270 Responses to NEW OPEN THREAD

  1. flexdream says:

    Screenshot_from_2015_05_31_10_51_09.png

    As ever, when it comes to politics the BBC news website is dominated by Labour and the SNP. Much more important than anything the actual government is doing.

       85 likes

    • Wild says:

      Well to be fair when New Labour came to power the BBC went into a deep depression, and endlessly worried (in programme after programme) about the fortunes of the Conservative Party, and which one of the leadership candidates would be the most likely to restore them back to power.

      Or was it that when New Labour won BBC journalists went into celebration mode, and obsessed only over whether Blair is the Second Coming or New Labour is too right wing and should move to the Left.

      One or the other.

         12 likes

  2. Beltane says:

    Or, in the interests of multiculturalism of course, dye.

       49 likes

  3. Peter says:

    LBC’s Nick Ferrari recently discussed complaints recently upheld by the BBC Trust that BBC TV Licensing were wrongly harassing correctly-licensed individuals by threatening them with debt-collectors. Each TV Licensing threatogram is reviewed and authorised by a senior BBC manager, although the BBC tries its utmost to maintain a safe distance from the caustic TV Licensing brand. As is frequently the case, TV Licensing continued to send these threats despite being made aware of the circumstances. Read the discussion here:
    http://tv-licensing.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/lbc-discusses-tv-licensings-disgusting.html

       43 likes

  4. The Lord says:

    I was watching an old version of ‘Robinson Crusoe’ this morning.
    First words to Friday, ‘You Friday, me Master’.
    Second words, when Friday starts jumping up and down in a panic, ‘It’s alright, Friday, I’m smoking and if you’re a good boy I’ll teach you how to smoke one day’.
    Lol, don’t think we’ll be seeing it on the Beeb any time soon.

       64 likes

    • The Highland Rebel says:

      We’ll all be the ‘Friday people’ if al – Beeb and the progressives get their way.

         43 likes

    • Mark says:

      As long as it isn’t TOBACCO, the BBC would have no problem with it.

         18 likes

  5. Dazed & Confused says:

    Something that you wont be seeing come hell or high water on the BBC..

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/05/30/video-brawl-at-labour-linked-muslim-community-centre/

       46 likes

    • The Old Bloke says:

      Interesting video D+C, but one has to ask, what are the British Police doing in Pakistan?

         51 likes

      • Wigton Lane Winker. says:

        One has to ask why wasn’t this reported on the local bbc news yesterday ? nothing , zilch. Totally ignored, never happened if you watch this source for local news.

           21 likes

    • G.W.F. says:

      I guess Labour need a better method of electing their future leaders. Perhaps it was more peaceful when the unions chose the leader in a quiet smoke filled room.

         29 likes

      • Manonclaphamomnibus says:

        By June 10 itll be entirely irrelevant. Whilst some of the monkeys here wax lyrical about the good ol days of British justice and the right to govern ourselves ,Dave is quietly handing our governance to big corporations and secret international courts. What has the pro establishment BBC said about it ?ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

           1 likes

    • Vengeance is mine says:

      At least it stops the mass rapes of whites girls for a bit.

         35 likes

  6. Dover Sentry says:

    BBC.

    Diversity Quota Tick Box Article.

    ‘How Does Black Hair Reflect Black History?’

    Covers colonialism, slavery and emancipation, civil rights, racism etc.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-31438273

    Quote:-
    “The problem remains however, that while we may style our hair to reflect our own individual choices, our hair is still being interpreted by a white mainstream gaze and that interpretation is often wrong as well as racist,” author Ms Tharps says.

    ..

       36 likes

    • The Lord says:

      ///It is estimated that 11,640,000 Africans left the continent between the 16th and 20th Centuries due to the transatlantic slave trade.

      These slaves took many of their African customs with them, including their reluctance to work, disregard for the law and, of course, the enormous chips on their shoulders.///

      There, I fixed it for her. 😉

         60 likes

      • Span Ows says:

        You may jest but read the Encyclopaedia Britannica link :

        “About half these slaves were unfortunates in their own societies: criminals, the mentally or physically handicapped, debtors or those who had been sold for debt or pledged as security for a debt, those who had offended men of power or influence, or simply those who in some way had become outcasts from the family and tribal systems. Selling such people was usually simply an alternative to keeping them in some kind of servitude in domestic society or, in more extreme situations, condemning them to execution or to serve as human sacrifices in the festivals of ancestral or land cults.”

        At the risk of sounding incredibly racist (ha ha) this could explain a lot of the problems in the US right now…and imagine the shit state of West Africa if they’d all stayed!

           24 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      ‘….our hair is still being interpreted by a white mainstream gaze and that interpretation is often wrong as well as racist,” author Ms Tharps says.’

      Like something out of Private Eye, in the days when it used to be funny.

         50 likes

    • Dave666 says:

      There’s not really a lot you can say about this. I wonder if the book was a best seller. I would also observe I personally associate the “clenched fist” with black power groups.

      As I still have very long hair not quite down to my waist I wonder if I should write a book about stereotypes and associations made about white men with long hair. Although I think David Bowie beat me to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5zxeLwUSdk

         18 likes

    • Richard Pinder says:

      How Does Black Hair Reflect Black History?

      (1st Epoch) I have Black Hair but my Tribal Chief has White Hair
      (2nd Epoch) I have Black Hair but my Owner has White Hair
      (3rd Epoch) I have Black Hair but my Boss, Lord Hall, has White Hair
      (4th Epoch) I have Black Hair but I killed Lord Hall, to Politically Correct the interpretation, Ms Tharps

         10 likes

  7. Guest Who says:

    Cripes.

    Imagine if the BBC ever decided this chap was just what they needed to enliven the odd Sunday?…

    http://www.thecommentator.com/article/5886/guardian_descends_into_bizarre_anti_israeli_dreamland_literally

       17 likes

    • The General says:

      He would fit in well with the three delusional female Party Leaders whose looney views were so welcomed and trumpeted by the BBC in the run up to the Election.

         34 likes

  8. dave1east says:

    the darker side of Buddhism http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32929855

    I must have missed all the balancing, darker side of islam articles

       40 likes

  9. Julio says:

    BAHAR MUSTAFA is an anagram of U SHAFT RAM BAA.

    Just sayin

       18 likes

  10. David Brims says:

    A BBC report on the changing demographics of London, ” If you warn that whites will be a minority you’re apparently ”a nazi who wants to kill six million jews­” (trademark) But if you brag about it it’s called exciting News. ”

       51 likes

    • David Brims says:

      Note the brainwashing, conditioning and programming of the children. ” Immigration is good because we learn about different cultures !! ”

      Err um, could they not buy the National Geographic magazine ?

         76 likes

      • John C. says:

        Or even learn about their own culture, which is much richer and more relevant.

           56 likes

    • dave s says:

      The question that is never asked is where have the whites gone to?
      Assuming a stable number of whites in the years in question it would imply that they have left.
      The BBC methodology is so full of holes as to make it absurd.
      London is going to be one huge ghetto diverse though it will be. and demographics and human desires make that certain. The consequences could be dramatic and need discussion. It will never happen as long as liberal fantasists control the debate.
      The experience of the USA is that this is inevitable. In the USA at least they are prepared to confront this reality. Here never.

         50 likes

      • Nibor says:

        In the modern age with cheap airline travel you can go to other areas of the world , with other cultures , and enjoy it by the spade load . No need to bus people in from those other areas and see these cultures half implanted here , like an animals in a zoo .

           38 likes

      • Al Shubtill says:

        The unfortunate thing is dave s, that the U.S. isn’t confronting it, the only advantage the Americans have is the sheer size of their country and the possibility of secession by some states or groups of states in order to protect themselves.

           23 likes

        • dave s says:

          That is partly what I was getting at . Difficult here to make this a realistic option.

             12 likes

    • Jeff says:

      I’m sure all these children are revelling in the “vibrant, diverse multi cultural utopia” that parts of enriched London has become.
      As one young lad said “It’s good because we learn about each others cultures.” All fine and dandy but I wonder how much they know about their own culture and if they have even heard of some of our finest people like Winston Churchill. If they get their information from the biased Beeb (that appalling prog’ the other day) then they could be forgiven for thinking that Winston wasn’t much of a leader. He was flawed, wrong about most things and voted out of office as soon as the war was over. That last point is, of course, true; the Tories were kicked out in ’45. However the BBC never bring to our attention that Clement Atlee, who is considered by many on the left as our greatest ever prime minister, was in turn rejected by the British electorate at the first opportunity. And for some unfathomable reason the BBC never mention this rather telling fact.
      Funny that…

         53 likes

      • Doyle says:

        That’s because it’s not true. It would be inaccurate to suggest that the electorate rejected Labour at the first opportunity.

