The BBC gave huge amounts of sympathetic airtime to the family of terrorist trained Moazzam Begg to agitate for his release from Guantanamo, the BBC allowed the mother of gangster Mark Duggan to fill the airwaves with claims that the police executed and assassinated her blameless little boy, Doreen Lawrence is the new Mother Teresa, and of course anti-police campaigns such as Hillsborough are given huge amounts of favourable, unquestioning coverage.
The BBC loves an ‘underdog’ regardless of whether it would tear your throat out as soon as look at you…and it hates the police and the security services….just look at its nonsense coverage of Assange and the adoring coverage of Snowden.
One of those ‘underdogs’ it has long held an affection for is the romantic IRA ‘rebels’ fighting for a united Ireland that was torn apart and occupied by the oppressive and tyrannical Brits.
This morning Julie Hambleton, (08:21) whose sister was killed in the Birmingham bombings in 1974, came onto the BBC to tell of her argument that the coroner’s inquest for the 21 victims (and 200 injured), which was abandoned on the conviction of the Birmingham Six, be re-opened.
She got pretty short shrift from the BBC’s Sam Walker who took a very negative approach to this and seemed as if she thought it was entirely wrong to be heading in that direction. This of course is not the usual BBC approach which normally is very open and welcoming to those who have a grievance against the police, secuirty services or The State.
Of course Julie Hambleton is neither Black, Muslim nor a member of the IRA so why would the BBC be sympathetic to her cause?
The Birmingham Six were of course entirely innocent victims of a police fit-up, in the wrong place at the wrong time…the wrong place being the funeral of an IRA bomber killed as he planted a bomb in Coventry….a funeral 5 of them headed to from Birmingham on the night of the bombings. They were cleared pretty much on a technicality….that residue left on the hands that may indicate the handling of exposives could have come from other items such as playng cards or soap…and of course they all played cards on the trip back to Ireland and no doubt were scrupulous about their personal hygiene.
In a later broadcast on R4, a former senior IRA member said that the bombers, prior to priming their explosives and planting their devices had failed to identify a working phone box and a back up, so that they could telephone a warning. Not able to find a working phone, they were unable to do so and 21 people died as a consequence of their terrorism and their incompetence.
The IRA interviewee also said that he knew who the bombers were, two of whom were now dead. He also disclosed that last week he was interviewed by West Midlands police anti-terrorist detectives. He said that he would not name the bombers (I bet he won’t), but said that West Midlands police knew who they were. There was though, he said, insufficient scientific evidence to charge them and in any case the extradition arrangements in force in the Republic at the time of the bombing would apply to them even now and they could not be sent back to Britain for trial.
What was not mentioned was that an examination of a newly discovered void, above the site of the ‘Tavern in the Town’ pub (not ‘Tavern in the City’, as Sam Walker said – which, sorry, I think was her only error) is now taking place where it is thought that explosive residue and fragments of the bomb might remain. Huge scientific advances might enable the police to now name the suspects and seek a warrant for their arrest.
In her interview on R4, Julie also referred to the hypocrisy of Labour’s Chris Mullin, who had written a book on the Birmingham Six. Mullin, BTW, is said to have claimed to have met some of those responsible. As a senior politician it was his duty to name then. I hope that the BBC will return to this, not, as Alan suggests, from their usual perspective of the Birmingham six, and the heroic freedom fighting IRA, but from the perspective of the 21 innocent people who died that night…and nail Mullen’s feet to the floor.
She got pretty short shrift from the BBC’s Sam Walker who took a very negative approach to this and seemed as if she thought it was entirely wrong to be heading in that direction. This of course is not the usual BBC approach which normally is very open and welcoming to those who have a grievance against the police, security services or The State.
….or against Cliff Richard, or Lord Bramall, or Leon Brittan, or Jim Davidson or any white British male for whom the BBC hold a sneering distaste because of their religion, refusal to out themselves, politics, being part of the ‘establishment’, non-PC attitude etc. etc.
I was in Birmingham that night, watching Spike Milligan at the Theatre.
Our Party found one, soon to be bombed, pub too full, and went elsewhere.
The Explosions were heard in the theatre and Milligan make some impromptu comment.
A very funny evening, until after the show. Police cars and Ambulances everywhere. Traffic chaos, took several hours to get out of the nearby car park.
AlBeeb was backing the IRA, giving Noraid a disgusting amount of airtime and propaganda. Irish still over represented in AlBeeb staff. Irish staff who promote an anti England line.
AlBeeb backed the enemy during the Falklands war; their mate, DimmiAlCorbyn has already given the Falklands away with AlBeeb approval.
So the AlBeeb position is, whether it is Islam, the EU, or any other subject, back and promote our enemies, dismiss and vilify the indigenes.
I believe Mullins the Labour traitor hid behind Parliamentary privilege or some other technicality to avoid contempt of court.
He had my contempt, both then and now.
What goes round, comes round – eh Mr. Mansfield?
Beltane, the lawyers will make money out of it whatever happens.
I hope that the inquest is reopened and that the Coroner hears all the evidence – including that deemed inadmissible at the trial. The BBC will report that through gritted teeth, unless they can find an excuse to change their news priorities that day and report on a stray cat instead
Yes, of course you are right RJ – and maybe it’s an altogether too Utopian a hope – but just imagine, if we’d had a government with real balls, 40 odd years ago, and the verdict had been overturned with the lawyers involved arraigned on a charge of treason against the state, having knowingly subverted the course of justice…..? Maybe with that suitably strong government the whole compo scam might never have gained its legs, and Matrix would never have been created, and Mrs. Blair remained a penny-pinching Scouser, and the delightful Shiner family stayed with their barrow down the Lane.
Hope springs eternal.
To understand why the BBC ‘loves an underdog’, it is enough to follow their thinking (as far as it goes)
1. Everyone is equal.
2. Some people win, some lose
3. Since everyone is equal, the only possible conclusion is that the people who win must have cheated the ones who lose.
4. Therefore those who succeed are oppressors, those who fail are victims.
5. We must always support victims against oppressors.
6. Therefore we always support failures and vilify successes.
Of course, if you don’t accept the truth of 1., the entire edifice falls apart.
RB
More truths from the White Queen, I can believe six impossible things before breakfast, AlBeeb department.
1. This equality needs to be imposed.
2. Heroes are those who impose this equality.
3. Those who oppose this imposition are enemies, evil, lower than vermin, etc.
4. Therefore killing the opposer’s is a good deed.
5. Recent history is no more than a confirmation that everyone is equal and that its imposition produces the happiest societies ever.
6. The apparent situation whereby the “equal” societies have to build barriers to stop people from moving to the unequal societies, is temporary.
7. If history is distorted to show that #5 is not true, more deaths are required.
8. If equality fails repeat the failure.