MONDAY OPEN THREAD

My goodness, another week commences and time for the BBC  to hype the weather, drone on about horse meat and do everything possible to avoid discussing the killing fields of the NHS! A new open thread for you!

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283 Responses to MONDAY OPEN THREAD

  1. billy whizz says:

    Watching the BBC’s advert for global warming, oh sorry, I meant to say ‘Africa’, last night, even the poor tribesmen and women are spouting rubbish about global warming.

    When a bloke with a spear and a bone through his lip is whining about the eternal top story of the BBC, you know the Gramscians’ work is complete…

       65 likes

  2. noggin says:

    stop all the presses – breaking news – already reported twice in a 10 min span, on 5live news – radio 4

    a car crash? … some fatalities?? – oh its abroad too???
    copying a report from the erm … south wales argos????
    a sad occurrence for all, of course … but blanket coverage????

    “Five members of Newport family die in Mecca taxi crash
    Five members from the same family from Newport have been killed in a taxi crash while on a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.”

    the more on this story link – as to be expected, is blank

    i don t know if, or actually really hope that there will be no fatalities, in a car accident in this icy weather, or at any time
    oops thats 3 times in 20 mins now

       41 likes

    • It's all too much says:

      Interesting snippet from the second most important story in the world.

      “Twenty members of the family are reported to have travelled to Saudi Arabia to take the baby back to Newport.

      Perhaps the BBC will use this latest disaster associated with the Hadj to run a series of programmes about its abysmal safety record and just some of the disasters that have happened to Hadjis. (Plane crashes, crowd hysteria crushes – lots of those – etc)

      ***Tumbleweed***

         37 likes

      • wallygreeninker says:

        They might even cover the gruesome and cruel massacre of sheep that are associated with the pilgrimage as well – the corpses are bulldozed into pits. No they couldn’t do that – the British public might perceive a great world religion as being inextricably involved in cruelty to animals. So they only show the picturesque bits.

           40 likes

      • noggin says:

        i wonder i if they will be personally accompanied by willy vague or keith vaz.?

        and surprisingly you re right to al bbc,, only the pope is more important today

        you know, i don t know how to describe what could await any erm “devotee” on this ahem! pilgrimage” anyway 😀

        “shown was a snippet of formal prayers at Mecca, Islam’s holiest city. As Muslims circle the Ka’ba, the following supplications were blasted on a megaphone, chanted to like a drone by Islam’s devotees

        O Allah vanquish the unjust Christians and the criminal Jews, the unjust traitors; strike them with your wrath; make their lives hostage to misery; drape them with endless despair, unrelenting pain and unremitting ailment; fill their lives with sorrow and pain and end their lives in humiliation and oppression; inflict your tortures and punishments upon the unjust Christians and criminal Jews. This is our supplication, Allah; grant us our request!”

        yep! feel the love ..
        sounds curiously like hate speech to me.

           35 likes

        • Cosmo says:

          Coming to “Pray for today” very soon.

             11 likes

          • noggin says:

            a small piece from the latest report,
            BBC news highlights, this is one of the most shocking tragedies in Welsh history this is actually a quote from Sma Hayat, Shaukat Ali Hayat’s brother, indeed very very sad, and i m sure for the family – extended family it truly is

               11 likes

  3. David Brims says:

    ”When a bloke with a spear and a bone through his lip is whining about the eternal top story of the BBC, you know the Gramscians’ work is complete… ”

    Talking of which, what ever happened to Sting’s Amazonian chum, the one with the gramophone record stuck in his gob ?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Byg4CJZ3zJs

       24 likes

  4. Teddy Bear says:

    The latest figures surrounding the move to Salford showing how the BBC justification for this venture would be a complete disaster for any private company, as well as the hypocrisy of those involved with it.

    Judging from the perks given to those involved, it is just a way to milk more money out of the licence fee that gives absolutely NOTHING to those who pay it.

    BBC spends £26,000 on taxis between London and Salford

       42 likes

    • wallygreeninker says:

      It’s all a little reminiscent of those MEP’s circulating between Strasbourg and Brussels: it may be silly and wasteful, but what the hell – it’s public money so who cares?

         29 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      26 grand isn’t very much money. It’s barely the cost of one Newsnight researcher. Which apparently they don’t have due to budget cuts. I do hope Savile/McAlpine wasn’t caused by this move to Salford.

      The likes of Bacon and Derbyshire are among those who fly up and down, but I don’t see how their travel for the year, plus individual trips for a couple of hundred people, is covered by the 25K the article cites. Surely they don’t pay their own way. Is travel included in their compensation package, and so isn’t counted here?

      However, the nearly 1.9 million on train fare is very amusing. I guess much of that (it can’t all be for guests) is for those Beeboids who aren’t taking the tens of thousands of pounds to cover their London-area mortgages after they move to Salford, plus the fat wad of cash they’d get for moving.

      I wonder which choice has turned out to be more cost-effective. At least those taking the train aren’t trousering that license fee cash while they rent out their London-area homes for a year or so until the BBC sells it for them at a guaranteed price.

         11 likes

      • David Brims says:

        I suspect Bacon and Derbyshire are doing their bit for global warming.

           15 likes

      • Chop says:

        The chances of them living in Salford is remote, to say the least, for it doest be a shit*hole of unholly proportions…no place for any delicate little Beeboid.

        No, they will move to Alderley Edge, Knutsford, Mobberley & at a push, Worsley.

           15 likes

      • Teddy Bear says:

        It’s this that adds insult to injury:
        A total of 174 staff have taken advantage of a halfway-house deal, officially called the “remote location allowance”, under which they keep their main home in London and have some of their rent and expenses paid.
        Each member of staff is given an allowance of up to £3,390 a month before tax, equivalent to £40,680 a year. To date, this has cost the corporation £3.3 million.

        Over £40,000 a year allowance? There’s many license fee payers who would love to be earning that much. How proud they must feel to know they are supporting this PC (or pissy) exercise. 🙄

           34 likes

        • Chop says:

          Sounds strikingly similar to Mp’s 2nd home allowance to me…

          You know, that one that they (quite justifiably as it happens) kicked up a stink about.

          Well, they kicked up a stink about ‘militant’…erm, no, ‘extremist’…no, that’s not right either…’freedom fighting’….no…ohhh….what’s the word….

          ‘Conservative’ Mp’s 2nd homes.

             16 likes

  5. David Brims says:

    I turned on my television the other night and saw a dung beetle climbing up a sand dune for 10 minutes.

    Looked at the Radio Times to see what the hell I was watching, turned out it was ‘Saint’ David Attenborough’s Africa.

    And the BBC calls this entertainment ? Unbelievable.

       37 likes

    • David Lamb says:

      Am I the only person who has always found St David’s animal documentaries unpleasant and artificial – all the emphasis on the glamour of predation?

         27 likes

      • mat says:

        Nope I cannot stand it either .

           20 likes

      • Chop says:

        Same here, tedious…

        Seen one dung beetle rolling a massive stool around, you have seen them all.

           12 likes

        • Buggy says:

          But it’s not always the same dung beetle doing the rolling: don’t deny the little fella his moment in the limelight just because he’s had a great-great grandad starring on ‘Life On Earth’, one of his sisters a regular on ‘Survival’ etc etc – He has a right to his dreams of fame, too !

          (Of course, if Mr D Beetle subsequently turns up as a guest presenter on HIGNFY or starts fronting The One Show, then you by all means have my permission to bag on to the stardust addicted little creep).

             9 likes

          • stewart says:

            “Of course, if Mr D Beetle subsequently turns up as a guest presenter on HIGNFY”
            Would make pleasant change to Marcus Prigstock or Jack (Pavlik Morozov) Whitehall.

               9 likes

    • Teddy Bear says:

      We’re probably going to hear ‘an expert’ tell us that the reason this beetle got attracted to dung in the first place was because it’s gay. 🙄

         29 likes

      • Chop says:

        Attenborough, in a husky, whispering voice: “And, as the beetle knows, when he can smell sh*t, there is never a bumhole to plunge too far away….”

           15 likes

        • Teddy Bear says:

          And he’s probably fly to a dogging area car park in California for that scene.

          Then at the end of the program he’s warn us again of the dangers that our carbon emissions are creating for the planet.

             13 likes

  6. Fred Sage says:

    I am very concerned about 3000 unnessary deaths in NHS hospitals and what is being done to find out who is responsible. I am very interested as to what is being done about Jimmy Vile and who in the BBC was responsible. I am not worried about horse meat mixed with other meat, Not worried about Global warming. Very concerned about the EU not producing accounts for the past 17 years. The BBC soon forgets the important things and fills our heads with rubbish. Also I would also like to know who is getting money from the EU coffers.

       79 likes

  7. George R says:

    BBC-NUJ: anti-Bomber Command of World War II?

    On pretext of a small snippet of an interview with Sir Arthur Harris (Air Chief Marshall in WW II) on tape, of about 40 years ago, we are told that ‘Bomber’ Harris’ policy of aerial bombardment of Germany was ‘controversial’.
    ( 2 min video clip).
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21344717

    The historically prior German aerial bombing of the United Kingdom is not only not mentioned by BBC-NUJ as ‘controversial’; it is not mentioned at all.

       45 likes

    • Joshaw says:

      The bombing of Guernica as early as 1937 (good early start, that) or the development and use of the indiscriminate V1s and V2s isn’t mentioned either.

         31 likes

      • London Calling says:

        Is the daily indiscriminate firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel “controversial”?

           44 likes

        • Rufus McDufus says:

          Of course not! Firing rockets at infidels is part of their culture and therefore to be applauded.

             10 likes

    • Louis Robinson says:

      Surely the indiscriminate area bombing of cities was the idea of a certain Adolf Hitler? Oh, sorry, no. The revisionist historians tell us that the Luftwaffe bombed London by mistake. Well, that’s all right then.

      It seems Bomber Harris and the British wartime establishment understood that the main object when engaged in a war – is to win it.

         29 likes

      • pah says:

        The story of the Jerry bomber dumping it’s bombs on London ‘by mistake’ is an old one that doesn’t need revision. IIRC it is used in the film ‘Battle of Britain’ in the ’60’s.

        What the truth is? Well, the BBC won’t let us know it that’s for sure.

           9 likes

      • london calling says:

        It is well known that German rockets were amateurish, home made and fell largely on unpopulated areas, causing little loss of British life. World War II was an over-reaction on the part of trigger-happy Brits. (Any similarity between this and other geo-political narratives is entirely coincidental)

           14 likes

      • Rufus McDufus says:

        Hitler was a socialist so his were good bombs and not worthy of criticism!