        Labour election landslide of 1945 was achieved with a 47.7% vote percentage (11,967,746 votes) compared to the Conservatives 36.2% (8,716,211 votes).

        The election of 1950 saw Labour lose 78 seats but increase its vote percentage (to 49.7%) and it’s total vote (up 1.2 million to 13,226,176). The Conservatives closed the gap to 40% and 11,507,061 votes. Labour were piling up useless votes in South Wales and the North.

        October 1951 saw a Conservative majority (Labour lost a further 20 seats) but this was achieved with a smaller vote percentage (44.3% to 48.8%) and a smaller actual vote (12.6 million to 13.9 million).

        1955 saw the Conservatives finally overtake Labour in terms of total votes (13.3 million to 12.4 million) and vote percentage (49.7% to 46.4%).

        I’d suggest that the electoral system conspired against Labour at the second time of asking and the electorate themselves finally rejected Labour at the third time of asking.

           4 likes

        • Mark says:

          The quoted % share values for 1945,1950 and 1951 from Doyle are wrong, in each case overstating, in favour of Labour, the difference in voting % between CON and LAB.

          Seats and vote % in 1945-1955 general elections:

          1945:
          LAB 395 (47.9%)
          CON 215 (40.2%)
          LIB 12 (9.0%)
          OTH 18 (2.9 %)

          1950
          LAB 315 (46.1%)
          CON 298 (43.4%)
          LIB 9 (9.1 %)
          OTH 3 (1.3%)

          1951
          LAB 295 (48.8%)
          CON 321 (48.0%)
          LIB 6 (2.6%)
          OTH 3 (0.7%)

          1955
          LAB 277 (46.2%)
          CON 345 (49.7%)
          LIB 6 (2.7%)
          OTH 2 (1.3%)

          Source : http://www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/percentvote.htm

             2 likes

    • noggin says:

      a better one note :-
      Al BBC reports on numbers in Bham and London

         19 likes

  11. Thoughtful says:

    BBC radio 4 on the Islamophillia path again:

    The Dark Side of Buddhism

    A well respected senior monk groans in pain in a hospital bed. He’s been attacked after speaking out against extremist Buddhist groups turning on their Muslim and Christian neighbours. A rally by orange-robed monks in a Muslim area turns into a riot. When order is restored two Muslims and a Tamil security guard lie dead. Christians are threatened and intimidated.

    Charles Haviland, the BBC’s South Asia editor and former correspondent in Sri Lanka, explores why a militant, violent strain of Buddhism has emerged in recent years. They claim Buddhism in Sri Lanka is under threat and they need to act to preserve a way of life which is being eroded. He meets victims of the militant monks and hears Buddhist elders condemn the violence as against Buddhist principles, but they have no control over the nationalistic, hardline followers of the Bodu Bala Sena group.

    Recent elections in Sri Lanka have led to a change in government, and the new Minister for Buddhist Affairs says the law will be applied more rigorously to clamp down on groups agitating religious tensions. But already there is a new flashpoint at a mosque, which the militant monks say is actually an older Buddhist shrine. The government has backed them, and ordered the mosque demolished. Does more religious trouble lie ahead in Sri Lanka?

       25 likes

    • Timbo says:

      ‘Charles Haviland, the BBC’s South Asia editor and former correspondent in Sri Lanka, explores why a militant, violent strain of Buddhism has emerged in recent years.’

      Let me take a wild stab in the dark, but could it possibly be – and I may be going out on a limb here – something to do with Islam?

         54 likes

      • John Anderson says:

        Perish the thought ! BBC partiality towards Islam – never !

           33 likes

        • noggin says:

          The only part of this scenario that surprises me, at all
          is how its managed to take so long!, amazing levels of tolerance for so long by Burmese Buddhists
          After desecration, torching, and destruction of Buddhist, and indeed Hindu shrines, relics, ancient artefacts, violent threats/intimidation, “criminalising ”
          Islamic “offence”, persistent suppression of the Bahai and Zoorator faiths from a violent fascist ideology?.

          … shows Buddhism, is peaceful … not stupid.

             20 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Often headlines can serve the story poorly.

      I was initially dubious about this:

      http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/theres-method-in-the-madness-of-isiss-cultural-vandalism-10287718.html

      But it was/is worth persevering with:

      “And then along came BBC World with a broadcast that carried a brief account of the murders, including the children, followed immediately – in the same breath, no less – by a far longer report on the danger existentially posed to a bird, the rare bald ibis of Palmyra”.

         14 likes

  12. BB says:

    While obviously tragic for the families involved in this incident http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/northern_ireland i cant help but wonder why the beeb decided to use this picture in their story.
    A quick google image search brings up many pictures of this young man, including this one although it is generally in colour.

       11 likes

  13. CCE says:

    I watched a very early episode of ‘Dad’s Army’ last night (How many times has it been repeated, are any of the cast still alive?)

    “The Enemy within the Gates” featured Cpl Jones blacked up waving a spear and jabbering at two Luftwaffe aircrew who concluded ‘no wonder the British are loosing the war – they are reduced to using colonial troops armed with spears’.

    Now I was wondering how the hell anything so offensive managed to make it into the repeats. Surely some BBC heads must roll? For those who are annoyed by the automated ‘we got it right’ responses they get to complaints about bias I suggest you send in a complaint about that scene and see how long it is before there is a full judicial inquiry, questions in Parliament, and some poor archivists head on a plate served up to a BBC Salome. (BTW I am talking in the abstract about decapitation, some people in the world take the concept quite literally when offended.)

       43 likes

    • Dave666 says:

      Ian Lavender is the last surviving actor to play a member of the platoon & he’s 69. It seems to have been on constant re-play since at least the 1990s in my perception. Whilst I like it even I can’t put up with watching it any more.

         15 likes

      • hadda says:

        Frank Williams, who played the vicar, is still going, too, but that’s the lot.

           15 likes

        • Geoff says:

          Michael Knowles who played Captain Cutts in the earlier episodes is still around, he was also in It Ain’t Half Hot Mum and You Rang My Lord.

          Is it the case that as most of the cast aren’t around that repeat fees are cheap and why no other comedies get a look in on Saturday night, I’m fed up with Dads Army as well….

             7 likes

      • David Brims says:

        The first actor to pass away was ironically one of the youngest, James Beck at 43, he played the spiv character.

        en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Beck

           4 likes

      • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

        Don’t tell him Pyke !

           2 likes

    • David Brims says:

      When they repeated Fawlty Towers they erased this scene.

         38 likes

      • Essex Man says:

        I thought that might happen sooner or later , about 10 years ago ,I was in a charity shop with Mrs Essex & spied a BBC video of Fawlty Towers , with 3 episodes on it including the above , I bought it for about £2 . I keep it ,for when the BBC ,do a destroy the past ,for the year zero , Pol Pot, type purge of our glorious Hideously White Yesterday`s . You know they itching to implement those policies .

           37 likes

      • Dave666 says:

        Hopefully ever one who laughed at that will be sent off for re-education by big brother number 1. Oh hang on there’s a knock at the door….

           24 likes

  14. AsISeeIt says:

    Andrew Marr interviewed Allison Janney from one of the BBC’s favourite shows – the West Wing.

    I hardly need to paraphrase: “So who is your favourite, Obama or Hillary? Yeah, me too, now give us a Bill Clinton annectdote, he walks on water.”

    As far the BBC is concerned there is no other party than the Democrats.

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – US politics provides the BBC with a useful cypher for their true views on UK politics.

       62 likes

    • Wild says:

      The BBC do mention the Republicans. They (Nixon-Regan-Bush et al) are always the enemy.

         8 likes

  15. Nibor says:

    Help please .

    Page 49 of the Sunday Mail today .
    The picture ~~~~ what are the initials on the tail ?

       0 likes

  16. Dazed & Confused says:

    Dunno about anyone else, but I can forgive the woman’s language, because of the target that it’s aimed at…

       24 likes

    • G.W.F. says:

      What was her point about MI5 towards the end? Something we need to know?

         3 likes

      • Demon says:

        Possibly nothing but maybe intended to sew doubt in the minds of his fellow terrorist worshippers.

           8 likes

  17. John Anderson says:

    Re-posted from another thread – my criticism of the hatchet job the BBC attempted on Churchill’s memory this week :

    Churchill did play up the image that he was a bon vivant. Indeed he truly was. But he was not “a drunk”. Bob Boothby was a constant companion – and often criticised Churchill, but he said the only time he saw Winston under the influence was when Edward VIII abdicated.

