It was reported over the weekend that a Labour councillor has claimed that aliens are influencing Vladimir Putin.
The BBC didn’t find this newsworthy, which got me thinking that things would be different if the councillor had been a member of UKIP.
Here’s the exchange I had on Twitter today with BBC politics reporter Giles Dilnot. You need to follow the links to fully understand what’s going on.
Credit to Dilnot – he admitted I got him good.
"Councillor claims aliens influencing Putin" BBC: "UKIP? Clear the headlines, we've got a new lead. Oh, Labour. Never mind." @BBCPolitics
— DB (@4d2b) February 24, 2015
@4d2b Not so much…he's been on before http://t.co/2BWOeIq7kq so it's not that new is all. True though that ALL parties have odd ones
— Giles Dilnot (@reporterboy) February 24, 2015
@reporterboy 3 years ago. This is new. Inconceivable BBC wouldn't have run with it if a UKIP councillor, even if a repeat offender.
— DB (@4d2b) February 24, 2015
@reporterboy In fact if UKIP the repeat nuttiness would've made it more newsworthy for the BBC – "STILL a UKIP councillor!" etc
— DB (@4d2b) February 24, 2015
No reply to that, so I went at it again later when Dilnot tweeted about Natalie Bennett’s disastrous Green Party policy launch:
LESSON If you think the so called MSM have vested interests to squash you, but you are doing ok-ish, don't hand them ammunition to shoot you
— Giles Dilnot (@reporterboy) February 24, 2015
@reporterboy Unless you're a crazy Labour councillor – in that case do what you want, it won't make the BBC news.
— DB (@4d2b) February 24, 2015
@4d2b which gaffs by UKIP are you thinking unfair ? The woman who doesn't like "negroids". Are you saying that's equivalent to liking aliens
— Giles Dilnot (@reporterboy) February 24, 2015
@reporterboy You're trying to shift the argument. My point was that a UKIP councillor making alien references would've made BBC news.
— DB (@4d2b) February 24, 2015
@4d2b No. I DO see your point, I do. It has some merit. Now answer MY question.
— Giles Dilnot (@reporterboy) February 24, 2015
@reporterboy Of course UKIP councillor's views shld be exposed. Difference is – that got frenzied coverage whereas Labour alien guy nowt.
— DB (@4d2b) February 24, 2015
@4d2b I accept the Labour guy point, yup BUT there is a world (forgive pun) of differenace between what she said and what he says
— Giles Dilnot (@reporterboy) February 24, 2015
@reporterboy You're the one comparing it to that particular UKIP example, not me. How about this? http://t.co/mvmeEjUN40
— DB (@4d2b) February 24, 2015
@reporterboy Can't find this on BBC website: Labour councillor AND ROAD SAFETY CAMPAIGNER done for drink/driving http://t.co/T41bPM6B1L
— DB (@4d2b) February 24, 2015
@4d2b yeah because she's a nobody. There's no equivalence. Where have we done a story about a UKIP drink drive councillor ? The fact is
— Giles Dilnot (@reporterboy) February 24, 2015
@4d2b happy as a party they've rooted them out. As N says they are a party that has a ban on standing if you were BNP member. This is not
— Giles Dilnot (@reporterboy) February 24, 2015
@4d2b the same as being a bit odd, or in her case being a nobody. If a ANY party person said "I don't like negroids" it'd be news, trust me
— Giles Dilnot (@reporterboy) February 24, 2015
@reporterboy "Where have we done a story about a UKIP drink drive councillor ?" I take it you missed this tweet https://t.co/rhKx85iOr2
— DB (@4d2b) February 24, 2015
@4d2b you genuinely got me there. I had NOT seen. Yup that is not equivalence in action, should be one if the other. I'd agree, fair play.
— Giles Dilnot (@reporterboy) February 24, 2015
High praise to Dilnot. Diogenes would be pleased.
For those who can’t be bothered with all the stuff above – in brief, Dilnot said the BBC wouldn’t report anything as trivial as a drink/drive case against a UKIP councillor just after I’d sent him a link to a BBC report about a drink/drive case against a UKIP councillor.
Twitter is great, it’s instant feed back and you see just how the nasty lefty party work when anything they say is exposed as lies or is compared to anything one of their own has done (which isn’t hard)…queue the rent a twats who accuse you of everything from being a Nazi to just being a plain racist lunatic, the usual stuff really.
They soon disappear, as we all know they only like a fight when backed by a red army of frothing at the mouth UAF members.
To be fair to him, he seems slightly less blinkered than many in the BBC hive consciousness. A wonder he didn’t ignore or block you!
Oh my God! I saw this man on national television a couple of years ago talking about his ‘alien mother’, and naturally assumed that that would be the end of his political career, so to learn that he remains a councillor is quite remarkable. Does it indicate that most of his local Whitby constituents also believe themselves to have had alien encounters? Considering this, maybe David Icke will make a bid to become a frontline politician?
I too saw the BBC had avoided reporting about our alien Labour councillor (aren’t they all?).
For the same reason they seemed to have overlooked this story too:
ALLEGATIONS OF ‘CASH FOR PLANNING PERMISSION’ IN TIM FARRON’S CONSTITUENCY
Former Liberal Democrat Party President Tim Farron is facing questions after it emerged his local party branch received a donation from a company just weeks before it was awarded retrospective planning permission for a fishery by the local Liberal Democrat-run council.
The BBC could be paying this Labour Councillor to sacrifice his credibility for the common good of the Establishment by planning to defect to UKIP in the first week of May, this would then become the BBC’s top story about UKIP on the run up to the Election.
A Google search turns up a number of drink drive Labour councillors, none of whom appear to have been reported by the BBC. But here’s an interesting case:
Labour councillor fined for being drunk with her toddler tried to gag Press for a year
Sufficiently interesting to be also reported by the Times, the Guardian and the Independent. BBC? – nothing as far as I can see.
good god this was said in the town of my birth and I missed it.