286 Responses to NEW OPEN THREAD…..

  1. Invicta 1066 says:

    St Georges Day. I followed a procession through my town, hundreds of spectators as the various groups including Scouts, Old Soldiers and others with bands paraded before splitting up to go to two different churches.

    Watched Midlands Today news on BBC this evening. Expected a mention of our Patron Saint’s day, plus perhaps a couple of clips of what I had witnessed in other towns. Not a hope, did watch a quite long clip with commentary and interviews of a Sikh festival with everyone having a good time.
    Clearly, there is an anti-English political bias and management decision taken here that resulted in what must be seen as a deliberate snub.
    It made me rather cross.

       70 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      The BBC generally holds that anyone who waves the St. George Cross is a racist, except during sporting events. I remember the glee with which that Prof. Macculloch told his audience that St. George had dark skin. As if that would change anything.

         48 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        Whilst St Patrick had red hair and carried a shelalagh over his shoulder whilst jigging to Riverdance music.

           7 likes

    • Mice Height says:

      UAF scum attacked a St.Georges Day parade in Brighton today, injuring two young girls aged 8 and 10, as well as two police officers, by throwing their empty beer bottles.
      Predictably the BBC report fails to mention that it was the far-left that created ALL the problems yet again.

         59 likes

    • David Gregory (BBC) says:

      Well I checked the running orders over the weekend and you are quite right. But looking at the news that was around I can see why we mentioned Vasakhi and not some of the St George’s day stuff that was going on. With 90,000 people attending Vasakhi was easily the biggest gathering in the patch. And it was also more newsworthy as there was a protest about the fate of a prisoner on death row in India which is a story we’ve been covering for a while now.
      Today of course is St George’s day proper and we’ll have reports on a massive celebration in Coventry, the new asparagus season and the start of the World Shakespeare festival. Which is hardly brushing all things English under the carpet!
      For what it’s worth my and my fiance went to the St George’s day celebrations in Birmingham city centre (broadcast on BBC WM) and met up with the in-laws at Vasakhi. Although it’s not have as much fun now they’ve stopped having the fun fair.
      So to sum up. Nobody hid St George’s day. Celebrations of being English will be on Midlands Today all day.

      ( As for Cassie’s views;
      “Some English people probably attended the festival,the Sikh community is open and inclusive and friendly. They are better integrated and have integrated into BRITISH society more than any other minority group apart from the Jewish community BUT they are not English.”
      I can reassure you my fiance and in-laws are all English. As indeed is everyone attending Vasakhi. )

         11 likes

      • Dave s says:

        That nagging question the liberal will never answer let alone face. Is to be English a social construct or is it an ethnicity rooted in untold generations past?
        Funny how the Palestinians , in the eyes of the liberal world, have acquired a definite ethnicity.

           33 likes

      • Harry says:

        Yes, all the Sikh’s I have ever met have been friendly, open, and very English in behaviour. I’m sure many would celebrate St George’s day too.

           15 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        Nice to know our two cultures are being given equal coverage. Now what do we call that – um, I know! – Multiculturalism!

           2 likes

    • Millie Tant says:

      Google has a striking St George’s Day logo: http://www.google.co.uk/

         10 likes

      • geyza says:

        30 yeas of the ZX Spectrum??? I am really THAT old? I remember the debates between the Spectrum owners and Commodore 64 owners.

        the Commodore 64 was a far superior machine.

           4 likes

        • David Gregory says:

          What?! Clearly it was the BBC Micro 😉

             5 likes

          • Doggywoggy says:

            I have a friend that was a devotee of the ORIC 1 and will not entertain the idea that any other computer was better in its day.

               1 likes

            • Reed says:

              The Oric 1 ! Now you’re taking me back – along with the Dragon 32, the Elan Enterprise and the Acorn Electron.

              I remember when our school received it’s order of a solitary Acorn Archimedes. It seemed like the future had arrived, and made the school’s humble BBC micros look positively ancient by comparison. Getting old. 🙁

                 1 likes

        • Reed says:

          I remember that too, Geyza. The C64 was indeed far superior – still got mine in storage somewhere! There’s a huge retro following of C64 game music, and an orchestra that plays all the ‘greatest hits’ 🙂

             2 likes

          • TomR says:

            Speaking of C64 music, Lazy Jones “inspired” Kernkraft 400:

            Also, I need to find a new avatar.

               1 likes

    • Stinky Britches says:

      Apologies if this has already been posted:
      http://order-order.com/2012/04/23/beebs-biased-brief/

         3 likes

    • Merlin says:

      Well said! I don’t mind celebrating different cultures but it would be nice to celebrate Britishness and my love for my English brethren once in a while and without being made to feel uncomfortable about it. It’s the classic socialist minority = OK whilst majority = bad shite. The BBC openly promote Scottish, Welsh and Irish identity (which I have no problem with being a proud Scotsman) but they hold in utter contempt anything to do with English nationalism – apart from as David mentions in a football or cricket ground. This is the result of the middle-to-upper classes who are imposing their privileged guilt-ridden cant on the rest of us. I love England so much (unusual for a Scot perhaps lol?!) and regard it as one of the countries that gave birth to modernity; England is one of the greatest nations ever and we should all celebrate this. It’s a shame the craven BBC take money out of our pockets whilst simultaneously trying to deny the English a right to an identity.

         16 likes

  2. Reed says:

    Dont really like the ‘racism’ bit in the name, but…

    http://www.causes.com/causes/544540-take-action-against-the-bbc-s-anti-english-racism/about

    And you’re right, David. There is always the knee-jerk suggestion of a ‘subtext’ of racism/xenophobia/blah/blah whenever the topic of English Nationalism is mentioned, especially on the BBC. I’m expecting another bloody pointless Newsnight discussion on ‘what is Englishness’ – featuring Billy Bragg, Benjamin Zephaniah and Bonnie Greer – warning us all of the far right and the dangers of ‘ugly nationalism’, and assuring us all that there’s really no such thing as the English. I’m glad they clear that up for us every damn year, I’d begun to think I might actually exist! Funny how the Scots and Welsh can both have political parties that define themselves in nationalist terms, but they never have to deal with the automatic assumptions and the ‘subtext’ bullshit that the English have to put up with.

       48 likes

    • Cassandra King says:

      Those far left scumbags are determined to wipe out the English people as a racial group and nation, its what they need to do, its what they work hard at every day. The BBC is at the forefront of the effort to destroy the English and England and wipe us out, the political effort to de recognize an entire racial group and nation.

      Just why are we English such a threat to them? Why do they fear and hate us so much? Yes, Internationalist socialist Marxist principles dictates the death of the nation state and the creation of the new world nation state but that only partially explains why the far left has such a deep hatred for the English and England. They have a devil put aside for us dont they?

         43 likes

    • geyza says:

      The Scots and Welsh nationalists are allowed to be nationalistic and hate the English and they excuse their overt prejudice and hate by denying that there is any such “race” as English. They get away with it because they are left wing and politically correct.

      English Nationalism tends to be centre-right. (what is now defined by the left as far or extreme right)

      So how come it is the left wing who get to define what is far right and centre right and centre left and what is and is not racism and what is and is not acceptable nationalism?

      There is no doubt that Scottish Nationalism is just as prejudicial as any English Nationalism. They may love those followers of Islam (as any self-respecting lefty must) but they are overtly prejudicial against the English.

         27 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        And where do the vast majority of immigrants choose to live? Here’s a clue – it’s not Wales or Scotland. So who are the tolerant ones, eh? And assuming they are successful in destroying our English culture and identity, who will be the ‘new’ tolerant ones? (Here’s another clue, it won’t be a religious group beginning with ‘M’).

           11 likes

        • TomR says:

          They will be soon enough. Marxism requires the destruction of all nations, religions and competing ideologies – they may find it useful to use Islam to attack the most powerful of the “Old Guard” now, but once the West falls, their efforts will soon turn Eastwards.

             3 likes

  3. dez says:

    “St Georges Day. I followed a procession through my town, HUNDREDS of spectators.”

    Yet for some reason the BBC only covered a Sikh festival. How strange:

    “THOUSANDS join Sikh Vaisakhi celebrations in Birmingham.”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-17805970

    “Clearly, there is an anti-English political bias…”

    Of course, because you can’t possibly be Sikh and English? And the 100,000 people who attended can’t possibly be English either?

       8 likes

    • Reed says:

      You only serve to re-inforce the point – that the BBC are happy to give coverage to a ‘celebration’ that has been imported from foreign parts, but frequently gives little (if any) coverage to our own national day.

      Many of the participants of this festival might have been English, but the celebration itself is not an English one.

         45 likes

    • Cassandra King says:

      Are you being deliberately stupid Dez?

      “you cannot be Sikh and English”

      The English are a people just like the Indians are a people, of course an Indian Sikh cannot be English.

      Some English people probably attended the festival,the Sikh community is open and inclusive and friendly. They are better integrated and have integrated into BRITISH society more than any other minority group apart from the Jewish community BUT they are not English.

      And we are talking about the BBC fanatical determination to deny the English people the representation lavished on other racial and national groups. To be English is not a residential and geographical accident as your sort would have it, you dont simply become English because you live in England or manage to wangle a British passport. Does a Scot who resides in England suddenly become an Englishman? No of course not, you leftists just dont think past your prejudices do you?

      Yes we can see why the far left/BBC are determined to see the English race de recognized and effectively eradicated and destroyed, it makes perfect sense for the BBC to wipe out the notion of England and the English people as a distinct racial group.

      Arab/Irish/Scottish/Indian/African nationalism and nationhood is perfectly acceptable to the BBC, every racial group given lavish attention and support and sympathy BUT English nationalism and English nationhood? These are being denied and assaulted and demeaned and smeared, preparing the way to a point the BBC is working for when anyone who sets foot in England will be viewed as English. I lived in China for a while, does that make me Chinese?

