MONDAY OPEN THREAD…

You would have needed a heart of stone NOT to laugh at Evan Davis this morning when he was advised by Ed Davey re the floods  “It’s been 300 years since there were floods like this, it’s unprecedented” Haha! New open thread for you.

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297 Responses to MONDAY OPEN THREAD…

  1. Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

    The bBBC’s most important sports ‘news’ of the day is, you’d guessed it, about the sexual choices of the 15th best player in American college football, Michael Sam. No, me neither.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/american-football/26119059

       63 likes

    • David Brims says:

      Talking of American football, this Coco Cola advert featured in the Super Bowel. Michael Savage wanted to throw a brick at the television, I can see where he’s coming from. The American cowboy at the very beginning lulls you into a false sense of security, then it suddenly goes all New World Order on us. Quite sickening, but Cola Cola has form on this, I remember a 1970s Ad in which they wanted ” To teach the whole world to sing in perfect harmony.” Note the gay couple teaching their daughter to skate, very subtle.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MEsOzzunPQ

      1970s Ad

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1NeogMh1JI

      Ramzpaul said what Coco Cola is doing is sticking two fingers at America and saying ”F**k you ! ”

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgqh6DG4mNc

         19 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      Why does the NFL have to “welcome” the announcement? Why can’t their spokesman say “That’s nice for you” and just ignore him? Wouldn’t that be true equality?

         40 likes

    • Scott says:

      Where by “most important sports news”, You mean “the BBC featured one story align gaudy Manu others, including its blanket coverage of the Winter Olympics.”

      But then, dishonesty is a common trait amongst Biased BBC commenters. But you just know that it’s going to be the people who point that out that will be vilified, as usual.

      Because in the world of Biased BBC it’s far more important to be outraged than it is to be honest.

         11 likes

      • Scott says:

        Gah. iPads really have trouble with autocorrect on here – the preview script slows text entry down so much it seems to lose whole chunks of text. I’m not even sure how it decided “among many others” should come out as “align gaudy Manu others”…

           1 likes

        • Andy S. says:

          Scott, you ARE a self-righteous bore aren’t you! Any mention of the way the BBC treats stories about gay luvvies and you come jumping in the way a fly targets a cow’s arse.

          Are you in a state of permanent grievance, or is it just an affectation?

          I, for one, cannot understand why the coming out of a sportsman all but unknown in this country, indeed plays in an AMERICAN sport, is deemed newsworthy in Britain? Mentioning the British female soccer player who’s just admitted to being gay I can just about understand, but an NFL player?

          Anyway, why should someone admitting being gay be deemed newsworthy in the first place? I would think the subject would be a matter that’s personal to that person and his/her family.

          You see, Scott, to narcissists like you, being gay is you raison detré. The rest of us couldn’t give a damn.

          So you’re gay – LIVE WITH IT!!!

             63 likes

          • F*** the Beeb says:

            A case of him protesting too much, I reckon, overcompensating for his own bigotry by trying to infer it onto others while deliberately missing the point of what they actually said. A bit like those who said Roy Hodgson was racist because he made a joke about a monkey with a black player present, even though only a racist scumbag would even make that connection.

            But then, people like Scott aren’t interested in adding anything to a discussion, they’re only interested in ‘winning’ – even if that means tackling a completely different, often utterly unconnected and irrelevant straw man construct in order to make themselves believe they’ve somehow triumphed.

            And then he accuses others of immaturity yet feels the need to repeatedly reaffirm this to a supposedly immature audience rather than, say, stop coming here and wasting his time on us.

            There’s not enough toilets in the world to flush the amount of shit he comes out with.

               20 likes

          • Scott says:

            I, for one, cannot understand why the coming out of a sportsman all but unknown in this country, indeed plays in an AMERICAN sport, is deemed newsworthy in Britain?

            I don’t know, maybe there are licence fee payers who are interested in all aspects of world news? Just a thought. Sorry if you can’t cope with that concept. It’s really not a difficult one to grasp, but I fully appreciate that you may have problems.

            The rest of us couldn’t give a damn.

            And yet, every time somebody mentions something level-headed about gay people, you whine and whine and whine. You really are insecure, aren’t you?

            I’m quite happy being gay. It’s part of who I am, but not the whole. At the same time, when ignorant little scrotes seek to belittle me because of that part, I don’t have a problem with pushing back a little. If you want to try and drown out your own insecurities by whining about gay people, lying about the content of Channel 4 films, and the like, don’t be surprised when people point fingers at you and laugh at your general ineptitude.

            If you were to behave like a mature adult, you might find people treat you as such. If you, or F*** the Beeb, or anybody else, behaves like a lying, bigoted adolescent, don’t be surprised if you’re called out on it.

               9 likes

            • Andy S. says:

              Ooh! My, what a typically bitchy response from Scott!

              You may not like this, Scott, but my dislike of you is not because of your sexuality, but because you are a bitchy little creep. You may presume to know my motives for making particular comments, but once again you are WRONG!!!

              I know it may pain you, but there are people in the real world who are sick to the back teeth of “professional” gays constantly banging on about their sexuality and blaming homophobia on their own failings in life. AND that includes many gays who just want to have a quiet life and believe gay advocates like yourself give give them a bad name.

              I suggest you get a life for Christmas.

                 13 likes

      • mo says:

        You are funded by the public to be dishonest Scott. We are not

           41 likes

        • Scott says:

          I’m not funded by the public at all.

          But you’re right, Biased BBC isn’t funded to be dishonest. You lot do it for free.

             10 likes

          • GCooper says:

            You are a fool, Scott – a fool and a troll.

            You know perfectly well that serious points are made here day in, day out about bias shown by the BBC, yet you studiously ignore those, preferring to dip in here and there to take a grab at some of the low hanging fruit which is bound to appear on any comment section open to the public.

            And yet on the major issues, where there is clear evidence of bias, what do we hear from you? Nothing.

            It isn’t hard to work out why: because you know you have no way of countering the truth.

            You do what ‘progressives’ always do when confronted with facts they cannot gainsay. You just pretend they don’t exist.

               19 likes

      • Teddy Bear says:

        Because in the world of Biased BBC it’s far more important to be outraged than it is to be honest.
        Sounds like your treatise. Here’s your last 4 posts. Nothing related to BBC, just your typical ‘outrage’ and ad hominem attacks.
        What a complete jerk you are! And you wonder why you get the comments you do.

        Scott 7:27 You “try and open a dialogue”? Really? How does repeatedly – and falsely – accusing me of posting under multiple identities open a dialogue?
        Sun Feb 09, 2014 22:50 I’m not going to delete an old post just because some small-minded, grubby little troll on the internet shows himself up by attempting to make some sort of capital out of it. If those sort of people want to expose their adolescent inhumanity, let them. The more people who know that they’re not to be trusted, the better.
        Sun Feb 09, 2014 21:48
        Comment on Weekend Open Thread by Scott
        by Scott via New Biased BBC
        So you admit that your description was a lie? And yet somehow I’m the bad guy. Go you. Still, at least upstanding moral individuals like someone who calls himself “F*** the Beeb” are keeping you company.

        But by all means carry on trying to pretend you’re superior to everyone else. It’s hilarious.
        Sat Feb 08, 2014 23:28
        Comment on Weekend Open Thread by Scott
        by Scott via New Biased BBC
        I get exercised about all homophobia. However, I do not target it in the way that Biased BBC wants me to, to reinforce their own nasty, petty little bigotries. I refuse to have my life and opinions ruled by a tiny group of sad little men who whine on this website because they have no ability to treat the world with sense and maturity.

           40 likes

        • Mat says:

          . ‘I refuse to have my life and opinions ruled by a tiny group of sad little men who whine on this website because they have no ability to treat the world with sense and maturity’
          And yet here you are Scotty? refusing again and again !

             34 likes

          • F*** the Beeb says:

            Funny as well that he chose to say ‘men’ even though several contributors are female. But again, in Scott’s deluded little neo-liberal landscape white men are the enemy. Considering Scott is a white man himself I can only assume everything he says is the result of pathological self-loathing, which would explain why he chooses to spend more time posting vapid nonsense on here while claiming to hate the place and its users than on adding content to his own website.

               35 likes

        • F*** the Beeb says:

          Scott obviously doesn’t understand the term ‘maturity,’ since he exhibits none of it in any single one of his fowl-mouthed, frothing, keyboard-spamming and misplaced attempts at trying to look superior to everyone else on a website that he claims to have no respect for yet wastes hours of every day replying to. I treat everybody else on here with respect, but in the case of Scott I fight fire with fire since he only knows how to post personal attacks and straw man bullshit to try and make a name for himself and get hits for the website he doesn’t update anymore because he spends all his time on here. It’s truly mesmerising in how tragically pathetic it is.

          What’s even sadder is that there have been many people who have expressed sympathy towards Scott because of his blog a few months ago where he sounded depressed (not that this in any way excuses him for acting like a jumped-up little shit for the last countless months, since the overwhelming majority of people with depression do not do this) and even then he showed a hilarious lack of humility and couldn’t even thank or acknowledge that people were extending an olive branch of sorts to him, instead choosing to attack AGAIN.

