel that promises guests can “unleash [their] inner Gordon Gekko,” The Post has learned.  
     
    The $700-per-night W Hotel Downtown last week hosted both Peter Dutro, one of a select few OWS members on the powerful finance committee, and Brad Spitzer, a California-based analyst who not only secretly took part in protests during a week-long business trip but offered shelter to protesters in his swanky platinum-card room.
     
     
    Interesting that this guy is on the finance committee.  It’s like the Occupiers have, within two months, become as corrupt as the Government they supposedly despise.  Laura Trevelyan was unavailable for comment, but Matt Danzico is soliciting the public’s help to resupply their library.  
     
    The BBC reporting on the Occupiers is so far removed from reality it’s sickening

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  3. Jeff Waters says:

    ‘At the centre of the two-euro coin is a bull, and on its back what appears to be a young girl.  […]  It is a rape. […]

    I’ve always found it hard to understand quite how the Greek people so easily came to terms with the idea of having a picture of rape jingling around among the small change in their pockets.’

    From http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15790507

    This implies the Greeks are a sick people.

    Perhaps the Greeks simply don’t share Professor Beard’s dubious interpretation of their mythology, which she presents as fact.

    Professor Beard also implies that Princess Europa was a young girl, when in fact she was a woman.  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_%28mythology%29  Given that Princess Europa and Zeus had sex, that’s a significant misrepresentation! 

    The idea that the Greeks would be comfortable having a scene relating to a rape depicted on their coins – particularly the rape of a child  – is as ridiculous as it is offensive and racist.

    Jeff
    Jeff

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    • Jeff Waters says:

      PS I’m reminded of Paxo’s question the other week about why the Greeks are so dishonest.

      I hope the BBC haven’t started to take a dislike to the Greeks…

      Jeff

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    • cjhartnett says:

      I normally can`t stand Mary Beard…her one last week on her old femism was awful.
      This one was far better…I defer to your superior knowledge, but the fact that Mithras/Zeus is on the back of the Greek coins, and that it is to be found on ID cards/foreign visas was of interest to those of us who know what the EU is set up for.
      The presumption of the Greeks and their first efforts at a European-wide currency was something I didn`t know…and it was of more value than how Mary looks from behind(which was part of her last talk!)
      So-credit where it`s due…even if she is a Cambridge pet of the New Dispensation.

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      • Jeff Waters says:

        Hi Cjhartnett  
         
        I have no expertise about matters mythological, but thanks.  <img src=”extra/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif” title=”Smile” border=”0″ alt=”Smile”/>  
         
        I just find it hard to believe that most Greeks view the image on that coin as having anything to do with rape.  And the fact that an organisation as politically correct as the European Commission didn’t block the design suggests that Mary Beard is very much in the minority with her interpretation.  
         
        Some of the article was interesting, but I didn’t see why Professor Beard needed to stray into feminist territory.  If she wants to write from a feminist perspective, then she should approach the Guardian, and stick to being apolitical when writing for the BBC.  For example, was there any need for the following?  
         
        ‘Last week a foreign student in Cambridge showed me his residence permit for the UK, the bit of plastic, plus biometric chip, that was to be the prototype for the ID cards that everyone was threatened with – but is now issued only to visa holders.  
         
        ‘What do you think the symbol in the top left hand corner is? It’s the European stars and – the Home Office has confirmed – that very same bull. The female victim has disappeared – it’s just the rapist that now guarantees the foreigner a right to live here’.  
         
        Jeff

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  4. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Bit of anti-wind power heresy spoken by John Simpson and that woman on Marr this morning.  Fortunately Marr didn’t let it last too long lest the peasants start to wake up.

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    • John Anderson says:

      I wonder why they omitted the huge headline to the effect
      “Wind power is a disaster”

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  5. Louis Robinson says:

    RANDOM? Uh, oh. Justin Wedes (just quoted on the BBC website) was already in full swing in January 2011:


    He was interviewed and discussed by the local Fox affiliate in October
    http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/occupy-wall-street-leader-justin-wedes-20111018
    And in this radio clip Wedes even admits the Canadian outfit AdBusters had a role in organizing this random movement. Note that suddenly we are seeing “demands” “arising” and “a plan of action”. He is now getting confident. From a tweet we are even given a glimpse of the OWS “office” http://twitter.com/#!/justinwedes  
    Only a matter of time before the BBC arrived dewy-eyed. Hereis a piece celebrating OWS with words from – Justin Wedes now proudly calling himself a member of the “New York General Assembly”: “It was a young group, a fierce group – people were daring”
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15779008
    Other OWS types (mildly critical of the methods, not the aims) are quoted…but there’s once again only one side of the story. For the full background here is his resume:
    http://www.justinwedes.com/Justin_Wedes_Blog/About_Me_files/Justin%20Wedes-Resume%CC%81.pdf
    Finally here’s Glenn Beck with some more background:

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      What an utter disgrace that Brian Wheeler piece is.  After basically writing out every single Occupier talking point, all he can say about the negatives is:

      Some commentators began to accuse the Occupiers of self-indulgence and of lacking any real goals, beyond erecting tents in public spaces and making “banal complaints about corporate greed”.