      Ask yourself why you leftists hate the English and England so much you wish to wipe us out? Why are we English such a threat to you that you would work so hard to even deny us the right to exist?

         47 likes

      • Demon says:

        I clicked like on your post Cassandra because I tend to agree with the biggest thrust of it. However, what I cannot agree is the comment that Enlgishness is purely a racial construct.

        There is that element admittedly, but there is also a political element to being English. I believe that anybody born in this country that truly believes themselves to be English, happily follows the cultural aspects of England and is happy to support England at football and cricket is English. Not English racially no doubt, but truly English at heart. This is from my personal perspective as, even though I have “white” skin, I have no Anglo-Saxon (i.e. English) blood in me at all. I consider myself fully English but my parents and grandparents had a fine old time mixing my blood up for me that I hold no race at all.

        I also feel that it wopuld be doing people like Pounce a dis-service as I get the impression that he considers himself to be English despite his background, and if I’m right about that I agree with him.

        Dezzie is being ridiculous of course – either his brain is so small that he doesn’t understand simple things or he is desperately trying to find any excuse to explain away the BBC’s anti-Englishness. He must be at least intelligent enough to recognise that the Sikh festival, while containing many followers who consider themselves English, is not celebrating England or Englishness. It is a religious festival. Whilst the St. George event celebrating England probably also has people of faiths other than C of E attending. But it is the English aspect that the BBC hates so much it ignore St. George’s Day wilfully while always marking the days of the patron saints from the other parts of the UK. And no matter how Dezpratley Dezzie tries to justify it, the BBC is showing its anti-English racism for all to see.

           13 likes

        • hippiepooter says:

          I didn’t put a like by Cass’s otherwise good contribution because she said Sikhs can’t be English.

          Strewth, there’s enough ‘racially English’ people who have no sense of allegiance whatsoever to their nationality. Treachery fostered of course by the BBC.

          In England, whether people’s families are new here or are indigenous, we’re all children of the Empire. It’s the common bond that binds under the Cross of St George and the Union Jack.

          Strewth, there’s many coloured people I’d regard as far more English than the gormless, whitey ‘me’ generation that we’ve raised in recent decades.

          Pip! Pip! This fine St George’s Day to all my fellow Englishmen who bear true allegiance to the Queen and a thousand years of English liberty.

             19 likes

          • Demon says:

            I totally agree with you hippie, that’s what I was trying to say myself. There is a race of English (which is a bit mixed anyway), but there is also a political or cultural Englishness of which I am proud to be a part and people of all races and none can be a part if they want to.

               7 likes

            • Reed says:

              I agree – it’s all a question of assimilation. Those who have recently arrived or have ancestors from foreign parts but have blended in and become part of us are more than welcome. I guess one can be as English as one wants to be. It’s those that insist on ‘separateness’ that are the problem, as they simply don’t want to be considered English (or even British) in any way. These same types will become furious with rage if anyone dares to suggest that they don’t really belong here, even though they have chosen to define their identity in exactly this manner – that of ‘not belonging’. They’ve excluded themselves by rejecting their host nation and it’s culture, and allying themselves to other parts of the world.

                 9 likes

            • Coinneach says:

              No race is “pure” but the notion that there is no such race as the English has been disproved by DNA studies. The concept of English is often far stronger in “immigrants” than in the brain washed native inhabitants of this sceptred isle.

                 5 likes

          • Cassandra King says:

            I put a like by your post because it makes sense, if you can understand the duality and seeming contradiction? A continuing racial integration over multiple generations is one thing Hippie, an immigrant rolling in five minutes ago calling themselves English is another isnt it?

            There were waves of immigration from the beginning of history, these waves assimilated and absorbed through generations into the English race, this genetic absorption has served to strengthen not weaken our racial identity, continuous interbreeding over the centuries has served us well in a genetic sense.

            But to suggest an Indian can be English just because they live in England for a few years defies logic, if that Indian and descendants marries into English blood for long enough they do become English, that is obvious isnt it? But you dont suddenly become another race because you step foot on another land.

               2 likes

        • Millie Tant says:

          No race at all, Demon! Intriguing at the least. So where did your parents and grandparents come from, if not England? Wales, Scotland, Ireland? Or somewhere else? Say, Germany? France? Holland? Russia? Hungary? Czechoslovakia? South Africa?

             0 likes

          • Demon says:

            Mother’s origins are from Ireland (Celtic not Anglo), my father is a minture of ethnic Austrian and Czech Jewish with a little bit of Polish in the mix.

               6 likes

            • Demon says:

              mixture not “minture”

                 0 likes

            • Millie Tant says:

              Yes, I can see what you mean now, Demon. No English origin as such but over time becoming English and embracing England and Englishness.

                 8 likes

        • Cassandra King says:

          Africans are a race and Chinese are a race and Indians are a race, it seems every race is recognized but our race. What is so horrible about acknowledging that the English are a distinct race? I could live in China all my life and still be a foreigner at the end of it. I could live in Japan and would never be considered Japanese, why is it such a terrible thing to be English and proud of being English.

          Buts lets go back to ancestry, my mothers side pure middle English drover stock back as far as the records go, my fathers side comes from the Isle of Mann back to the 13th century. That makes me English, a genetic history going back as far as the records go.

          I thank God I am English from English stock but does that mean I hate other races? Just because I love my own race race doesnt mean I hate all other races, far from it, it means I respect other races more not less.

          Just because I am proud of my racial heritage doesnt mean I am a supremacist or that I think other race are inferior, its the kind of smear that has found a home in the UAF. All races are equal in potential, it is as simple as that.

             6 likes

      • geyza says:

        I accept the jist of what is being opined here. The national broadcaster would rather broadcast a celebration rooted in a foreign religion, rather than a celebration of the National day of England. As a supposed “national” broadcaster, the BBC should be ashamed. However, to be pedantic, one can be born of the Indian Race and of English Nationality if they are born here and have spent all of their lives here. Especially if both their parents were born and raised here too.

        They have the genetics of being Indian, the legal recognition of being an English National and the religion of Sikhism.

        So actually one can be an Indian Sikh and be English.

           9 likes

        • Dave s says:

          You reinforce the idea of Britain which encompasses all peoples. We should live and let live. let the Welsh be Welsh and British. Likewise the Scots. Likewise the Jews and the Sikhs.
          And let the English too be English and British. It is odd that the liberal left is so keen on the dissolution of the Union. Perhaps as others have said the real target is the ethnic English.
          Nothing is so sad as a self hating Englishman and it is these people who hold sway in the media/political world.
          Don’t push it is my advice. The English will only take so much.

             24 likes

        • Millie Tant says:

          The legal recognition is of being a British citizen, of British nationality.

             0 likes

      • Millie Tant says:

        Cassandra, The Sikhs even got their own declaration from the highest court in the land that they are a distinct racial or ethnic group. That’s from a famous case decided by the Law Lords thirty years ago: Mandla v Dowell-Lee in which a boy was refused admission to a school because of the school’s rules requiring short hair – (although it did have a few Sikhs): http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKHL/1982/7.html
        Yet at the same time, some will also claim that those from such a distinct group which clings to its distinctive heritage, customs, dress, religion, historic traditions and way of life is English. They may be born in England, having British nationality (and possibly having other nationality as well) but they are definitely of Sikh ethnicity and origin, not English. There were several controversies and court cases in the seventies around the issues of Sikhs and motorcycle helmets, covering beards in food factories, wearing of police helmets and, in the Mandla case, school uniform rules, which required short hair above the collar.

           2 likes

        • johnnythefish says:

          Is integration not an issue here? What about a common culture that binds us together, regardless of the religion we practice or the clothes we choose to wear?

             2 likes

        • Doggywoggy says:

          Thanks for posting that link. I was always of the opinion that religion and race were distinct from each other in that one can change one’s religion, but not one’s race.

          I was not aware that the house of Lords issued such a ruling declaring that the religion of Sikhism could also be classed as a race.

             0 likes

    • Invicta 1066 says:

      Taken across the whole region, it would not be hundreds taking part in St Georges Day marches etc. but many thousands. Still the BBC made no mention and showed no footage. I am aware that Monday is the Saints actual date but the streets won’t be closed because everyone will be at work or back at school; so the celebration day is Sunday.

         9 likes

  4. Teddy Bear says:

    I mentioned the other day that when searching the BBC website for any article matching this story from the Mail
    Muslim gang jailed for kidnapping and raping two girls as part of their Eid celebrations there was nothing showing.

    The only thing I found was on their sidebar under ‘Elsewhere on the web’ for this story from The Times of India with the headline
    UK men who abducted, raped 2 minor girls laughed while being sentenced

    It’s obvious to most here why the BBC would favour this kind of headline as opposed to that of the Mail’s.

    Now I see another story in The Times of India
    100,000 women undergo genital mutilation in Britain
    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/uk/1L-women-undergo-genital-mutilation-in-Britain/articleshow/12825174.cms
    But nothing on it by the BBC to show the numerous incidents of this barbaric practice here.

    But you might remember that recently John Humphreys was sent to Liberia to give a daily account of life there. In one of his reports titled What’s Holding Back Liberia? He tells us It’s not only the war that holds this country back, it’s riddled with secret societies each with its own leader called a devil who’s known only to the members.
    They’ve exercised real power for centuries and it’s a touchy subject in Liberia with many encourage bizarre and cruel traditional practises including female genital mutilation.

    Clearly the BBC are aware that it might spoil their ‘multicultural’ narrative for this country to show the ‘bizarre and cruel traditional practices’ that go along with it.