    All through the 1930’s, Churchill was the only clear voice in Britain pointing to the dangers of Hitler. Single-handedly he built an intelligence-gathering machine that tracked in great detail Hitler’s massive rearmaments, comparing them to the appalling weakness of Britain’s defences. He was frozen out of the BBC and much of the media, which went along year after year with the disastrous policies of appeasing the dictators. Appeasement was led by Baldwin and then Chamberlain, with full backing from pacifist Labour and the Liberals. For all that, and his magnificent bulldog leadership of Britain in the darkest days of WW2, he deserves total credit.

    Yes, his record in the 1920s as Chancellor was flawed – because he followed Treasury and Bank of England advice and put Britain back on the Gold Standard. But that is hindsight – everyone else supported the idea.

    The notion that he was “against” the working class is wholly unfair. Around 1910 as President of the Board of Trade he set up the first labour exchanges to help people find work, and he worked with Lloyd George who was Chancellor to establish other key planks of what became the welfare state – unemployment insurance, pensions for servicemen etc. He was one of the few ruling-class patricians – who largely governed Britain in those days – who tried actively to improve the conditions of the working poor.

    It is typical of the pygmies at the BBC that they should mount such a vicious attack on Churchill’s memory. The BBC itself carries a lot of responsibility for the blindness towards the threat of Hitler. You might think they would reflect on their own dreadful record of a decade of appeasement that nearly destroyed this country.

    The BBC prog. had been criticised in this Mail article :

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3104159/Family-s-fury-BBC-brands-Churchill-enemy-people-New-documentary-depicts-former-Prime-Minister-deeply-hated-drunk.html

       50 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      I would add that 2 of the figures Churchill attracted in the 1930s and then used in the 1940s were William Beveridge – “author” of the new welfare state ideas subsequently enacted by Attlee’s Government postwar, and Rab Butler, architect of the 1944 Education Act.

      So, even at the height of the war, Churchill was helping to frame the foundations for a better deal for the working class.

      And if he was as divisive a politician as the BBC tried to make out – how come he was re-elected in 1951 as PM ? With Macmillan as Minister of Housing pledged to build 300,000 houses a year – a large proportion of them being Council houses ?

      There may well be room for a documentary, a retrospective of Churchill’s record on social affairs. Setting his actions during the General Strike – impetuously called by the TUC, with his subsequent insistence that the mine-owners should give the miners a better deal. Describing properly all the social reforms with which he was associated, over many decades.

      A proper “warts and all” appraisal. Not the sort of Marxist hatchet job the despicable BBC ran last week.

         43 likes

      • #88 says:

        And of course in that travesty of a programme, the BBC referred once again to the 1945 Labour government’s NHS.

        …but (of course) failing to mention that the ‘drunk PM who was out of touch and hated by the working people’ had appointed a Minister or Health who in 1944 published the white paper, ‘A National Health Service’, which called for the introduction of free universal health care.

        The Health Minister responsible, Sir Henry Willink, was a ….errrm…..Tory.

        http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2015/03/hugh-byrne-its-time-to-tear-down-the-cult-of-bevan-in-the-nhs.html

           33 likes

        • John Anderson says:

          That article really needs to be read.

          As well as the Beveridge report proposing social insurance “from cradle to grave”, and the Butler proposals for education, Churchill’s wartime government was proposing – in effect – the NHS.

          Nye Bevan is given all the credit – but basically he enacted what had been proposed under Churchill.

          As they say – “not of people know that”

          And the Brussels Broadcasting Corporation will never ever tell us. Because in their bubble-view, Tory means bad.

          (As we go into all the EU debate – can I please register a trademark for Brussels Broadcasting Corporation )

             26 likes

          • Mrs Kitty says:

            The whole Beeb agenda against Churchill becomes clear when you read his views on Islam . During his time in the Army he had the opportunity to witness Islam in all its peaceful glory. If he were alive today he would probably be in prison for writing the truth.

               46 likes

            • Wild says:

              The claim that the Labour Party invented the NHS – repeated endlessly by the BBC – is just another of its lies. Not only did the Labour Party not invent the NHS, it was actually opposed to it! It is true that it’s MP’s were gradually won over, and eventually voted in favour, but the story that the Labour Party thought up the idea is just a lie.

                 13 likes

  18. D1004 says:

    Sound suspiciously like Bunny you do pal.
    I would offer.
    All white stupid liberals will die under the sword of IS.

       14 likes

  19. Alex says:

    Would the BBC write this type of article about their beloved Islam?

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32929855

       16 likes

  20. Fred Stubber says:

    Further to the Ferrybridge Power Station report

    ITEM 1
    Dear Sirs,
    Look North Leeds, 20th May 2015
    Your package on the closure of part of Ferrybridge Power Station was severely biased because of the follow-up interview, which was with John Grant, who was described as ‘an expert in renewable energy and climate change’. Why didn’t you describe him as a hard line environmentalist, which is what he is? Then the viewers would have known where he was coming from and could have adjusted their credibility accordingly. And why did you chose this man anyway, with his known bias on the subject? Why didn’t you interview someone who was a true expert in the whole field of energy production; someone who would take a more balanced and broader view? John Green gave totally one-sided answers which were narrowly focused on the conventional environmentalist mantra. He is absolutely committed to the environmentalist cause, unsurprisingly because he makes a good living from it.
    I’m well aware of the BBC’s position on anthropomorphic global warming: the debate is closed and no-one is allowed to question the orthodoxy. The 2006 climate seminar and what followed showed the BBC’s ingrained bias. However many of your licence-payers still manage to think for themselves despite the constant propaganda, and would appreciate a balanced report.
    Yet again Look North demonstrates its left/liberal/environmentalist bias. I have lost faith in the BBC as a great British institution because of the lack of impartiality.
    Regards
    Fred Stubber

    ITEM 2
    Dear Mr Stubber,
    Thank you for your email to BBC Look North about our Ferry bridge coverage in which you raised concerns about the guest who we used during our coverage on last Wednesday’s programme of
    Look North.
    We chose to speak to John Grant as he is an expert in environmental issues – and also in renewable energy. He works at Sheffield Hallam University and therefore is a Yorkshire expert in his field.
    We made no secret of this. As you yourself mentioned, we highlighted this when we said he is “an expert in renewable energy and climate change’. It is also why the presenter kept asking him
    why cleaner coal wasn’t the way forward.
    John Grant’s interview was just one of several elements to our coverage of the closure of Ferrybridge. We were not only looking at the reasons behind the decision to close the plant,
    we also looked back at the historical legacy of Ferrybridge – and raised questions about the subsidies that other European countries, including Germany, receive to keep
    coal fired power stations open.
    Thank you for your interest in the programme – and for raising your concerns.
    Yours sincerely,
    Nikki Brown
    Nikki Brown
    Acting Editor
    BBC Look North
    nikki.brown@bbc.co.uk
    0113 224 7041
    07736 481253

    ITEM 3
    Hello Nikki,
    Thanks for your reply. I’ve been away so I only received it today.
    You say, “We chose to speak to John Grant as he is an expert in environmental issues – and also in renewable energy.” That’s exactly my point. The story wasn’t about environmentalism or renewable energy, it was about a coal-fired power station, and if the discussion was to be broadened it should have been about the economics and politics of power generation. But ‘Look North’ used the story as an excuse to get the environmentalist message out, using Mr Grant as an eager spokesman.
    My other objection to this interviewee is that he is an extremist. He has positioned himself very clearly at one end of the spectrum on the subject of environmentalism. If you are going to allow an extremist on the air you should also allow a balancing view to be heard. There are such people, you know! But better still, as I said in my previous letter, interview a genuine unbiased expert; someone without such an obvious axe to grind.
    I will pursue my complaint elsewhere.
    Regards
    Fred Stubber

    ITEM 4
    Dear Mr Stubber
    Reference CAS-3319181-FS1T57
    Thanks for contacting us regarding ‘Look North’ on 20 May.
    We’re sorry to note that you felt the item on closure of part of Ferrybridge Power Station was biased and note your views on contributor John Grant.
    However, we make no editorial comment or judgement on the views expressed by interviewees. John Grant, accurately introduced, was asked about the future of power production and clearly gave his personal views. Local voices were also heard on the impact on jobs and the community.
    We appreciate that you don’t share the contributor’s views and thank you for your feedback. Please know complaints are sent to senior management and programme makers every morning and we’ve included your points in our overnight reports. These reports are among the most widely read sources of feedback in the BBC ensuring that complaints are seen quickly by the right people.
    Kind regards
    Stuart Webb
    BBC Complaints
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints
    NB This is sent from an outgoing account only which is not monitored. You cannot reply to this email address but if necessary please contact us via our webform quoting any case number we provided.