          That’s all Scott knows how to do – aimlessly spew bile and venom towards people who have different opinions from him, regardless of how informed those opinions actually are. I can only keep repeating that it’s a shame he isn’t good at anything, because if he could direct even a fraction of the energy he spends playing devil’s advocate on a site he clearly can’t keep away from despite claiming to despise, he could actually benefit people instead of making them sigh at how infantile a grown man can be when he’s not pulled aside by someone and told what an uneducated prat he’s making himself look.

             28 likes

          • F*** the Beeb says:

            But don’t worry, he can always use another pseudonym to give himself support, even though he claims not to be doing that (as if we’re supposed to believe a proven liar, an ideologically deranged sycophant and an attention-seeker) despite the transparent, identical typesets of each of his sock-puppet names.

            Typical of the overall stance of the BBC in that he assumes everyone else is too stupid to see through him even when they’re flat-out telling him that they’re onto him. ‘Bless.’

               19 likes

            • Scott says:

              I don’t use pseudonyms. As I’ve repeatedly said, F*** the Beeb lies about this. Every time I’ve challenged him to prove his lies, he goes silent.

              Because he knows that he’s not telling the truth. He’s just too much of a snivelling, dishonest little coward to admit it.

                 10 likes

      • F*** the Beeb says:

        Scott, your hypocrisy is breathtaking. You come here ONLY to go against the grain in a desperate, childish effort to stand out – going as far as to call people racists, sexists or homophobes without evidence or relevance while simultaneously supporting the racist/homophobic/sexist religion of Islam because you think it’s trendy to do so – and then claim others aren’t interested in being correct.

        Every single thing you post on here is like a demonstration on what not to do if you’re trying to come across as intelligent. You have no original, independent thoughts whatsoever. And the worst part is, your end goal – to draw traffic towards your website – is never going to work because we simply don’t give a shit about the opinions of a proven troll. Instead, all you’re doing is bumping up the hits of THIS website.

        You are a living, breathing failure barely even worth describing as a non-entity.

           21 likes

        • feargal the cat says:

          Please don’t feed the troll. It is tiresome scrolling down past the waste of space he creates, whilst losing the thread continuity. It has been long established that he avoids answering questions/points.

          If he sticks to past poor performance, I expect he will be back to try and refute he is a waste of skin and continue to attempt to divert our attention from the matter(s) in hand.

             7 likes

    • bannerman says:

      Also lets not forget the “Pope is Catholic” “Bears Sh#t in the Woods” story of the day….. England’s Women’s Football Captain Casey Stoney….comes out! Shock. Look I would have been more surprised if she had confessed to having a boyfriend.

         27 likes

      • therealguyfaux says:

        When you start from the assumption that whatever walks like a duck and talks like a duck is in all likelihood a duck, it kind of goes without saying in the case of many female footballers, not speaking necessarily of any one in particular, but, I mean… you just KNOW the odds are against their having a “BOY-friend.” They’re not really all that famous enough to require “beards,” now are they?

           3 likes

  2. Doublethinker says:

    I see that the BBC is in favour of female quotas, especially on those Labour propaganda shows it claims are comedy. Why can’t it look at political leaning or affiliation and have a quota for that too? I’m sure many folks would switch back on if we could see the piss being taken out of the sanctimonious pratts of the liberal left for a change

       88 likes

  3. will says:

    Roger Harrabin (“Today” R4 @0:10:15) reported on the backlash from the outraged environment community over comments made yesterday by Eric Pickles. He quoted Richard Ashley, professor of water management at Sheffield University as saying that Pickles would be more use as a sandbag.

    Ashley’s comments on the BBC website are avoids the ad hominem comment, but is ironic given his accusation of Pickles being “ignorant and out of order”.

    Richard Ashley, professor of water management at Sheffield University, said Mr Pickles’ comments were “ignorant and out of order”.

    “It absolutely beggars belief,” he told BBC News. “He hasn’t got a clue what he’s talking about.”

    The Prof might find a reduction in commissions from Pickles’ department but it appears he is angling for a spot on the BBC’s speed dial.

       50 likes

    • Rtd Colonel says:

      sand dune more like! Used to think Pickles got it but sadly the last few days have destroyed that myth – “Foreign aid money to reduce climate change and today kowtowwing to one of the Eagles

         47 likes

  4. nofanofpoliticians says:

    Captured a bit of the winter olympics yesterday morning, the competition where Jenny Jones came 3rd in a snowboarding competition, giving the GB team its first ever medal on snow (loads on ice over the years of course, none have ever been won on snow).

    Obviously, this is an achievement that needs to be applauded which is more than can be said for the BBC commentary which was simply appalling. The commentary was worse than what we saw at the Jubilee armada up the Thames, completely lacking in any substance, verging on juvenile at times, and supplemented with blubbing from all three commentators.

    If this is is a sign for the future, or what we have to put up with for the next fortnight god help us!

       67 likes

    • Buggy says:

      Three hundred complaints about it according to Auntie.

      I only saw the repeated highlight, but was most impressed by the female ‘colour’ commentator whose main contribution seemed to be to make a sound like a strangled peacock every time one of the competitors performed a manoeuvre or fell over. Years of experience coming through there I’m sure but I do a mean impression of a hen laying a large egg, so if Auntie would like to send me to Sochi to provide a bit of variety I’d not be so churlish as to refuse.

         41 likes

      • nofanofpoliticians says:

        Yes, that’s right… some kindly sole has directed me to this link, which explains in part how bad it actually was.

        I notice that the BBC spokesman tried to defend it still…

        http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26116848

        Also noticeable that it is hidden away in the Entertainment and Arts part of the website. Last time I looked, anything to do with the Olympics was classified as Sport.

           25 likes

        • LurkerDroneNumber141 says:

          That is strange, isn’t it? When there was a story about a Lezzy snowboarder complaining about something to do with Russia, that was classified as “Sports” but a story that is much more relevant to sports than being a Lezzer is relegated to “Entertainment and Arts”.
          How queer.

             47 likes

      • Andy S. says:

        To be honest, I quite enjoyed the commentary. The two male commentators are experts, indeed have performed at international competition level, in their respective winter sports. Both explain the difficulties of the courses and have tried them out themselves. Both are very knowledgeable about their sport from first hand experience, unlike many of the BBC’s usual factory made clones. The young woman with them, I forget her name, was one of Jenny Jones’ team-mates who had earlier taken part in the competition, so it’s understandable that she would cheer Jones on and be excited when she won the Bronze Medal.

        There are oh, so many faults we can, and do, find with the BBC but for the life of me I can’t understand the complaints about this particular commenting team.

           4 likes

        • mo says:

          Andy S.
          I suppose its if you would rather feel part of the spectating crowd or, instead, a viewer just wanting just a bit of commentary.

             5 likes

          • Andy S. says:

            Mo, I understand your point. It’s all down to personal taste, but when there is so much wrong with the BBC, I believe complaining about this incident makes us seem petty and looking for any reason to bash the BBC. In other words, it somewhat diminishes the credibilty of the damaging complaints we compile on this site.

            Just my personal opinion and others are welcome to disagree with me. I promise I shan’t make threats to stop visiting this site if some of our regular contributors do disagree with me. It’s what makes the world more interesting.

               7 likes

            • mo says:

              Andy S
              Good reason given for your comment. Also if ITV had done it we wouldn’t have been so quick to judge.
              I think because this was the BBC, it wasn’t so much what the did, but it showed that they are generally out of tune with the public once again.

                 8 likes

        • The Poltergeist says:

          I agree. I thought it was actually refreshing that the commentators were actually cheering on the country with obvious enthusiasm. The Beeb has its faults but it was nice to have a bit of dynamism in the commentary rather than stiff boards like Jake “I Love Myself” Humphries.

          Aren’t we always criticising the Beeb for not cheering our countrymen on???

             5 likes

    • capriole,peter says:

      I’ve just been reading the Daily Mail coverage of the broadcast.
      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2555857/Hundreds-complain-BBCs-puerile-Olympic-commentators-ruined-Jenny-Jones-moment-triumph-announcing-WRONG-medal-whoop-unsporting-delight-rival-fell-over.html

      Its just a feeling but it seems to me that the BBC is involved here big time, with a damage limitation exercise, an uncanny number of posters take isssue with criticism of the BBC in a style and manner that many on this blog will be very familiar with.

         33 likes

      • nofanofpoliticians says:

        I don’t want to harp on, but there are just so many angles within this episode- how is the phrase ” she had a face that can help bread rise” any more acceptable than Inverdale’s “she was never much of a looker” comment from last year’s Wimbledon?

        He had his wrists quite heavily slapped at the time, these people seem to have got away with it. Double standards as ever from the BBC one could say.

           23 likes

    • Rob says:

      Don’t worry no doubt she will be in line for a CBE, MBE, OBE or other chocolate medal for doing what she’s paid to do.

         12 likes

  5. Thoughtful says:

    Driving back from dropping a friend a the station there was a Eulogy for some far left wing professor who had died. So obscure that there seems no mention on the net of his passing and certainly no one I’d heard of, but he was a great opponent of Fatcher and that’s enough for the BBC.