           10 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      The intro to this piece described Sir Arthur as one of the most controversial figures of WW2!
      Bloody hell, what planet are these idiots on? We were defending against the Hun and one of our dedicated military is decribed as controversial? FFS

         23 likes

    • Ian Hills says:

      Flattening of Coventry NOT controversial, then.

         20 likes

    • George R says:

      BBC-NUJ: from anti-Bomber Command policy to anti-Drone policy.

      It’s a small step for BBC-NUJ’s one-sided anti-British Bomber Command (and anti- 8th U.S Air Force of World War II) political line to be extended to its current propaganda of anti-drone deployment by the West against the Islamic jihad enemy. (The latter being in line with Muslim Brotherhood policy.)

         10 likes

    • wallygreeninker says:

      This topic came up a while back when I remember Lustig on the World at Ten musing on whether the British bombing campaign against Germany was a war crime. Basically they tied down 9000 dual purpose 88mm anti -tank/anti-aircraft guns and 900,000 German personnel manning their defences in 1944 – that’s good enough for me.

         6 likes

    • Joshaw says:

      Just watched the Inside Out programme on iPlayer..

      I must confess that I overlooked the reference to a “small snippet” and foolishly expected the full interview. What we got, typically, were indeed small snippets, interspersed with comments from the interviewer telling us how to react.

      It’s disgraceful that the wretched BBC could not trust us to form our own conclusions from the whole interview.

      Does anyone know how to get the whole interview, without the BBC’s worthless contribution?

         1 likes

  8. Umbongo says:

    Once again, BBC plants an advertisement for its own product in its news services. The “news”? It’s that on Panorama tonight Barclays will be demonised for rescuing itself using sovereign funds (fronted by Sheikh Mansour) rather than Mansour’s personal funds (although this was disclosed in the “small print” of Barclays’ announcement of the deal). Oh dear and so what! Even if true (and remember this is the BBC, so confirmation from an unsullied and genuinely independent source is still required to make this evidentially credible) it’s hardly fraud (or fraud at all) on the same scale as the fraud enabled/perpetrated by the BBC in respect of AGW.

       42 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Still waiting for a Panorama special on Climategate, not to mention the ensuing whitewash of a parliamentary enquiry.

         21 likes

  9. London Calling says:

    Among all possible topics of the day, you wonder what motivates the BBC to “carry out research” into Barclays. Couldn’t be an agenda here? Is it the relentless search for Tax Justice?

       26 likes

    • Umbongo says:

      An agenda! Say it ain’t so.
      Last night on BBC news outlets we had the old CEO of Barclays dressed in rags and ashes admitting to the sin of leading the bank while making enormous profits from advising clients (quite legally) how to minimise their tax bills. IIRC it was not mentioned that such Barclays-advised avoidance was not restricted to UK clients or UK tax (it would be odd if it had been – Barclays is a major international bank with major international clients) but in the non-agenda at the BBC leaving the impression that Barclays is directly responsible for Haringey’s difficulties in housing 10-member families from Somalia in £1.5 million houses apparently fits right in with its impartiality remit.
      Again no-one sought to comment (in my experience no-one ever does on the BBC and elsewhere) that the tax authorities (and hence the politicians) of all the jurisdictions “losing” tax knew and know what is happening. More to the point, the politicians (including ours) are and were perfectly capable of legislating to change the law. They decided not to and, instead – in the UK anyway – opt to make tax law even more complicated and opaque thus opening up even more scope for legal avoidance.
      There’s a scandal here alright: it comprises that part of the BBC agenda which seeks to demonise those seeking to minimise the amount of their money used to throw down the toilet of benefiterati entitlement and government waste generally.

         36 likes

    • Richard D says:

      Yeah, we knew that our former favourite employee was a kiddie-fiddler on the premises, and we are well aware of the 1200 deaths in that hospital, but we dealt with these one day last November and one day last week…. now let’s get back to Barclays, shall we (unless you have something on the Murdochs?) – nothing to see or worry about in these other places.

         35 likes

    • Richard D says:

      Just a thought, but it couldn’t possibly be that the BBC is pursuing Barclays in every little detail because it was the one major UK bank which did not accept government handouts during the Labour Crisis…. which means, of course, that the BBC can’t demand that the government uses that leverage to ‘do something about’ anything which might not be to the liking of the State Broadcaster ?

         35 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Robert Peston has had it in for Barclays ever since. Not to mention what certainly appeared to be his personal animus towards Bob Diamond. Peston couldn’t shut up about him for quite some time. Seeing as how Peston occasionally functions essentially a City gossip columnist, one has to wonder at the connection.

           16 likes

      • pah says:

        Perhaps they are remembering all those cold afternoons protesting outside branches of Barclays when they were students?

        The memory and desire for revenge of the average lefty should not be underestimated.

           16 likes

    • Chop says:

      More researching than they did over Saville, i might note…oh, I forgot, that is not of public interest, and, well, it was ever such a long time ago…

         21 likes

    • 45543 says:

      It goes on….Evan Davis was in fine form on the BBC R4 Today Programme this morning (Tue 12/02). For someone who was an economics journalist he seems to have little understanding of how capitalism works. Perhaps that’s why he’s ended up at the BBC.

      In an interview with Anthony Jenkins of Barclays just after 7:30, Evan came out with “You want to maintain shareholder returns – and you don’t – and want to maintain customer trust, something perhaps has to give.”

      An hour later, discussing the previous interview with David Jackman and Julie Meyer, Evan got excited by the Twitter-sphere: I noticed a – there was – er-er rather nice Tweet saying ‘Can’t sell stuff that’s not in the customer’s interest – that’s capitalism gone’ or-or words to that effect”. Puzzled by his grasp (or lack of) free markets, I wondered what his first degree was in. Yep – according to Wikipedia, it’s a PPE.

         4 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        No, Davis understands how it works. He just doesn’t like it very much. Which is why he’s ended up at the BBC.

           2 likes

  10. David Brims says:

    The Pope has just resigned.

    I blame the tory cuts.

       31 likes

  11. Lynette says:

    Don’t normally listen to Desert Island discs but for some reason I came in on the end of it yesterday. Julie Burchill chose 3 pieces of music that they couldn’t have been happy playing “Exodus”, “The Hebrew Man” and “Hatikvah” ( Israel’s nantional anthem) Hatikvah was chosen as the one she would take to the desert island if she only had one choice as “she would think of the beautiful country.”
    It will be interesting to see how long this recording stays available to listen to again.
    When Pam Ayres read out a poem in which her husband was critial of many things. The BBC managed to change the poem, cutting out the line in which he critisised Arafat when they repeated the poem a week later.

       39 likes

    • ROBERT BROWN says:

      You stole my thunder Lynette, but well done. I was cock-a-hoop at Julies choice, what consternation and gnashing that must have caused! Liked the Hebrew Man, hadn’t heard that before. The BBC, the enemy within……

         25 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘The BBC managed to change the poem..
      First they came for lines in poems, and some probably spoke up to BBC CECUTT, but it did no good…

         13 likes

  12. Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

    The bBBC couldn’t find anything to say about Hillsborough today so they’ve revived another Scouse campaign for revenge.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-21405673

       13 likes

  13. PhilO'TheWisp says:

    UK Govt says:
    BBC Journo strike 18 March
    That will be a good day to bury GOOD news as it won’t be twisted by the BBCommies.

       24 likes

  14. Richard D says:

    Well Done Guys…..

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2276888/BBC-climbdown-climate-change-claims-David-Attenboroughs-Africa.html#axzz2Kb0cQdRw

    The only fly in the ointment is the quote below basically saying ‘Damn, we could have got away with it if we’d only been just a tiny bit more dishonest….’

    “A BBC source told The Times that the mistake was made by the production team and not by Sir David, who told them he did not know how it ended up in the script. The six-week wildlife series showed stunning footage of life on the continent. ‘The mistake was being so specific. ‘It should have been more carefully scripted,’ the source said.”

       35 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘More carefully scripted’… BBC code for ‘not so outrageously bent that even the Graun was unprepared to swallow it’.
      ‘A BBC source told The Times that the mistake was made by the production team and not by Sir David, who told them he did not know how it ended up in the script.’
      This was dragged out of them, like any admission or correction, kicking and screaming.
      On a matter of factual science.
      And they are given caret blanche to educate, inform, lie , cheat and steal why?
      Also, in reading the script, discussing it, rehearsing, etc, did the great man not once pause to ask, given his immersion in the subject over all these years, where that number came from?
      A national treasure on a national treasure of this calibre is a pile of… fool’s gold.

         26 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        No, he didn’t question it, nor did anyone else. Why would it occur to any of them to do so? They believe the planet really is disastrously heating up, so there was no need. It’s fake, but accurate. Just like some of the animal footage. No big deal.

           23 likes

    • Teddy Bear says:

      Climbing down, over most of their spurious climate agenda, is something I believe the BBC will have to get used to doing.

         12 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        They’re making a pretty poor job of it so far given the hammering the ‘settled science’ has had over the past couple of years!!

        They ignore the evidence – even when it comes from their allies at the Met Office and IPCC – and simply carry on as normal. A law unto themselves, completely out of control.

           15 likes

    • Phil Ford says:

      *facepalm.jpg* Poor old Attenborough – he held out for years as a CAGW sceptic until bullies at the BBC and in the left-wing press forced him to finally proclaim his miraculous conversion to The Church of the Holy Consensus in 2004. In reality, Attenborough is almost certainly still a climate sceptic at heart, but when faced with the stark choice of finally being pensioned-off for his climate heresy or becoming a ‘useful idiot’ for the Climate Truth Commissars at the BBC Natural History Commissariat, well he made his choice to keep working. It’s not for nothing that this 85-year old still somehow finds gainful employment at The Politburo. Meanwhile, the melancholy fate of Dr David Bellamy – disgraced and dismissed by the Truth Commissars at the BBC for daring to dissent from the BBC’s approved CAGW manifesto – still looms large over the once widely-respected Natural History department…

      The BBC regret only one thing about the programme in question: that were found out. Next time, they will make sure to have their climate propaganda drones bury the message far more subtly.

         23 likes

  15. It's all too much says:

    there are 5.25 million Roman Catholics in the UK.

    So why is there no mention on the UK web page (*) that the Pope has abdicated – the first to do so since 1415, yet we have horsemeat and the death of five hadjis from Wales in a car crash.