      Words fail me.  This is simply unconscionable.  What about the anti-rape tent, the violence, the vandalism?  Who was complaining about the self-indulgence? Perhaps all those local businessmen who had their places of business defiled and lost nearly half a million dollars in revenue due to the Occupiers selfish behavior?  Sickening.

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  6. Cassandra King says:

    From Booker in the Telegraph, they are worth reading as it clearly shows the criminality of the BBC, the hypocrisy of the BBC, the dishonesty of the BBC, the duplicity of the BBC, the arrogance of the BBC as they believe they are untouchable, above and beyond the law and even their own rules. This is the real ‘aunty’ a far cry from the self styled ‘national treasure’ they pimp themselves to be.

    The story of the BBC’s bias on global warming gets ever murkier. Last week there was quite a stir over a new report for the BBC Trust which criticised several programmes for having been improperly funded or sponsored by outside bodies. One, for instance, lauded the work of Envirotrade, a Mauritius-based firm cashing in on the global warming scare by selling “carbon offsets”, which it turned out had given the BBC money to make the programme.
    Just as this scandal broke, I was also completing a report, to be published next month by the Global Warming Policy Foundation, on the BBC’s coverage of climate change. It ranges from the puffing of scare stories dreamed up by “climate activists”, to BBC reporting on wind farms, often no more than shameless propaganda for the wind industry. Part of the story told in my report is the unhealthily close relationship that developed between the BBC and organisations professionally involved in the “warmist” cause.
    Some years back, the BBC adopted a new editorial policy –that the scientific and political “consensus” on climate change was now so overwhelming that it should be actively promoted, while climate sceptics, or “deniers” as the BBC calls them, should be kept off the airwaves.
    A key moment in developing the new party line was a “high-level seminar” in 2006, attended by a bevy of top BBC executives. It was organised by Roger Harrabin, one of its senior environmental correspondents, and Dr Joe Smith, a geographer and climate activist from the Open University. They had set up the Cambridge Media and Environment Programme to promote the consensus line on global warming, funded by, among others, the Department for the Environment (then in charge of government policy on climate change) and WWF, one of the leading warmist pressure groups.
    For a long time the BBC was remarkably coy about what had transpired at this gathering, but gradually – aided by the Freedom of Information Act – the details were dug out by two diligent bloggers, Tony Newbery of Harmless Sky and Andrew Montford of Bishop Hill. Their submission on it was, however, brushed aside in that dotty BBC Trust report last summer, where Prof Steve Jones recommended that the BBC’s coverage of climate issues should show not less bias but more.

    Since 2006, the BBC has relentlessly promoted the global warming orthodoxy as a pressure group in its own right. In covering the latest twists of this story on his blog, Montford cites another odd BBC programme, Earth Reporters: Sea Change, funded by Unesco, which was like an adulatory commercial for the scientists who push alarm about the impact of global warming on the oceans, via the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The scientific adviser for the programme was the same Dr Smith who organised that 2006 seminar, and whose website lists a string of other BBC programmes he has worked on.
    The irony is, however, that just as the BBC adopted its new hard line on climate change, in the real world the story was beginning to shift. Ever more searching questions have come to be asked about the supposed “consensus” on man-made warming, and the BBC’s coverage has come to look ever more one-sidedly absurd.
    Last week, even Richard Black, another BBC proselytiser for man-made warming, was gloomily having to reveal the conclusion of a new IPCC report: that, over the next few decades, “climate change signals are expected to be relatively small compared to natural climate variabilty”. In plain English, that means the great scare story is over. What a shame. But at what a price.

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  7. Jeff Waters says:

    What are people’s experiences of escalating complaints to the BBC Trust?

    Do you normally even receive a reply, or do you get the impression that your email usually gets filed in their Deleted Items folder?

    Jeff

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    • ltwf1964 says:

      I suspect the vast majority are filed in the bin

      much like the bbc themselves should be,in fact

         1 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      Don’t think I’ve ever had any get that far.

      And it’s probably my fault, even if that’s down to the skill of the system construction, which is designed to make folk give up or forget.

      I have had a few get beyond the usual boilerplate brush-off, and have persevered through the labyrinthine and condradictory procedures enough to get to the next level, but this always starts with ‘sorry we have taken so long..’ before setting the scene for a lot more time about to be taken.

      You need to have a heck of a diary to remember to nag and not let go month on month, by which time they usually decide it has passed from being relevant.

         1 likes

      • Jeff Waters says:

        Thanks guys.

        I’m just wondering whether there is any point in complaining.

        The BBC itself will invariably defend their position rather than admit that they fell short of perfection.

        And in my experience, you’re as likely to receive an email from Santa Claus as you are a reply from the Trust!