    He had apparently written a paper on why the proles found free market economics so attractive, and how he was also opposed to BLiar calling him ‘Son of Fatcher’.

    Maybe his name will pop up again on another BBC prog but at the moment I can’t recall what it was !

       51 likes

    • George R says:

      The name is Stuart HALL, from Jamaica, who ran the New Left Review for many years, and was politically very influential on the ‘left’ for decades, not least among Beeboids, Open University, Labour Party, from 1960s onwards. A Marxist, and a Gramscian.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Hall_(cultural_theorist)

         40 likes

      • Thoughtful says:

        Understandable why his name didn’t stick at first given the other Stuart Hall of the BBC currently serving a prison sentence for doing what some BBC presenters do!

        However this guy is a prime candidate for the BBC to be reporting on – no wonder I couldn’t find anything, even the Grauniad only reported it 4 hours ago. I expect there will be a gushing eulogy for the ‘father of multiculturalism’ on ‘Last Word’.

           27 likes

        • chrisH says:

          Dear old Stuart Hall was a cultural theorist, which is more than can be said for the black blokes and women that actually DID things to help this country before their kids and ours discovered that Callaghan paid more to them that Thatcher.
          Hall was a Poly Trot while Laurie Taylor was hyperdialoguing in his nannys corduroy nappies.
          Hence the adulation from Marxist-All Our Yesterdays and Tomorrows-types.
          Last Word, Thinking Allowed…all will be weeping into a rainbow lace doiley and seancing for Ralph or Hobspawn.
          Hall got the O.U berth in sociosemantics, and was able to quote Lennon and Marley.
          And what a leap of genius to call things that Thatcher thought ,…er…”Thatcherite”!
          Next up…Millishites-the whole ramjam of the BBC.

             11 likes

          • chrisH says:

            Er, forgot to ask-what`s a cultural theorist?
            Bonnie Greer? Paul Mason?…any waster on the telly who the BBC wheels along for a pop at Fatch?
            Not on my career advisers list anyway…

               8 likes

            • pah says:

              Er, forgot to ask-what`s a cultural theorist?

              Like an onanist but better paid.

                 6 likes

            • therealguyfaux says:

              A Cultural Theorist is a bloke who tells you that you may have thought it was “A” that you said when you said “A”, but your audience heard it as “B”. You know, “dog-whistles” and the like. The way certain people in certain communities hear certain things as being racist no matter what, and certain other people hear the BBC and never buy it at face value. Basically, “Are you trying to BS me, or yourself?”

              Of course, the answer to that question is all a function of what is being said and whether, in fact, it really IS BS, regardless of how it is heard.

                 5 likes

  6. Umbongo says:

    Evan, although he probably didn’t mean to, showed up Lord Smith for all the oily, parasitic scumbaggery that Smith and his class (the political one that is) demonstrate daily. OTOH, Evan – if he’d a mind to – could have completely crucified him (as commenters in another B-BBC thread have noted). Far be it from me to suggest that the Old Pal’s Act was applied here but one (probably the) claim to fame for Smith is his being the first MP to come out as homosexual. Probably then he’s a bit of a hero to Evan (as well as being party-politically sympathetic). Certainly the low key (if fairly revealing) nature of this interview is an indication of Evan pulling his punches. OTOH Evan is generally pretty gentle with apparatchiks with the “correct” mindset so there would be little surprise if the hugely self-regarding Lord Smith could have congratulated himself this morning that he’d “got away with it”.
    Meanwhile, we didn’t hear the EU mentioned once. Neither, funnily enough, did we hear that Smith – although an ornament of the Labour Party – was actually re-appointed to chair the Environment Agency in 2011 by CINO Environment Secretary, Caroline Spelman. (You see the whole corrupt incompetent crew are in it together.) I would have though this was a good card to play in response to the criticisms laid at the EA’s door by Eric Pickles (who BTW has also stayed remarkably quiet about the EU in this whole scandal). Again, OTOH, mentioning this might have made the the current Labour/BBC campaign alleging party-political bias (by the Conservatives) in appointments to quangos even less convincing than it already is. Accordingly, Evan and Smith stayed stum.

       64 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      The non-mention of the EU was obvious to anyone who gets their news from outwith the BBC. I refuse to believe they don’t know about it, because they couldn’t be that incompetent, which leaves only one other conclusion.

         54 likes

    • Rtd Colonel says:

      Caroline was probably distracted at the time at the huge waste (20K pa, of sending her son to Tonbridge School for him to be thrown out of the England Youth Rugby system for steroid abuse and then going into bodybuilding) – sorry super injunctions’ can be terribly time consuming)
      All in it together in pursuit of a Common Purpose – like a leftr wing version of Hot Fuzz

         35 likes

      • Jack says:

        Spelman as you may recall claimed expenses on the basis that her nanny did secretarial work for her. This was news to the nanny if I remember correctly.

           32 likes

        • Maturecheese says:

          Every time I read about MP’s (you know those pillars of the community we elect to represent us and lead by example) committing this kind of skullduggery it makes my blood boil. They are basically criminals getting away with it whilst holding the rest of us minions to account. If we tried the kind of fraud they practice we would be lucky not to be jailed. That’s better, rant over 🙂

             12 likes

    • Andy S. says:

      Given the way Chris Smith, he’d have to be gay – no right thinking woman would want him.

         9 likes

      • Andy S. says:

        Damn, posted before I checked. I meant to say ” Given the way Chris Smith LOOKS……etc.

           9 likes

        • Andy S. says:

          One wag on Guido’s blog made what I think was a brilliant comment on Chris Smith’s appearance. He said he looked like he was wearing a badly fitting Bo’ Selecta mask.

          Priceless!!!

             9 likes

  7. Mark B says:

    “Unprecedented”
    Definition:
    “without previous instance; never before known or experienced; unexampled or unparalleled”

    So dear Evan contradicts himself in one sentence. Its happened before yet, it has never happened before.

    And they wounder why some of us want to be rid of them.

       34 likes

  8. Oldbob says:

    The BBC news climate change facists are wasting no time today in taking full advantage of the flooding in the Thames Valley to convince us all that we are facing Armageddon.
    This morning they had the Australian witch on that heads up the green party and gave her free reign to tell us that the flooding is definitely a result of climate change…yes siree..absolutely no doubt !.She then demanded with a snarl that Cameron must replace Owen Patterson as he “does not believe in climate change “…..a fully fledged denier no less !

    And just in case we remain unclear about these “facts” the facists have now trotted out our old friend Lord Krebs, the high priest of the climate change committee who lost no time in spouting the mantra “the experts tell us….highly likely more of these events in future…we need much more preventative investment…the world is coming to an end…pestilence and famine….doomsday is coming”…help us lord help us !

    Yet more arrogant scaremongering, lies and juvenile garbage “news” from the green fantasy factory that is the BBC newsroom.

       62 likes

    • Rtd Colonel says:

      Krebs should get on his bike and bugger off!

         14 likes

      • nofanofpoliticians says:

        I was in Chertsey and Shepperton this morning, both nice places sitting alongside the Thames and badly affected by flooding which was visibly a lot worse this morning than it was even last Friday, even though rain levels in the area have not been any worse in the interim.

        Residents in both places were quick to point out that locks have been closed for a while in the Windsor area forcing river water to back up and combined with intermittent opening of the Thames barrier, creating a kind of surge which has helped to create a situation they now find themselves in.

        This is all very local information though, and uncorroborated elsewhere, but it does have a ring of truth about it, and is obviously nothing to do with climate change.

           51 likes

        • George R says:

          “Flooding gets more political as Labour appointees are blamed.
          “As Lord Smith tries to defend Environment Agency, Baroness Young’s spell in charge raises questions.”

          Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/politics/uk-storms/57258/flooding-gets-more-political-labour-appointees-are-blamed#ixzz2swRe5v9f

             28 likes

          • GCooper says:

            This would be the ‘Baroness’ Young who prior to her appointment as head of the EA was boss of one of the the most evil ‘charities’ in England, the RSPB, would it?

            And anyone who wonders what qualifies the RSPB as ‘evil’ only needs to Google its role in radical ‘Green’ politics.
            Small wonder peoples homes and farms are flooded when we are governed by such monsters.

               28 likes

            • Andy S. says:

              Strange you should mention the RSPB. Out shopping today I was approached by a nice young lady representing the RSPB asking for donations. I calmly told her that in all good conscience, I couldn’t give to a charity that, along with Natural England, advised the Environment Agency to allow flooding of the Somerset Levels in order to return it to its natural state. I told her the charity was not only responsible for destroying people’s homes and businesses but also the drowning of ground nesting birds, badgers, voles, rabbits, moles and many other mammals that were living in that part of the country. That was apart from the killing of thousands of bats and birds of prey by useless windmills the charity is so keen to see erected around the country. I said I would not be giving any money to a charity that had been taken over by eco-loons. The poor girl was speechless after that.