    ITEM 5
    Stuart Webb:
    Dear Mr Stubber
    Reference CAS-3319181-FS1T57
    Thanks for contacting us regarding ‘Look North’ on 20 May.
    We’re sorry to note that you felt the item on closure of part of Ferrybridge Power Station was biased and note your views on contributor John Grant. However, we make no editorial comment or judgement on the views expressed by interviewees.
    Fred Stubber:
    I’m not asking you to. I’m asking you why you used a person whose expertise is environmentalism and renewables when the subject was the economics and politics of electricity generation.
    Stuart Webb:
    John Grant, accurately introduced,
    Fred Stubber:
    Yes, you described him fairly accurately, but that doesn’t make it right. A vague acknowledgement of his position doesn’t make it right that you should broadcast his one-sided opinions unopposed. It’s always the same though. The BBC has a strong bias towards environmentalism.
    Stuart Webb:
    was asked about the future of power production and clearly gave his personal views.
    Fred Stubber:
    Well he’d hardly give anyone else’s would he? And his ‘personal views’ did not give the man in the street a fair or accurate picture of the future of power generation. He treated several things as ‘given’ when they are contentious. It was environmentalist propaganda crowbarred into a local story about something entirely different. You gave him far longer than any other person interviewed.
    Fred Stubber.

    (to be continued)

       60 likes

    • rampage says:

      Interesting. Regional news programmes on al Beeb are totally infected by the “Progressive” metropolitan agenda. Seems from your correspondence with them the usual bunker mentality is being applied.

      I look forward to further updates.

         36 likes

    • GCooper says:

      The problem is that Stuart Webb either doesn’t wish to concede the (very obvious) point you are making for reasons of BBC policy, or is so imbued with environmentalist claptrap that he is incapable of understanding it.

      Either is a measure of what we are up against.

         25 likes

    • Richard Pinder says:

      Nikki Brown would know the best expert on Climate Change at the BBC, Paul Hudson, but like all experts in Climate Science, I don’t think Hudson would like to comment on Fuel Policy or the Environment. And I think he would agree with me that these so called experts in everything, always turn out to be ignorant of all things about everything. But I am afraid that the BBC’s Policy is still to censor the real experts. But the BBC policy on Climate Change must be doomed: We already know that the BBC Complaints morons are doomed. But its a great dilemma for the Politicians, how to deal with this mad policy instigated by Lord Hall. But see below for an idea of what the BBC and Lord Hall will be facing on its run up to Charter renewal.

      Click to access 254vw.pdf

      http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/Culture,%20Media%20and%20Sport/Future%20of%20the%20BBC/written/8338.html

      Click to access booker-bbc.pdf

         15 likes

      • Philip says:

        Richard – I disagree that it’s purely Lord Hall’s work. His ‘liberal (Walter Malthus) vision’ will be exactly the same as the French Marxists in effect (collective communism. The entire point of all this ‘EU integration’ (at any cost) has a national dehumanising cost. Ironically this has been endorsed by the US as future (falsely interpreted) bulwark against Russian domination. The Liberals (UK) and in the US liberals have paved the way for socialism in Europe. It is now a form of ‘Ethnic cleansing’ that the BBC is willing to perform with impunity as it’s ‘egalitarian’ concept is ‘discrimination free’ except its not, it’s the opposite plus something far more sinister and underhand… Lord Tony Hall is a pro Euro advocat pawn to the end game. The game is about to commence. They are taking positions which the BBC has long fought for. Surrender in Europe.
        http://www.theunituk.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50856&Itemid=22

           6 likes

        • Manonclaphamomnibus says:

          The Eu has only one aim. To maxiimise the efficiency of European Corporations. TTIP , which will end any notion of British soveriegnty, is designed to maximise the efficiency of multinational corporations. Absolutely nothing to do with marxism at all. Cameroon is just about to give our country away never mind any referendum. On June 10 as it happens.

             0 likes

          • Richard Pinder says:

            Free Market Capitalism naturally produces efficiency through profit and loss, you idiot. The Marxism is reflected in the left-wing enthusiasm for the EU, multinational monopolies and anti-democratic centralisation. Therefore the lack of efficiency and ever growing cost of governing the EU, with the Commissions self-destructive insatiable enthusiasm for ever more red tape. As history shows, is the reason for its inevitable demise, even if we cannot escape from the EU in time for this event.

               3 likes

      • TigerOC says:

        Thank you Richard for posting the links.

        Having read most of the submissions from serious scientists it strikes me that most if not all have demonstrated excellent scientific refutation of “global warming”

        I think it incumbent upon those scientists to now jointly make submissions to John Whittingdale and to OFCOM pointing out that “global warming” science is false and that the BBC is peddling propaganda. Further they should demand a proper review of the “science” for the sake of the future of this country and every person that lives on this island.

        As pointed out in many of the submissions the costs to ordinary people are going to escalate to the point where the politicians risk civil unrest. Figures quoted in one submission indicate that currently consumers are paying £80pa now which will rise to £283 pa in 5 years time.

           1 likes

    • Manonclaphamomnibus says:

      Nevermind. I’m sure this little setbackup wont dent the 5.3 trillion dollar subsidy that fossil fuel currently enjoys.

         0 likes

      • Mat says:

        5.3 trillion dollar subsidy ? subsidy ? what you mean the subsidy figure you get if you take every single penny spent from any source you can and then pin that penny spent on fossil fuel as a subsidy even if it’s health issue then get it printed fact free in the torygraph ! wow that me convinced

           8 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        Nevermind. I’m sure this little setbackup wont dent the 5.3 trillion dollar subsidy that fossil fuel currently enjoys.

        If that is the case, why did Ferrybridge have to close?

        And have you found out what happens to renewable energy when the wind don’t blow or the sun don’t shine, cos I’ve never heard the question asked on the BBC!

           5 likes

  21. David Brims says:

    BBC 3 9pm Leave to Remain film, more immigration propaganda.

    ” Omar, a charismatic Afghan teenager, is at the PRECARIOUS juncture of having his refugee status in the UK decided, when the arrival of a boy from back home threatens to change everything. Forced into a position where the outcome may be the difference between LIFE and DEATH, his only options are to tell the unbelievable truth or to tell a good story !!!!! ”

    Hmm, a charismatic refugee ? that’s a new one, does he have a halo above his head ? from the photo he looks a bit vapid. Another fairytale, the reality is no one gets deported from this county, it took 35 years to kick out Captain Hook Abu Hamza.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05xxj3y

       44 likes

  22. Rufus McDufus says:

    Surprised no-one’s mentioned this story about BBC political editor Nick Robinson and his memoirs. Great news he appears to have beaten a cancerous tumour on his lung, but despite the fact he seems to be trying to put a balanced spin on his memoirs it’s noticeable just how chummy he is with Ed Balls and Ed Miliband.
    And this is the guy Labour supporters use an an example of a Tory working for the BBC, because he once said he supported the Tories aged about 18.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3103982/Battling-cancer-Asked-spin-Ed-REALLY-tell-turn-cameras-Mischievous-moving-marvellously-indiscreet-brilliant-memoirs-BBC-s-NICK-ROBINSON.html

       30 likes

    • dez says:

      Rufus McDufus,

      …but despite the fact he seems to be trying to put a balanced spin on his memoirs…

      Surely you mean the edited excerpts of his memoirs, written by Nick Robinson (quite lucratively no doubt) for the not-at-all Tory supporting Daily Mail? You know, the same not-at-all Tory supporting newspaper where John Humphrys is a regular columnist.

      …it’s noticeable just how chummy he is with Ed Balls and Ed Miliband.

      It’s his job, he has to be chummy with everyone. How else do you think he’s going to get a story?

      “In 2009, David Cameron invited me to a restaurant and did everything he could to convince me that he had what it took to be Prime Minister…”

      Apparently he “had to resist the urge to roar with laughter and inquire whether the caller had got the wrong number”, when someone asked him to be a Labour spin doctor.

      Why could that be I wonder…?

      How strange that Craig Oliver (controller of English news output for BBC World Service, BBC World News and BBC News Online) didn’t have the same reaction when someone asked him to be a Tory spin Doctor.

      Why would that be I wonder…?

      Nick Robinson:

      Founder member of Macclesfield Young Conservatives, Chairman of the Cheshire Young Conservatives, member of the Young Conservative National Advisory Committee, President of the Oxford University Conservative Association and Chairman of the National Young Conservatives (1987-1988); which was after he’d started working for the BBC (1986).

      …because he once said he supported the Tories…

      EPIC FAIL!

         6 likes

      • John Anderson says:

        dez

        Who in the BBC Press Office writes your scripts ?