        Without wishing to sound defeatist, it seems that people complaining to the BBC are whistling in the wind…

        The stats in the final section of this page are telling: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14120960

        Am I being unduly cynical?  🙂

        Jeff

           1 likes

        • My Site (click to edit) says:

          ‘Without wishing to sound defeatist, it seems that people complaining to the BBC are whistling in the wind… ‘

          The BBC received more complaints – 240,000 – than the previous year, an increase of 20,000, although the corporation says it is normal to see fluctuation from one year to another.

          Some 257 complaints were escalated, 17 of which were upheld or partially upheld.’

          On the basis of 240,000 > 257 > 17…. no, I don’t think so.

             1 likes

          • Jeff Waters says:

            The BBC’s existance is based on socialist principle of involuntary shared ownership (but without the control that usually comes with ownership).

            It’s therefore in the BBC’s interest to promote left-wing values, and it’s not about to stop manufacturing consent for its continued existance, just because it receives lots of complaints.

            It reminds me of another left-wing institution that we aren’t going to stop paying for anytime soon – The EU…

            Jeff

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  8. Cassandra King says:

    Lots of stories about windmills in the MSM, critical examinations of the failings of the windmill fraud, evidence appearing of the realities so long hidden by the BBC/NUJ. The BBC? Selling airtime to the windmill fraudsters to pimp their racket, no critical questions and no counter opinion.

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  9. Cassandra King says:

    21 November 2011 Last updated at 08:06 GMT Autumn’s birds delay migration<img src=”http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/56806000/jpg/_56806905_greylag2wwtslimjslees_jpg.jpg” alt=”Greylag geese (c) JS Lees”/>

    Geese, ducks and swans that spend winter in the wetlands of Northern Europe are delaying their migration south, say scientists.

    What scientists? We are not told of course. Any counter opinion? No need apparantly. Migration is not and has never been set in stone, throughout history migration patterns follow the natural climate cycles with an uncanny expertise. It is as normal as migration itself and has been going on since the dinosaurs roame the earth.

    Migratory wildlife has evolved an intimate knowledge of when to migrate and where, why? Because their lives depend on this knowledge, get it wrong and they die. So, a completely normal cyclic variation in migration is spun as some kind of problem, I wonder why?

    The BBC pimping a false narrative by selective reporting, biased one sided vested interests.

       1 likes

    • RGH says:

      I can assure the BBC that as far as the European cranes migration from the Baltic to Spain is concerned, the noisy and spectacular migration by day and by night took place just a week or so early this year.

      I have been reporting sightings to the Crane monitoring site:

      http://www.kraniche.de/Kranichzug/Projektvorstellung.shtml

      for about five years.

      The main migration date varies by about 10 days from year to year.

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    • John Horne Tooke says:

      What scientists” quite. It is a catch all word with the BBC. Here is a very small list of different branches of science:

      http://www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/Science/ff/branchessci.htm

      Perhaps it was an electronic engineer who does a bit of bird watching in his spare time!!

         1 likes

    • David Gregory says:

      Cassandra writes; “What scientists? We are not told of course.” Erm, well clicking on the link reveals, “Lead researcher Aleksi Lehikoinen from the University of Helsinki examined three decades’ worth of data from Hanko Bird Observatory in southern Finland.” There’s even a link to the paper. That seems pretty clear.

         1 likes

      • Cassandra King says:

        Aaah those links eh? But here is a whacky thought David…why not clearly state in the actual article who the “scientists” are and better still admit that the data gathered is from one source and one researcer and one institution.

        So just ONE small area in Finland and the BBC portrays all migration patterns as affected? The BBC does not openly state the very limited nature of the data from a small team does it? From just one tiny study and a partial analysis of the data the BBC invites the viewer to come to a false conclusion.

        So the links are in fact worthless, it is the actual article content that matters, it is the omission of balancing information within the article that matters. Why not clearly state that migration patterns are in fact subject to natural variations in climate?

        So you see a BBC report that misses vital information that the viewer needs to make an informed analysis, it is presented in one way to guide the viewer in one direction but the trick the BBC pulss is a sneaky one, instead of including information within the article they hide it within links which most viewers will not do.

           1 likes

      • Cassandra King says:

        Just an added thought in reply to David Gregory.

        Who presented the BBC with the ‘story’ and who in the BBC thought it important enough to hand top billing? The BBC does not tell us who or what group presented the BBC with the ready made report and was the BBC paid monies to air the report?

        As we have seen recently the BBC sells airtime to groups in order to peddle partisan opinion and interests, was the WWF/Greenpiss/Fiends of the Earth behind this particular report? Do these groups present the BBC with ready to go ready made reports and stories? More importantly who is the link between big eco and the BBC?

        Finally David, I note that you cannot contradict the substance of my assertions but rather seek out perceived errors and selectively present them.

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        • David Gregory says:

          Aaah those links eh? But here is a whacky thought David…why not clearly state in the actual article who the “scientists” are and better still admit that the data gathered is from one source and one researcer and one institution.  “

          From the article.