                 54 likes

          • Philip says:

            Good link that George R. It links Labour placeman the (twinned) BBC appointees involved ‘The Mole reckons the majority of Tory MPs will undoubtedly back Pickles for turning this into a political fight, because they believe the policy and culture of the EA were changed under both Smith and another Labour appointee, Baroness [Barbara] Young, who was chief executive of the agency from 2000 to 2008.

            Young has been dubbed the ‘Quango Queen’ for a string of public appointments under Labour. When she left the EA in 2008, she was made chairman of another quango, the much-criticised Care Quality Commission. She is a former vice chairman of the BBC and is now chief executive of the health charity Diabetes UK.’

               28 likes

            • chrisH says:

              And the Tories don`t blast these Labour wastepipes into orbit.
              Imagine…Smith, Young, Morgan…and this clean nailed bunch of chinless prep boys on a gap year or two won`t bite the scum.
              The Left seem to want it more-and we who want different need to be ready to ensure that the BBC and Labour stooges are NOT seen as any alternative.
              Any more than whether I prefer Shia to Sunni Islam exercising its power upon my neck.

                 19 likes

      • chrisH says:

        That`d be the Krebs Cycle then!
        A joke for any biology sadsacks circa 1980.

           14 likes

    • Dave s says:

      I lived in the Thames Valley as a small child. I remember the floods. I think 1948 was particularly bad. We had food parcels from Canada I think. Nobody seemed to be surprised. The Thames floods.

         29 likes

  9. Rtd Colonel says:

    New big sport exclusive on BBC website – England Football Captain comes out as gay – Casey Stoney -GB and England captain confirmed that she is a lesbian… Given the useless but untouchable Hope Powell was out and one of the “Top 10 Powerful Gay People” hardly a hostile environment for her to come out before the ned of her career – Has Sochi started yet? Can’t wait to see who they line up for Qatar WC – Wayne Rooney – my guilty secret?

       16 likes

  10. bob says:

    http://labourlist.org/2014/02/labour-considering-boardroom-quotas-says-umunna/….if your in any doubt why must not labour get in power ever again read this

       30 likes

    • Buggy says:

      Another gloriously brainless initiative from The Man Who Would Be Obama: how a man with so little apparent brainpower has made the money Chukka has is right up there with The Bermuda Triangle and DB Cooper as one of the world’s greatest mysteries.

         36 likes

    • noggin says:

      That s it then Bob, as it is impossible to vote
      for this bunch of incompetent, self serving, grasping and arrogant halfwits who have the dubious honour
      of not only a total lack of understanding about what governing is, but what management is too … double whammy, who told that collection of comedy gold
      in No10 that being an” ideologue” means you could run anything more than a bath?

         16 likes

  11. chrisH says:

    Anybody wondering about how the spineless Mirrormen of the political pat-a-cake elites can turn ANY crisis involving real people that they are “paid to protect”; into a Chuckle Brothers knock-about panto( To me-to you) need only look at how this Somerset flooding story has unfolded.
    For any of us who give a damn about the poor sods who`ve lost their houses, farmland, jobs and any hope of getting through this disaster easily…it`s been turned by the media circus into a blame game involving Tories and Civil Servants, with Chris Smith,the E.U and Labour all pretty virtuous and speaking “for the poor residents of Somerst/Berkshire/Worcs etc.
    Well not the E.U of course-nowhere on the radar and that`s just the way the BBC require it.
    After foot and mouth, Beckett, Nick Brown…after Baroness Young and the equally useless fop Lord Smith of Funkytown…I don`t need one of the Devils dykes of Labour to tell me that this shower need to shape up….they wrecked the whole shebang over 13 years, and have learned absolutely nothing…we need to let them decay and not let them back in, no matter if the National Front reform as a 70s tribute act…even THEY would be more competent than the Labour scum so beloved by the BBC and the chattering classes.
    Only the vainglorious retards in Labour, the BBC, the E.A could turn all this into a story “about THEM”.

       45 likes

  12. stuart says:

    i live in a city and i and 10 others propertys was flooded out in the 2012 severe june storms that hit the midlands.i was out for 9 months while my property dried out and do you know what since i have moved backed my property has had minor flooding since then, basically i have sandbags outside my property front and back waiting for the next bout of severe flash flooding,has the problem been resolved by the e.a about the causes and how to stop the flooding from the river next to are propertys,no.do local or national goverment care about us getting flooded out again, no.can i get flood insurance now,yes but it has to be a separate policy that costs in excess of £20.000.the botten line is and the people of somerset and thames are finding this out the hard way that nobody cares about you if your a victim of flooding and you are just abandoned and left to fend for by both local and national goverment.i think it is about time we had a seperate home aid fund that is ringfenced to help out these victims of flooding all over the uk.

       20 likes

    • Dave s says:

      The primary function of government is to protect and defend the nation. That is what it is for. Not that you would know it when the liberals start whining on about minority rights and emoting over the usual rubbish.
      This coalition, like all liberal governments ,has failed to do it’s duty. Cameron and the whole lot of them are useless. In a more robust time they would have had to go.
      Blaming each other is a charade. To ring fence foreign aid at a time when the people of the nation need help is verging on treasonous.
      The House of Commons is a disgrace.

         44 likes

      • pah says:

        The primary function of government is to provide lucrative employment for the already rich governing class. If they can’t get a job in a bank or other private enterprise they end up in the public sector.

        Government is a job creation scheme for the useless sons (and occasionally daughters) of the feckless rich.

        It has been that way since 1066.

        You and I do not, ever, factor into it.

           7 likes

    • Philip says:

      Thanks Stuart, I have family ‘flooded-out’ on Thames. Flooding not unique on the Thames – happens at least twice a year but not as bad as this. Insurance is always a problems and many of these houses are wooden shacks for that very reason, even so, insurance is a tricky area as not many homes bother with it as it is set at ‘premium’ rates. One of our own kin is not even near the River and never bothered with ‘flood protection’ before faces high risk evacuation tonight in Staines area.
      Anyways home ‘flood’ insurance is about to become a ‘luxury’ item for homes remotely near a the Thames. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/insurance/buildingsandcontent/10623864/Flood-victims-abandoned-by-the-insurance-lifeboat.html

         13 likes

  13. Jackde says:

    When will they ever learn?

    I write this after hearing two BBC presenters express horror that a Moslem family strapped a suicide belt onto their 9-year-old daughter and attempted to educate her to blow herself up at a checkpoint. Before you congratulate the BBC on finally learning the facts of life about Islamic terrorism, I have to point out that this was a report from Afghanistan. The BBC unfortunately cannot make the educational leap in connecting this to the evil of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas constantly teaching their children to hate Israelis.

       52 likes

  14. frk says:

    http://www.wnd.com/2014/02/killers-family-to-victims-kin-we-hate-you/….the rise of race hate under obamas regime

       10 likes

  15. George R says:

    Need for INBBC to update on Islamic Republic of IRAN’s military threat to the West:-

    “Iranian Navy Commander Vows to Sink U.S. Warships”

    http://freebeacon.com/iranian-navy-commander-vows-to-sink-u-s-warships/

       11 likes

  16. George R says:

    Need for INBBC to update on ‘British’ Islamic jihad murderers*:-

    “British Muslims ‘carried out torture’ in Syria
    Video footage emerges which appears to show men from London involved in torture and possible executions”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10628365/British-Muslims-carried-out-torture-in-Syria.html

    * How did such Muslim killers get entry into Britain in the first place? -Ah yes: by U.K political class’s implementation of mass immigration from Islamic countries, which is continuing.

    (Will Beeboids learn any political lessons from its ‘Panorama’ investigation into aspects of immigration fraud at 8-30 pm tonight, BBC 1?)

       25 likes

  17. EmersonV says:

    Effing one show, otters this, otters that, try speaking to all the fishery owners who have lost their livelihoods destroyed.

    I thought the bbc were meant to be impartial.

       12 likes

  18. OldBloke says:

    The Head of the IPCC has stated that there hasn’t been any Global Warming for 17 years. Our British Met Office says otherwise.
    http://canadianawareness.org/2013/02/ipcc-head-rajendra-pachauri-acknowledges-17-year-stall-in-global-warming/

    But this information was released one year ago, so why haven’t the BBC been informing us of this news on a daily basis, like what they do with Climate Change?
    If the BBC’s argument is that man made Co2 causes Global Warming which leads to Climate Change, and there hasn’t been any Global Warming for 17 years, then how can they promote man made Co2 as a cause for Climate Change, when there has been no Global Warming?

       31 likes

  19. OldBloke says:

    But who are we to believe?

       3 likes

    • London Calling says:

      958372 can cherry pick some warm some more some less all he likes. 17 continuous years of natural variation that sums to “no upward change” trumps all. No computer-driven model predicted it. They are sunk
      Ignore him. He doesn’t want to let go of a theory he desperately wishes to be true. He doesn’t want human hapiness. He wants us doomed.

         1 likes

  20. George R says:

    It’s only a Muslim plotting to kill Prince Harry, isn’t it, INBBC?

    1.)
    “UK: Muslim gets three years prison dawah for jihad murder plot against Prince Harry”

    By Robert Spencer.