       31 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Prominent on SKY just now featuring, I think, a Times undercover investigation.
      They were rather tippy-toeing around, but some brave soul in the edit suite simply allowed the footage to speak for itself as one of this country’s noble British medical professionals advised that he would conduct illegal surgery for £750 so long as it’s all kept ‘between [you], [me] and Allah’.
      As to why such attitudes and practices do not seem to have yet resulted in any prosecutions, one can only wonder. Maybe the wrong kind of enforcement…?:
      http://tv-licensing.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/fury-over-tv-licence-snoops.html

         17 likes

    • Mice Height says:

      Humphrey’s could’ve saved license fee payer’s money and just done the documentary from London.
      Female genital mutilation is just one of the many backward, barbaric symptoms of the ‘progressive’ left’s idea of ‘progress’. We can add it to hounour killings, children being executed for witchcraft, children being murdered for body parts to use in medicine, post-code gang warfare, the return of tuberculosis, the AIDS epidemic etc etc.

         25 likes

    • geyza says:

      I have just done a search on the BBC website for “mutilation” and the only relevant story I found was from a woman’s hour show on Radio four from back in September 2004….

      “How an award winning clinic is helping women and girls who have suffered Female Genital Mutilation

      The practice of female mutilation (FGM) has been illegal in Britain since 1985. But in many communities here and abroad it is still accepted and condoned.

      Women who have experienced FGM are twice as likely to die in childbirth and three times as likely to give birth to a stillborn child. Ninety nine per cent of Somali females undergo the most severe type of mutilation – infibulation.

      The African Well Women’s Clinic in Leyton, north-east London, focuses on the health care of these women who have undergone genital mutilation. Recently it received a Queen’s Nursing Innovation and Creative Practice Award for care of refugees and asylum seekers.

      Angela Robson went along to the clinic to find out more.”

      I could not find anything referring to this latest news item. Although the BBC search is designed to prevent anyone finding anything that they are looking for. It is truly and utterly abysmal.

         4 likes

      • geyza says:

        And I have also found this:

        http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-17537857

        “Bristol men urged to help prevent female genital mutilation
        Distressed woman Female genital mutilation is carried out in more than 28 countries
        Continue reading the main story
        Related Stories

        Men ‘must help stop mutilation’
        SlutWalk protesters march in city

        Sessions to encourage men to become involved in helping to prevent acts of female genital mutilation (FGM) will be held in Bristol, it is hoped.”

        From 30th March This year.

           1 likes

        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          There’s also the write-up about it in the Health section. At least it’s portrayed as wrong, full stop, without worrying about offending anyone not white.

             1 likes

      • geyza says:

        From the BBC:

        “Female genital mutilation is carried out in more than 28 countries”

        Is this supposed to make us feel better about ourselves? That we are not the only country doing it?

        I think it is shameful that out of 196 countries in the world, our politically correct lunatics running this country for the last 15 years have Added the UK to the list of backwards, under-developed third world countries which perform this barbaric act of mutilation. with barely a peep from the BBC and liberal left in this country.

        You can bet that if it were a Christian practice, that the BBC, Guardian, Labour, feminist “wimmin’s” groups and unions would have been campaigning to stamp it out with protests outside churches.

           19 likes

        • johnnythefish says:

          Well, once you’ve signed up to a ‘multicultural society’ (you did, didn’t you?) then it’s just one of those things you’ve got to accept.

             1 likes

          • Doggywoggy says:

            I do not think that I did consent to multiculturalism, no.

               3 likes

            • johnnythefish says:

              Exactly. Forced upon us by Blair along with mass immigration. Anyone who objected, even in the mildest and most reasonable way, was howled down as ‘raaaaacist’.

                 4 likes

          • Demon says:

            Multi-culturalism is just the modern term for ghettoisation. Integration should have been the plan to enable a society where people can be judged on their merits, and which would lead to racial tolerance.

               2 likes

            • Reed says:

              I agree, Demon. Multiculturalism is just a PC form of segregation. The invention of a ‘minister for community cohesion’ tells us exactly how successful this policy has been.

                 1 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        ‘the BBC search is designed to prevent anyone finding anything that they are looking for. It is truly and utterly abysmal.’
        Actually it’s not quite as good as that.
        What you need is the special stuff (H/T: League of Gentlemen) one they keep in house for the likes of Dr. Scezandy to use in their ‘Gotcha’ efforts.
        Sadly, it is behind a ‘youpayforustohidebehind-wall’ covered by FoI exclusions.

           2 likes

      • Harry says:

        I could not find a thing on the BBC News website about Genital Mutilation, nor the Eid rapes

           1 likes

      • Millie Tant says:

        I’m sure I heard something more recent, possibly on Woman’s Hour, about an NHS clinic in, I think Ealing, specifically for dealing with African women.

           0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      100,000? If this was anything else in any other community, it would be an epidemic considered worthy of a Panorama special.

         6 likes

      • Reed says:

        100,000 women undergo brutal genital mutilation illegally in Britain (and some of the victims are as young as TEN)

        -Police have failed to bring forward a single conviction
        -Only two doctors have ever been struck off by the General Medical Council
        -Victims often suffer in silence and sometimes battle to stand or walk
        -One doctor offered to perform the procedure on a 10-year-old girl for £750

        http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2133427/100-000-women-undergo-brutal-sexual-mutilation-illegally-Britain.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

           2 likes

        • Dave s says:

          This story should make us realise that this country is lost. What was England is gone for ever. It should be the main story . It should be the focus of our so caring liberal media’s concerns. But it will never be so. Nor will the apology of a government we now have to endure care. Nor the police nor the judges. They are all lost in a pit of slime of their own devising as is our country. Time to go or at least tell your children and grandchildren to go.

             5 likes

  5. Cassandra King says:

    The French presidential election and the BBC, something missing from the post mortem?

    The green candidate given much more BBC airtime than Le Pen, nothing unusual so far from the far left ecofascist BBC but why no reports on the utterly dismal 2% of the vote, far less than the BBC were peddling right up to the election. Ecofascism it turns out is not the popular political force the BBC made it out to be and now the BBC pretends the gigantic failure of ecofascism is swept under the carpet.

       34 likes

  6. Guest Who says:

    Being the BBC often takes its cue from some media over others… and never met a climate calamity it didn’t like…

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/danger-from-the-deep-new-climate-threat-as-methane-rises-from-cracks-in-arctic-ice-7669174.html

    Thing is…. 70 times? Where did that come from?
    http://www.epa.gov/methane/

    Not great if it is bubbling up more, but I am not sure the GHG scare industry is doing itself many favours multiplying the threat by 3 from kick off.
    I wonder how the four whores of the Ecopalypse will spin it?

       7 likes

  7. Cassandra King says:

    BBC toady interrogator and chief inquisitor for the left tackles Mr Quisling of the Vichy regime about tax avoidance.

    Its a master class from both sides on how to avoid examples they are not comfortable with. The toady forgets to highlight Ken Livingslime as an example of morally repugnant tax avoidance while trying to expose the morally repugnant tax avoidance of rich Tory supporters. Meanwhile Mr Quisling tries to avoid the reality of his support base of greasy rich scumsters whose only concern is getting richer.

    No mention of quangocrats and the legions of state sector employees allowed to launder their lavish tax payer funded salaries through fake companies by either side, no mention of the many politicians from the liblabcon who do the same thing. The rich state sector parasites get richer, enjoy all the advantages of a system designed and set up to siphon off vast amounts of tax payer monies into their own offshore/tax haven accounts.

    And so the only losers are the British people who learn nothing more than the BBCs only priority is to protect its ideological fellow travellers and persecute its political enemies. The wealth consuming parasite sector has never had it so good, and the richer they become the greedier they become.

       23 likes

    • DJ says:

      Yes, indeed. The BBC is all in favour of robust debate, but only providing they’re allowed to set the terms.

      This is why the same interview featured an examination in forensic detail of exactly what the Euro Court said to the Home Office and when, but without ever asking the one question most people want answered: how the hell did we get to the point where a British PM has to go cap in hand to a committee of Eurosnots to beg for the right to defend this country?

      It’s like a magician who tells you to pick a card, any card, when he’s already taken 51 of them out the pack.

         16 likes

  8. jimbola says:

    Just read this in a peice about Asparagus. “German cooking is not as cosmopolitan as that in Britain, perhaps because Britain is a more mongrel country.

    We know that chicken tikka massala is the British national dish. ”

    Thry just couldn’t help themselves. This mongrel nation crap really winds me up.

       26 likes

    • geyza says:

      It wasn’t a mongrel nation before 15 years of unlimited immigration was initiated by labour to “rub our noses in diversity” and shamefully continued by the Cameron party with their liberal masters alongside them.

         31 likes

    • As I See It says:

      A German visitor to New York enjoyed a bagel that he bought from a Jewish vendor….

      ‘That was wonderful, we don’t get those in Germany’.

      Reply:

      ‘Well, who’s fault was that?’

         31 likes

  9. uncle bup says:

    Radio 5 Slovenly.

    Presenter Droid: And now over to the weather.

    Weather Droid: Yerrrrrrr

    £3.2 billion a year doesn’t buy us the Queen’s English apparently.

    I suppose trying to speak like a bored teenager is edgy. Perhaps Mark Thompson should send them up to their bedrooms without any supper. Maybe that would cure them.

    Dyouknoworrimean.

       15 likes

  10. GotItAboutRight says:

    Lying in bed on Saturday morning towards the end of the Today programme I heard the Rev Richard Coles (gay left wing former pop musician, if it weren’t for Giles he would have a clear run as the BB’s favourite vicar) trailing his “Saturday Live” programme for smug lefties. When he said “There aren’t many candidates for the title of the greatest living Englishman, but we’ve got one live in the studio”, my BBC leftie-bullshit tentacles immediately shot up and of course I wasn’t wrong. Billy Bragg, apparently. That and the promise of hearing from Sue Townsend later on in the programme. A tough call but the off switch won.