          Lead researcher Aleksi Lehikoinen from the University of Helsinki examined three decades’ worth of data from Hanko Bird Observatory in southern Finland.

          So the article does exactly what you want.

          As to where it comes from? Well most journals send out notices detailing the papers they are publishing so either from there or from the journalist in question reading the journal itself.

          Counter opinion? Well it’s science, so opinions don’t really come into it.

             1 likes

          • Daniel Clucas says:

            Well it’s science, so opinions don’t really come into it”

            My sides!!! >:o

               1 likes

  10. noggin says:

    The “man”….in new york , planned “his”…”reign of terror,”,(oh a lone wolf madman ala Breivik then), with a pipe bomb, other larger bombs, can be described as “some kind”….   of “Al Qaida
    sympathiser”…… (Mr Al ???? must be very happy then).  

    On 5live this morning, so we can expect, a deluge of the in depth inquisition to the reasons why he would want to do such a heinous act…New York is very lucky this morning 


    hmmm……Islam?, …no. er Muslim??..maybe convert to Islam??  

    anybody…..perhaps???  why????, any ideas?????

       1 likes

    • noggin says:

      major obama suck up, mufti…i mean mayor bloomberg, takes absurdity
      to hitherto unknown levels, on the “lone wolf” would be NY mass murderer.

      fervent member of the ideology with the greatest herd mentality, most dangerous almost cult like adherrence on the planet, his own jihadi website, inspired by jihadi teachers, writings, who was converted to islam, and yes….al qaida sympathiser, who just
       ….erm on his own “resented” the US armed forces?

      http://youtu.be/YlTfHl5qibo

      by the way 18,024 deadly terror attacks since 9/11

      almost beyond belief, maybe the ahem…”tiny minority” TM of extremists
      just got a tad smaller?

      anyone would think he worked for the bbc

         1 likes

      • noggin says:

        http://youtu.be/scEuoDqtb3M

        strangely enough, intense discussion here with the research & security spokesman from insignis
        don t think we ll be seeing him on “points of view” (if 5live or r4 today not even covering it yday)……anytime soon
          😉

        “re that “Man Arrested And Charged In Bomb Plot,” don’t worry about Señor Pimentel also being “known as Muhammad Yusuf.” Mayor Bloomberg has already pronounced him a “lone wolf”:

        Mayor: ‘Lone Wolf’ Terror Suspect Arrested

        Alleged ‘Lone Wolf’ Arrested In New York On Terror Charges

        ‘Lone Wolf’ Terror Suspect Arraigned In New York

        So relax. He’s just another working stiff from Local 473 of the Amalgamated Union of Lone Wolves. Any connection between Muhammad and any other Mohammeds, Mohameds, Muhammeds or Muhamads is purely coincidental. For one thing, Mr Yusuf was thinking of adopting the name “Osama Hussein,” after Messrs bin Laden and Saddam, but worried that it might draw unwanted attention to himself. Which shows how little he knows about us.
        So nothing to worry about. There’ll be another lone wolf along any moment. All jihad is local.”
        M. Steyn

           1 likes

  11. Umbongo says:

    Apropos the proposed £400 million being thrown down the housing toilet by the coalition, on Today Ed Balls thinks it doesn’t go far enough (and takes the opportunity to castigate the Conservative administration of the 90s for not doing enough): his semi-approval was repeated on the news.  Then a mortgage broker and a banker were brought on to “comment” (as if they weren’t going to support this use of taxpayers’ money).  I didn’t hear Shapps in the Today deadzone (post 08:30) but I assume – since it’s his policy – he also approved.  I also didn’t hear Sanchia Berg at 07:10 but I would guess that the possibility of a critical analysis of this “initiative” from that quarter was as likely as the Chief Rabbi has becoming an imam.

    I didn’t hear one mention of the similarity between this crapola and the US Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac debacle despite the narrative principle of faith that all our financial woes “started in the US”.   Not one commenter dared to suggest that (effectively) supporting high house prices and creating artificial jobs might not be completely sensible.  Anyway this is just a PR stunt for the moment since we haven’t seen the details.

    While I’m on, I see (Today at 08:20) the spirit of Billy Bragg has been given another outing as part of BBC support (there’s no pretence of impartiality) for the strike of the parasites next week with coverage of the parasites’ campaign song.

       1 likes

    • Cassandra King says:

      The famous Ed Balls, the spend spend socialist of the kind that destroyed Greece and Spain and Ireland and Portugal?

      Er, an incoherent rambling by Balls uncorrected by beeboid ally, supposedly huge coalition cuts when spending is rising and will continue to rise for the foreseeable future.

      Ed Balls who failed to spot the crash, the debt catastrophe and still clings onto the socialist spend your way out of debt by getting in more debt, its a plan used by socialists all over the world and laways ends up in failure.