           31 likes

        • dez says:

          John Anderson,

          Who in the BBC Press Office writes your scripts ?

          I’m employed by Agenda 21, District 9 & Level 42 in a secret plot for KC and the Sunshine Band to take over the world.

          Is that really the best counter argument you can come up with?

             10 likes

          • Guest Who says:

            Speaking of the BBC Press Office & scripts & coming up withs…

            ‘Why would that be I wonder…?

            Nick Robinson:

            Founder member of Macclesfield Young Conservatives…’

            Hymnsheet singalong time…

               7 likes

          • pah says:

            Except of course Robinson has repudiated his links to the Tories many times and quite vociferously at that.

            Now can you remember why his nickname is ‘Toenails?’

               11 likes

          • Merched Becca says:
          • johnnythefish says:

            Dear Dez,

            Your researcher sold you a duff budgie the other week over a Today interview – remember? It led you to call me a liar and a hypocrite when in fact I proved the quote someone had extracted for you to be blatantly wrong.

            Ready with that apology yet?

               4 likes

        • Manonclaphamomnibus says:

          Which dept of the Sun newspaper writes yours?

             0 likes

          • johnnythefish says:

            So what is it about your hatred of The Sun that attracts you to the BBC, Mr Clap?

               5 likes

      • Demon says:

        “the not-at-all Tory supporting Daily Mail? You know, the same not-at-all Tory supporting newspaper where John Humphrys is a regular columnist.”

        Rather proves the point that the Mail is not such a 100% Tory paper if it employs neo-marxists like Humphrys to write a column. Epic Fail on Dezi’s part there.

           27 likes

        • pah says:

          Epic fail indeed. I wonder if Dez has ever heard the term ‘Click Bait’ ?

          Of course by the same reasoning the Torygraph must, in reality, be a Socialist rag because it employs Dan Hodges …

             12 likes

    • Luton Reject says:

      This kind of enrichment has existed in my home town for many years. Here’s an example from 2003 and the BBC’s attitude towards it that sticks in my mind.

      Tensions in Luton between black and Asian gangs had resulted in a fatal stabbing in a local park. On Christmas Eve 2003, crowds of Asians gathered outside a town centre club frequented by black people. A battle ensued involving over 200 combatants which overwhelmed police and lasted for much of the night.

      Now you would think that the first duty of the BBC, the police, and local media would be to warn people that mini race wars were breaking out so that they could make an informed decision to avoid Luton town centre for their own safety. Instead we got a complete cover up. The fight was written off as drink related and the real cause was censored. Here is the BBC’s non coverage –

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/3349337.stm

         45 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        ‘you would think that the first duty of the BBC, the police, and local media would be to warn people that mini race wars were breaking out so that they could make an informed decision’

        Surprised it still remains on the BBC site for even hinting there may be trouble ahead, and/or showing the BBC has always been well ahead on the managed news front. Seems ‘men’ were yet to appear in headlines back then.

        Still… 2003. That’s a long way back. Scott will be writing to the BBC to erase it as it is so old it can’t count any more, if rather missing the point that if it did then and still does, worse now, something in the politico-media state establishment is beyond rotten.

           19 likes

  23. AsISeeIt says:

    Oliver Twist scenario

    Yes, Asad Ahmad of BBC London tv news is keen to tell us about this frightening crime – young children are being coerced into begging and pickpocketing on the streets of our capital.

    Up until now, we are told, this was a ‘hidden crime’.

    By which I suppose he means the media didn’t report on it?

    And could it be that this crime has been a hidden unreported side effect of rapid mass-immigration?

       51 likes

  24. Guest Who says:

    The Graun grapples with a growing problem:

    Comments worth a scope.

    There is, of course, an alternative, and that is the BBC solution:

    http://isthebbcbiased.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/you-cant-call-me-mo.html

    Throw people and money and time at it until it goes away.

       16 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Meanwhile….

      http://bbcwatch.org/2015/06/01/still-no-bbc-correction-on-inaccurate-first-new-saints-claim/

      Odd, usually Fraser Steel is right on stuff like this.

      Maybe he’s having a well-earned break? Qatar perhaps?

      And it seems he took a mate with him:

      ‘Unfortunately, despite the BBC’s Vatican correspondent having been informed of the error, visitors to the BBC News website continue to find the above inaccurate information in situ.’

      Have to award this commeter ‘laconic understatement of the year’:

      ‘This item is not of great moment, but it is suggestive of a less than dependable journalism and resource.’

      Amazing what £4B can be trusted not to deliver.

      Maybe get Lenny Henry of the blower to Tony?

         8 likes

    • pah says:

      Well, of course, sticking their fingers in their ears and going ‘la la la, I’m not listening’ is far cheaper. Works for the BBC ..

         6 likes

    • Philip says:

      I suspect it’s more serious for The Guardian to then ignore their own readers. The end effect is that they buy another newspaper and they loose overall sales. The BBC on the other hand does not care if we go elsewhere, and fobs us off as they use our money and charge us for the privilege of making a complaint which they then ignore as they do and then make fun of us – as they do in response.

         5 likes

  25. Dover Sentry says:

    BBC Report.

    ‘The Musicians Fighting Back Against Extremism’

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32929974

    Better than boots on the ground, have a band of defiant musicians in a nearby country?
    Islamic State militants, be afraid, be very afraid!

    ..

       21 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Hey, Jedward on spoons and Palmyra is back before Babs can do a twirl and lament Betty Rubble-style.

      Sadly, one keen percussion volunteer was turned back as soon as he landed due concerns that their instruments of choice could cause offence:

      http://www.get-tuned.com/bongo-drum.php

         8 likes

  26. Barry Woods says:

    BBC Press Office ‏@bbcpress · May 27
    Daily Mail says buying 80,679 copies of Guardian is evidence of ‘left leaning bias’ at @BBC. Doesn’t mention the fact we bought 78,436 Mails

    Barry Woods ‏@BarryJWoods · May 27
    As a proportion of ssles. you buy way to many copies of Guardian.About third of whole circulation! @bbcpress @BBC @jimmcquaid propping it up

    Barry Woods ‏@BarryJWoods · 15h15 hours ago
    ahem – Thus, @BBC buys about 43% of @guardain daily circulation. vs 4.9% of Daily Mail daily circulation. http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/apr/10/national-daily-newspapers-lose-more-than-half-a-million-readers-in-past-year

    ——————————————-

    the BBC buys 80,670 copies out of 174,941 of the Guardian daily circulation
    the BBC buys 78,346 copies out of 1,600,000 of the Daily Mail daily corculation

       26 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      The BBC Press Office and twitter were apparently a match made in heaven.

      I wonder who they’ll block and what they will delete next, in the interests of trust and transparency?

         13 likes

  27. Angrymanupnorth says:

    Barry, the numbers appear extreme. Could you review and comment back please.

    Surely the 80,670 is not the number of Guardian copies bought by the BBC daily? Is this not an annual figure, giving approx 259 copies bought by the BBC per day?

    Should that not be 80,670 out of approx (312 x 174,941) ie about 0.15% of the circulation (still one in 677 copies printed which is significant, but not 43% of circulation)?

    I’m still confused though, because the Guardian content is available for free online. A completely needless expense (if they, the BBC are paying). The BBC should request gratis copies for press review programs and not bother reviewing the newspaper titles which are not provided gratis by the publisher, for what is essentially a free advertisement that the papers get on the BBC News channel, 2245Hrs and 2345Hrs each day.

    Staff can buy their own copies if they prefer to not read the online versions, surely? Are they not paid enough?

       16 likes

  28. Barry Woods says:

    oops – I got it wrong,, that figure is per year!!!

    http://leftfootforward.org/2015/05/daily-mail-accuses-bbc-of-left-wing-bias-because-the-guardian-is-more-expensive/

    The Daily Mail has accused the BBC of ‘following a left-wing agenda’ based on which newspapers it purchases for staff.

    The story notes that in 2014 the BBC spend £127,643 on copies of the liberal Guardian, versus only £40,482 for the Daily Mail itself: “The startling figure is nearly 45 per cent higher than its bill for any other title, despite the Guardian accounting for a tiny fraction of Britain’s newspaper sales.”

    What the Mail doesn’t tell readers is the number of copies purchased by the BBC for the two papers is almost identical.

    The Beeb bought 80,679 copies of the Guardian compared to 78,463 copies of the Mail. That’s a difference of a mere 2216 over the year.

    Across a year, that amounts to 221 copies of the Guardian a day, (not many for an organisation the size of the BBC) versus about 214 for the Mail – in other words, very close, and not anything like a big enough difference to justify the charge of bias.

       7 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Maybe they take ’em home to read in secret?