    (*) Yes Trolls, it is on the ‘home page’ but surely there could be something like a statement from the Archbishop of Westminster.

       16 likes

  16. wallygreeninker says:

    Papal resignation:
    they had to get it in:
    1327:”The Vatican says the Pope’s resignation is to do with his health, not other difficulties. But the Roman Catholic Church has been badly shaken in recent years after revelations of abuse. Pope Benedict has expressed deep sorrow at the “unspeakable crimes”. ”

    (from the live text on the breaking news page)

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21409149

       15 likes

    • Mark says:

      Muslim abuse is going on NOW, and the mosques are covering up.

         28 likes

      • wallygreeninker says:

        I sometimes wonder what goes on in all those Pakistani madrassas – the Pashtun have something of a reputation for that kind of thing. But no – the BBC, with their reputation for zero tolerance towards kiddie fiddling and unflinching scrutiny of all things Islamic would have done a bit of investigative reporting by now if anything was going on.

           25 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      This resignation – retirement, really – is just another example of how much better BXVI has been than his awful predecessor.

         4 likes

      • Joseph says:

        @David,

        I cannot agree with your opinion on Pope John Paul II, for millions of Eastern Europeans suffering under the various communist regimes his extremely critical stance against Russia and its satellite states was an inspiration, and was the catalyst for the various Polish uprisings against their communist leaders which led to Solidarity and the breaking of the communist regime.

        In my opinion a brave man who stuck to his values, and one who should not be dismissed as awful when the evidence clearly shows the hollowness of such a statement.

           7 likes

        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          His contribution to freedom has been greatly exaggerated, in my opinion. He just didn’t like the Church not having so much power in Poland, the way they did when he was young. But his thumb-twiddling while his clergy fiddled thousands and upper management just shifted them around like misbehaving players in some sports league, his protection of Opus Dei, his bastardization of the whole canonization process so Escriva (Opus Dei founder) could quickly become a saint and so he could hand out sainthoods as easy sops in countries where the Church’s control was slipping (which also led to fast-track sainthood for that fraud Padre Pio) and his moral absence after both 9/11 and the war in the Balkans, as well as during all the drug wars in one of his biggest constituencies (Latin America) have not been. Not to mention the disgusting way he clung to power years after he was clearly unable to function. The way they wheeled him around and propped him up, and the whole cult of personality woven around him so he could act the martyr (Oh, look how he’s suffering for us) was a disgrace. BXVI’s retirement shows that up for the absolute joke that it was. No wonder the Church largely went into the toilet during his tenure. The increasing secularization of Europe is less than half the story.

             8 likes

  17. Nick Darlington says:

    Global Ocean Commission – more hot air no doubt. I was looking to see who former BBC environmental activist Richard Black is tweeting with these days, and see that he has ‘landed’ a job as Director of Communications with the above group. That other blast from the past David Miliband will lead the new group in an unpaid capacity, along with Nelson Mandela’s former finance minister. Sounds like a motley crew. The new organisation will be officially announced tomorrow.

       19 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      And for all the pro-bonos from ex-troughers on the expenses-only profile-boosting circuit, this latest outfit is funded how?
      And Black is their mouthpiece? Bless.
      I recall when Peter Barron left Newsnight Google suddenly never had it so good in nationally-treasured coverage.

         10 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      In other words, Black is continuing doing the same thing he’s been doing for years, only with a more accurate job title. I wonder if he’ll still be invited back to the BBC College of Journalism to instruct journalists on how to report certain issues?

         16 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      The Global Ocean Commission:
      ‘A new international group of politicians is spreading the word that the vast high seas all over the world, which stretch 200 nmi from coasts, benefit from little legal protection in the face of rising overfishing, habitat destruction, climate change and ocean acidification. These politicians are creating a new, worldwide and high-level action group.’

      The agenda is being hammered relentlessly into place by an unseemingly endless list of commissions, trusts, charities, committees, foundations, co-operatives and think tanks, populated by failed politicians, third rate scientists, mediocre journalists and Marxist eco-activists, all paid for by the honest, hard-working, tax-paying common-sense muggins who know if it looks like a pile of steaming shite and it smells like a pile of steaming shite, then it is, unquestionably, a pile of steaming shite.

      The BBC – coming to you in the not too distant future as the World Broadcasting Corporation (motto: cognita loafus maximum butterum*).

      * apologies for the pidgin Latin – hope you get the drift

         20 likes

  18. David Brims says:

    Richard Bacon on Radio 5, right now, discussing the inner workings of the Vatican, theology and the Holy Scriptures !!

    Makes a change from talking about last nights telly.

       13 likes

  19. Colditz says:

    Amazing that Vance wants to destroy the NHS. Could he enlighten us to your financial interests in private medical care.

    Of course not. But it won’t stop you demanding transparency from everyone else. Bias surely!

       7 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Will Self and 28-Gate await your razor-sharp mind.

         25 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        And Balen.

        And whilst he’s at it, a list of Beeboids enjoying licence-fee funded private health care.

        Funny, though, isn’t it, with these socialist NHS-worshippers, that even when a private company runs a hospital more efficiently, more cheaply, and provides better care for patients for whom it is all still free at the point of delivery, but…….makes a profit – it’s considered as somehow immoral.

           17 likes

    • RCE says:

      Were you to pay David Vance £145.50 a year you could legitimately ask for something in return, such as neutrality, transparency and notification of his vested interests. If either of you didn’t find the T&Cs agreeable you could decide to not enter into the arrangement.

         29 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Pithy. And making a ‘surely not’ to the last contestant’s challenge. With an extra twist on what gets to be unique and what not.

           8 likes

    • Richard D says:

      Here’s the only contribution I can find from David Vance on this thread. It happens to be the intro.

      “My goodness, another week commences and time for the BBC to hype the weather, drone on about horse meat and do everything possible to avoid discussing the killing fields of the NHS! ”

      I fail to see anywhere in that opening where David says anything about destroying the NHS. What I do see is a criticism of the BBC’s behaviour in basically sweeping under the carpet what has been uncovered recently about the NHS – and, as others have done, contrasting that approach to the amount of effort spent by the BBC on the Andrew Mitchell affair, the McAlpine incident, Lord Ashcroft, News International, etc., etc., none of which, as far as I am aware, caused the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands.

      But if a few thousand deaths, and the possibility of such contributory behaviour continuing, doesn’t concern you, then feel free….complain about your perception, without evidence, that David Vance is not being transparent ! That’s obviously more important.

         27 likes

      • It's all too much says:

        Clearly complaining that the BBC is not reporting adequately on the thousands of ‘excess deaths’ arising from NHS “organisational behaviour’ where managers chased irrelevant government (1997 – 2010 Government……..) targets to further their careers by achieving stars and foundation status at the expense of patient care constitutes a written explicit desire to “destroy it” (and all of its little wizzards.)

        Perhaps Colditz should institute ‘NHS Orthodoxy’ tests for everyone in the UK just to check that they are OK with every single act, policy, process, procedure, action and outcome of the NHS.

        We need to know who is loyal and who isn’t.

        Anyway, no one was to blame the NHS Chief Executive (and Brezhnev fan) told us so and therefore there is no need for the BBC to report any further.

           16 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        Well put, Richard D.

           10 likes

    • Richard D says:

      But maybe, just maybe, the BBC isn’t going to be able to close this down as they seem to wish they could.

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21411153

      Another nine trusts added to the five which were added to ‘the pot’ very shortly after the extent of the Stafford Hospital disaster came to light. Spread around the country, this is clearly not a localised issue.

      The strangest thing for me is that all of this is only NOW coming to light….within days, it is ‘discovered’ that 14 other hospital trusts could have the same issues as Stafford – so nobody in our wonderful NHS seemed to be aware of anything until a week or so ago ? And this is the NHS that we should venerate and make THE highlight (as it was rubbed in the faces of anyone not on the left ) of our 2012 Olympic experience ? I’m sure Danny Boyle isn’t quite so happy now with his socialist take on all that should be celebrated in the UK.

      With a hat-tip to whoever said it on here first,maybe we all went to make a pot of tea during the Olympic 2012 opening ceremony, and missed the bit where patients were smothering in their own faeces and dying at an inordinate rate. I know I must have.

         19 likes

      • Joseph says:

        Yes, I also find it strange keep reading articles which suggest that the NHS should be “venerated”, “world leading”, “crown jewel”, “envy of the world” and “free”.

        It would seem that only in the mind of the BBC employee / Guardian reader could the NHS be described using the aforementioned words, in my opinion the NHS is dinosaur to a previous age, and one that is clearly in need of urgent reform.

        If the NHS is venerated and the envy of the world why has no other country implemented the same healthcare model?, now that’s a question I would like to hear put to some of our rabid leftist that infect the BBC news and current affair shows.

           17 likes

        • johnnythefish says:

          Exactly. Whenever did you see a BBC programme comparing the way the NHS is funded and run with much superior health systems in different parts of the world?

          It’s such an obvious subject for some world-beating investigative journalists to get their teeth into. But then maybe these journalists aren’t as world-beating as they’re made out to be, just like the NHS.

             13 likes

      • london calling says:

        Would that a bBC journalist would have the balls to ask Socialist pimp Danny Boyle what he thinks about Stafford Trust, and why he didn’t think to put any token patients lying in their own excrement in his twenty minute Olympic eulogy to the NHS?

           18 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      Trolls ought not to be fed! Hard to resist sometimes.

         5 likes

    • TigerOC says:

      You might also note that the BBC staff are so supportive and grateful that we have the NHS that have private healthcare as part of their package paid for by us.

      source; Patten; public accounts committee evidence 2012

         13 likes

    • Ian Hills says:

      Maybe you’ve got shares in a Stafford undertaking firm?

         8 likes

      • Mark says:

        On a serious note, Staffordshire was the home patch of a notorious doctor of the Victorian age. William Palmer aka “The Prince of Poisoners” was hanged at Stafford in 1856.

           9 likes

        • wallygreeninker says:

          The inhabitants of Rugeley thought the crime gave their town such a bad reputation that they asked the then PM if they could change its name. Palmerston replied: certainly, they could name it after him.

             9 likes

  20. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Mark Mardell is salivating over tomorrow’s State of the Union address by the President. He’s especially giddy today because he gets to write about two of his favorite subjects at once: the strength and passion of his beloved Obamessiah and political spin. He’s a politics junkie through and through, and is clearly in his element.