      Dont have the money? just borrow it, what about tomorrow? Who cares. State spending rising, taxpayers actually contributing falling, incomes falling and spending rising, taxes rising so depressing demand, red tape regulation strangling the economy and unemployment rising. WTF are these imbeciles thinking of?

         1 likes

      • Umbongo says:

        You know, just to be mischievous, Humphrys could have noted that government expenditure has increased since the LibDemCon section of the political class has taken power (well, let’s be accurate here – has “taken office”).  Now, it might be that that increase has been, according to the Balls narrative (same as the BBC narrative but a different font on the word processor), aimed direct at the benefiterati rather than indirectly (so that the parasites in government “work” can pretend to be doing something between strikes and teabreaks) but it’s an increase all the same.  You never hear on the BBC that, wherever the financial collapse started the reason for it – gross overborrowing to finance useless expenditure – is different from the collapse which started in 1929.  That collapse could have been contained but, unfortunately for the world, it was exacerbated by a shortfall in aggregate demand created by that Democratic god Roosevelt who drastically reduced the money supply.  So our rulers are fighting this economic war with the weapons of the last one.  A critique of the failure of Keynesianism in today’s US is here http://www.bizzyblog.com/2011/10/29/meltzer-at-wsj-on-keynesianisms-failure/  
         
        BTW if you want examples of blatant idiocy and refusal to admit failure from our rulers let me guide you to this http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/8902450/Britain-will-have-to-join-the-euro-says-Tory-grandee-Lord-Heseltine.html from Heseltine and (if you hace access behind the paywall) Ashdown’s encomium to the euro (which, according to him, we might have made effective had we joined – the “top table” argument yet again) in the Times.  
         
        On a different but closely related front, just because CAGW (similarly to the euro)  has been shown up for the crock – and BBC enabled fraud – that it is, don’t expect any admission (or contrition) anytime soon.

           1 likes

      • RCE says:

        Balls was talking utter incoherent, numerically illiterate drivel; and he knew it.

           1 likes

  12. Martin says:

    Dame Nikki Campbell let his political bias show this morning, interviewing Shapps and Hattie Hatemen’s castrated husband Jack Dromey Nikki was quite formal introducing Shapps but said to Dromey “Hi Jack” as if greeting an old pal.

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  13. magiclantern1 says:

    Accidentally switched the car radio onto Radio 4 this am (I do try and avoid the stinking BBC on a Monday) and it took all of 25″ to catch yet another moment of priceless bias.

    Jane Garvey (Wimmin’s HOur) was interviewing some actress who had played the young Margaret Thatcher and the actress ( a sensible, intelligent woman) noted that her parents had been “working class Thatherites”.

    Oh, smirked Garvery in that vile, patronising Beeboid way, “working class Thatcherites – there can’t have beebn many of those ha ha”.

    “Actually there were millions,” replied the actress. “That’s why she won 3 elections.”

    Predictably Garvey changed the subject. Stupid, biased cow.

    And of course, we dutifully pay her vast wages and pension.

    We must be mad.

       0 likes

  14. George R says:

    More for INBBC to censor: MUSLIM SEX GANGS IN BRITAIN.

    Although ‘The Times’ has the euphemistic and inaccurate word ‘Asian’, not Muslim, in its three page report on this today, at least, unlike INBBC’ ‘The Times'[£] has it as its main investigation today.

    Here is the opening to ‘Times’ piece on Page 1 with headline:

    “Action on the gangs who groom girls for sex”

    (by Andrew Norfolk.)

    [Extract]-

    “Today, we report further harrowing evidence of teenagers lured into sex and of their parents’ desperate attempts to rescue them. All but one of the victims were groomed by Asian men.”

    ‘The Times’ does not mention the on-going campaigning of the English Defence League against Muslim sex gangs.

    http://englishdefenceleague.org/dispatches_muslim_sex_gangs/

       0 likes

    • Daniel Smith says:

      There was actually a 30 minute special on News24 over the weekend about ‘Grooming’. A typical Guardian piece delivered in hushed sensitive tones but not exploring any of the real issues. The large number of Pakistani males involved was mentioned (though never any mention of Islam) about 10 minutes in only to be quickly dismissed. A BBC authorised expert was on hand to sagely say “this is a problem in all communities, it could be happening next door.”  
      Interestingly the street interviews with a couple of ‘Asian’ men was the only insights in this poor programme. They both mentioned the rather salient fact “what are 12 years doing walking the streets at 10 O’clock at night?” The viewer was left in no doubt by the general tone of the programme that they were to be outraged that such a question should even be asked.  
      The idea that family breakdown might have something to do with the rise in child abuse is never otherwised mentioned. Instead the BBC dishonestly managed to find (or invent?) a very atypical middle class couple (shown only in silhoulette) for the purpose of pretending that every child is equally likely to be groomed.