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/02/uk-muslim-gets-three-years-prison-dawah-for-jihad-murder-plot-against-prince-harry

    2.)

    INBBC has only this on its London page:-

    “Prince Harry threats man jailed for three years”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-26123050

       28 likes

  21. Will all end in tears says:

    About a week ago I lodged a complaint about Hugh Sykes tweeting “Whack-a-Gove”.

    The response was thus;

    “Thanks for contacting the BBC.
    I understand you had concerns with regards to a Tweet sent by Hugh Sykes and I note your reference to overt political bias.
    However, this was a joke referencing Eddie Mair’s introduction during the Radio 4 ‘PM’ programme, which Hugh also highlighted in a Tweet the following day.
    It’s also important to note that this was a private Twitter account and not an official BBC News account.
    Thanks again for taking the time to contact us.
    Kind Regards”

    Can anyone shed any light on the Eddie Mair introduction which apparently provided the context for the “joke”?

    And am I to assume that if dear Hugh went around tweeting obscene images, but from his private account, that all would sit well with the Beeb?

       29 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Several issues.
      Of course using the BBC’s skewed professional equivalence, the whole premise is dismissed anyway on the basis that any tweet by BBC staff has nothing to do with the BBC.
      Odd then that if any not in corporation employ and not friends of the family tweet in an errant fashion, Aunty’s bloomers get hoisted in horror all of a sudden.
      More specifically, there is this daft notion that what exists separately across the entire BBC broadcast estate (now including twitter), by time and location(s), must be presumed to be available to and accessed by the audience in totality.
      Hence what is broadcast by one BBC employee apparently needs to be linked by the audience with a tweet the next day, and hence the latter’s coincidentally partisan reference to a political foe. Sorry, that’s BS.
      And finally, of course, there is the trusty fallback that anything malicious is actually a ‘joke’, albeit one more ‘in’ between supposedly impartial news staff.
      The tonality of this response shows what a bunch of arrogant NaughtieMarrs they are, secure in the knowledge they are immune from ever being held to account so long as the BBC oversees the BBC.

         22 likes

      • mo says:

        Comprehensively taken to task. Good one Guest Who

           4 likes

        • London Calling says:

          This would be the same Eddie Mair who addressed Boris Johnson with the statement (not question) “you’re a nasty piece of work aren’t you?” on national television. It’s those impartial genes kicking in.

             2 likes

  22. Dazed & Confused says:

    Oh dear….The BBC are going to become suicidal, as their usual suspects slurs and lies don’t seem to be working….

    Will Comrade Nick Lolwes be afforded his very own show to attack UKIP in the run up to May?

    http://www.euroelection.co.uk/pred_result/eng?typ=delta&con=-1393&ukip=2420&lab=22&ld=-1444&ed=-33

       19 likes

    • Lobster says:

      The corridors of Broadcasting House will be strewn with hemlock bottles………..

         16 likes

    • Buggy says:

      I’d like to know the methodology involved in giving the ‘Roman Party’ 5,450 votes (but no seats). IIRC the RP consists of one French bus driver resident somewhere here in the south east who usually stands in Reading (on what platform I have not a clue). So just what are they putting in the biscuits there these days that so many are expected to vote his way ?

      Also The Pirate Party: No votes ? Will the PP candidate not even vote for himself ? Please, if you don’t know who to vote for and happen to be in whatever constituency our salty seadog is gracing, won’t you consider sending a vote his way ? Aaaaaaar ! Thanks.

         5 likes

  23. Pounce says:

    So I’m reading the bBC article about the bloke who walked into a Police station and said that he was going to kill Prince Harry and all day (from 4.30am till 2100hrs. (Ok you can cut out from 10 till 5) Radio 2 and Radio 4 while reporting the story kind of left out the blokes name and his name:
    Ashraf Islam, 31
    and on the bbC website they report at the end
    Islam, who was born Mark David Townley in Belfast but changed his name by deed poll, has previous convictions for dishonesty and for involvement in an attempted robbery.
    Roxanne Morrell, mitigating, said her client had a personality disorder.

    So are the bbC trying to say that this man isn’t a real muslim and also he’s a Koran short of a couple of pages. In otherwords defending Islam yet again. The funny thing is when they report on a Muslim who’s changed his name, they never tell you you that he had done so or even what his previous name was. Funny that.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-26123050

       21 likes

  24. Pounce says:

    Current bBC headline:
    Should commentators always remain impartial?
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26118736

       13 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Well, they could have first asked Hugs.
      She has a genetic test they have all passed.
      Apparently.

         12 likes

  25. George R says:

    I doubt most Beeboids will ‘get’ the following argument.

    “Whatever your view on EU migrants, Swiss show sovereignty really matters”
    By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard.

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100026618/whatever-your-view-on-eu-migrants-swiss-show-sovereignty-really-matters/

       25 likes

  26. deegee says:

    One must wonder which version is closer to the truth.
    BBC: Iraq militants ‘killed by own bomb’
    International Business Times: Iraqi Suicide Bomb Instructor Accidentally Blows up Himself and 22 Trainee Terrorists

    Either way, KHARMA

       31 likes

  27. thoughtful says:

    Tonight there’s a news item about Millipede who is apparently trying to get more out of the public services with less money. He apparently praised Margaret thatcher’s ‘sense of purpose’ and the beeb presenter said ‘that can only be a good thing’

    So Fatcher is the embodiment of pure evil, but when Millipede has decided his election strategy is to praise some aspects of Thatchers legacy the BBC are able to do a complete 180 and suggest that following her example could only be a good thing !

       28 likes

    • nofanofpoliticians says:

      Balance, its all about balance.

      When the BBC come to do their metrics on impartiality and bias etc, this one comment can be offset against all the other negative ones so that they can say they provide very balanced output.

         16 likes

    • chrisH says:

      And Emily Maitlis said that he was being “brave” in telling the public sector that they`ll be gathering liliacs in the springtime, or such.
      BRAVE?….as in “Falkirk Yellow” brave?
      Still he`s Ed, she`s Emily…and the BBC and Labour have the same inane script and lack of any history. point or purpose.
      Bring back Mr Pastry…for Prescott is as dim a dullard as Ed and Emily…Arthur and Hilda without a song.

         18 likes

  28. Justaman says:

    BBC Newsnight has another item about there being “too many” male comedians on panel shows. Apparently, TV comedy needs to be “rescued from men”. I think there is a lot of the BC’s output that needs to be rescued from women, and that includes most of their sports output.

    But let me say this – if the BBC do start crowbarring more unfunny (i.e. female) comedians into these shows I will not watch them.

       31 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      One suspects quite a few audience members will follow suit.
      I have been surprised how finely-tuned a comedic ‘team’ is, sparring and sparking off each other. When a ringer is stuffed in, it’s like a poo in the pool.
      HIGNFY is now a real victim of this. It may survive a Dan Snow or Suze Reid with zero to say, and cleverly staying mostly dumb, but a desperate wit wannabe just kills the thing stone dead. Politicians like Prescott have made me simply not bother as it is too painful, but even supposedly professional comedic talents are also the kiss of death if they don’t have the gift. There are a few males I would include too, but almost without exception the female parachutees are painfully dire.
      Luckily for the BBC and such as Mr. Cohen & Lord Tone, thanks to the unique way they can do what they like with zero consequence, they’ll get away with it.
      That said, true professional talents may chafe at being tainted by complementing foils not chosen for ability, but simply gender. Whether these ‘tell it as it is’ champions speak out or keep banking the cheques is another matter.
      What may be funny is if the tendency to make asides at the expense of lame ducks (not deliberate sacrificial targets like Jedward in 8 out of 10 cats) sees further edicts passed down to not show the BBC’s patsies up.

         15 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Thinking about it, this could be a treat if the law of unintended consequences kicks in.
      Imagine the bleats if unfunny weak links like Mark Steel or Marcus Brigstocke gets pushed off the lower rungs in favour of possibly as unfunny but box-tickingly ovary-bearing alternatives?

         27 likes

      • chrisH says:

        We`ll probably have to call them all Chelsea, and accept their new personas, which -given how desperate they all are on the bBC for their cheques-I`m sure they`ll all be willing to undergo.
        Or else a load of Danny La Rue tribute acts will be coming along.
        Maybe if we could get a humour implant via the NHS, our Steels, Thomas` etc could replace their gonads with something to amuse.
        God knows they`ve been trying since the Anti-Nazi League picked them up in Dagenham 1977.

           9 likes

      • ROBERT BROWN says:

        I’m no fan of Mark Steele and his political views but give his Radio 4 show a listen, ‘Mark Steeles’ in town’, it really is rather good and genuinely funny…..if you don’t chuckle after a few minutes you must be dead from the neck up.

           4 likes

        • DownBoy says:

          Yes it is a good premise for a show and Mark Steel carries it off well I think – notwithstanding my general dislike of right-on bbc ‘comedians’.

             4 likes

          • mo says:

            My exact sentiments Downboy.
            And doesn’t this go to show that we on this site are not sweepingly predjudist unlike the rabid facists who can be nothing but.