       37 likes

    • Demon says:

      Billy Bragg a candidate for Greatest Living Englishman?????? He must be joking – or at least trying to annoy decent people as these lefties love doing. That is so stupid it is actually funny, but not in the way intended.

         24 likes

      • #88 says:

        Objection. I think that you are being really unfair to Billy.

        His singing has saved many a life in his time crewing a Mersey lightship … especially in thick fog.

           10 likes

    • Kanburi says:

      Oh, not many candidates, eh? Has this sad lefite never heard of Professor Stephen Hawking or Tim Berners-Lee? Or what about Sir Mark Walport, director of the biomedical charity the Wellcome Trust, which distributes about £600m a year for vital medical research? Or Sir Robert Edwards, who was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for the development of in vitro fertilization”. Not forgetting Cambridge University physicist Richard Friend, the “plastic electronics pioneer whose work on light-emitting polymers has contributed more to our enjoyment of life than almost any living physicist”, according to Physics World.

      I’ll stop now as the list could get large. And this is just from the world of science. But of course, unless it’s Phil Jones, science doesn’t matter to the arty-farty luvvies who inhabit the corridors of the BBC.

      Billy Bragg? I nearly threw up.

         24 likes

      • Mice Height says:

        None of them come close to a sad old has-been with very limited musical talent and even less political knowledge.

           10 likes

  11. Biodegradable says:

    Global Shakespeare festival opens for London 2012

    The BBC is happy to inform us that A festival that will see Shakespeare’s 37 plays performed in 37 languages, from Swahili to sign language, has got under way in London.

    The World Shakespeare Festival was officially launched on Monday, the anniversary of the playwright’s birth.

    It is the centrepiece to the Cultural Olympiad, the arts programme that ties in with the London 2012 Games.

    It will feature King Lear performed in Belarusian, Hamlet in Lithuanian and Othello re-interpreted through hip-hop.” and that “The Iraqi Theatre Company, based in Baghdad, will perform Romeo and Juliet.”

    However it’s completely silent about this: http://engageonline.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/we-welcome-israels-national-theatre/

    Surprising really as calls to “disinvite” the Israeli National Theatre have been all over the BBC’s favourite rag, The Guardian.
    http://cifwatch.com/?s=Habima

    Bias by omission; It’s what they do!

       14 likes

    • Biodegradable says:

      Some stealth editing going on there. “The Iraqi Theatre Company, based in Baghdad, will perform Romeo and Juliet.” and accompanying photo now replaced with “New Zealand’s Ngakau Toa theatre company will perform Troilus and Cressida”

      Still no mention of the Israeli national theatre company Habima’s performance of The Merchant of Venice in Hebrew, or the calls for a boycott.

         9 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Well, SKY certainly just mentioned it, in the form of Adam Boulton’s peroxide-sink offsider. I rather suspect she was doing her research at a dinny party with Emma Thompson last night, as her questioning of the RSC artistic director was more of an irony-free ‘why don’t you ban those from countries I don’t like, along with my fellow luvvies’ rant, replete with rather selective human rights abuse accusations in support.
        Pity.

        As preceding this Mr. Boulton, who I rarely have time for, had just handed Shadow Treasury spokeswoman Rachel Reeves her sea-cucumber-IQ’d derriere as she tried to stick to the sound bites she’d been told to parrot, as clearly finance and economics was not why she was hired.

           7 likes

    • Dave s says:

      :Disinvite: An ugly word that fits their ugly minds

         3 likes

    • TomR says:

      Really, they couldn’t do Hamlet in Danish? Othello in “hip-hop” (not a language, it’s a music genre) just sounds like it’s going to be very racist, in that hopeless “oh wow, look what the funny ethnics are doing! I’m so multicultural” way the left have.

         3 likes

      • Demon says:

        I’ve got about five bookings with the regular play season later on. I don’t see any point in attending plays in languages I don’t understand. Plus the beauty of Shakespeare is his use of words – English words. I think Shakespeare came up with very few original plots so it is definitely the poetry that makes his plays what they are.

        Even if it was a Goethe or Schiller translating Shakeapeare’s plays into German or Racine or Voltaire into French, the plays may have lovely poetry but will no longer be Shakespeare’s poetry as you cannot translate word for word with the same scansion, rhymes etc. The works would become a Goethe play based on Shakespeare etc.

        On facebook there were many individuals who were so proud of having obtained tickets for so many plays that they wouldn’t understand they were blatantly pretentious and fake. You see them at the Globe all the time. Possibly they know the plays so well in English that they will be able to follow the plots but they still won’t be able to properly appreciate the words unless they are completely fluent in that language.

           6 likes

        • Biodegradable says:

          I didn’t comment about this to discuss the performances. My point was the BBC is ignoring the attempts to boycott the Israeli national theatre.

             1 likes

          • Demon says:

            I realise that and agree with you. But I do think that the people involved with the Globe and who are calling for the boycott of an Israeli production, are the same ones who thought that a multiculti take on Shakespeare is a good thing to do. They think that having all these unintelligible (to most) plays is very inclusive but this inclusiveness doesn’t apply to Israel of course. I was also having a dig at the sort of followers who think these plays are worth seeing – it’s the same as the BBC mindset.

               3 likes

            • Biodegradable says:

              You’re probably right, you only need to follow the links in my original comment to see who these people actually are.

                 1 likes

              • Demon says:

                I already did and was disappointed, but not surprised, to see Mark Rylance’s name on there. The greatest actor I will ever see on stage but a real luvvie as is Emma Thompson and, no doubt, all the others on there.

                The trouble with actors is that most of them cannot think too much for themselves as their job is to read other people’s words. There are far too many who are fully paid-up members of the loony-left brigade so have their critical faculties impaired. The BBC is full of them too as we all know on here.

                An example is those disgraceful anti-semitic remarks made by Galliano. All the models and actresses that were with him were perfectly happy to stay with him, with the notable exception of Natalie Portman who is a proud Israeli.

                   4 likes

                • Biodegradable says:

                  It’s all a perfect example of how antisemitism has become mainstream and acceptable, and even de rigueur in those circles, under the guise of “anti-Zionism”.

                  The BBC plays its part by sucking up to Arabs and Muslims and demonising Israel, and as in this case ignoring cases of overt antisemitism.

                  If and when there are problems at the Israeli performance perhaps then the BBC will report it, as they were obliged to report the disruption at the Proms.

                     4 likes

      • Millie Tant says:

        I’d bet the Scottish play isn’t being done in Gaelic either. And I’d take a punt that Welsh or Irish languages won’t get a look in. Nor French, probably.
        Hip hop and “South Africa” are languages? Well, I never!

           4 likes

  12. Deborah says:

    I was fascinated by the 7am headline on the Today programme this morning (Monday) re Sarkozy having lost the first round of the presidential election. Firstly there was the joy in the reporter’s voice (Gavin Hewitt?). Having given the impression of a rout he eventually he reported that it was 28% to Hollande and 27% to Sarkozy but he went on to say that of course Hollande had the momentum. He told us that the far left have promised their votes to Hollande without telling us that their 11% is much smaller than the ‘far’ right’s 18% so it would not be necessary for the whole of the NF to move their vote to Sarkozy for him to win. Gavin did go on to say that the National Front hate Sarkozy but I would be surprised if they like Hollande more.
    I am not sure I like Sarkozy myself but what I wanted from the BBC was accurate reports of the results not a party political broadcast on behalf of the left of French politics.

       18 likes

    • geyza says:

      If the NF voters in France feel anything like UKIP supporters in the UK, then there will be very few of them supporting either Sarkozy or Hollande in the second round as they will not care which EU puppet wins. There will be little change either way.

      Much like labour are almost assured a win at the next general election, because so many tories are switching to UKIP. That is because we cannot see the point in spending a couple of decades campaigning against Blairism, only for Cameron to embrace it and implement it fully.

      When it is impossible to vote for conservative policies by voting conservative, what is the point of voting conservative. If the EU runs everything anyway, (which it does even more in France due to the Euro and Fiscal Union), what is the point of voting for any of the Pro EU parties.

      The Second round will be interesting.

         24 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      Deborah

      Yes – a lot of the tone of the BBC’s reporting this morning was that it is all over bar the shouting.

      Hello ? 1% between the 2 remaining candidates ? And many more Le Pen voters than the toral of far left and Green, so even if a lot of Le Pen supporters abstain it still looks very far from over.

      Ther markets across Europe all plunged today. That may wake up a few Frogs to the dangers they are courting. Protest is one thing, economic suicide a la Greque is another matter.

         6 likes

  13. George R says:

    The BBC-NUJ is disinclined to say anything positve about the British people as the nation’s people, despite the fact that the BBC-NUJ is supposed to represent us as it is Britain’s publicly funded broadcaster.

    Instead, the BBC-NUJ is forever giving preferential political treatment to particular immigrant groups; this is manifested in the continued existence of its ‘Asian Network’ radio station, where the broadcasters call themselves ‘BRITISH ASIAN’.
    ‘Asian Network’ is designed and publicly financed to be the politically apartheid broadcaster it is.

    It is not merely a radio station broadcasting (Asian) music by (Asian) performers, it also has its politically ‘Asian’ priorities. Of course, it should be closed down, as D.G Thompson promised, and then reneged.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork/programmes/genres/news

    Of course, ‘Asian Network’ is not celebrating the Britishness of St George’s Day today.