         0 likes

      • RCE says:

        The line “it happens in all communities” is a classic example of addressing a false hypothesis – a favourite Beeb trick.  No-one has ever said that child sex grooming is unique to Asian/Pakistani men, but that it occurs disproportionately.  I’ve posted on this before so won’t go on…

           0 likes

    • George R says:

      ‘Daily Mail’ has now picked up on this:

      “Bring these evil men to book: Asian gangs who groom teenage girls for sex to be finally targeted in crackdown ”

      Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2064220/Asian-gangs-groom-teenage-girls-sex-targeted-new-police-crackdown.html#ixzz1eMxr2xnY

      And Islam Not BBC (INBBC)?….

         0 likes

  15. Jeff Waters says:

    One of the top 3 BBC headlines at the moment is ‘Dowlers thought Milly was alive’.

    I’m getting this strange sense of deja vu – I’m sure I knew that before today…

    Jeff

       0 likes

    • Martin says:

      Have they mentioned Andy Coulson yet? or shown endless clips of Ed Miliband spitting out “Milly Dowler” every 5 seconds?

         1 likes

  16. Roland Deschain says:

    And on the news front page now, in about size 100 font, we have “Mail on Sunday ‘hacking suspected'”.  With the ticker at the top saying “Hugh Grant has suggested phone hacking carried out by a non-Murdoch paper for the first time”.

    Well, it ain’t the first time a non-Murdoch paper has been suggested, actually.  Wonder if a similar accusation at the Leveson enquiry against the Mirror or Guardian will be reported quite so prominently.

       1 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      Well, whatever it ‘might’ be, one can be sure that Newsnight will be topping of the day neatly.

      http://order-order.com/2011/11/21/new-newsnight-pol-ed-should-be-announced-today/

      The Guardian’s Allegra Stratton worked at the BBC before and is wired in more than most, especially to the left’

      One is shocked, I tell you… shocked!

         1 likes

      • Span Ows says:

        Oh no, Allegra, along with Helene and Toby (Helm) are the ones I used to insult most when I comemnted regualrly over at CIF. Such bias lefty twats…so newsnight here she comes?

           1 likes

    • George R says:

      Thanks to BBC-NUJ and the whole of the innocent British MSM, we were treated to what is the most important news story of the day:a live oscar-standard performance, given by, we were reminded, the star of ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’, let’s hear it for victim Hugh Grant!    
         
      One has to smile at Hugh Grant’s virtuoso performance today, especially at his rather brilliant British comedic nuances as the ‘Leveson Show’ fawned to him at every turn. His appearance began as a kind of ‘This is your Life’.    
         
      But at times, it seemed that the whole ‘Leveson show’ with a supporting cast of hundreds (have those people nothing else to do?), would turn into an episode of ‘The Singing Detective.’    
         
       At other times, although it’s not a criminal trial, it seem to have the spirit of the excellent musical, ‘Chicago’.    
         


         1 likes

    • Jeff Waters says:

      The markets are in turmoil because of the Eurozone crisis and the fact that the Americans can’t agree on a new budget.

      And the government has just announced a major new scheme to support first time buyers.

      But we need to get our priorities right!

      Such matters are trivial compared to the bombshell that the Mail on Sunday may have hacked someone’s phone!

      Jeff

         0 likes

      • Jeff Waters says:

        I like this tweet from Piers Morgan:

        ‘I do hope Nelson Mandela was watching Hugh Grant today, so he now understands what real persecution is all about’.

        Jeff

           0 likes

    • George R says:

      Yes, Hugh Grant criticised the ‘Daily Mirror’ too in his evidence today. Didn’t he, Beeboids?

         0 likes

      • RCE says:

        6PM news on R4 went big on Hugh Grant’s testimony that implicated NOTW and The Mail.  
         
        No mention of his allegations against The Mirror.  There mustn’t have been time to mention the Labour-supporting paper.

           0 likes

    • Jeff Waters says:

      ‘Egypt’s cabinet has offered to resign after three days of protests against the country’s military rulers, state media has reported’

      That’s not the main story right now.

      The main story is still Hugh Grant’s phone hacking conspiracy theory!

      Grrr!!!

      Jeff

         0 likes

  17. George R says:

    Melanie Phillips’ critique of wind farms’ policy, (a policy which BBC ‘greenie’ lobby propagandises for, daily):

    “Hurrah for Philip! Wind power is the most ruinous folly of our age”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2064081/Hurrah-Prince-Philip-Wind-power-ruinous-folly-age.html#ixzz1eM4gRlzF

       0 likes

  18. Hugh says:

    Anyone watching Hugh Grant at the Levenson Enquiry, and then reading the BBC’s account of events, would not recognise them as one of the same. Grant was totally skewered for his statement that 50% of officers in The Met and all staff at the Portland Hospital are open to bribery. And he was ridiculed for his press release about his relationship with his Chinese ‘friend’ whom he denied was ever his girlfriend. He came across as a complete and utter tw@.

       0 likes

  19. D B says:

    Wasn’t listening but I gather it was “muzzler” not “Muslim”. He may be playing the martyr but I don’t think he’s got a genuine death wish.