         28 likes

      • Rufus McDufus says:

        They seem to be making the assumption the Daily Mail is a counter example to The Guardian, i.e an example of ‘right leaning bias’. I haven’t seen much evidence of the DM being right wing in any way, shape or form in the last few years.

           25 likes

    • Angrymanupnorth says:

      Barry, I worked on 312 copies per year (6 days/week).

         2 likes

    • Ian Rushlow says:

      Buying the Guardian must save the BBC a fortune. No need to employ researchers or copyrighters – just read out what is already in the Guardian. Probably saves them £millions a year.

         23 likes

      • 60022Mallard says:

        And have Pollyanna and the rest on speed dial when you want a comment guaranteed to be from the “correct” viewpoint.

           13 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        ‘Buying the Guardian must save the BBC a fortune’

        A source close to the BBC has just pointed out it is free online, so all you suggest is possible, only with further savings still, if taken up.

        Mind you, this is the BBC, who engaged in the expense of a stonking great court case to FOI-exempt a bunch of names already posted up.

           2 likes

  29. Roland Deschain says:

    Sorry, I call bullshit on this one:
    Islamic State militants ‘filmed torturing Syrian boy’

    From prison, Ahmed was sentenced to death. But his executioner took pity on him, and allowed him to escape.

    Sure. He just happened to let the boy escape, because he knew his ISIS masters wouldn’t do anything to harm him even though they might be a bit cross. And handed the boy a phone with a video of his torture on it in case he wanted to call a taxi?

    Aren’t the BBC even slightly curious about this?

       23 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘Aren’t the BBC even slightly curious about this?’

      As they are down to their last £4B, maybe they contracted the vetting side out to BIJ again?

      ‘The film was made for propaganda purposes, he said.’

      Can happen.

         12 likes

  30. Guest Who says:

    At risk of creating a quote circle of virtue, one (about a story above) from this URL has struck a chord (the BBC of course credited for the crucial part it would play):

    http://order-order.com/2015/06/01/fifa-braced-for-israeli-bombardment

    FJ HenryV
    This was on Breitbart earlier. The best reply to it came from someone called realarthurdent
    “Meanwhile The Guardian was quoted by the BBC as saying that “the 24 Eritrean, Sudanese and Syrian migrants who had been fighting each other with iron bars were all degree educated and destined to become doctors, lawyers and IT consultants when they come to Britain, each earning more than £100,000 pa. They all speak perfect English, have their own medical insurance, will educate their children privately, use their own private road and rail networks, will construct their own water and sewerage systems, will construct their own houses (floating offshore), and they will all convert to Christianity and become loyal subjects of the Queen.

    All of which means they will be universally of benefit to the United Kingdom and there is therefore no good reason for them to be denied entry”

       17 likes

  31. Thoughtful says:

    The Coldest June day on record is coronation day 2nd June 1953 with London recording a Max of 11.7 C
    Today has seen temperatures struggling to get into double figures and we might have set a new record lowest temperature.

    And what do we hear from the BBC? Nothing! it just doesn’t suit the warmist agenda. Sure there’s plenty about the unseasonable gales which we don’t normally see until Late October / November, but nothing about the very low temperatures.

       30 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      It is hard to reconcile today’s weather with the promised heatwave of a flaming June. We are seriously pondering putting on the central heating!

         19 likes

      • Lobster says:

        Surely you lot must realise that the fact it is cold is proof of global warming …….. errrm, or something like that ….. I think. If the world was getting cooler it would be hot ……. it’s perfectly simple…………. (Bangs head on wall)

           25 likes

        • noggin says:

          well exactly 40 years ago today, here was snow everywhere …
          so it is a tad “warmer”
          there … the science is settled

             6 likes

      • Merched Becca says:

        Off the West coast of Wales it is presently 10C . Or ‘cool’ as Al Beeb would say.
        Global warming – My Arse!

           21 likes

        • The Old Bloke says:

          My max and min thermometer (outdoors but not screened) has shown a max temp today of 10.8 degrees. Rain and strong wind swept in at 13.35 and reduced the temp by 1.5 degrees. A wind chill factor of negative 1.6 degrees ran from 14.10. Other reporting stations on Dartmoor are saying similar but on the high ground reporting station only a Max of 8 degrees today! Yup, could be coldest on record. Interestingly, the sun spot activity in 1953 (on the eleven year cycle) was almost zero, just the same as this years predictions (and actuals) and the weather for 2015 is so far running true to historical data. Cold.
          I know that quite a few newspaper columnists read this blog, so come on guys and girls, heads out of the buckets of sand, and report the real deal concerning “Climate Change”. Enough is enough, especially with that most dangerous of characters, Roger Harrabin of the BBC.

             37 likes

          • John C. says:

            I don’t think they take notice of actual weather, especially if it’s in the UK. They’ll point out it’s hot in Johannesburg or similar, and that trumps you, I’m afraid.

               14 likes

            • The Old Bloke says:

              Hmm, “they” didn’t trump me on the flooding of the Somerset Levels and to be honest, if it does get hot in Jo’burg, I’ll trump them with the “record night time cold” temps last year in Africa bit. 😎

                 14 likes

          • dave s says:

            In my valley we all agree this is the coldest June 1 anyone can recall. Tonight is particularly bitter and the wind is unusually chilly. The rain is needed though as levels are low.

               19 likes

    • Phil Ford says:

      This weather has been bothering me lately. Bothering me even more has been the total silence from the usual CAGW cheerleaders at the BBC and beyond. Here we are in June and I’m still having to wrap against the chills. I’m was a kid in the summers of ’76 and ’77. I miss those lovely long, sun-filled holidays. Back then, of course – and with delicious irony – we were supposed to be heading towards a global cooling catastrophe. ’76 gave us an amazing drought. Blue, cloudless skies for weeks on end and standpipes down the end of our street to collect our water rations.

      I was really looking to the ‘mediterranean temperatures’ we were promised by ‘the experts’ when ‘Global Warming’ was still a new and shiny catch-all. Sadly, when that didn’t pan out as pimped, it soon got demoted (and slyly expanded) to ‘climate change’ (basically, whatever the weather’s currently doing).

      And now it is whispered by many (but not the True Believes at the BBC) that we could, in fact, be heading into a new cooling phase. Some say it’s because the sun is unusually free of sunspot activity. I haven’t heard it mentioned on the BBC once.

      I’m not really happy about any of this. Not happy with the shonky so-called ‘science’ and definitely not happy with the charlatans at the BBC, the Met, the UN and EU (amongst many other mostly bottom feeders) who all, having failed miserably in every possible way to prove their lunatic hypothesis at any point over the past 35 years (despite being lavishly funded at public expense), somehow still get to swill greedily at the public trough, whilst demanding anyone who dissents from their broken, discredited ‘models’ is a ‘denier’ and should be censored by state media.

      This ‘man-made climate change’ malarkey really is going to be one for the history books. How future generations will shake their heads in mute disbelief at the sheer folly of it all as they are forced to read such regrettable history on their unreliable solar-powered tablets.

         31 likes

      • Bob Nelson says:

        Just imagine how bloody cold it would be right now if it weren’t for AGW.

           8 likes

      • pah says:

        On 1 June 1976 it snowed in Sheffield. A bit, but not very, unusual. 1976 was a hot summer but the rest were fairly ‘normal’ i.e. mostly wet and grey with a couple of nice weeks in July.

        Nothing much seems to have changed weatherwise. Just the need to tax us more …

           7 likes

      • Manonclaphamomnibus says:

        It might help if you knew anything about the subject. That way you would be able to make informed judgements. The actual evidence suggests that the world is warming. That means the world in general not just your back garden. You may experience a number of changes in weather locally and this may involve cooling if the weather is drawn down from the artic or the warming changes lead to an increase in the length and meandering of the jet stream. It simply isnt the case that global warming leads to everywhere on the planet getting uniformly warmer. That doesnt even happen in a flame let alone in a complex environment where numerous solids and fluids are mixing under the influence a variety of physical circumstances.
        As to the decline in solar radiance that has been observed in recent history,but despite this,temperature readings have continued to grow.
        A final point to note is that 98% of solar radiation is taken up by the oceans and only 2% by the air.

           2 likes

  32. G.W.F. says:

    Banging the drum for the EU. Lots more to come.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32957134

       12 likes

    • Umbongo says:

      You’d almost think that the BBC had an agenda concerning the EU. In the Today interview this morning with the very same Børge Brende, the Norwegian Foreign Minister, who poured scorn on the idea of a Norwegian-type relationship with the EU for the UK, we weren’t told that Brende is a rabid EUfanatic in a party of rabid EUfanatics. He is an international bureaucrat with – by no coincidence whatsoever – internationally required acceptable warmist credentials. He was, for instance, Chairman of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development and MD of the World Economic Forum.