       15 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      I accidetally tuned into this station the other day whilst looking for a change from ‘Planet Rock’ on my digital radio. Straight into some wailing bird singing about ‘why are Muslims all over the world persecuted when all we want to do is worship Allah’. Obviously it scanned a bit better than that (but not much). Straight back to Planet Rock to calm myself down, but it makes you wonder: do the BBC see this as some sort of ‘protest’ music a la His Bobness circa 1964, or are they just rubbing our noses in Islamist propaganda ‘because they can’?

         3 likes

  14. GotItAboutRight says:

    It’s as tricky as ever to guess where James Naughtie’s political leanings lie. At around 7.40 this morning he was leading on some interviewee about the long-term nature of the evil cuts to public flab. In one of his statements which he tries to dress up as a question by putting an inflection in his voice he said something like “So it would be a mistake to things are going to get better soon”. The idea that the situation might actually be “better” by having less public spending is as ever completely alien to the BBc mindset.

       13 likes

  15. George R says:

    ‘The Commentator’:-

    “Curing Murdoch-aphobia: A Lesson in media democracy.
    “Rupert Murdoch has served democracy far better than most of his contemporaries – so why is there so much anti-Murdoch vitriol?”

    (BBC-NUJ gets appropriate mention.)

    http://www.thecommentator.com/article/1131/curing_murdoch_aphobia_a_lesson_in_media_democracy

       8 likes

    • George R says:

      True to form, BBC-NUJ has decided to give political priority all this week to opposing the Murdochs (Leveson continued); and, of course, BBC-NUJ at the same time attempts to consolidate its own vested interests as state broadcasting monopolist.

         8 likes

    • George R says:

      ‘Spiked’:-
      “Panorama and the toxic BBC culture.

      “The editor of the Weekend Australian says the BBC’s claim that News Corp encouraged piracy against competitors is pure conspiracy theory. ”

      http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/12328/

         8 likes

    • Demon says:

      Very interesting article. I was interested to learn that the Canadians have a similar democratic defecit with their national broadcaster (CBC) to us.

      Taxpayer funded and left-leaning – sounds so familiar to me.

         3 likes

  16. Mice Height says:

    “the BBC – a public service broadcaster butting into private sector arrangements”
    http://www.thecommentator.com/article/1131/curing_murdoch_aphobia_a_lesson_in_media_democracy

       2 likes

  17. Reed says:

    As much as I hate smoking and the effects it has on people’s health, this is crazy. How long before this arrives here? With minimun pricing for booze and the impulse to tax, regulate and control an individual’s personal choices for their own good, I’m sure there are all manner of quangos and pressure groups looking very closely at this…

    http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16214173
    The cost of a packet of cigarettes in New Zealand could rise to as much as $100 dollars – around £50 – by 2020 amid moves to stamp out smoking.

    In a couple of related posts, the ever excellent David Thompson takes apart the left’s inbuilt need to control the choices of the plebs…

    http://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2012/04/our-betters-speak.html

    http://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2011/05/elsewhere-38.html

       5 likes

    • Reed says:

      “The Ministry of Health wants New Zealand to be smoke free by 2025 ”

      No – it wants New Zealand to be ‘choice free’ ASAP.

      Here…soon…

         8 likes

      • Pah says:

        If they are so keen to be smoke free why don’t they ban tobacco?

        They couldn’t be being hypocritical could they?

           5 likes

    • Demon says:

      Now New Zealand. Is there anywhere left in the free world any more? This is leading to one-world government (tyranny) or to Orwell’s giant spheres of influence roughly three tyrannies). I’m glad that I won’t be around that long for when it gets even worse, but I pity the nextr generation who will have to suffer this Common-Purpose “Brave New World”.

         12 likes

      • Reed says:

        The next generation seem to be fully signed up to much of this illiberal PC fascism – that’s the problem – and why it will only get worse. They’ve been taught what to think, rather than how to think.

           18 likes

    • TigerOC says:

      However I am sure that they are equally keen to legalise cannabis so that everyone can smoke a joint whenever the need arises.

         5 likes

      • Reed says:

        That progressive stack again –
        big tobacco = corporate evil to be crushed with regulation
        pot = individual freedom of choice

           9 likes

    • Demon says:

      If they did anything quite so drastic smokers would immediately stop buying legal cigarettes and buy cheap, unregulated, illegal ones which will be far worse for health and will bring in zero for the taxman. Ill thought out and stupid – clearly a ledft-wing policy.

         5 likes

  18. Reed says:

    My tuppence-worth on this article at The Telegraph – click over and add your own – this w*nker is full of it.

    When a New Labour MP starts talking of ‘English pride’, I smell opportunism of the rankest kind. They didn’t think so highly of ‘The English’ when they decided we weren’t worthy in our own right and needed flooding with foreigners to ‘rub our noses in diversity’. I guess we weren’t culturally significant enough as we were. These toads clearly think we’re either stupid or have memory problems.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9219464/Devolution-is-unfinished-business-we-should-put-our-trust-in-the-English-people-says-Labours-Hilary-Benn.html

       15 likes

  19. Roland Deschain says:

    I see Guido’s caught the BBC billing a Labour supporter as an impartial commentator. Surely not!

       10 likes

  20. Reed says:

    “Galloway was eviscerated by Aaronovitch on BBC Question Time – but when will they day come when all of Britain sees through him?”

    http://www.thecommentator.com/article/1133/people_who_view_galloway_as_a_hero_end_up_regretting_it_take_it_from_me_i_m_one_of_them

       11 likes

    • alan says:

      Galloway?

      Wonder why the odious little arse is not in prison for supporting terrorists…or in hospital for encouraging Muslims to kill British troops.

      ‘These poor Iraqis — ragged people, with their sandals, with their Kalashnikovs, with the lightest and most basic of weapons are writing the names of their cities and towns in the stars, with 145 military operations every day, which has made the country ungovernable by the people who occupy it. We don’t know who they are, we don’t know their names, we never saw their faces, they don’t put up photographs of their martyrs, we don’t know the names of their leaders… They are the base of this society. They are the young men and young women who decided, whatever their feelings about the former regime, some are with, some are against. But they decided, when the foreign invaders came, to defend their country, to defend their honor, to defend their families, their religion, their way of life from a military superpower, which landed amongst them. And they are winning the war. American is losing the war in Iraq, and even the Americans now admit it… And this will not change.
      The resistance is getting stronger every day, and the will to remain as an occupier by Britain and America is getting weaker everyday. Therefore, it can be said, truly said, that the Iraqi resistance is not just defending Iraq. They are defending all the Arabs, and they are defending all the people of the world from American hegemony. ‘

      Galloway speech entitled, Justice in the New World Order! delivered at the al-Assad Library in Damascus on July 30, 2005.

         14 likes

      • Pah says:

        And yet they lost. Maybe we should encourage Galloway to be more vocal so that those he supports will keep on losing.

        Maybe he is really an MI5 mole! A CIA stooge or maybe, just maybe, little more than a self obsessed poppinjay?

           5 likes

    • Doggywoggy says:

      I had that as a draw. Two outrageous lefties shouting over each other. Neither are fit and proper persons to hold any position of influence in this country.

         5 likes

      • Doyle says:

        When two commies have an argument it usually results in the deaths of millions of people. I suppose we should be grateful that it was a bit of handbags.

           3 likes

  21. alan says:

    Here is a link to a book review of Mark Steyn’s

    ‘America : Get Ready for Armageddon’

    Click to access bookreviews.pdf

    and here are some choice extracts…..

    ‘we are the first society in the
    history of the world where obesity is a
    symptom of poverty.
    As an example of political correctness
    run amok, Steyn notes that the American
    Academy of Pediatrics decries circumcision,
    yet said we should support female
    genital mutilation out of cultural respect.’

    ‘….after hurricane Katrina, firemen from all over the country
    who volunteered to help and who were
    urgently need for assistance in Louisiana
    were first shunted to Atlanta for diversity
    and sexual-harassment training.’

    ‘He muses as to whether it is only a
    matter of time before some nutty judge
    finds the Constitution unconstitutional.
    He shows how socialism promotes apathy and
    hedonism and mentions that Britain has
    signs up that plead with citizens not to
    beat up public employees. Even Cicero in
    55 B.C. knew that free benefits from the
    government would undermine people’s
    will to work, and drain the treasury.’

    Also reviewed is this:

    Ameritopia: the Unmaking of America,
    by Mark R. Levin

    ‘He (Levin) is deeply concerned that we may be in the
    process of giving up liberty for the security
    of an administrative welfare state tyranny
    imposed by an oligarchy of elitist ideologues.’

    No kidding.

       15 likes

  22. The General says:

    David Gregory (BBC)

    As you are a participant in this site and as you are on the BBC staff, would you kindly explain to all here why you (the BBC) are not reporting the trial of 11 men for the rape, gang rape and abuse of children as young as 13 in Liverpool,

       19 likes

    • Millie Tant says:

      And while we’re at it what about the cycling campaigner Beeboid Hughes making his personal interests into “news” and broadcasting them widely from the Beeboid empire?

         9 likes

      • David Gregory says:

        I think I’ve made it pretty clear in the past that while I’m happy to pop in and offer some sort of insight into the bits of the beeb I know something about it’s not for me to speak for the actions of other BBC employees. There’s nothing to stop them contributing here themselves of course.
        As for specific court cases? Well as we’ve often gone into in the past there is often a very clear legal reason for the way these things are reported. I’m out of the office filming for the next few days but I will endevour to find out more about this particular case. If it’s the one I’m thinking of I recall there were several linked court cases which made contemporaneous reporting difficult. But I’ll see what I can find out and report back within the limits of the usual reporting restrictions.
        (By the way, that Cassie stuff about my fiance not being English because he’s Sikh was pretty unpleasant.)