       0 likes

    • George R says:

      You must be right!  But he must be aware that ‘muzzie’ is also slang for ‘Muslim’.

         0 likes

      • George R says:

        Apparently what sounded like ‘Muslim’ was apparently the word ‘muzzler’. Go to original transcript (about 5 minutes from end of Grant’s address) to check.

           0 likes

        • George R says:

          Same difference?

             0 likes

        • D B says:

          Apparently what sounded like ‘Muslim’ was apparently the word ‘muzzler’

          That’s what I said. Where did you get “muzzie” from?

             0 likes

          • George R says:

            On actually hearing and watching Hugh Grant’s words live, (which you say you didn’t) it sounded like ‘Muslim’.

               0 likes

  20. PDC says:

    I’ve only just discovered (from http://melaniephillips.com) that hundreds of jobs are to go at an aluminium plant at Lynemouth. All the result of the crazy carbon tax…  
    Why didn’t the BBC give us this story? No, don’t bother answering; I can guess.

       0 likes

  21. Number 7 says:

    I see that “Y Fronts”  Briant’s agent has been jailed ( 3 years ) for Kiddy Porn.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2064281/Agent-Labour-MP-Chris-Bryant-jailed-collecting-12-000-pictures-child-pornography-police-seen.html#ixzz1eLwLQYHs

    As he always seems to be available for comment on the beeb I have been avidly awaiting his response.

    Surprisingly – response there was none.

       0 likes

    • Number 7 says:

      Bryant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

         0 likes

      • Hugh says:

        Surprise, surprise. There’s nothing on the BBC Wales website about this, though there is a piece about a Tory Councillor being suspended for possible fraud.

           0 likes

        • Number 7 says:

          Or BBC Radio Wales but they are Headlining the INVESTIGATION in Swansea.

          Strange that!!!!!!!!!!

             0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Good thing this never came up during Byrant’s appearance on Question Time last week, er….

         0 likes

  22. Martin says:

    personally I can’t stand the whining from Hugh Grant, but when he said today (repeated on the BBC) that the press was the last major industry to regulate itself I really wanted to cough and go “eh hum!”

    The BBC is basically self regulated, Ofcom has little to do with the BBC, make a complaint and it goes to the BBC, usually some Cocaine snorting penis who reads the Socialist Worker and if you complain to the BBC Trust, why all you get is aload of beeboid lovers.

    Shouldn’t the BBC be regulated by people who have NEVER worked for the BBC or openly shown support for the scum?

       0 likes

  23. Jeff Waters says:

    Tweet by Newsnight:  Congrats to our new political editor, @allegrastratton

    Fancy that!  A Guardian journalist appointed as political editor of Newsnight!
    Jeff

       0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:


      Tweet by Newsnight:  Congrats to our new political editor, @allegrastratton  
       
      Fancy that!  A Guardian journalist appointed as political editor of Newsnight!  
       
      http://order-order.com/2011/11/21/new-newsnight-pol-ed-should-be-announced-today/  
       
      The Guardian’s Allegra Stratton worked at the BBC before and is wired in more than most, especially to the left’  
       
      One is shocked, I tell you… shocked!
      Yesterday, 15:41:02 GMT

      … and stunned, I tell you… stunned.

         0 likes

  24. David Preiser (USA) says:

    At the top of this thread, I predicted that the BBC would spin the SuperComittee’s failure to work things out as being “the Republicans’ fault because of their ideological intransigence or some such”.

    Today, Mark Mardell has come pretty close to doing just that.

    Many of the left blame Grover Norquist for the impasse. They say the libertarian crusader has put Republicans in Congress in an impossible position by getting them to sign a solemn pledge against putting up any and all taxes.

    I get the impression that Mr Norquist, with his deadpan delivery and an impish sense of humour, delights in being the bete noire of the liberal establishment.

    So we know whom the Left – well, the Beltway Left, anyway – blames.  Whom does the Right blame?  We aren’t told, as Mardell doesn’t hang out with any of them.  Plus, we get the obligatory swipe at the Tea Party movement for what he assumes will be schadenfreude over the failure.

    The US President editor, great mindreader who sees deeply into the hearts and minds of the country that he is, knows the US public won’t agree with “economic conservatives”.

    But the markets and most voters are unlikely to share this sanguine view. This is about the way America sees Washington and the world sees politicians.

    The first sentence is wrong. The markets are down partially as a correction against a recent bump, as well as because everyone’s starting to realize that US banks have too much risk in Euro banks. The second one is right. It’s important, though, to remember that Mardell is a self-declared Keynesian (a misguided one who fails to understand that Keynes never intended for a permanent massive deficit) who projects his own personal views on everyone else.

    I also predicted this: “And there will still be no mention whatsoever that their beloved Obamessiah has still failed to present, never mind get passed, a real budget in three effing years, two of them with His own party in complete control of Congress.”