               3 likes

    • Andy S. says:

      More work for the excruciatingly unfunny Jo Brand and Sue Perkins,then?

         28 likes

      • Justaman says:

        Jo Brand, a woman who is all too keen to share her disdain for men. If a male comedian was so outspokenly anti-women he wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the BBC.

           13 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Certainly seems the case.
        Unless filmed ‘PC’ (pre-Cohen), caught what I think is a new QI on catch-up.
        Let’s just say that Alan Davies being possibly the only one not dragging almost everything to the realms of ‘Oo-er, missus) all the time (he had his moments too) was… novel.
        As an exercise in sexual diversity juggling it was impressive. Excluding host, one man-child and three women. Including host, two frequently self-referencing homosexuals, two no idea and one boiler who claims to be married. A lot. But does not appear happy.
        However it was also, sadly, hideously white, I did notice.
        Hope no one else did, or Danny is going to have to have to write another meddling edict from on high to programme makers of the type that BBC executive staff claim they would never do.

           3 likes

  29. Dave s says:

    Not strictly relevant but useful information when you hear the warmists bleating on.
    Dawlish and the sea wall railway. According to an official Great Western publication of 1935 the line was always a real problem.
    Breached in 1847 by a storm. Again in 1852 and 1853 between Dawlish and Teignmouth and again in 1855 when 50 yards vanished nearer to Teignmouth.
    This last led to a complete rebuild of the sea wall. It has caused trouble ever since and the cost of maintaining it has always been onerous. . Listening to Bradshaw and the usual suspects you would assume this latest breach to be a rare event caused by climate change.
    Funny that . Never mentioned in the 1850s or 1930s.

       28 likes

  30. Will all end in tears says:

    Newsnight tonight – a liberal leftie love in of the highest order.

    Lord Smith (Lord? Give me strength) getting a tickling from Jezza.

    Millibrain’s new public sector strategy debated by – yep, Labour’s shadow Health minister and a former policy adviser to Blair – great balance.

    Three female “comediennes” bemoaning the lacks of birds on panel shows (quick tip ladies, the secret of comedy is to make people laugh)

    The mourning of “The Godfather of multiculturalism” (give me strength again) called – irony of ironies – Stuart Hall

    Said it before and will say it again (and again and again and again ad infinitum) – there is not even a passing fuckin attempt to hide the bias nowadays.

       54 likes

    • nofanofpoliticians says:

      What no academics?

      That must be a first for Newsnight as they are always calling upon someone from an academic perspective and background to chew the fat over some (non)issue or another to re-enforce a BBC view. That’s the reason I stopped watching – never anyone from the real world on there.

         21 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Thought Stuart Hall had fallen from his academic perch by blacking up and doing the wrong kind of Wet T shirt It`s a Knockabout , when Eddie Waring and Arthur Ellis had been sent to Strasbourg for Eurovision Jeux Sans Frontieres!
      See what I`ve done there…let`s see if our resident trolls(who seem to have been dunked in the floods somehere) can show me how many errors I made in conflating race hustler, anti-Thatch black lefty with women hassling, anti-Beeb white travel agent currently in stir.

         10 likes

  31. Wild says:

    Universities (at least in the Arts) these days are little more than madrases of Leftist group think – you go there to get de-educated by arse licking mediocrities certainly not to love truth.

       27 likes

  32. Reed says:

    Ever wondered why BBC comedy has become so left-wing?…

    http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/edwest/2014/02/writers-tend-to-the-left-because-they-have-imagination-not-compassion/

    Writers tend to the left because writers tend to have compassion. The nasty party has none so the BBC will never be just right for them.— Graham Linehan (@Glinner) February 7, 2014

       20 likes

    • Mat says:

      Ah would that be the Linehan who only got anywhere because of C4 [so loads of tax payer cash as per usual ] and now he has dried up work wise is desperate to get an in on the BBC pensions and bonuses gravy train ? funny after he claimed they ambushed him on the Today thing about his remake of a remake that he now loves those he claimed abused him ?

         14 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        It’s such a shame.
        I consider Father Ted, The IT Crowd and Black Books as worthy comedic icons, not least because they stayed on the topics of personal connections and comedy.
        I could even cut him slack on HIGNFY when he did start to stray into political bandwagoneering as he clearly has.. had a keen mind and wit.
        But I am thinking of cutting him loose having kept tabs too via twitter, etc.
        He has seriously lost the plot and is as vicious as Michael White with any who dare cross his diatribes.
        And, so far, apart from a few panel place crumbs (likely drying post edict unless he drags up), sucking up to his abusers seems not to have seen the inner sanctum welcome him in with open arms.

           14 likes

    • Frank Words says:

      I wish Lineham could explain then some of the vicious hate spewed by lefties and trade unionists towards those that hold contrary opinions (a short trawl of twitter would enlighten him and his kind). Would that be nasty?

      Or is he simply a blind bigoted hypocrite.

         23 likes

      • chrisH says:

        Nothing sadder than an ex funny man who`s gone all Eddie Izzard on us…too much money and kudos too early I expect.
        He clearly needs Arthur Matthews back alongside-and maybe if he went back to Ireland to write us something, he may yet surprise us and be funny once more.
        RTE could do with his compassionate comedy…we know he`s a past-it lefty raging at the success of Graham Norton.

           16 likes

      • F*** the Beeb says:

        You should know already that liberal bigotry isn’t real bigotry, it’s ‘progressivism.’ That’s how they convince themselves their racism/sexism/political snobbery/religious prejudices etc are different from the rest – by telling themselves that it’s for a greater good.

        What’s especially sad is that it’s hijacked things that might otherwise have had something to them. Socialism could potentially have some sort of weight behind it if it was a purely political/economic institution and didn’t coincide with jealousy, spite, hatred and eugenics.

        But hey, what do we know? After all, a poll somewhere taken of about 600 carefully-selected people ‘proves’ that right-wingers have lower IQs than lefties. So that’s a relief.

        It’s sad to see how vomit-inducingly vile Linehan actually is, since I’m a big fan of some of his work.

           19 likes

        • Frank Words says:

          Left wingers are more intelligent than right wingers eh?

          Perhaps that explains why the country always ends up skint after a does of left wing cleverness when ruling the country. (Should that be “ruining the country”).

             29 likes

        • Ember2013 says:

          The easiest path for a would be comedian is to be a leftwing comedian: full of moans without any answers: always gets a laugh from the audience. And people often journey in life along the path of least resistance.

             7 likes

          • DownBoy says:

            You’ll get more sense these days from Father Jack than from Graham Linehan. That would be an ecumenical matter.

               6 likes

    • F*** the Beeb says:

      Anyone who uses the term ‘nasty party’ to describe the conservatives clearly ignored the 13 years Labour ignored and betrayed the electorate. There’s no single one nasty party, to be frank all the mainstream parties have become vile and odious, filled primarily with career politicians that haven’t spent a day in the real world. But in the eyes of people like Linehan, Labour is still the working man’s party even though they spent years actively punishing people who worked and spunking their money on banker bailouts and bureaucracy, not to mention unsustainable immigration and welfare increases.

         34 likes

  33. AsISeeIt says:

    Some light relief on a dreary morning.

    H/T to Retweet by Baroness Dame Preeny-Nicky Campbell

    Retweeted by Nicky Campbell
    MoDawah ‏@kingofdawah Feb 8
    the truth emerges of the true origin of Robin Hood, that until now, has been hidden by anti-diversity http://eshaykh.com/history/robin-hood-a-muslim/ … @holland_tom

    Q&A from eShaykh.com “consult in your affairs those who fear Allah Almighty”

    http://eshaykh.com/history/robin-hood-a-muslim/

    ‘Robin Hood’s real name was Raul Bin Hud, he converted to Islam following the Crusades many centuries ago. This somewhat makes sense because whenever he is portrayed in pictures, he wears a green pointy hat… Can you shed any truth on this story and reveal any true history or knowledge?’

    Answer : ‘a most significant and very recent development in the legend is the inclusion of a Muslim among the Merry Men, to which you refer, and represents the first such contribution to the legend in centuries. However, this contribution was not the work of Hollywood; rather it may be traced to a British television production of the 1980s’

    Just goes to show the power of TV drama over and above historic truth.

    (I think ITV’s Robin of Sherwood is to blame for this one)

       21 likes

    • Ember2013 says:

      Yeh, but few people realise the Prophet Mohammed was actually a Brummie: “Mosley Ham.” From Edgbaston in Birmingham.

      He spent some time in the Middle East on the stand-up circuit telling all kinds of stories.

         11 likes

      • Andy S. says:

        As an adjunct to this, I came across a clip of an daytime BBC drama about a policewoman set in 1950s Britain. Would you believe she has an ASIAN boss? In 1950s Britain? Another BBC anachronism celebrating a ” diversity and enrichment” that never existed in those days.

           14 likes

        • therealguyfaux says:

          There may have been the odd Chi Chi around in those days. (Some odder than others, but, there you are…) Brendan Behan wrote about a warder who was one. He’d take the piss outta the man, with “God Save The King,” if I recall correctly.

             1 likes

      • John Standley says:

        Which Merry Man would that be?