           1 likes

        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          In the case of Stuart Hughes, though, David, I think you owe it to your own colleagues to look into the situation. He’s using his position as a BBC producer to explicitly advocate for a personal cause, and using Twitter to promote a boycott against the subject on which he’s professionally reporting. No byline, of course, but he’s openly admitted it on Twitter and Google Docs.

          I don’t expect you to comment here that we’ve got him, as you say over there, bang to rights, but you definitely should look into it. “Views my own” is no defense when he’s publishing them on the BBC website.

             10 likes

          • Guest Who says:

            “Views my own” is no defense when he’s publishing them on the BBC website.’
            You’d think, but practical experience suggests otherwise. It would appear those paid by the public in certain sectors are pretty much immune from any accountability by invoking magic invincibility chants. And on the BBC of course, there’s plenty to stop any more being made of it (maybe a slot in dismissal on Newswatch where the contributions can be neatly controlled in clement surrounds?) by those compelled to fund.
            And they can say and do near enough what they want as a consequence with, at worst, the focus being on them being them as mere naughty boys or girls.
            Lucky free sites of individuals like this exist to call them out.
            Though when abuses are exposed it appears some still feel casting around for a grievance to embrace and mine that is between them and some other, is worth trying to exploit in totally different discussions.
            If a person makes direct personal remarks about another or those close to them, especially dragging in ‘isms, I find that distasteful (is that what happened?). But also feel it is for them to bear as others who read will see it for what it is.
            Equally generic commentary that for sure does not represent my views. However, unlike the BBC, this site, and those who use it, do not by any measure ‘speak for me’ all the time on all issues.
            What does concern however is the grotesque power of the outrage industry, faux or otherwise, and attempts to create ‘no-go’ zones porting one perceived affront over to try and deal with another issue entirely.
            Maybe when Capita knocks at my door I can deny any interest in their points and conclude that because my wife is from a culture some within the BBC repeatedly decry to offensive, ill-informed excess as it does not conform to their world view, was unpleasant and hence means further exchange cannot be continued unless on my rigid, delicate terms.
            Of course, as some say, at that point he has the option of not coming back, but that seems doubtful as he probably has no choice. A lot of that about.
            ps: ‘Looking into’ is the BBC equivalent of a pol’s ‘Lessons have been learned’. Sounds lovely… may happen… nothing of any substance will transpire.
            There is a lot of that about too.

               1 likes

        • The General says:

          ” often a very clear legal reason for the way these things are reported.”

          Really !!! Yet you (the BBC) are happy to report rumour, innuendo and unsubstantiated slurs against selected politicians and take the associated risk of legal action. Or are you claiming that in the case I referred to above you have been legally prevented from reporting it by the Authorities rather than your own Legal Department.
          As regards your colleagues being able to comment for themselves, it is not possible to access them let alone receive anything but a dismissive and uninformative response.
          You have appeared on this site and availed me the opportunity to receive an explanation.
          I appreciate your willingness to investigate and await your response in due course.

             4 likes

  23. Reed - sod all Lefty do-gooders says:

    On Being English – By Paul Weston…

    And what of the modern world? The English built it. The industrial revolution began in England and enabled the Anglosphere to progress from subsistence for the masses to affluence and lifestyles the rest of the world could only dream of. The inventions and the inventors behind so much of what we take for granted today came from us, from the English, from England.

    When Prime Minister John Major reflected on his country, he was subjected to ridicule, but what he said resonated with the majority of English people, the main exception being the liberal/leftists whose central role in life appears to be the destruction of all that we hold dear.

    Full essay here…
    http://britishfreedom.org/on-being-english/

    Hat-tip – http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.co.uk/

       16 likes

  24. Fred Bloggs says:

    R4 7.00pm news headline – The message of the hour is Nadine Dorries condemns Cameron and Osbourne. Over the past anyone even thinking about the BNP are in league with the devil, but 20% of the French vote for Le Pen. ergo the French are evil. Anders Breivik is also evil, but the bBC never talk about the common theme, people feeling they have been sold out by socialist governments that in the past have put the good of their parties far beyond the good of the country and their citizens. – No, that’s not a message I have ever heard the bBC come up with as the root of many problems.

       17 likes

    • Pah says:

      Worse! In France BNP is a bank, so anyone voting for Le Pen and Ink is supporting those rapacious bankers!

      Oh! The irony.

         9 likes

  25. Jim says:

    In my opinion Sikhs are jolly good eggs.

       6 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      …maybe because the origin of Sikhism was a determination to fight back against the Muslim invaders ?

         9 likes

  26. Reed says:

    BBC bosses have decided to not bring back a controversial comedy series because they fear it is too racist.
    It Ain’t Half Hot Mum was in the process of being brought back to TV screens but it will now never be seen again.
    After a review of the series was carried out by editors at the Beeb, they agreed that the show was very much out of touch with today’s society.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2133506/It-Aint-Half-Hot-Mum-screened-BBC-deem-racist-modern-society.html

    I think most of the BBC News department’s output seems ‘out of touch’ – can we get rid of Newsnight, please.

       17 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Which is stupid because the Bearer and the other Indians were clearly portrayed as being more clued-in and mentally sophisticated than the dopey British soldiers. Especially the officers, naturally.

      Which reminds me, what happened to Bup’s avatar?

         12 likes

      • Doyle says:

        When I was a kid I used to watch It Ain’t Half Hot Mum and about a year ago I decided to buy the series on DVD. Watching it as an adult I don’t think it’s racist at all but I’m sure that the Beeboids reviewing it will regard it as both racist and homophobic. Can you imagine Windsor Davies shouting ‘puffs’ at the top of his voice on the BBC again? No me neither.

           3 likes

      • jarwill101 says:

        Give thanks for the memory of what we had. The beeboids could have brought us a strictly revisionist, PC version – It Ain’t Half Hot Marr.

           6 likes

      • uncle bup says:

        Which reminds me, what happened to Bup’s avatar?

        ——————————————-

        I’m getting the photographer in tomorrow to take a new picture of me 😉

           2 likes

  27. Merlin says:

    Yet another foul ‘enricher’ accused of debauching underage girls. This is getting out of bloody control BUT why no MSM coverage on this repugnant epidemic? If this were white men targeting asian girls, even if alleged and not proven, the BBC and Sky would be hypothecating (negatively!) all in every direction.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2134050/Takeaway-boss-tried-recruit-girls-young-12-work-prostitutes-brothel.html

       15 likes

  28. DB says:

    Re St George’s Day – my radio alarm went off shortly before 7 this morning just in time to hear Jim Naughtie announce that the National Poet of Wales would be on later. WTF? Radio off, Adam Carolla podcast on. Fuck the BBC.

       15 likes

    • DB says:

      Just been told that Scotsman Nicky Campbell apparently opened with: “Happy St George’s Day – have you got a flag flying from your van?” You see – because white van man is BBC cognoscenti shorthand for English patriotism. How little has changed since Orwell wrote: “In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman, and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings. It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true, that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during “God Save the King” than stealing from a poor box”.

         25 likes

      • Jez Clarke says:

        Talking of which, any sign on the BBC of The Official Spokesperson for Englishness™, Sir William Bragg?

        He’s usually trotted out on 23 April to educate the nation on What It Means To Be English.

           7 likes

  29. Popeye says:

    I wonder if the recent comments by James Lovelock on the lack of global warming are reported prominently by the BBC? Link to WUWT http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/04/23/breaking-james-lovelock-back-down-on-climate-alarm/#more-61891

       8 likes

    • Reed says:

      Mr. Lovelock will be an even greater target for the eco-loons now. He’s already in the greenies bad books for advocating nuclear power, and claiming that many of them just aren’t particulary numerate.

         4 likes

  30. Louis Robinson says:

    The writer of the John Edward’s article on the BBC site leaves out the word “Democrat” not wanting anything to blot the party’s reputation.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17817529
    But a careless picture editor adds the word in tagging a photo of the expert swordsman. Didn’t he get the memo?

       3 likes

    • DB says:

      And let’s not forget that the Edwards love-child scandal was 18 days old before the BBC finally conceded that it could no longer be ignored. How very, very different to any scandal involving a Republican.

         5 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        The entire US media censored the story because of the JournoList and collusion inspired by a memo from the LA Times editor telling the paper’s bloggers to keep shtum. The BBC merely followed their lead, as always.

           5 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          ‘a memo from the LA Times editor telling the paper’s bloggers to keep shtum. ‘
          “Keep rockin,
          Tony”

          When was this, 1962?
          Also the update refers to to an email, but it seems to be missing.

             0 likes

  31. Henry says:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/22/john-simpson-wrong-side-bosnia-libel-trial

    John Simpson taking the side of the Living Marxism magazine. Who’d have thunk? 🙂

       2 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      The last line caught my eye:

      “It seemed to me at the time that big, well-funded organisations should not put small magazines out of business; but it’s clear that there were much bigger questions involved.”

      So he was defending the Marxist mag not on the merits of the case itself, but out of devotion to some black-and-white, political David-vs.-Goliath ideology. Classic Beebthink.

         4 likes

  32. Nibor says:

    In Re English and race ..
    I dont think you need to be of a particular race to be English , but of a particular mindset and culture .
    Dont forget the English have new nations , like the USA , Canada and New Zealand .

       7 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Er, we made ourselves…..

      Although I grant you that the Founding Fathers considered themselves to be standing up for their rights as Englishmen.

         4 likes

  33. Nibor says:

    Sorry -typo

    Made new nations .

       0 likes

  34. Teddy Bear says:

    The Telegraph have this article today
    Leading British Muslim leader faces war crimes charges in Bangladesh
    Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, director of Muslim spiritual care provision in the NHS, a trustee of the major British charity Muslim Aid and a central figure in setting up the Muslim Council of Britain, fiercely denies any involvement in a number of abductions and “disappearances” during Bangladesh’s independence struggle in the 1970s.
    He says the claims are “politically-motivated” and false.