    Mardell is pleased to inform you about the White House trying to spin the speech in advance, and to get reporters to go along with it. He will anyway, they don’t need to try, but Mardell’s thing is politics and political games, so of course he has to write about that rather than anything of real substance that might leave you better informed.

    Apparently, this time the President is really, honestly, for sure going to talk about jobs and the economy, rather than all the extreme Left-wing agenda stuff He laid out in His second inaugural speech. Mardell is right there to defend Him for that.

    Maybe Mr Obama simply wanted to say something different. He has, after all, spoken about his economic vision many times before.

    And how’s that worked out so far, Mark? He doesn’t like to talk about that. He’s also being a bit disingenuous when he says that jobs and the economy were a “centerpiece” of the President’s re-election campaign. The centerpiece was really about class war and demonizing Romney and the Republicans. We mostly heard about how awful it would be to go back to the “failed policies” of the Bush years, and how the Republicans were interested only in protecting the very wealthy. We also got a heaping helping of racial identity politics and the immigration issue. The economy was everyone else’s concern, not His.

    Mardell also says that it was a centerpiece of last year’s SOTU speech. Although he clearly confuses class war rhetoric with an actual plan. But that’s good enough for the BBC’s US President editor. All He has to do is say He cares, and the good little lapdog laps it up. I say that mostly because last year we got the same pre-speech spin, which Mardell dutifully obeyed. As we know, his view is that any problems with the economy weren’t the President’s fault anyway. You can bet that this year none of our economic problems – like unemployment being a shade higher than it was when He was first anointed, never mind the fact that millions more are out of the jobs market altogether, meaning real unemployment is much, much higher than the official numbers – are due to any of His plans either. Trapped in a world He never made, the evil Republicans have blocked His every move. The first two years of Democrat control of both houses of Congress will be glossed over as usual.

    Mostly, though, Mardell is happy that the President is going to continue His hard-Left rhetoric and try to push the country as far to the Left as possible. Remember all those Beeboids and defenders of the indefensible who told us He would be a moderate, and heaped scorn on those of use who said He was a Socialist, and wanted to move things very far to the Left? There will be no discussion about how and why they got that wrong on the BBC, ever.

    Imagine any white Republican politician taking such a divisive and extreme stance being met with commentary from any Beeboid such as the following:

    I expect to see another iteration of the newly confrontational president, determined to use his bully pulpit to demand change and give notice to his enemies that they had better get out of his way.

    “Newly confrontational”. LOL. Where has Mardell been for the last four years? But notice the casual use of the word “enemies”. That’s White House political jargon. Other politicians have opponents and detractors and critics. But anyone criticizing Him is an enemy. Harsh, divisive, extreme rhetoric from Mardell there. Just like the White House spin doctors wanted.

    Good boy, Mark. Good boy.

       30 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      And amazing how little we hear from Mardell of the transformative effects of the US’s abundant reserves of cheap energy which could see swathes of industry re-domiciled from China. I wonder if the ‘controversial fracking process’ has anything to do with it? If the US economy does recover significantly you bet it will be despite O’ Bama’s policies (sorry, but that trip to Ireland was hysterical) not because of them.

      It will be fascinating to see how getting into bed with Big Green and promising to combat ‘climate change’ will pan out as Greenpeace are already demanding that he taxes carbon fuels out of the market.

         13 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Don’t worry. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before the amount of jobs created by the private energy industry thanks to fracking and all that comes up when He next stumbles over the Keystone Pipeline issue. It’s coming soon, and He’ll have to deal with it.

        That silly article praising Him as some ideal Indonesian king Mardell found fascinating stated that the President never took on a political challenge He hadn’t already won in some way. The BBC’s US President editor will have to prove that correct somehow. The President will most likely cave on it mostly because He needs to show some job creation to help keep the media placated and doesn’t need the environmentals on His side anymore (having, as a great man once said, more “flexibility” after His re-election). So watch Mardell claim He’s the one who created all those new jobs in that industry, not to mention all the benefits of lower fuel prices to the economy at large. Mardell will probably even find a way to give Him 100% credit for making the US a net exporter.

           11 likes

  21. AsISeeIt says:

    We all know it’s there.

    The BBC seem to be obsessed with it.

    There’s hardly a moment goes by when our national broadcaster doesn’t feel the urgent need to play with it.

    I refer of course to homosexuality.

    http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/tv/heading_out/

    BBC2 will soon be coming out with a new sitcom – set in the world of….homosexuality.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2012/heading-out.html

    ‘Broadcaster and comedian Sue Perkins will take the lead role in a self-penned new comedy, Heading Out, for BBC Two’

    ‘Perkins plays Sara – a veterinarian so skilled she can spay a tortoise one-handed. She’s successful, she’s popular – there’s just one chink in her armour – she’s too scared to tell her parents she’s gay’

    I wonder, does the BBC see Sue Perkins an entertainer or as a social and political activist?

       29 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Whilst I have on occasion found Ms. Perkins an engaging if unexceptional soul, this rather sounds like propelling Citizen Khan to ‘The Office’ status. Relatively.
      “Oo-er. missus….is that a Tory cut of horse in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?”
      Izanku.

         15 likes

    • Chop says:

      I see her as an un-funny, four eyed lefty cow.

      The BBC think she is hilarious.

         21 likes

    • JimS says:

      On Saturday Radio 4 I heard News Quiz, “I’m Sandy Toksvig and on my left is XX and YY and on their left is ZZ and WW”, banging on about the pro-marriage ‘bigots’. Jeremy Hardy thought it was all cut and dried. He managed to look up Adultery in a dictionary but he didn’t manage to get as far as ‘M’.
      Any Questions followed on, with more about pro-marriage ‘bigots’.
      A bit later I turned on to catch part of Weekend Women’s Hour where some young American female was telling us about how she was one of a pair of ‘gay’ twins. At which point I gave up for the day.
      Tonight we are treated with the exciting news that the lovely Susan Calman is to give her own discourse on Civil Partnerships “Susan Calman is Convicted”.
      One upon it was drip, drip, now it is a river in full flow. Agenda? What Agenda?

         20 likes

      • Reed says:

        “When Susan was younger, she thought marriage was silly. A patriarchal institution…”

        Christ, they really know how to find ’em.
        I’m sure it will be entertaining – in a po-faced, right-on kind of way…ie…not at all.

           10 likes

      • Rueful Red says:

        On the Sunday lunchtime Radio 2 show tunes programme hosted by Wossername, there were a couple of requrests from homosexualists for their partners. Both are in deeply loving etc etc etc.
        Funny thing was that none of them gave their surnames. So it’s gone from being the love that dare not speak its name to being the love that doesn’t have to give its name.

           7 likes

    • pah says:

      Surely she must realise Rhona Cameron will tell her parents for her?

         9 likes

  22. PhilO'TheWisp says:

    BBC = Blatant Burnham Cover-up.
    NHS killing fields of Stafford? Not likely guv. Not on Burnham’s watch. Shameful bias

       24 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      So many opportunities – NHS, social care – to ask Burnham what he did about it in 13 years of government.

      Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Tumbleweed.

      But they get their rentaquotes for every new Tory policy announced on the BBC News. Today it was on the social care proposals and Labour’s view that ‘they didn’t go far enough’. When do you ever hear this Labour largesse being challenged?

      Bias, pure and simple.

         17 likes

      • PhilO'TheWisp says:

        The Today piece is up now on iPlayer. Listen at 2h 50m. Sir Bruce Keogh of the Dr Foster Medical Intelligence unit based at Imperial College “We noticed abnormally high mortality rates at 14 hospitals and wrote to Andy Burnham about this in 2010.”

        Guess Andy found some long grass to kick it into.

        Could we have a Shadow Minister sacked for gross negligence and incompetence while in office as Health Secretary I wonder? No, it is Labour so the pigs will fly first!

           8 likes

  23. Alex says:

    The BBC just had to get a wee criticism of the Pope in their Six News. Apparently he offended Muslims. 1. I don’t care because they offend everyone else and, 2. What on earth does this have to do with his resignation?

       33 likes

    • wallygreeninker says:

      Any Pope who comes up with the quotation:
      “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”
      is fine by me. I believe the BBC was instrumental in making sure the entire Muslim world got to hear about what had been an obscure lecture. It also taught Benedict that if you offend Muslims, you are isolated among all the other leaders of the free world: nobody was willing to defend even his right to do such a thing.
      John Paul II kissed a Koran (an estimated 64% of the text of which is devoted to denouncing and deprecating Christians, Jews and other non-Muslims – which is pretty good going as 20% of the book is so obscure even the most learned doctors of Arabie can’t make head or tail of it).

         22 likes

      • wallygreeninker says:

        Interestingly, today was to be the day he announced (or was to announce) the date of the canonisation of the 813 martyrs of Otranto: (in 1480 the Ottoman Turks gave them the choice of converting to Islam or death). He has previously created 45 saints during his time in office (now rising to 860), compared to John Paul II’s 483.
        I imagine the Beeboids would rather have kittens than go into detail about what happened at Otranto.

        http://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2013/02/09/pope-benedict-xvi-to-canonise-813-martyrs-of-otranto-and-religious-mother-laura-and-mother-lupita-in-october-2013/

           10 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        ‘…such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached’.

        How can anyone argue with the historical accuracy of that statement? The BBC are in denial over it, of course, as evidenced by their version of The Crusades which ignores the 400 years of ruthless Muslim expansion and domination which preceded them.

           12 likes

      • Doyle says:

        @ Wallygreeninker, I like what mad Mel’s mad dad Hutton Gibson has to say on the matter.

        Gibson has been especially critical of the late Pope John Paul II, whom he once described as “Garrulous Karolus the Koran Kisser”. His allegation that the Pope kissed the Qur’an is corroborated by a FIDES News Service report of June 1, 1999, which quotes the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch, Raphael I, as having confirmed to the news service that he was personally present when John Paul II kissed the text sacred to Muslims:
        “ On May 14th I was received by the Pope, together with a delegation composed of the Shi’ite imam of Khadum mosque and the Sunni president of the council of administration of the Iraqi Islamic Bank. There was also a representative of the Iraqi ministry of religion….At the end of the audience the Pope bowed to the Muslim holy book, the Qu’ran, presented to him by the delegation, and he kissed it as a sign of respect. The photo of that gesture has been shown repeatedly on Iraqi television and it demonstrates that the Pope is not only aware of the suffering of the Iraqi people, he has also great respect for Islam.”From Wikipedia.