      Brende’s party is the Norwegian “Conservative” Party which, much like our own, is comprised mainly of slow-motion socialists and, with the odd exception, fans of the EU and warmist drones. Norway’s electorate is in the unenviable position of being demonstrably EUsceptic (confirmed in 2 referendums) but saddled with a political class and ruling elite who desperately want Norway to join the “top table” in Brussels. Membership would allow Norway’s leaders to strut on the world stage like, for instance, the pygmy-politician from Luxembourg, Juncker, who – but for Luxembourg’s membership of the EU – would have the international clout of the Mayor of Haringey.

      Frankly, who outside Oslo currently cares tuppence for Brende? However, as a possible president of the EU (were Norway an EU member) he could be another international superstar like . . er . . Sepp Blatter. Needless to say, the views of Brende – an international parasite and EU player wannabe – are accorded the status of holy writ by the BBC. I don’t think the BBC would have bothered with a mention, let alone an interview, had this guy been an EU and MMCC sceptic. After all (cf the BBC silence on Hodge’s tax evasion imbroglio concerning her use of the HMRC Leichtenstein disclosure facility), if it doesn’t fit the BBC agenda it isn’t news.

         34 likes

      • Essex Man says:

        Bet , they still have the central heating on in Oslo , & the rest of Norway too. Global warming , what a load of bollox .Even the solar plane has gone tits up , on its round the world flight . Wrong sort of sun , weather, cloud ,er what else can we make up on this Global Warming tosh , eh Haribo ? Hmm, I can`t wait for a BBC made up on the back of a fag packet answer .

           22 likes

        • Manonclaphamomnibus says:

          If you looked at science you wont need a fag packet at all. I must say I find your logic that a solar powered plane cant fly equates with there is no global warming more than a little dubious. Global warming doesnt make claims than more northerly countries ( in the northern hemisphere wont remain colder than those as the equator either. It does however predict a warming of the planer as a whole and changes in weather patterns resulting from that change; extreme weather being but one example. Check out the years of drought in Texas followed by an extreme rain event. Something closer to home was the rain pattern resulting in Somerset flooding.

             2 likes

          • Bob Nelson says:

            There have always been extreme weather events, they are just more widely reported now. The years of drought in Texas, followed by severe rainfall, is by no means unprecedented, and even our own Met Office were clear that the Somerset floods were not down to ‘climate change’. I suggest you check out the IPCC’s admission that they can find no scientific connection between recent extreme weather events and AGW.
            The main problem with your argument is that the has been no global surface warming for in excess of eighteen years and unless there is a severe delayed reaction mechanism, something else is causing any climate change currently taking place. As far as I can see, most effects appear to be benign, anyway. Lack of hurricanes, etc.

               9 likes

          • Essex Man says:

            Well , Global Warming , is a start from Climate Change , but there is no evidence , of either . Still wearing your shorts on the bus in this “hot” weather then Butler?Na, I bet your at home with the heating on or are huddled around a “Bonfire in the garden” of your old free BBC Guardian copies . If you are so concerned about the world , get a one way ticket to that clinic in Switzerland , where you can help save the planet , by leaving it immediately . regards Blakey.

               2 likes

      • Philip says:

        The ‘grande EU project’ is the thing that keeps the BBC in power. It’s pro Euro credentials and propaganda expertise makes it a useful ally. What is really happening ‘in Europe’ hardly makes it across the channel and then its a ‘local’ problem…
        http://www.th-eu-nit.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50969:bursting-at-the-seams-eurosceptic-forces-rip-european-union-apart&catid=60:eu-parliament&Itemid=86

           13 likes

        • Manonclaphamomnibus says:

          They have covered up the EU conivance over TTIP pretty well. How do you feel about taking your orders from the US in future?

             1 likes

  33. chrisH says:

    Anybody got a copy of the hierarchy of grievance-hustling and agitprop priorities for the BBC?
    Only reason I ask is that the BBC seemed concerned that visitors to South Africa must now carry birth certificates for any kids that travel there.
    Cue soundbites from business tourism worriers in Cape Town-the Chinese and Indians won`t now come, will choose the UK instead.
    BUT-these certificates are intended to prevent child smuggling across their borders-and I thought that the BBC would like that.
    You know-“safety of children paramount” and all that.
    But no-apparently the South Africans are overreacting…only fuelling xenophobia and hurting the businessmen of South Africa.
    Very strange-wonde if the BBC still have all their footy and Mandela contacts over there still-and would like to introduce them to the marvels of the Jimmy Savile Annual?
    No other reasons come to mind for this perversion of the BBCs usual order-I though child smuggling would have merited ANY clampdown on sending kids to South Africa with proof of who exactly they are.
    Typical wild card reflex idiocy with latex gloves-and so typical of the frankly-barking, rabid BBC.
    (This led up to the 7a.m news on Today this morning-how bizarro!)

       19 likes

  34. chrisH says:

    Oh-I knew that there was another pipecleaner of a BBC story leading up to the 7am news-yet another case of the BBC being muddled,bizarre and basically busking it all until Labour get a leader.
    Some woman was saying that fertility treatment and chances of pregnancy being best when youger were proven facts, that kids don`t know this-and that science shows that younger mums would benefit from learning all this in the school curriculum.
    Oh dear-Justin went all prurient, don`t they know this anyway and won`t it upset Womans Hour types?
    Webb as Mary Whitehouse all of a sudden!
    Thought the BBC were obsessed with more sex ed, more facts, more “in your face rampant sexualisation of even primary school kids.
    In all other cases, they surely are.
    But no-this is different…not perversions, not abortions or deviations,not chlamydia and condoms.
    This is actually what sex is for, and she had the medical advice to back her claim that fertility needs teaching…and it`s reasoned.
    Doesn`t mean she`s right-but I can check it, and she is entitled to say it.
    But the BBC only likes the deviance, the sterile rebellions-if kids ever got to know what real sex is for, and how best to get kids without IVF or turkey basting…why the game would be up!
    Hence Webbs need for smelling salts and quotes that only a Lady Windermere would use on the BBC these days.
    F888off Webb!…schizoid BBC.

       21 likes

  35. #88 says:

    ‘It’s ‘Women in Sport’ week on the BBC’, Five Live keep telling me (isn’t it always?).

    I have no problem with women in sport, let them enjoy it (but I won’t be watching their version of football, however)…what I do have an objection to is activists, running rampant with their social(ist), society changing mission that they and the BBC have given themselves, courtesy of the licence fee that I have to pay.

    The activists at the BBC are out of control.

       25 likes

  36. MartinW says:

    The Today Programme R4 has announced the death of a former Conservative Party leader. There are lowered, sombre voices, and repeated fulsome eulogies from his friends in the media as well as colleagues. The programme will continue with shared remembrances. He was ‘loved by everyone’ and swill be sorely missed by all. Er, just a minute ….. did I get that right?

       18 likes

    • MartinW says:

      Being peeved by the Today programme, I wished only to draw a comparison between the treatment that would be afforded by the BBC to a Conservative politician. Actually, I had quite a high regard for Charles Kennedy: he seemed a really ‘good sort’. Of course, my typing ‘swill’ was a typographical error which I’ve only just spotted, and certainly not a deliberate reference to drink.

         1 likes

  37. Hansomcommon says:

    The BBC have gone completely overboard on the death of Charles Kennedy, far more grief & compassion as compared to when Lady Thatcher died. Their Liberal hero is whipping up far more sadness than ever any Conservative ever did, why this B grade politician should warrant this attention is beyond me!

       24 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Slow news day and a ‘celeb’ early demise.

      RIP Mr. Kennedy and condolences to his family, but the UK media are already going full wail.

      Anticipate a quote from just about everyone and a lot of ‘specials’ in the next few days.

         12 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      Part of the difference is that Lady Thatcher was an old woman, and death not unexpected. Charles Kennedy was a comparatively young man at 55, whose death was sudden and perhaps not unconnected with the demons he undoubtedly had.

         9 likes

    • Ty says:

      This B grade politician tried to get his finger on the nuclear button. You do really need to be a sober sort for that job.

         6 likes

  38. Guest Who says:

    Danny Cohen again making the BBC Press Office’s job so much easier in getting folk onside with how in touch and empathetic the BBC top floor is…

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3106599/I-ll-axe-shows-licence-cheats-escape-court-says-BBC-boss-Director-television-accused-holding-viewers-ransom-following-comments.html

       9 likes

    • Just sayin' says:

      Danny Cohen……what religion is he? another transnational controlling the media and wanting us gentiles jailed if we dont pay for his multicultural view of the world

         10 likes

  39. AsISeeIt says:

    Fulsome tributes on the BBC this morning for Charles Kennedy – the not-at-all-divisive Liberal Democrat former MP.