    Now if the BBC ever get around to reporting this, and doubtless they are aware of it as they are also involved in the story, my guess is they will perpetuate the theme that Mueen-Uddin is claiming. Whereas if you read the whole Telegraph article the sense that he’s completely guilty is fairly laid out.
    When I read this paragraph
    Mr Mueen-Uddin, then a journalist on the Purbodesh newspaper in Dhaka, was a member of a fundamentalist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, which supported Pakistan in the war. In the closing days, as it became clear that Pakistan had lost, he is accused of being part of a collaborationist Bangla militia, the Al-Badr Brigade, which rounded up, tortured and killed prominent citizens to deprive the new state of its intellectual and cultural elite.
    it occurred to me that the BBC wouldn’t have anything to worry about then, except they probably consider themselves our ‘intellectual and cultural elite’.

    Presumably once they’ve sorted out how they’re going to word this story we’ll eventually get an article from them.

       7 likes

  35. Harry says:

    Anybody watching BBC News at 10’s report on the French elections. Constant references to Le Pen as “far-right”, quotes from other candidates saying voters were “desperate”, and trying to make out as if the voters only care about immigrants, whilst dismissing that and not giving any discussion as to why 20% of the French public may be concerned.

       12 likes

    • Fred Bloggs says:

      Plus the bBC never mention the day dream policies of the Greens or the ideas of the far loony Left. The real world marches Left- and -Right. The bBC world is Right-Right.

         6 likes

    • Dave s says:

      Newsnight was just as bad . What they really seem to be worried about is a euro collapse . So it is all liberal hands to the pumps to save the EU project.
      The voters? As usual shown as ignorant yokels who don’t understand the issues and even if they do need re educating. Biased in favour of the EU ? The BBC never.

         12 likes

    • Harry says:

      I can, however, find a new story, posted 1 hour ago, where an English student was sentenced for a false rape claim:

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-17818072
      …But when two students actually do rape someone, it’s not news for the BBC..

         9 likes

      • Demon says:

        But this is very harmful to women who have genuinely been raped. These attention-seekers who make false claim actually make it harder for genuine victims to report their rape as they are more fearful of not being believed and their name then being made public.

        This woman should have spent at least 6 months inside as a lesson to any other rape-fantasist.

           2 likes

    • RCE says:

      So they ‘could’ be deported?

      Says it all.

         4 likes

  36. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Have I Got News For You is the only place on the BBC ever to feature even the tiniest joke about The Obamessiah, but even they don’t dare mention that He ate dog as a child.

    Two dog jokes – one about a Korean eating dog, and the other about Mitt Romney putting the dog in its kennel on top of the family car – and not a single mention of The Obamessiah. It’s been all over the internet and everywhere except the BBC. Even Jay Carney, Katty Kay’s personal friend and White House Press Chief had to address the issue in the daily Press Briefing, which is attended by at least one BBC employee. Katty herself retweeted an article from one of her fellow travelers complaining that it was in the US news. Yet they can’t bring themselves to do it.

    Pathetic BBC, still under the spell. No other world leader has ever received such preferential treatment.

       13 likes

  37. Backwoodsman says:

    Just heard on the news that rspca prosecutions were up 25% last year and the organisation is running out of money.
    Please note that this is utter bollux, as there are still plenty of gullible old ladies leaving this left wing political organisation legacies.
    If you are concerned about animal welfare, there are numerous proper welfare organisations , like The Dogs Trust that you can donate to.

       9 likes

  38. Guest Who says:

    On the one hand they do provide light relief, but on the other the breakfast slot paper reviews may drive me from the morning TV screens completely.
    On SKY just now, cheeky man-of-the-people (as only a highly paid woman’s gossip magazine editor could be), cockerny lad Sam Delaney gives us full force of his singular views, and wisdom. And he is outraged by a news editor at Levenson being outed as offering to support a particular political party.
    But he knows which side his bread is buttered, as it is not from a stable he gains from, and all present agree (missing the irony of their slot being… the paper review) it is no longer so much of a problem as ‘the days of papers having much influence are over’.
    Now I tend to agree. Broadcast is where it is at and, in one case, there is a big, grey, knackered pachyderm in room in the form of our £4Bpa most trusted PR propaganda and misinformation machine, who he saw fit not to mention for some reason (doers he have a slot there too?).
    Now an editor of a broadsheet offering tribal support is not great but not news, but rather pales to a decades-long culture, tuned via hiring rather selectively via another tribal tome, where the entire institution doesn’t even need to offer certain groups reassurance on covert support as it is guaranteed without even being asked.
    This level of bare-faced denial of the bleeding obvious is a bad joke, but still effective. There is even a quote from history on how effective it can be.

       6 likes

  39. lojolondon says:

    Under the carpet –

    On the News at 10 last night, about 3/4 way through, a BBC Journalist in Paris mentioned that the Dutch government had fallen yesterday. That was it. This morning I searched, and there is no mention on the Homepage, no mention on the World page. You have to check the Europe page to find the third article down. The Dutch PM told Queen Beatrice the government could not agree on the ‘austerity’ implementation required by the EU.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17811509

       4 likes

  40. Colonel Blimp says:

    you have to get to the second major block of text in this outraged lead story before it mentions that the council is Labour controlled; I’m going to take a wild stab and say that a Tory council would have been mentioned in the headline. The only comments (opposing, naturally) are from Labour MPs and the chief executive who’s worried about the possibility of “right-wing extremism”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17821018

       7 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Easily explained… no space any more.

      Mind you, I might run ‘Newham Council accused of ‘social cleansing’ of tenants’ by my new chums at ECU, who like to spar on what can and can’t be said, as they now seem to want to engage (until they get huffy, usually by being factually pwned, and wheel out the ‘you are not agreeing with us makes you hard to deal with’ counter’), if mainly on the basis that if it was also in The Guardian it is fine for them to mirror, and if in the Telegraph (and accurate) then it’s anything from a sniffy ‘just another way of looking at it’ to a right wing plot.

      I may suggest ‘Labour Council accused of ‘social cleansing’ of tenants’ or ‘Newham’s Labour Council accused of ‘social cleansing’ ‘ by them, and they will counter with ‘Tory cuts mean tough choices in Newham’.
      It’s a game really. A silly one. But hey, their rules. And maybe they control the ref, pitch and stadium for now. But if the ball is only getting kicked one way for long enough, the fans who pay for it all may yet withdraw support.

         5 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      This seems an interesting story ‘in complement’:
      http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/04/will-boris-speak-out-against-social-cleansing
      Guessing New Statesman’s Mr. Hasan will be the guest expert of choice to expand on this meme?
      Only fair exchange..
      ‘just nine days before the London mayoral election, we have an example of precisely that. The BBC reports that..’
      You scratch my selectively-editted back, I scratch yours.

         3 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      This reads as more of the same BBC Narrative we heard last year about councils being forced by nasty Tory Cutz to close libraries and vital youth centers. And weren’t the Beeboids all upset when Cameron said it was the councils making political closures.

      I guess this kind of thing is why the BBC leaned against returning power to local councils: it’s harder to blame the Conservatives for stuff like this. Although they do try and spin it that way anyhow.

      But why would relocating welfare recipients lead to right-wing extremism? Some key information missing here, I think.

         1 likes

  41. DJ says:

    Nice triple whammy on the Toady’s program.

    First up they had a long segment about a supposed housing shortage in Newham, but without any suggestion that pressure on housing is the entirely predictable result of O*** B******.

    Next we had an analysis of what’s Geert Wilder’s party wants to do in the Netherlands – from a guy expelled from the party.

    Finally, the program ended with the news that the Twitards were super-angry with the Housing Minister’s claim that rents were falling in London. So our £4.5 billion a year broadcaster is now covering lefty talking points from the special needs school of the internet.

       12 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘the special needs school of the internet.’
      LOL… there’s a phrase to savour.
      It does seem where the BBC feels it needs to be.
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/fromthewebteam/2012/03/this_blog_is_now_closed_-_foll.html
      ‘You can continue to comment on Newsnight using the social media websites Facebook and Twitter.’
      Well, not if you are blocked or modded, as some have discovered. Facts, eh? So last media age.
      Certainly the twitter page seems ‘alive’ with debate… not.
      As to FaceBook, while I am sure handing our UK media over to US-based commercial outfits is the future in some eyes, especially if it can all fit a mobile screen, I do wonder if this is a future I am seeing that ‘works’? From last entry April 19, totalling about 20 comments: ‘Jane Lauppen reposted:—OK this stuff is big and i’ve sat on it for a couple of days now..’
      Yup, huge step forward.

         4 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Today reporting on a Twitter campaign against the Government, eh? I wonder if a Beeboid didn’t start this one as well….

         1 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        ‘I wonder if a Beeboid didn’t start this one as well….’
        Like the Borg, they learn and adapt quickly. There will now be no trace.
        Stuart feel for the good of the collective.

           1 likes

  42. Umbongo says:

    Apropos of the Today mock-outrage over Newham Council being forced to find homes for the benefiterati outside London, no-one asked (not even Shapps who probably knew the answer but being a CINO refused to bring the subject up) who these particular benefiterati are. Could it possibly be that these were actual or potential “new Britons”? Since it’s Newham and – according to the regulations – the “new benefiterati” in effect always take precedence I think that question answers itself.
    Again, the Chomsky rule of BBC debate applies: restrict discussion to a narrow topic which suits the BBC agenda (ie knock the non-Labour government) and leave the wider context (which might explain why the narrow problem exists in the first place) unexamined.
    As to the creeping problem of housing benefiterati colonising the whole of Britain at public expense, even here in leafy middle-class North London there is a noticeable increase in burqa-wearing women (well, I assume they’re women) and idling new British men on the streets and in the 99p store. It seems the limit on housing benefits blamed by Newham and Naughtie for forcing people who have already travelled 5,000 miles a further 100 miles is not having the effect they claim.