           7 likes

        • Doyle says:

          The ones who were beheaded (at Otranto) were the lucky ones.
          Archbishop Stefano Agricoli and others were killed in the cathedral, while Bishop Stephen Pendinelli and the garrison commander, count Francesco Zurlo, were sawed in two alive.

             12 likes

    • Ian Hills says:

      Priests who worked for the IRA are OK, though.

         8 likes

  24. chrisH says:

    Heard Michael Grade being asked on the Today show this morning about whether the British Film Industry was doing well, because of…or in spite of…the current governments policies.
    In the words of our “arts correspondent”…does the Government “get it”?
    Well Grade said …yes they do, brilliant year, Treasury very helpful and all that…and the trail went cold as the show ran up to the 7.30 news.
    I head off to the car, put the radio on…and our arts monkey says that they did have Grade on earlier, but it was only an “OK year” for the British Film Industry.
    Good Lord…Grade had not even left the studio…and wasn`t he some BBC grandee way back?
    But clearly his quote was not what was wanted, so the BBC made up their own spin of damned faint praise.
    Incredible-for Gods sake will someone cut the BBC back to size before they get an even brasser neck, even bigger pants to set on fire with their lies and massaging of what had actually been said!

       23 likes

  25. chrisH says:

    Pope-guilty of allowing child abuse and of upsetting Muslims at Regensburg, 2006.
    BBC-guilty of covering up for Savile and HIS child abuse.and letting Muslims use their offices to foment treason and incitement to terrorism.
    Yet we Catholics do have Bishops who get a vote….who the hell ever gets to vote for anybody at the BBC?
    Anybody know what “hypocrite” is in Latin?

       17 likes

  26. Pounce says:

    The bBC, the pro terrorist ethical latte drinking traitorous scum who rewrite history in which to promote their anti British agenda.

    Bomber Harris defends WWII bomber command in rare film
    Arthur Harris led RAF Bomber Command in World War II, earning him the nickname ‘Bomber Harris’. The British policy of ‘area’ bombing German cities including Cologne and Dresden made him a hugely controversial figure.

    The bBC love to attack those who give them their freedom, so Nazis Germany was bombed into the stone age in an all out war they started and according to the leftwing wankers at the bBC ‘Bomber ‘Harris was a very very naughty man. Yup bombing somebody is just soooo wrong, and we have parallels today with how US drone dish out justice from the air on those who utter Allah ackba as they slit another throat.

    But then to the bBC that is wrong, yet Nazis Germany invading France wasn’t, bombing Holland wasn’t,Bombing Belgium wasn’t, Bombing the Uk wasn’t on that note here is a website which shows you every bomb which Nazis Germany dropped on London (and London alone)
    http://bombsight.org/#11/51.4296/0.0937
    But according to the bBC there is nothing controversial about that is there.

    The bBC, the leftwing arseholes who brainwash the British public into thinking that they are all racist bastards and those who are trying to kill them are all victims

       20 likes

    • Pounce says:

      So on that note, which came first the bombing of London in 1940 or the bombing of Nazis cities between 1943 and 1945.

      The bBC, the traitors within our midst

         20 likes

    • Jonathan Whiteway says:

      Why do you assume that all those who critique the policy of RAF’s Bomber Command are lefties? Peter Hitchens most certainly isn’t. I suppose he’s a left-wing arsehole too.

         4 likes

      • stewart says:

        You have a point.Pity you added the last sentence I might have given you a like
        Not that you care as I’m quessing.

           3 likes

        • Jonathan Whiteway says:

          You’re right. Looking back, I did go a tad overboard with that last sentence. Sorry.

             2 likes

      • Pounce says:

        Johathan wrote:
        “Why do you assume that all those who critique the policy of RAF’s Bomber Command are lefties? Peter Hitchens most certainly isn’t. I suppose he’s a left-wing arsehole too.”

        Because the vast majority of revisionism history pushed out by the bBC has a leftist bent. Oh and for your info the whole premise that Dresden was a human rights crime (As promoted by the left) came from the pen of Nazis tool and apologist:
        David Irving
        The man the left love to play the victim card for;
        Irving criticises ‘Stalinist law’
        British historian David Irving has said he is the victim of a “world-wide attempt to silence” him.

        Historian Johathan? this shirt button who whitewashes the acts of Nazis state as invented, who was found guilty in a British court of law of denying the holocaust and you refer to him as a so called scholar . (Now I know where the shite that passes as horrible histories got its grounding from) What next Mo-Ham-head a man of peace?

        Tell you what old bean, try being smarter and I might try being nicer.

           10 likes

        • Pounce says:

          Apologies JW missquote on :
          ” you refer to him as a so called scholar . “
          JW never quoted the above and I will take that back with egg on my face.

             8 likes

      • Teddy Bear says:

        Can you really not see a difference between somebody expressing an opinion, and a body that represents TRUST pushing an agenda?

        I know most of here are used to referring to the BBC as left-wing, but I’ve been wondering recently if we’re not alienating left-wingers with that epithet.

        I wrote this yesterday elsewhere, but it seems to fit here:
        I’m wondering whether using left to indicate the stance of much of the media is correct, particularly the BBC. This implies that they have some sort of philosophy that they adhere to, some code that they believe in, that they can’t help trying to spread.

        Whatever they think ‘left’ to mean, I’m almost certain we’d probably find that they are hypocritical to that belief. Their agenda seems to be based on cowardice, greed, poor thinking, carelessness, low self esteem manifesting as a desire to push their own self importance, and that’s just for starters.

        Maybe ‘wrong’ would be a better way to term these vile scum. Yes rather than left or right, – wrong or right.

           4 likes

        • stewart says:

          “but I’ve been wondering recently if we’re not alienating left-wingers with that epithet.”
          Not this one.that the left has allowed its self to be hijacked by bourgeois self hating moral relativists is our problem not yours

             3 likes

        • johnnythefish says:

          I have to disagree, TB, if only because of the fact the BBC seems to cheerlead every policy/ideology with a Leftist bent, including mass immigration, unqualified defence of Islam, global warming (a thinly-disguised eco-Marxist agenda), the unions, public sector spending – not to mention its preferential treatment of Labour politicians and favouring of left-wing commentators in its programming, and its distaste for/opposition to anything associated with right-wing thought/politics – most blatantly played out through its ‘comedy’ programmes.

             11 likes

          • Teddy Bear says:

            I know exactly what you mean Johnny, which is why I’ve also referred to them in that way until now.

            But when you look closer you can also see that they are hypocritical to every one of their supposed beliefs in support of a very different agenda.

            It’s a bit like referring to a murderer as a socialist because he has an affinity for that type of political rule when we are discussing his crime. If we do so we miss the mark.

            The BBC are criminals, and a cancer on our society. WAAAAYYYY beyond left-wing.

               6 likes

  27. thoughtful says:

    Really? I wonder why this isn’t public knowledge?

    http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/ProjectsResearch/Race

    So more than a quarter of the prision population is of an ethnic background, pretty good going when they’re a 10% minority (if the figures are real!)

    No one ever seems to want to talk about it though. We all know the bBC response that it’s down to everyone picking on them and ‘racism’ (what ever that means this week).
    The thing is that no one can be sent to prison without trial and a legal defence, and the sentences for ethnic minorities are more lenient than for white people.

    It’s deeply shocking to find such a high percentage, more so because no one seems to want to talk about it.

       21 likes

    • wallygreeninker says:

      shush!

         13 likes

    • Dave s says:

      When they do get around to it what is the betting they will decide that it is the institutional racism of white society that is responsible.
      No liberal can ever face up to reality if it conflicts with a prime liberal directive.
      In this case the need to confront and acknowledge white guilt over just about everything.

         13 likes

      • Richard D says:

        The siren voices of the socialists have been doing just that for ages. It can’t possibly be that some groups are just inherently more likely to be involved in crime – and it can’t be that their peers, personal acquantances and relatives have more of a criminal mindset…..it must be the fact that the ‘white’ criminal justice system is prejudiced against them.

        I can recall similar arguments a while back trying to explain that certain groups of people had lower measured IQ because the measurement was skewed towards ‘white people’s intelligence’.

           11 likes

    • Picky20 says:

      Getting a strong whiff of ‘number massaging’ in this report, i.e. is a ‘Black Briton’ included in an ‘Ethnic Minority group’ or not? And where are those from who are not in the ‘African’ or ‘Asian’ groups from – are the other Europeans included or not? Would really need to see the parameters of this study for it to mean anything other than an agenda-driven attempt to make us feel guilty about ‘poor criminals’. If they hadn’t committed a crime they would not be there – at some stage in the process they make that choice.

         11 likes

    • Chop says:

      Just to redress the balance for you, here’s a few that got away:

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2277073/Two-brothers-organised-16-year-long-315-000-housing-Ilford-walk-free.html#axzz2Ke2pbawv

      Try not to smash your screens in anger chaps!

         17 likes

  28. JimS says:

    Some BBC Bias has a long history – today we are celebrating 50 years of BBC Beatles Bias.

    The Beatles, nice boys, not like the nasty Rolling Stones, became the pop group of choice, the establishment’s choice. And for 50 years the history of British Pop has been carefully written so that in the beginning there was just boring dance tunes for oldies and songs by another heroine of the BBC, Vera Lynn, (poor old Anne Shelton, the Forces Choice – never heard of her, what a surprise!). Then, pow! The BBC discovered Pop and Pop was the Beatles and the Beatles were Pop and that was all anyone needed to know!

       11 likes

    • pah says:

      Oh come on now. The Beatles were streets ahead of the Rolling Stones. There is hardly a duff Beatles track whereas there are whole albums of crud from the Stones.

      Donning flame retardant pants in three … two … one

         5 likes

      • JimS says:

        I think the Stones have music in their souls whereas the Beatles brought us Ringo and Wings and embarrassing Jubilee and Olympic performances from St. Paul while Mick still fills stadiums.

        My wider point though is that the BBC picks its favoured people/things and just keeps plugging them. It is like, “Radio Times – other listings magazines are available”. Compliant to the rules maybe but nobody else gets a mention.

        Remember the era of the DotComs’? Friends Reunited” was constantly plugged even though others had been doing the same for years and for free. Ditto Last Minute.Com. There might be a cosy conspiracy going on or it might just be lazy journalism. Ever notice how when and old, old record gets played everyone plays it, as if it has been fetched out of the archive and on its way back DJs rifle through the trolley as it passes their studios, easier than digging through the dungeon!