    I find this BBC emphasis on his non-divisiveness jars somewhat – although I’m sure I would have respected him as an individual (and such individuals are getting rare in politics now so often driven by party drones) it is partiicularly his enthusiasm for the EU and for social liberalism which certainly divided him from me and other conservatives.

    I also note the BBC awash with Labour praise for Mr Kennedy. Once again this jars – he started out in 1983 as an SDP candidate. The SDP being the sworn enemies of Labour. The traitor party.

    It seems to me the era of the SDP split from Labour is an episode of political history the BBC is happy for us to forget.

       9 likes

    • Geoff says:

      Kennedy, a decent man and politician. Regardless of the hue of ones political support, you have to recognise his achievements.

      Sadly he probably saw the world as it really is..

         12 likes

  40. Anne says:

    My Diageo shares have dropped this morning.

    Strange.

       6 likes

    • The Beebinator says:

      damn you woman, damn you to eternity, you beat me to it 😛 Im sure if Charles was still here. he’d tell us all to have a laugh and a joke and a wee topple in his memory.

      Sad though, after losing his seat, he must have lost the will to live. drink and depression arent a good mix, he should have just smoked a spliff instead

         6 likes

  41. Guest Who says:

    Interesting when OFCOM gets roused from its slumbers;

    http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jun/01/bbc-investigation-child-ukip-tristram-hunt?

    Too good to be true ratings gold vs. ‘due care’: how are market rates assessed again?

       3 likes

  42. Guest Who says:

    http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jun/02/robert-peston-eddie-mair-radio-4-bbc?

    “Who have you brought, Eddie?”

    “I’ve brought, Polly… surprise! And you?”

    “I’ve brought Ed Balls… surprise!”

    “Now here’s Owen… surprise!”

    “Oo, good one… I’ve brought Ed again… surprise!”

    This is understood to be a joke at the BBC’s expense.

    Though the comments are a treat…

    ‘The audience would be tiny, but they’d be the people who could hopefully do something about our problems.’

    Sort of an elite mostly not bothered by democratic stuff like representing the country? Exxxxxcellent, as Harry used to say.

       6 likes

  43. noggin says:

    had to post this … however, its from Sky News
    … the main reason, the Al BBC would never allow
    Mr Murray to develop his points like he does here.

       20 likes

    • Geoff says:

      ‘Progressives’ messing with our language and bigging up immigration using fear tactics. Why is it that immigrants always have the moral high ground in such debates and those with the opposing opinion portrayed as some kind of nutter.

      I also hate it when a foreigner refers to the British as ‘we’

      Rant over…

         17 likes

    • Phil Ford says:

      Douglas Murray is a national treasure. Fearless and articulate, he’s a great performer on TV, too. I recommend his book ‘Islamophilia’ (you can get it in e-book format via Amazon).

      I’d like to see Mr Murray given a nice hour-long slot to make a documentary on immigration issues in the UK and the EU. Think ANY of our ‘treasured’ national broadcasters would have the journalistic courage to allow that?

      *pig flies by*

         25 likes

      • Wild says:

        The BBC is like overhearing a telephone call where you only ever hear one side of the conversation.

           16 likes

        • Manonclaphamomnibus says:

          from which we can deduce two things.
          You talk to your TV
          When tuned to ITV you think you are in conversation with personel at the station.
          Sadly neither of these characteristics would prompt people to think your views are reliable.
          Sorry gotta go ,a goat just flew over my house and landed in my neighbours garden!

             1 likes

  44. Dazed & Confused says:

    The truly disgusting Danny Cohen shows his puerile and poisonous Socialist heart yet again – Caring and sharing in a way that only Socialists can..

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3106599/I-ll-axe-shows-licence-cheats-escape-court-says-BBC-boss-Director-television-accused-holding-viewers-ransom-following-comments.html

       11 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Mr. Cohen a hard person to take to, certainly.

      The comments going well, depending on whether you like your uniquely-funded, unaccountable career prospects flash across the screen, or not.

      A few making the the fair point that less money does inevitably mean less stuff, but mostly pointing out that it’s where £327,800 twerps like him prioritise investing, or not, that has laid the corporation so low.

      That, plus ‘how dare you/or else’ pronouncements from him, DGs and Trust chairs getting very tiresome now.

      They are not immune.

         12 likes

      • Phil Ford says:

        “…They are not immune.”

        Hmm. Perhaps one of our spineless politicians would like to explain that to them, because they’ve done nothing so far to suggest otherwise. BBC apparatchiks consider themselves above and beyond the norms of the commercial environment. In all honesty, I don’t blame them: they exist in an economic artifice – an out-dated, out-moded, inappropriate, advantaged bubble of privilege. Meanwhile, outside – out here in the real world – commercial broadcasters have to worry about budgets, about yearly earnings and about accountability.

        The BBC exists because successive governments allow it to continue to suck on the public teat. £3.5bnpa (a conservative figure) is delivered to them, entirely unearned, every year courtesy of the British public, who are threatened with criminal sanction if they refuse to hand over the cash.

        Nobody asks if this is actually fair, or even morally, ethically, commercially defensible? The BBC want to ‘nudge’ the ‘debate’ around the license fee on to issues of ‘independence’, ‘impartiality’ (a complete joke) and something it calls ‘quality programming’. They never want to discuss whether or not the license fee model is in and of itself a massive injustice – little more than a poll tax, enforced by menacing threats and bullying.

        I wish Mr Whittingdale well, but I suspect very strongly that he will get no further than any of those ‘reforming’ types who have gone before him when it comes to the BBC.

        That is to say, he will get nowhere at all. And the BBC will carry on feeling immune.

           14 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          Sadly, you make some fair points.

          ‘And the BBC will carry on feeling immune’

          Well, some may just have to see what can be done about that.

          I have my reservations about Mr. Whittingdale, but recall when Chris Patten started telling elected politicians to ‘back off, or else’, I noticed a few spines did stiffen in the halls of Westminster.

          Reminding those who desire power above all that they have none on their own turf seldom wins allies.

             4 likes

  45. Mark says:

    Although I might not have agreed on his party’s policies, I would never post something as vile and tasteless.

    The far Left have the monopoly of sick disrespect.

       20 likes

    • G.W.F. says:

      Perhaps the racist turd, Mustapha, might put his remark on a piece of cardboard and stand along the other Nazis of the left.

         11 likes

      • G.W.F. says:

        As a piece of shit Mustapha you do not warrant a response. But it is worth pointing out that to generalise all sex between men and women as rape is to rob the evil of rape of any meaning. Perhaps, as I suspect, in your primitive and undoubtedly despicable culture, rape is not such an evil.

           11 likes

  46. Guest Who says:

    http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/jun/02/opposition-mounts-to-bbc2s-hardest-grafter-reality-show

    ‘Jack Monroe, the Guardian columnist, has warned potential contestants of the perils of exposing themselves to the publicity that will inevitably occur.’

    Despite what a scribbler may think, it’s possible the reality TV star generation may be well aware of what could come of being on telly for 15 minutes.

    But wait…. surprise!!!!…:

    ‘The BBC and Twenty Twenty, the show’s production company, reject all such criticism.’

    Didn’t see that one coming.

    Comments so far a treat. Bookmarking this one.

       5 likes

  47. Athelstan says:

    Re Charles Kennedy:
    “De vivis nil nisi verum. De mortuis nil nisi bonum.”
    For those without the benefit of a fully funded State grammar school education, the Latin translates-
    “Concerning the living speak nothing but truth.”
    “Concerning the dead speak nothing but good.”
    R.I.P Charles Kennedy. Condolences to your family and friends.

       18 likes

    • Manonclaphamomnibus says:

      Other than showing off what is exactly the benifit of latin ( other than ordering pizza past its sell by date)

         2 likes

      • Merched Becca says:

        Manonclaphamomnibus
        Try looking at the benefits here, as it is well past its sell by date. PS. Tell your passengers ……
        https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/end-the-bbc-licence-fee

           6 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        ‘Other than showing off, what is exactly the benefit of Latin?’

        It’s possibly not commonly appreciated by all, but Latin forms the basis of a great deal of properly articulated English language.

           11 likes

      • John Anderson says:

        More to the point – what exactly is the benefit of manonaclappedoutbus? Other than providing entertainment in a screwy kind of way to the masses ?

           10 likes

    • Anne says:

      Don’t entirely disagree, but, always? If not, who decides?

         0 likes

  48. Lobster says:

    Bahar Mustapha (or whatever your real name is) – that comment was beneath contempt.

       10 likes