    The US President editor is very shrewd, and knows exactly how to spin this:

    It is worth remembering that after the long, drawn-out budget crisis, Standard and Poor’s downgraded the USA’s credit rating.

    But they did it not because the country was left without a budget for a while, but because it suggested – in their own words – that “governance and policymaking (is) becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable”.

    How disingenuous can you get?  He knows damn well the President failed here, but won’t admit it.  Of course S&P didn’t come out and say they downgraded us specifically because the Community Organizer in Chief never got a budget past a first draft.  But of course if we had had a reasonable budget passed at some point we wouldn’t be where we are.  What nonsense this man spouts.

    As for the rest of the BBC reports on the matter, no mention of the President’s incompetence here or here or – astonishingly – in a cute slideshow entitled “How did the US debt get so bad?”

    In all these features, you are invited to Spot the Missing President.

    BBC bias: pathetic and predictable.

       0 likes

  25. Anonymous says:

    Didn’t Huge Grant do a great Tony Blair today? Oscar winning, I thought.

    But did anyone mention to this pompous barsteward about his ‘previous’ in Los Angeles? I thought barristers brought up witness’ character in order that the jury could ascertain as to the veracity of such witness.

    Maybe not. Didn’t suit the script, did it.

       0 likes

  26. noggin says:

    when warsi & pickles have finished their “deckchair moving” session
    who to lead up the governments islam protection racket.
    Pickles and Warsi wrestle for control of Government strategy on anti
    when warsi self equates antisemitism with the crock of islamo-faux-bia
    in speeches to jewish groups. BBC News – Baroness Warsi says Muslim prejudice seen as normal
    when she settles in nicely with the OIC, speech
    with their obsession of instigating the islamo-faux-bia guilt trip  Who’s to blame for Islamaphobia? – BBC 

    …….just a few sobering facts ,(remember them…eh)

    Commentary from the US, & do you think it would be any different here?
    because i think instances would be even more infrequent

       0 likes

  27. George R says:

    This ‘Sky Arts’ series, ‘Onion News Network’ could be a welcome change to BBC-NUJ TV News channel:  
     
     
    ‘The Onion News Network’  
     
     
    Sky Arts 1, 26 November, 11 pm.  
     
     
     
    http://www.skyarts.co.uk/film-docs/article/the-onion-news-network/
     
     
     
     
    More broadly, on innovation in the area of TV news and comment, ‘Glenn Beck TV’ (GBTV) is interesting, I think., e.g. –  
     
    “GBTV EXPANDS ITS PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS TEAM”


     http://blog.gbtv.com/2011/11/01/gbtv-expands-its-production-and-operations-team/

       0 likes

  28. john says:

    For those of you who are far too lazy to get up and enjoy the televisual feast that is the BBC’s best effort at news around 5 o’clock, here’s today’s synopsis.
    Two women, one of whom’s gender is questionable, start the show off with no tables or chairs.
    Pouting into the camera, it becomes clear that one buys her clothes from Poundland and the other from a Charity shop.
    This is the good bit, after somebody finds a table for them to sit at, in a record breaking 30 seconds they solve the United States debt problems.
    They are now dealing with the idiots in Egypt (where ever that is) but have been interrupted by the gay weather boy.
    And what’s the only newspaper I see on the hastily positioned desk ?
    Is it the Guardian ?
    Somethings never change, even at 5am.

       0 likes

  29. jarwill101 says:

      Have just heard Humphrys railing against excessive executive pay. When, oh when, is a Today guest going to ask him how much he suckles from the nation’s teat per annum? Working, as he does, for a Corporation that relies on an enforcable tax for its decadent, profligate survival. As a licence tax payer I would dearly love to see the beeboid elite’s trough-snuffling brought to an abrupt end. Amongst other radical reforms. Not much chance of that.   The word ‘hypocrite’ can never do justice to the parasitism of the likes of Humphrys, Naughtie, Marr, & their incessant trumpeting of the wonders of cultural Marxism. A disaster for Britain that they are wealthy enough to live a great distance from. Give them all a year on the 21st floor of one Londistan’s ‘show estates’. They wouldn’t be worrying about executive pay, they’d be too busy screwing iron grilles on their windows.

       0 likes

  30. As I See It says:

    Minor breakthrough on Radio 4!

    I noted this morning that the ‘High Pay Commission’ report on executive pay that the BBC are trumpeting was actually attributed to ‘a centre-left think tank‘. Well done BBC!

    Unfortunately the online version of BBC news simple mentions ‘a think tank‘.

    Just to be clear the chairwoman of the ‘High Pay Commission’ is Deborah Hargreaves (a Guardian hack). Other members are LibDems, TUC, local government and charity hacks – oh and there was a businessman in there somewhere.

    The thing is of course a front for the views of – sorry was set up by – Compass (‘….as the world gets hotter and the poor get poorer….’) and J Rowntree Trust – I’m guessing that’s the pot of gold that pays for all this liberal concern about unfair renumeration.

       0 likes