        The Beatles, other pop groups are available – but don’t expect us to make any fuss over them!

           3 likes

        • pah says:

          I will match your Ringo with a Charlie Watts and raise you a Bill Wyman!

          There are many Stones tracks that I like but whenever I hear them all I see is that gurning imbecile doing his turkey impression around the stage. It just spoils the whole effect.

          As to the BBC and it’s favourites I give you its denegration at every turn of Facebook and its constant lauding of Twitter. If I had the time or inclination I’d be tempted to try and find out what financial interests exist that are propelling it.

             3 likes

    • Joshaw says:

      Vera Lynn – excellent singer.

         4 likes

  29. George R says:

    Mass Immigration into Britain.

    BBC-NUJ catching up with reality very late in the day?:-

    “UK ‘must not be soft touch’ for migrants from Romania and Bulgaria”

    [Note to BBC-NUJ: they’re not ‘migrants’; they’re not going back,
    like migratory birds: they’re IMMIGRANTS.]

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21416257

       16 likes

  30. Pounce says:

    I was in the gym tonight and the while on the cross trainer, the geezer next to me was watching Al J on his TV screen (In our gym the machines have TVs) Unfortunately I was listening to my MP3 player an I did have bBC news 24 on mine, but I was really surprised to see that Al J was running with this story.
    Muslim Patrol’ police London streets
    From what I could see it was a real in-depth program and the people writing in on twitter didn’t hold back in their condemnation of radical Islam.

    I wonder when the so called Plastic Muslims at the bBC will emulate the real muslims at Al J and shine a light on this ugly attempt at intimidation by relgious bigots the bBC just doesn’t want to talk about.

    The bBC, the traitors in our midst

       23 likes

    • Pounce says:

      And people the bBC wants you all to bow down , stick your arse in the air and proclaim :
      “There is no god but Allah”

      Yeah right, the day , Liberal wankers make that law is the day I go hunting.

         16 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      I’ve found Al Jazeera to be more balanced on the issue than the BBC.

         10 likes

      • Alfie Pacino says:

        And isn’t that the sad truth? Al J aren’t tying themselves in knots or painting themselves into corners like the BBC. The BBC is desaperate to be taken ‘seriously’ by Islamic states and viewers to the point where they are now a complete joke, both at home and on the orld stage they are so desperat to dominate.

           1 likes

  31. Doyle says:

    Gavin Esler asks whether the new Pope should come from Africa or South America. Yep, it sounds like the BBC want a black Pope to go alongside a black POTUS. How about a black Director General beeboids or is that multiculturalism just for other people.

       25 likes

    • stewart says:

      They should be carefull what they wish for.

         15 likes

      • Dave s says:

        The average liberal boid does not think that far ahead. Black = approved liberal in their tiny minds.
        Somehow I don’t think so.

           3 likes

    • london calling says:

      Why does everyone use the approved term “black” when, looking at Obama, even the term “brown” is something of an overstatement. Is this some kind of artificial polarisation? He’s a ‘alf-rican. Time for a Green Pope

         14 likes

      • Doyle says:

        Well, he’s not exactly black more of a brown colour – n1gger brown perhaps?

           8 likes

        • Joshaw says:

          Oooooooooooo – you’re asking for trouble!

          Unfortunately, being told what to think brings out the worst in us. Perhaps rightly so.

          I worked with a gay man in the early 1970s when you could say what you liked, more or less. Never had a problem. However, the constant coverage of gay this and gay that is pissing me off in a big way. I’m really sick and tired of it.

             10 likes

          • David Lamb says:

            Listening to Radio 4 this morning I had the impression that the BBC want a modernising progressive Pope, but it was acknowledged that the resigning Pope had appointed many conservative Cardinals and they would play a part in electing the new Pope. I think the BBC want the next Pope to be a lesbian supporting gay marriage and holding progressive views on alternative family structures

               7 likes

            • Dave s says:

              The BBC/liberal elite will never understand the Catholic Church. Used to instant gratification of their every whim they are at a loss dealing with an ancient organisation which thinks in centuries.
              The Catholic Church will outlast the liberal idiocy of this century and I say that as a non Catholic.

                 4 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        He’s mixed race and therefore had a great unifying story to give to the American people.

        Instead he deliberately chose to portray himself as black.

        Now we can see why.

           4 likes

  32. Biodegradable says:

    An Alice In Wonderland moment if ever there was!

    Today Programme rapped over Golan Heights report

       11 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      About time the Trust tackled the blatant pro-Israeli bias on Today.

      Beyond parody.

         11 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Maybe the Trust should simply publish a monthly list of when the BBC does, actually, really ‘get it about right’?
      Anything’s better than this parody of self-analysis claimed as investigation and objective decision.
      One look at their ‘have any of these answered your complaint?’ options show they cherry-pick what they feel like addressing to either look like they are on the ball or can’t be expected to please everyone.
      Of course this will be used as a clear example of balance.
      I however remain sceptical on the value of a corpse whose liver temp suggests health by being halfway between a freezer and an oven. It’s still a rotting corpse.
      Also, like Eskimos and snow the BBC seems unique with variations of accuracy that are intriguing, with ‘”not duly accurate” seemingly covering a multitude of vague.

         7 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      This is the kind of thing the BBC holds up as evidence that they’re impartial and balanced over the long term coverage of a topic. They get complaints from both sides, as we see here. To add to the proof, this faux pas of Humphrys has since been nicely balanced out by several BBC reports rewriting history so that 1967 is Year Zero, and that Israel deliberately conquered the Golan and East Jerusalem and the West Bank for no reason whatsoever. The most recent example about the Golan was just last week.

         5 likes

  33. AsISeeIt says:

    A major scandal has emerged as BBC news reports have tested positive for the presence of horseshit.
    A spot check on an item recently purveyed by their Newsnight outlet and described by the BBC as ‘news beef’ has been found to contain 100% horseshit.
    The BBC has blamed their suppliers. A BBC spokeswoman insisted that the public were placed in no danger by consuming BBC horseshit. She emphasised that this was simply a technical ‘labelling’ issue.
    However, BBC horseshit is an unregulated substance and there are fears that it is often heavily infected with an element known as ‘Bias’. Anti-Conservatoryism Bias-a-fan is a powerful drug known to be harmful to the British people, their traditions and culture.
    The Prime Minister David Cameron said this was an internal BBC issue and he dare not interfere.
    BBC European correspondents have pointed out that horseshit is considered to be a delicacy in France and it is widely consumed throughout the EU. BBC World Service reporters have voiced calls for BBC horseshit to be passed free of charge to the developing world, where it is deemed a welcome supplement to meagre local news diets.

       43 likes

    • Richard D says:

      Brilliant.

         13 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Many a true word….

      Excellent.

         11 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Nearly £150 a kilo too( none of that imperial stuff at the BBC).
      Predigested too , so we don`t have to do any testing (God forbid, force-feeding) of this Salford Shit.
      The sound of Todays presenters in the morning is mere musing and ruminations about getting rid of the real news from Rupert….and inheriting his pension pots, with no effort or risk to themselves.
      Would Fray Bentos care to inspect the BBC pedigrees, give them a Steve Wright “stiffkit” and send them to Romania for rendering into “viande delice”…we`ll take a few Romas and the Big Issue Merc in return…..

         10 likes

    • london calling says:

      I take my hat of to you, sir (metaphorically).

      Apparently horseshit was first detected in Helen Boaden’s DNA. They were expecting to find impartiality.

         9 likes

  34. AsISeeIt says:

    Interestingly the Rota Fortunae (Wheel of Fortune) was a concept in medieval and ancient philosophy referring to the capricious nature of Fate.

    Appropriate then that Nicky Campbell is making lame quips about medieval Popes. Sadly he is stuck in Salford giving a BBC platform for calls for a new ‘progressive Pope’. (Is Labour putting up a candidate?)

    Lucky Rachel Burden meanwhile is in St Peter’s Square taking in some February sunshine. She is chatting with Italian reporters and describing the ice cream stalls.

    Oh the fickle Wheel of Fortune! The goddess Fortuna, who spins it at random, changing the positions of those on the wheel – some suffer great misfortune, others gain windfalls.

       10 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      I’ve had to turn off BBC 5 Live.

      Do let me know when Nicky Campbell has a hissy fit over the all-Cardinal short list for the new Pope.

      Thanks.

         12 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      For ‘progressive’ read ‘anything goes’.

         7 likes

    • Mark says:

      O Fortuna, velut luna, semper variabilis.

      That was a famous line written by some Bavarian monks in the 12th century, and could have remained obscure until Carl Orff set it to music !

         6 likes

      • AsISeeIt says:

        Mark, when BBC broadcasting is so dumbed down these days it is pleasing to see that there are still a few happy souls who can appreciate the higher arts.

        Sadly I was forced to flee Radio 4 – as a political refugee. The unhappy land I now inhabit is BBC 5 Live. The news is both ‘lite’ and leftist, and the sport too.

        What can I say….?

        Fortuna Düsseldorf play in the Bundesliga.

           7 likes

      • Teddy Bear says:

        Carmina Burana
        O luck,
        like the moon
        Changeable in state,
        you are always waxing
        or waning;
        hateful life
        is one moment hard
        and the next watches over
        the mind’s acumen in gambling;
        poverty,
        power,
        it melts like ice.

        They were more accurately vagrant monks – wanderers. Religious believers but they tempered their Christianity with relish for the delights of the bed.

        I believe I would have enjoyed their company.

           0 likes

  35. thoughtful says:

    Today Programme

    Did anyone else hear the interview with the UK Communist party just before 9:00am?
    The warmth of the interviewer Sarah Montague was quite remarkable, far too friendly for an independant unbiased broadcaster interviewing a far left extremist group. It sounded like she’d met an old friend.

       21 likes

    • Wild says:

      “It sounded like she’d met an old friend.”

      Whereas if she had been talking with an advocate of free markets………..

      seeking to give people choices……

      and reduce taxes……….

      and decrease the size of the State

      they would be treated like the enemy; which of course they are, if you are a Stalinist.

         18 likes

  36. johnnythefish says:

    I feel somewhat reassured that the UK (or rather, England) is not going to be swamped with Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants as many have feared.

    Our intrepid BBC Today reporter, displaying in spades the myriad virtues we’ve come to expect from the stable of the world’s greatest investigative journalism, roamed amongst the Romanian people seeking soothing reassurances that nobody is really interested in coming here becuase they have low unemployment anyway, they are more interested in a rural way of living, they have already done the ‘working abroad’ thing in countries like Spain, etc etc.