       15 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      Umbongo

      That was exactly my thought – the elephant in the room was the fact that Newham has tens of thousands of immigrants – with a large number unemployed and claiming benefits.

      Typical of Grant Schapps to avoid the central issue.

      A quick scan of some Google results shows that Newham has the lowest percentage of white people of any London borough (less than 40%) – with 300 different languages, cultural diversity par excellence you might think. But in fact the Muslims account for 24.3% – I believe mostly Bangladeshi. And those figures are dated – there are probably almost equal numbers of Muslims and white people now.

      I visit someone in a former LCC set of blocks, now run by housing associations, in Tower Hamlets but adjacent to Newham – one Tube station down the line. The blocks are full of immigrants, usually in peasant garb – and large numbers of the males do not appear to work. The person I visit works hard to pay for the flat she occupies – large numbers of the rest in that estate get their housing and everything else courtesy of the taxpayers.

      We must be crazy to let this trend continue. £23 billion a year on housing benefit !!!

         11 likes

      • George R says:

        Yes.
        The following are estimates (underestimates?) for 2006 on Newham demographics.
        Clearly since 2006, the % of immigrants there has increased.

        ‘Wikipedia’ on Newham:-
        “Based on 2006 estimates by the Office for National Statistics, over 39% of the population is white, of which 32.6% are British, 1.1% are Irish, and 5% are from other white backgrounds. Approximately 38% of the population is Asian, of which 10.2% are Indian, 7% are Bangladeshi, 13.9% are Pakistani, and 5.1% are from other Asian backgrounds. Approximately 20% of the population is black, of which 6.5% are Caribbean, 12.4% are African, and 1.1% are from other black backgrounds. In addition, 1.6% of the population is Chinese, and 2.6% are from other ethnic groups. Newham has the highest fertility rate in the country at 2.87, as of 2009, compared to the national average of 1.95.”

           8 likes

      • George R says:

        ‘Daily Mail’:

        “Newham Council accused of ‘social cleansing’ by moving 500 families to Stoke-on-Trent… but it’s blaming the Government’s housing benefits cap.”

        Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2134329/Newham-Council-accused-social-cleansing-moving-500-families-Stoke-Trent.html#ixzz1sx005APa

        What is the average size in number of an immigrant Newham family? 5? 6?

        So, the Newham demand to Stoke, or any other council in England, is, in effect: take 2,500/3,000 mainly poor, uneducated, non-English speaking, mainly Muslims, and force your local Stoke citizens to live with the economic, social, religious and political costs!

        Which English town or city is next in line for this enforced mainly Islamic colonisation?

           6 likes

        • jarwill101 says:

          What should be in line for enforced colonisation are, of course, the Houses of the Holier Than Thou: the splendid, spacious homes of the well-heeled multiculturalists, the Oxbridge Cultural Marxists, wealthy enough to live far from the criminally insane policies they have inflicted upon the rest of us. But perhaps not for much longer. Addresses of all New Labour politicians, Beeboid-Guardianistas, academics, trendies, race-hustlers & Billy Bragg should be handed out to all families requested to move to Stoke. Don’t move to the Potteries, folks! Go & shack-up with the traitor class: the stinking hypocrisy. See how long that lasts. I don’t mind driving a few vanloads over to Mandelson Mansions, or Andrew Marr’s dacha down by the Thames at Barnes. Yo! Feel the enrichment!

             11 likes

    • George R says:

      The Enforced Colonisation of England.

      INBBC avoids analysis of the obvious causes of the ‘social housing’ crisis in London: the unlimited mass immigration of millions of poor, uneducated, anti-West, non-English speaking people and their extended families, many from Islamic areas of Bangladesh, Pakistan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Nigeria, etc, etc .

      INBBC, the Labour Party, the Lib Dems, the TUC, support this colonisation of England. The crisis is only getting worse , and is being spread to the whole of England, not simply to Stoke. INBBC and the political left accept no responsibility for the consequences of their ‘multicultualism’: the very destruction of British society from outside.

         12 likes

  43. Umbongo says:

    BTW Richard Black failed to inform us that the Ipsos-Mori poll endorsing wind factories restricted the polled population to under-65s. Moreover, the questions asked in the poll were (per the comments in the Bishop Hill blog quoted) loaded. It seems the commenters know far more about the mechanics of the poll (let alone the mechanics of wind energy) than Black. In all, the poll (undertaken on behalf of the wind industry’s trade body) on that evidence could be considered fraudulent (ie deceitful, deceptive, underhanded – per this). OTOH the report by Black (who accepted the poll results as released via Renewables UK’s PR machine completely uncritically) was completely representative of the BBC’s less than impartial – and grossly incompetent – coverage of this issue.

       9 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Lies, damn lies, statistics, BBC-endorsed polls and… Richard Black’s reporting of same.
      It’s the evolving story, see?
      As to this ‘speaking for the nation’ lark, as we’re juggling with stats, how does excluding 10 Million of adult voters (ie: almost half the BBC licence-fee extortee base) –
      http://www.statistics.gov.uk/hub/population/ageing/older-people
      not seem more than a smidge discriminatory?
      Bunker crews… stand by to cater for the cherry vulture flock… they will be bedding down for a wee while!

         3 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      @BBCRBlack via Twitter
      It’s a very good morning when you wake up to 10k Twitter followers. Thank you all. RB

      Dude, I am about to plant rhubarb, and just because I follow the horses round here it isn’t because I see any value in the contribution from the front half.

         8 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      As soon as I saw Mr Black’s article I smelt a large rodent but had no way to check. Ain’t t’internet wonderful.

      But I’d say you’re being kind to Mr B to assume he knew nothing of the mechanics of the poll.

         3 likes

  44. Guest Who says:

    On certain ‘hot’ topics, more balance from The Telegraph, if I can presume to so describe a commentator from one corner featured in a paper associated from another:
    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danhodges/100152734/what-does-it-really-mean-to-be-english-nothing-at-all-and-thats-how-it-should-be/

       0 likes

  45. Guest Who says:

    Interesting discussion here:
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17770152
    Looking at the highest rated, I can see why there were no Editors’ Picks and the thread got yanked PDQ.

       1 likes

  46. Guest Who says:

    Another interesting piece, using too familiar phrases…
    Analysis versus storytelling’
    http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=f538bce868aac1144d248c0bc&id=4ee60d0367&e=ad695e4ee0#mctoc1
    Then we go from telling stories, to tales… and who knows where thereafter?

       1 likes

  47. Guest Who says:

    Well that was fun. Nothing like news, but fun.
    I refer to my 20mins SKY experience over lunch.
    And the amalgamation of the politico–media-legal estates, and their disappearances up each other’s fundaments is complete.
    First up we had Levenson, with a gaggle of po-faced tribalists ‘on the panel’ to tell us ‘how it looked’ (Bad, surprisingly).
    Then over to the Russell Brand show… well, carefully editted ‘highlights’ of our hero, selected not so much for light as maximum heat.
    I switched off as the 3rd ‘hearing’ was introduced by the peroxide sink, offering twitter as a venue to immerse oneself in more of her vapid ‘thoughts’ as her employers sold ‘cheap’ loans in the ad break.
    What the heck is going on?
    Hapless pols are now the ‘talent’, the media the legal inquisitor and the legal profession provides the programming.
    Bizarre… and… on some channels, possibly unique too.

       2 likes

  48. Richard Pinder says:

    Have just listened to the Radio 2 talk about David Cameron being to posh. The problem with Cameron is that he is out of touch, and the reasons why he is out of touch are in line with peoples old fashioned views of the posh. In other words he gives posh people a bad image, an image in line with peoples predjues about posh people. For instance, I am old enough to remember when Labour was the butch heterosexual party, and the Tories where dominated by ex-public school boy ponces from Eton, people who where mocked by the left as being closet homosexuals. So my point is that if Cameron’s legacy is gay marriage, then although young people may think this makes Cameron seem modern, for us oldies this is very much in line with the old fashioned view of the posh Tory Bullingdon Club ponce.

       5 likes

  49. DavidLamb says:

    Around 8.55 radio 4, thismorning an academic from Nottingham University was explaining the endurance of the far right in Europe, offering advice to the mainstream parties on how to deal with it. Basically, the message was that whilst in the past the far right appealed to economic factors, the modern far right appeal to cultural fears. The way to combat it is for mainstream politicians to admit that immigration and diversity cannot be controlled and not make promises to reduce immigration. The answer…education of course. No where in the discussion was Islam mentioned, or whether there is a real threat posed by Islam, terrorism, our daily experience of security precautions, etc. It is just something in the minds of the far right.

       9 likes

    • Reed says:

      Telling people on the right that immiration cannot be controlled – yep, that’ll ease their frustration and anger.

      Good tactic, lefties. You really listened and learned.

         7 likes

      • jarwill101 says:

        Yes, a tactic that brings civil war that little bit closer. Not that the Fabian war against the British people hasn’t been simmering for over 40 years. Comments from ‘academics’ like this will ensure that the war turns hotter, quicker. It’s always instructive to find out if these leftoid ‘experts’ ever live in ‘enriched’ areas. It really should be compulsory before they start bumping their gums about the rightful anger many of us feel about the disaster of mass immigration.

           6 likes

        • Reed says:

          So true, Jarwill. As the saying goes – disregard anyone who is not prepared to live next door to their own beliefs.

             4 likes