        Allah a’Dale?

        Walid Scarlet?

        Much, The Mullah’s son?

           15 likes

  34. PhilO'TheWisp says:

    Evan Davies just enjoys seeing men in waders.

       15 likes

  35. Guest Who says:

    What’s clearly needed is a strong right hand, at least to keep firm grasp on the… load of market raters at the helm.
    http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/pattens-right-hand.html
    Still have to love that ‘Lay Off Lucy’ campaign, which was adrift as soon as it was coined.
    Be interesting if he gets an answer to this, too:
    ‘They are missing at time of writing, and thus failing on the commitment’
    Happens a lot, mate.

       5 likes

  36. chrisH says:

    Just got soaked three times whilst out on my rounds.
    Flooding everywhere.
    So-one the E.U and E.A are absolved of any responsibility, once the last Labour types like Smith and Young slip out of the frame, once all governments and councils blame everybody and no-one…and while we all know that climate change is the bodybag by which the lefties and liberals hope to get out of the house and mushroom in Bali or Cancun very soon…I can only draw one conclusion-and one I hope that the lefty oafs and stools will reconsider-for they have only on one cause that they have agreed upon.
    That there is a direct correlation between Gods righteous anger…and gay marriages nearby.
    They say it`s a negative one…but it could equally be a positive one…if indeed the rain is Gods weeping big tears of joy that-at last-His Son might yet turn water into a campari and soda, and do so publicly…it would make his nan so happy.
    Until I hear something sensible from the media and the political oafs and clunkers…God`s crying over gay marriages being made legal…whether they`re sad tears or ahppy ones…well who`s to say?
    Anjem?…Inglat?…Giles?

       11 likes

  37. LurkerDroneNumber141 says:

    The BBC have always loved their rabble rousing stories about the generous pay packages of “fat cat” company directors – such as this one:
    Directors’ pay jumps 14% in year thanks to share incentives

    Incomes Data Services (IDS) said this took the average pay for a director of a FTSE 100 firm to £3.3m.

    Shocking! I wonder what the left wing think of that….

    TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said the survey’s findings meant that top bosses’ pay was growing 20 times faster than that of the average worker.

    “It’s one thing replacing bonuses with long-term incentive plans, but FTSE 100 companies are simply exploiting this change to make their fat cats even fatter,” she said.

    The story is even open for comments.
    Then today we have another one – and batten down the hatches because this one concerns a business that was bailed out by the US taxpayer to the tune of $49.5 BILLION (total loss to taxpayer was $10.5 billion):
    General Motors says Mary Barra will be paid $14.4m this year
    ………except that that the tone of this story is quite different for, not only is the person in question a foreigner, the lucky recipient also has a fanny.

    The disclosure comes after the firm had been criticized by some for underpaying Ms Barra for her gender.

    I’d have to consult the Top Trumps Reference Table but, apparently, a bonus only becomes a “Fat Cat Bonus” if the recipient is a white male.
    Story not open for comments and still awaiting a quote from Frances O’Grady.

       14 likes

  38. Matt says:

    I’m a bit disappointed with the lack of chaos and the lack of hate”attacks so far at Sochi. It’s early days I suppose. I bet the so-called “liberal media” is praying for some hate attacks.

       14 likes

    • DJ says:

      MSM luvvies probably deserve a break after surviving all that brutal violence in the Ukraine during Euro 2012….

         8 likes

    • Joshaw says:

      But: “His concerns were shared by Mr Dyke, who said that at “some point in the future” the licence fee should be scrapped and replaced by a form of “general taxation”.”

      No.

      Technology has moved on, there are more TV channels than there used to be, and old solutions to the BBC funding problem are no longer valid. Some sort of subscription system for those who want it are the way forward, IMO.

         25 likes

      • Frank Words says:

        Seconded

           13 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Indeed.
        A point rather buried but getting noticed by those who know exactly what they are trying to weasel in by a mixture of sacrificial offering and bluster.
        Interesting to note that the fact that the ‘licence fee’ is, was and always has been a tax, and one with less value than the ill-fated Poll Tax (which at least was to serve actual essential services more than EastEnders, Mark Byford’s pension or Hugs’ legal teams), is now clearly admitted.
        Hence moving to an even more obscure means to force fund by compulsion seems optimistic.
        So, good luck with that, chaps.

           12 likes

  39. Thoughtful says:

    The sanity of the fascist left has to be questioned some times.

    According to the nutters at the BBC we should abandon flushing toilets because the people in Africa aspire to them and there isn’t sufficient water there to run them !

    If it is the case that the people of Africa are looking to us for their ideas of sanitation then it’s no doubt due to the mass migration the fascists forced upon us over the last few decades.

    On a day when we have so much water that we don’t know what to do with it all it seems a completely mindless suggestion that somehow we should change the way we have been handling waste for centuries, and typical of the fascists departure from reality and sanity!

       26 likes

    • GCooper says:

      Yes, I heard that to – ironically, while I was showering!

      The insanity of the ‘Greens’ seems to deepen with every week. And the BBC is always at hand to publicise and encourage them!

         21 likes

    • Dave s says:

      The liberal elite is useless. Not just generally useless but now, with the flooding ,we can all see just how useless it is.
      . Cameron , Millelbod, Clegg, the whole lot. Even the gruff voiced Prickles. Completely blown.
      Just vote UKIP in May and see them squirm.
      Those that live by fantasy will find reality will finish them .
      In my part of the world we are laughing at them.

         23 likes

    • Richard Pinder says:

      Please support the Green Party’s “Bucket for Africa” campaign.

      Give all Africans a bucket each, with advice on how to walk to the seaside, and return to the lav, and pour the seawater down the lav, for a free flush.

      Email: greenmorons@bbc.co.uk for further details.

         14 likes

    • Pounce says:

      Find that Eco crap here:
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03ts4ff

      Now, I’ve done exactly what these eco arseholes are proposing:
      I’ve shit into buckets in the Falklands and then had to carry those buckets down the mountain and ditch them into a shit pit.

      I’ve shit into a hole in a hut perched over the side of a mountain in the alps, which then drops down a few hundred feet.

      I’ve shit into toilets which are then burnt

      I’ve used thunder boxes

      and I’ve shit into holes in the ground in the middle east.

      I’ve used toilets where you throw your used toilet paper into a bin next to the toilet.

      Now for all those so called Eco toilets which will apparently save the world., there is one thing about water based toilets which the bBC don’t mention. they don’t smell all the other options do. Yes people shit stinks and that is the reason why Romans and then the Victorians built a sewage system.

      Let the Eco arseholes shit like this for a few years and then offer them a proper crapper, tell you what I can see a lot of eco nuts throwing away their green agenda.

      The bBC, talking shite as always

         26 likes

      • LurkerDroneNumber141 says:

        None of theses ideas are meant for the Eco-Fascists or BBC-Media-Luvvies themselves. It is the “people” who will be required to reduce their “carbon” footprint, freeze and starve to death and, eventually, shit in a bucket.
        What these sociology graduates don’t realise is that the reason good sanitation practices were developed was because “the people” felt that an average lifespan of about 30 years, before dying of some dreadful water-borne disease, was a bit short.

           20 likes

        • mo says:

          “None of theses ideas are meant for the Eco-Fascists or BBC-Media-Luvvies themselves. It is for the “people.”

          Love it! That is exactly correct LurkerDroneNumber141

             10 likes

      • not4me says:

        Did you happen to notice that even when talking about eco toilets the name of Obama had to be inserted?
        Of course it is totally logical that people in remote 3rd world countries aspire to having water flush toilets because Obama has one. /sarc
        Honestly, sometimes I wonder what planet these people are on!

           0 likes

  40. GCooper says:

    Apologies, I did mean, too….

       2 likes

  41. John Smith says:

    The Sky At Night: Um. Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a star. But I think the repackaging of TSAN after Sir Pat has gone is a step too far. There have always been females interviewed on the programme. I can’t see Dr Maggie presenting a show most kids haven’t heard of will do anything to recruit more females or ethnic minorities to the sciences. It is a tick box exercise. PC gone awry again. I will still watch. I always thought that science was the focus of the programme. Annoyed. But not at Dr Maggie.

       12 likes

    • Richard Pinder says:

      Sky at Night was presented by a single presenter for decades, this was an advantage, because Sir Patrick was able to dedicate the whole program to an interview with top experts, with answers to questions that even Sir Patrick would not think of asking.

      Sir Patrick became infirm, and therefore invited Chris Lintott to become Sky at Night’s roving reporter, and ever since then there has been an accumulation of an army of assistants.

      I think Sir Patrick intended that Lintott would take over as sole presenter, and the army of assistants would depart, but once he departed, the BBC maintained the army of presenters by replacing him with a female presenter, the first female presenter.

      It looks as though this is permanent, to many cooks spoiling the broth, because with all these presenters under contract to be used by the BBC, I cannot imagine that they could spend almost half an hour with experts in Astronomy, on one subject, with only Chris Lintott being used.