    The only fly in the ointment was one forthright lady who opined that the only ones interested would be those who don’t want to work. How many thousands of these workshy potential child traffickers and benefit-grabbers there might be nobody actually said.

    The BBC – bringing a Disneyfied version of the EU across the airwaves and into your home.

       21 likes

    • Ian Hills says:

      Very witty – “stable of the world’s greatest investigative journalism”. But horse shit belongs to another comment thread on this post.

         2 likes

  37. George R says:

    BBC-NUJ ‘Today’: mass immigration forgotten; but David ‘Canute’ Miliband rules the waves.

    BBC ‘Today’ promised item on immigration, but other political priorities seem to have stopped it being broadcast this morning.

    So we didn’t get this, as was promised:

    “Just how many Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants are likely come to the UK later this year? ”

    -BBC ‘Today’ top of today’s page.

    Instead we got BBC ‘Today’ pushing Labour’s David ‘Canute’ Miliband as global ruler of the seas, spouting more ‘expert’ catastrophic climate propaganda:-

    0820
    “Who governs the seas? Almost half the earth’s surface is covered by waters that no country owns, so how do you stop overfishing and how do you make sure such a valuable part of our world is protected? A new international effort – the Global Ocean Commission – is launched today to try to find an answer. We speak to its British co-chair, the former Foreign Secretary David Miliband.”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qhqrq/live

       14 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘BBC ‘Today’ promised item on immigration, but other political priorities seem to have stopped it being broadcast this morning.’
      Sounds like a quick word in shell-likes was passed on in a corridor by one of those in no way editorial-influencing, uncurious, butt-plugging ways the BBC top brass likes to attempt.
      Be nice to find out why they didn’t cover what they said they would.
      Last time their attempts at explanation of such a thing were spectacular, to say the least.
      Maybe The Oldie could ask, followed by ITV?

         7 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Maybe they get their data from a body akin to the Met Office, and were not keen on making other predictions that would lay them open to ri.. further ridicule, and possible accusations of being less of a news service and more of a propaganda bureau?

         6 likes

    • Richard D says:

      I listened to this fawning BBC love-fest this morning, and waited to hear which global authority had set up the ‘Global Ocean Commission’…… and waited, and waited….. but answer came there none.

      So the BBC basically gives free airtime to self-serving, self-appointing, groups of people who purport to tell the world what to do ? Not content with all the other unelected global bodies, we now have Mr David Milliband, deciding that he has the authority to rule a vast part of the world. I did note with interest, that when the interviewer asked ‘Do you have the support of the US on this ?’, Mr Miliband was allowed to waffle on till he could change the subject, and didn’t get asked the same question again – contrast that with the sort of behaviour one gets with BBC news-readers (I won’t call them reporters) when questioning a member of our current government. Just like the IPCC and its cronies, this bunch isn’t going to have to answer any awkward questions – at least, not from the BBC.

      So – not getting any answers from Mr Milliband, I went to Global Ocean Command (for surely that’s what it purports to be), to find out what I wanted to know.

      Well, first of all, as far as I can see – despite its own version of its title, it has not been ‘commissioned’ by any relevant august body – other than itself. Secondly, the members are, of course, not democratically elected – basically they seem to be self-appointed – no mention of any relevant skills, knowledge or experience in the field whatsoever (28gate, anyone ?)

      Then we have the section on their web-site where I thought I might find some useful information…. the ‘Mandate’…. but no, it does not discuss any authoritative body delegating any sort of mandate to the GOC, but rather, the mandate it has decided to award itself.

      And, of course, no mention whatsoever on who is funding this group – and you can bet it won’t come cheap. But, despite being unable to provide any evidence of any real ‘independence’, you can bet the IPCC will welcome anything it says – as will the BBC – after all, it’s our own Mr Milliband wot’s chairman (well, one of three) – and since the Labour Party doesn’t want him, he’s in desperate need of some British organistion to cuddle him.

      I did however notice from its website, that the inaugural commission meeting will be in a few weeks time – in Capetown ! Nice ‘jolly’ if you can get it – and pretty much like all the other ‘environmental’ groups, it chooses very nice locations to meet and spend other peoples’ money.

      No questions from the BBC on any of these issues – just a simple ‘pass’ for Mr Miliband to try to look important on the world stage. Boy, is this state media broadcaster so far off being investigative and informative that it hurts.

         16 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        ‘So the BBC basically gives free airtime to self-serving, self-appointing, groups of people who purport to tell the world what to do ?’
        And they call it ‘news’ or, sometimes, ‘analysis’.
        Education and information via actual reporting… not so much.
        Guessing the Charter guidelines have evolved with a semantic weasel to explain the change?

           8 likes

        • Richard D says:

          Hold on a second, though – what about the atmosphere – there’s no world body in charge of the atmosphere is there ?

          So come Monday next, listen out for the BBC Today report on my new commission to regula – sorry, to investigate – issues surrounding the atmosphere – and while I’m at it, I think I’ll fund it by taxing any airlines which move out of national airspace into international airspace, and charge any broadcasters whose emissions reach, or leak out over, international waters for the privelege. (I’m calculating the BBC bill at the moment, but it’s looking to be close to £4bn). That should sort out the funding for my inauguration meeting in Sydney, Australia (why ? because I like Sydney – now push off with the stupid questions !)

          Any volunteers to sit on this commission with me ? Won’t cost you much !

             11 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        Not long before we’re hearing quotes on the BBC from the authoritative Global Ocean Commission, I’ll wager – all supporting the catastrophic climate change narrative, of course.

           9 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          ‘quotes on the BBC from the authoritative Global Ocean Commission’
          Of course, it’s just another version of the BBC/Graun spiral of mutual confirmation bias.
          The Beeb does a nice write up on this curiously vague outfit (coincidentally headed on the comms front by an ex-Beeboid I believe), this giving them credible status.
          They then can feed the BBC mutually rewarding #prasnews with no further need for context, like most other ‘bodies’ the BBC is complicit in establishing to push a narrative that suits their world view.
          Professional reporting with integrity it is not.
          How long before a plane is headed somewhere nice on a GOC mission with a gliderful of BBC paras-ites in tow on the national tab to relay their ‘findings’ back to a trusting public?

             5 likes

      • Ian Hills says:

        “I did however notice from its website, that the inaugural commission meeting will be in a few weeks time – in Capetown.”

        Would that be the same Capetown where no-one was very interested in global warming at a conference last year?

           4 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      What a giveaway of their true goal: One Un-Elected World Government to control it. No wonder Richard Black is their propaganda director. He’s called for such a thing before.

         6 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        Good recall.

        ‘In a nutshell: does the way humanity governs itself need a series of tweaks or a complete overhaul, in order to meet the broadest ambitions of improving the lot of the planet’s poorest, safeguarding nature and making the global economy more sustainable?’

        The aims of UN Agenda 21 ‘in a nutshell’ (and he thinks he’s being so subtle).

           2 likes

  38. David Brims says:

    Rachel Burden on Radio 5 this morning ” I’m in Rome, standing in front of a dome, surrounded by columns, next to an obelisk !!”

    I suppose this is what Chris Patten calls ” World class journalism .” If SKYs Alistair Bruce was presenting, he would have given a detailed description, telling us the names, biography, of the people who designed and built the place.

       20 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘surrounded by columns, next to an obelisk ‘
      Possibly not for the first time, given the career path to competence disconnect.
      She makes Kay Burley seem almost on the ball, as it were.

         7 likes

    • wallygreeninker says:

      Perhaps she momentarily forgot whether it was David or Gian Lorenzo Bernini who designed the square – it can happen to the best of us.

         7 likes

    • Marsh says:

      She isn’t the best and rarely has her facts right.

         2 likes

    • Reed says:

      Sky’s Alistair Bruce – now there’s quality.

      Sky News ought to give him a regular role – somewhat like John Simpson’s roving reporter gig… but much, much better.

         2 likes

  39. George R says:

    “Liam Keelan lands the BBC job he’s ‘always wanted to do’: Shame the post is newly created”
    By EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE.

    “The recession does not seem to have affected adversely the BBC’s penchant for exotic job titles. Daytime TV controller Liam Keelan (salary £200,000) has snubbed Sky, where he was due to become director of Sky1, to become ‘global editorial director’ at BBC Worldwide, presumably for a more generous financial package. Keelan declares: ‘This is a job I’ve always wanted to do.’ How curious. The post is newly created.”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2277192/Liam-Keelan-lands-BBC-job-hes-wanted-Shame-post-newly-created.html

       10 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘How curious. The post is newly created.’
      Also, if that BBC insider’s post is to be believed, filled internally without any of that seeking the best person for the job that has so served the BBC with its ‘BFF’ hiring policies of late.
      Actually… I thought that was breaking some guideline or other.
      Maybe it was another, unique, ‘different time’?

         7 likes

      • AsISeeIt says:

        ‘How curious. The post is newly created.’

        Ditto ‘BBC Arts Editor’ Will Gompertz

        http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1216375/BBC-Newss-150-000-star-arts-editor-reported-presented-needs-months-training.html#axzz2Kh1jeDLZ
        Meet BBC News’s £150,000 ‘star’ arts editor. He’s never reported or presented TV and he needs three months’ training

        BBC: Jobs for the boys…. & girls…. & boy-girls… & girl-boys

           10 likes

        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          One look at the photo of Gompertz and then seeing the name and gender of one of the losing candidates told me all I needed to know about why there’s consternation inside.

          No, not really. It was the bit about his getting an audience to draw pictures of penises that summed up his qualifications for me. They’d have hired him on the strength of that even if he didn’t socialize with top management. Has Razia Iqbal ever done anything so cutting edge? Maybe if she did a project like this charming woman did, she’d have a chance. Better luck next time, Razia.

          Actually, I thought Gompertz already more or less functioned as the BBC arts editor. It takes three months of training to learn how to read a teleprompter?

             5 likes

  40. David Brims says:

    Again, Rachel Burden

    ” There’s a lot of talk that there might be a first black Pope.”

    Wishful thinking, perhaps ? It should have read,” There’s a lot of talk inside the BBC that there might be a first black Pope.”

       20 likes

    • Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

      How long before one of the dim bBBC PC-bimbos wonders when there will be a woman Pope?

         19 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      It’s too bad TImothy Dolan hasn’t been in his New York post very long. Otherwise he’d be on the list as well. The Beeboids would absolutely HATE having a white American Pope.

         6 likes

    • Reed says:

      “A black Pope is the liberal establishment’s worst nightmare. Like Margaret Thatcher becoming Britain’s first women prime minister all over again. Only worse.”

      If moral relativism is the Left’s Achilles heel, then racial moral relativism is the Left’s broken metatarsal. Dine out in north London, and you find yourself tripping over veterans of the protests against Apartheid. Seek out veterans of the protests against the Mugabe regime, and you’ll be disappointed. Unless you’re dining with Peter Tatchell.

      Pope Turkson would mess with the Left’s head. A Ghanian becomes the most influential black man on the planet. But he also rejects the use of condoms to fight the spread of HIV. Yet he’s a fierce critic of global capitalism, and a strong advocate of banking reform. But he’s also dismissed African homophobia as “commensurate with tradition”. The Occupy movement wouldn’t know whether to adopt him or picket him.

      Turkson would still have his critics. But they’d be quietly marginalised, like those people who bang on about Barack Obama’s drones. “Yeah,” the mainstream Left says. “It’s a bit naughty. But they’re not George Bush’s drones.”

      http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danhodges/100202578/a-black-pope-would-be-the-liberal-lefts-worst-nightmare/

         1 likes

    • Rueful Red says:

      There has of course already been a black pope, but one wouldn’t expect the Beeboids to know that.

         1 likes

  41. Betty Swollocks says:

    Why is it when they do a News report about Education, they always seem to choose a 99% Ethnic School ? My old Mum made me laugh once she said ‘I am not interested in an Indian School’ I said it’s in West London Mum, she said more like Londistan!!!

       18 likes

    • wallygreeninker says:

      In the latest part of Goodall’s documentary about the history of music he had four groups of four school-uniformed girls singing London’s Burning as a round -he was explaining what a fugue was. He pointedly said that it was a song still known to all the children of London and must have come up with at least eight ethnic groups to be represented among the sixteen girls. Even in a documentary about Bach and his contemporaries!

         16 likes

      • David Brims says:

        David Attenborough could have saved himself the trip to Africa to film his documentary and stayed in London and filmed it there.

        Here’s some London ”wildlife.”

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oWn6_lwQQQ

           10 likes

      • Joshaw says:

        Reminded me of that children’s orchestra they found for the Olympics opening ceremony. Not a typical youth orchestra by any stretch, and I’ve seen a few.

           9 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Yes, while the chamber orchestra he conducts in various segments is basically all white, and not all very young, either. The singers in the medieval/renaissance section were also all hideously white. Of course, he needed quality of outcome there, rather than equality of outcome.

           8 likes

    • Dave s says:

      It’ s a BBC prime directive. No white children to be shown unless it cannot be avoided.
      Mind you what with “white flight” from inner London it is probably a true reflection of reality.

         16 likes

  42. Guest Who says:

    BBC News – Woman’s Hour power list
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21420189?postId=115302051#comment_115302051
    Highest rated comment so far suggests there is hope

       9 likes

    • Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

      Comments are closed already.
      I expect the bBBC got it about right.

         5 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Open 7hrs ago, closed already for one.
        No working licence fee payers allowed.
        What may have lead to the closing, who knows?

           7 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      And the “Editor’s Pick” is an anti-royal rant, which has a -7 rating from the readers, rather than the pro-Queen and anti-politician comment from one Maj. Bloodnok, which has +18 from the readers.

      So tiresome and predictable. Fingers on the pulse, eh, BBC?

         11 likes

    • Reed says:

      35. paulmerhaba

      My black and decker drill, called Betty, is quite powerful. Can you add her to the list for next year? Ta.
      🙂

         3 likes

  43. Guest Who says:

    Nigeria Wazobia FM journalists held over polio deaths http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21425923
    ‘incited the public’
    Brave BBC… brave, all things considered

       7 likes

  44. chrisH says:

    Listening to the World At One.
    The case of Cait Reilly-the Poundland job refugee is getting full publicity….hurray for the little lady eh? That`ll turn the Tories over.
    Meanwhile the case of Carol Hill-the dinner lady sacked for telling the parents of a girl at her school about severe sustained bullying has not, will not be getting mentioned.
    For Carole won HER appeal today that she was right to tell the parents what had happened to their girl at school…that the head was wrong to try and hush up the incidents and then to sack Mrs Hill.
    But the BBC won`t be happy about that…for, like Tony Martin, Ralph Bulger…it`s the wrong was…it only shows Labour up for their means of “combating murder, burglary and bullying…to denigrate, sack, hush up and pay the massagers double time to convince us that we`re all chavvy bigots for “taking the law into our own hands”.
    BBC…spineless swine, cemented minds…to quote Morrissey, who ought to know!

       28 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      ‘Carol Hill-the dinner lady sacked for telling the parents of a girl at her school about severe sustained bullying…’

      As far as the BBC is concerned this lady is the wrong kind of whistle blower.

         17 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘The case of Cait Reilly-the Poundland job refugee is getting full publicity….hurray for the little lady eh?’
      I wonder how much they’ll be evolving the story with this:?
      http://crashbangwallace.com/2013/02/12/poundland-slavery-graduate-finds-work-in-morrisons/
      Not germane, I guess.
      Still, if the BBC ever lets up on the anti-fracking campaigning, there may even be more work in geology… you never know.
      Ironic, eh?

         4 likes

  45. chrisH says:

    Line 10…wrong “war”…not was!..Sorry!

       1 likes

  46. Richard D says:

    Oh, I notice that the Labour Party has, apparently realtively easily, managed to find time, from within the small amount available to opposition politicians, to create a debate this afternoon on the horsemeat issue.

    Didn’t notice the Labour Party rushing forward, using its parliamentary time, to force a debate on the Stafford Hospital issue ?

    I wonder why that might be ?….. and I wonder if Mr Burnham will find time to surface on the debate this afternoon ?

       26 likes

    • Reed says:

      Mr. Burnham seems to be mimicking Gordon Brown’s Macavity act.

      Shame there are apparently no journalists available in the UK to ask the obvious…
      “Mr. Miliband, where’s the shadow health secretary these days?”

      Not going to come from the BBC, obviously. Year zero. (©BBC)

         2 likes

  47. AsISeeIt says:

    I hear the BBC has at last bowed to pressue and come out against the all-Cardinal short list for the next Pope.

    In future a progressive Common Purpose-led and BBC approved in-house team will draw up a more diverse shortlist.

    Prominent among the members of this new selection panel will be Clare Balding and Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson.

    Mind you, I bet Bradley Wiggins still wins the popular vote.

       16 likes

    • +james says:

      I was listening to Newsnight last night and the BBC were calling for Catholic priestesses and bishopesses.

      But I have never heard the BBC call for women Mullahs or Imans. Nor the desegregation of Mosques in this country.

      The BBC seems to be pretty picky when it comes to promoting it’s progressive agenda for certain religions.

         27 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        I’ll be impressed if this tempts a Flokker out with an example.
        If so, that bunker in the foyer may need reinforcing.

           6 likes

    • Chop says:

      Now, if only Mo “The Mobot” Farrah would have a sex change…

         3 likes

  48. Guest Who says:

    Have to say, the BBC, and especially Newsnight, remains very ‘brave’ with the notions it espouses:
    BBC Newsnight ‏@BBCNewsnight
    Indy editor Chris Blackhurst: “We still have brands people want … you want to know someone’s checked factual news.” #newsnight

    And the brands that don’t check… and hence are found only wanting?

       6 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Rather wryly noting that, in the clip they are featuring (with all sorts of goodies, like Gavin showing real concern for those seeking to gain and keep paying audiences… not a big problem when you have a compelled fee) on their site feed, the moment the young lady from the Mirror (ably complemented in media bias terms by the man from the… Indy) mentions McAlpine (Rather oddly. Dear Ms. B… the BBC used our money to buy him off for using our money to get it about as wrong as they could), the clip gets terminated.
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21425894
      The BBC: holding power to acc…

         6 likes

  49. thoughtful says:

    No chance of these making the BBC news despite how serious the crimes are (or aren’t when you have an ethnic background)
    http://www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/news-features/8/news-headlines/77703/suspended-sentence-for-nurse

    http://www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/news-features/8/news-headlines/77747/news-full#comments

       12 likes

  50. Richard D says:

    And CNN falls into the same trap as the BBC – basically blaming EVERYTHING on Global Warming.

    News -reader (or ‘anchor’ as senior news-readers are known in the US) Deborah Feyerick, shortly after talking about a snow-storm, lets slip what all the best weather ‘alarmists’ think these days…

    ‘We want to bring in our science guy, Bill Nye, and talk about something else that’s falling from the sky, and that is an asteroid,’ Feyerick says. ‘What’s coming our way? Is this the effect of, perhaps, global warming? Or is this just some meteoric occasion?’

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2277529/CNN-anchor-suggests-meteor-hurtling-Earth-result-global-warming.html#axzz2Kb0cQdRw

    And the ‘science guy’ basically waffles on about the origin of the words meteor and meteorology…couldn’t bring himself to call the airhead what she really is.

       10 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      The BBC seems pretty big on creating new roles, so maybe they can be persuaded to have a Head of Space Cadet Recruitment to lure such US talent here?
      Personally, I am wondering how I would have grasped the story without the kindly reproduced NASA illustration of a rock, and the Earth, positioned in space together.
      A diagram of the track path would have been really daft, as it was only passing within certain geosynch satellite orbits.

         3 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      This is actually an example, in a way, of how there’s an institutional bias rather than some official memo handed down telling the on-air talent what to say on specific issues. They all believe this stuff anyway, and hiring practices ensure a comfy self-selecting process, so there’s no need. Nobody in upper CNN management told her to say that. Feyerick came up with that all on her own. And Billy Nye, a self-styled “science educator” and former host of a children’s science show (he studied mechanical engineering, but has no advanced degrees other than a couple of honorary gongs), just let her say it. He’s a committed Warmist, too, so could really say nothing. Like I said, they all believe the same thing coming in.

      At the BBC, of course, not only do they all believe it with all their hearts, but this religious belief led the top bosses to hold that Warmist conclave so they could ensure the spread of The Word throughout the Corporation’s broadcasting. They needn’t have bothered, really, but they also thought that meeting was supposed to give them a rock-solid alibi. Instead, it turned out to show them up as liars.

      Devout religious belief of this sort can do funny things to a person sometimes.

         18 likes