      As for Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, I think is taken for granted in Astronomy, that wherever Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock is employed, that is a litmus test to whichever organisation involved with Astronomy, is prepared to pay the most, for being the top champion of Political Correctness in the space industry.

      So it seems that the BBC has had to provide an army of assistants for Sky at Night, first for a disabled presenter and then for a female presenter, and now for a Black presenter.

         11 likes

      • John Smith says:

        Thanks. I felt like a bit of a heal saying what I said, but I needed to say it. I like Dr Lucy Green too. That’s what is jarring. We already had a woman presenter. Not that her gender mattered to me it was her body of work that matters. I hope we get passed the Astronomy 101 feel the show has gained. It is needed occasionally. But I am getting a bit tired of Jemima and Dad from the Home Counties with their £1000 beginners telescope waxing about how great it is to look at Betelgeuse in the same pitch as those irritating kids from stage schools. I jest, a tad.

           13 likes

      • Ember2013 says:

        I remember Heather Couper: sexy astronomer on Ch4 in the 80s.

        If the BBC wants to make astronomy appealing they should do what Ch4 did all those years ago.

           7 likes

        • John Smith says:

          Yes I do as well. I think Myleene Klass has been on TSAN too. So in summary we have programme that for over 50 years has attracted many sections of society yet the BBC need to fiddle with the recipe to satisfy some agenda.

             6 likes

          • Richard Pinder says:

            With the lefty arts people, its how it looks that is important, not the content.
            Sir Patrick was a scientifically minded UKIP supporter, he would only invite people on to Sky at Night, if they had something more to say about Astronomy, than he himself.
            So if Sir Patrick invited a woman onto Sky at Night, it would be because she had more knowledge about the subject than he did.
            Political correctness is about left-wing morons trying to fell superior by patronising women and blacks, so now that Sir Patrick has gone, you cant be sure that Sky at Night is based on merit, unless the person is a white male.

               7 likes

      • Milverton says:

        This is one of the few instances I have some sympathy for the BBC.

        The Sky At Night was always going to struggle after Sir Patrick, just as, for instance ISIHAC has failed to replace Humphrey Lyttleton, or Just A Minute has never replaced Clement Freud, Kenneth Williams, Derek Nimmo or Peter Jones.

        The simple truth is such people are literally irreplaceable. All that is left for the Beeb is to do the best they can, knowing full well it won’t be enough.

           6 likes

        • DJ says:

          Well, that’s the thing isn’t it. Sir Patrick was Sir Patrick: an expert with a genuine enthusiasm for his field and a skilled communicator making a programme that was unapologetically smart.

          Now we have a PC mess that’s been focus-grouped to death and includes such factoids as our 24 hour day being based on how long it takes the Earth to rotate.

          “But now over to Mohammed who’s at an ice rink with six dwarfs and a parrot. “

             8 likes

        • Richard Pinder says:

          Sir Patrick has been replaced by at least five presenters.
          In my opinion, I think that Sky at Night would be improved if they sacked everyone except Lawrence, and went back to inviting experts on to the show.

          As well as improving the quality of the program, it would also dramatically cut costs by having only one presenter with a grounding in the amateur side of Astronomy, and who could invite unpaid experts to deliver the professional side of Astronomy.

             4 likes

          • John Smith says:

            Pete yes and perhaps and just one of the Four Doctors (Chris L, Chris N, Paul, or Lucie.)

               1 likes

  42. SilentMajority says:

    Daily Politics today (11 Feb) 48 mins in.
    Jo Cockburn, Fiona Philips and Alain de Botton talking about ‘Using the news’ –
    According to de Botton ” The problem with the BBC is that it’s so worried that people will disagree with it.”……
    ” I would like to see more bias.. ” …..
    ” The BBC only once came off the fence in the last twenty years, a BBC man told me, over apartheid, and ever since then it has tried to refrain from expressing any opinion on anything ever since. “….
    “…. it is the job of the BBC to hunt out the best possible biases in relation to the big questions rather than simply stand back and go ‘well you guys make up your own minds’ ”

    FOR SALE: Broken TV – no reasonable offer refused.

       38 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Mirrors a classic zero integrity negotiating technique that reminds me of a court case we had with a surveyor who had missed £80,000 of faults (and hence our claim amount).
      Took three years and we ‘won’. We got £40,000 and the lawyers split £200,000 on top.
      Theirs argued every point, making wildly unreasonable counter claims, so every time the judge asked us to concede to show good faith, and inevitably chewed away at what we need to put things back as they were. It was farcical.
      Hence the BBC here… ‘Look, this is what could be happening, so in fact what we are doing now is actually totally balanced’.

      I think DavidP has a rule about it.

         10 likes

  43. SilentMajority says:

    Sorry, I missed out a bit.
    ….over apartheid, — The BBC thought long and hard and decided that it was against apartheid, — and ever since….

    I can just imagine the protracted discussions over whether apartheid was good or bad.

       13 likes

    • DownBoy says:

      They never seemed to have had that discussion regarding the Soviet Union or Islam – both much greater threats, and one still growing.

         12 likes

  44. Guest Who says:

    And in other news..
    http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/career-management.html
    ‘Will Martin Davidson, Janice’s devoted hubby… stay on alone on the sixth floor’
    Nice to see that now there is all this diversity to mix things up on various ‘ism bases, the near Pharaohic levels of relationship in the BBC top tiers to nepotistic excess seems to trouble no one.
    But at least they are trusted and transparent and happy to be held to account…
    http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/confidence-building.html
    ‘BBC DG Tony Hall has chosen The Independent to make a pledge about the World Service’
    Yes, nothing says accountability like opting for the smallest broadsheet there is, representing a minute fraction of the audience the BBc ‘speaks for’.
    Guess the current BBC line is we should be grateful they didn’t opt for the New Statesman.

       9 likes

  45. DB says:

    BBC News US online ed Daniel Nasaw seems to think that Obamacare’s failings are down to the Koch brothers and the insurance industry:

    Yeah, you carry on deluding yourself BBC editor.

       19 likes

    • DB says:

      And he’s not happy about the attacks on Hillary following the release of those papers yesterday ( which, naturally, the BBC didn’t report):

         25 likes

      • John Anderson says:

        Well done DB.

        What a couple of those biased tweets show is that there are BBC staff who are well aware of the dire stories about ObamaCare – which gets worse and worse. But they are deliberately not reporting on them to Britain.

           24 likes

        • London Calling says:

          Watch Fox News online if you want to know what’s actually happening in Obamaland. With the BBC you are forced to pay to be misinformed. Bill O’Reilly’s interview wiith Obama showed what a slippery liar he is (Obama, that is)

             3 likes

  46. CCE says:

    “Miliband predicts more flooding”

    “he urged the government to invest more in flood defences as there would be “more flooding, more storms” in future.

    Not to do so was a “totally false economy”, he argued. ”

    Hmmmm….. just how much was invested in the unreported and never referred to by the BBC dark age 1997 -2010? What did John Prescott do about flood defences? When did the policy of not dredging and let people flood come into force Answers on a postcard to

    BBC political messaging unit
    Environment and climate propaganda dept
    the 4bn news machine
    Broadcasting House
    Londigrad

    Anyway……..his every banal pointless grandstanding utterance is on page 1 off BBC news websites. FFS! You might almost believe that the BBC had a mission to publicise him and his party……….perish the thought.

       29 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ““Miliband predicts more flooding””

      One can see why he gets the big bucks.
      His bandwagon jumping gets more inane every week.
      That the BBC acts as faithful PR to such facile utterances, ignoring crucial story history and context, does their credibility little service.

         10 likes

      • starfish says:

        Milliband predicts more sunrises and sunsets

        They are likely to be at the start and end of periods of daylight

        In other news he predicts that the Pope is probably a Roman Catholic

           6 likes

  47. noggin says:

    Can t help noticing for nearly 5 weeks, the levels and Cornwall have worsening flooding, and virtually f-ck all
    in the way of real constructive help, while “the pies” Pickles
    and co navel gaze, and point at each other, with added personal sniping.

    surprise, surprise

    Yesterday the Thames valley had flooding, Windsor to London line flooded, hey ho … today the army is in and “money is no object”.

       23 likes

  48. John Anderson says:

    Here is a useful graphic. The Global Warming / “climate change” bases itself on computer models. It is more and more evident that these models are misleading – and are pretty useless. The models predict the “hockey stick” sharp increases in global temperatures – but for over 17 years there has been no oncrease, whether measured by the HADCRUT surface data which the models use, or by the more recent and more accurate satellite measurements for the lower troposphere.

    The HADCRUT and satellite recorded ACTUAL global temperatures are shown as lines low down on the graph. All the other lines are what is predicted by a whole load of computer models.

    And over 95% of the models are showing far greater predicted temperatures than the actual recorded measurements.

    That is – the models are crap. It is way past time the “climate scientists” like Julia Slingo admitted this openly, and started to talk about the realities of the situation – the fact that panic and hugely damaging economic changes are wholly unnecessary.

    Either Slingo et al are blind and stupid – or they are proven liars, deliberately misleading Ministers.

    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/10/95-of-climate-models-agree-the-observations-must-be-wrong/#more-102982

       19 likes