NEW YEAR, NEW OPEN THREAD…..

Well I hope you all enjoyed the BBC’s “Robbie William’s” New Year cringe fest! We’re in 2017 and the BBC keeps proving that no matter how bad it is it can still get worse. Much worse….! Here’s the first OPEN thread of this New Year and it’s now in your hands!

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493 Responses to NEW YEAR, NEW OPEN THREAD…..

  1. Thoughtful says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b086s60b

    Us Vs Them

    Political movements which proclaim themselves as anti-elitist challengers to the mainstream establishment have been achieving success, from Brexit campaigners to Donald Trump and various European parties. John Harris explores the reasons behind this international phenomenon, examines the motivating forces for the anxiety and anger of voters, and considers the response of the political establishment in this new era.

    Makes a change to hear a more neutral piece from the BBC radio 4 mob, but I have to conclude that this was more by accident than design given the presenters leftie credentials from the Guardian.

    It makes me wonder if the BBC considers whether journalism actually exists outside of this near bankrupt rag !

    John Harris is a journalist and author, who writes regularly for the Guardian about a range of subjects built around politics, popular culture and music

    It’s worth a listen if only to hear what the BBC could do if its output wasn’t so coloured by bias.

       15 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      He went from London Guardian/BBC Beebleworld out to Dagenham to try to understand why it voted OUT.
      And which ‘man of the people’ did he take with him to expain ?
      Nick Clegg .. Botn in Holland with Dutch windfarm business wife.

      .. Careful as you step back in amazement.
      in a 40 min prog Clegg seemed to get multipl Clegg-verts in.

         19 likes

    • imaynotalwaysloveyou says:

      Thoughtful – Harris is indeed lefty, however his articles in the Guardian are at least sane (as opposed to the identity politics stuff churned out by Owen Jones or any of the Graun’s regiment of awful wimmin). And he actually goes out to talk to white working class deplorables, rather than just sneer at them.

      I get the impression from his writing that he despairs of the trotskyite take over of Labour, and wishes the party could get its act together to become electable again.

         9 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        Yes the prog felt like aimed at an internal Labour Party audience.
        BBC Red-io4 does act as if its the Labour Party official radio station

           8 likes

  2. Guest Who says:

    She is a market rate talent. We are told.

    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/749569/Nigel-Farage-Susanna-Reid-Brexit

       13 likes

    • gb123 says:

      More like third rate. Farage made her look like a petulant toddler. She had her pre prepared questions on a piece of paper and read from that. Very professional and unbiased. Not.

         19 likes

      • Scroblene says:

        She was always useless at asking questions, and never listens to answers anyway.

        Nigel Farage quietly gave her the Rees-Mogg treatment of last years famous quote, ‘Let’s deal with the facts first then your own opinions’!

        Nigel Farage is so good at letting these teleprompted people dig holes for themselves then start to splutter when they fill with bile.

           19 likes

    • Peter Grimes says:

      Peckham Market not Shepherds Market obviously.

         1 likes

  3. G says:

    Brigitte Gabriel again with a resume of Islam –

       7 likes

    • BRISSLES says:

      Oh the irony ! behind her is a ‘kitsch’ sign, if your eyesight is bad, it says “FOOTPRINTS in History aren’t made sitting down”.

      Watch out for the landmines then !!!!

         4 likes

  4. Guest Who says:

    BBC Breaking News:

    Israeli soldier convicted over Hebron death

    Israeli soldier filmed shooting dead a wounded Palestinian attacker is convicted of manslaughter

    For more details, see the BBC News website

    ***

    Interesting what gets the BBC excited, and what not.

    I wonder what a Palestinian attacker does for a living?

       23 likes

    • Grant says:

      Guest,

      BBC quite oblivious to the fact that there is clearly justice in Israel which is not available in any Arab countries.

         24 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Need to read about this elsewhere before I even assess the justice aspect.

        Certainly the Israeli processes are about as thorough as can be expected and indeed admired.

        I have yet to read on the background to find out what, like Marine A, the mitigating circumstances were.

        However, that the BBC, Classic FM Global whinge, etc are making it a major event, without much about the latter, certainly in their headlines, seems depressingly typical.

           13 likes

        • DYKEVISIONS says:

          Oh dear, the young Israeli soldier has just been convicted of manslaughter..

          This all reminds me of back in 1988 when Britain’s Special Air Service Regiment shot and killed an IRA trio in Gibraltar. Allegedly one trooper was asked why he shot IRA man Sean Savage 16 times, he fired back..

          ‘I ran out of bullets…’

             20 likes

        • Grant says:

          Guest,

          I have no knowledge of the details, but I have never heard of a similar case in an Arab country.

             9 likes

          • Guest Who says:

            They seem to enjoy exemptions from BBC investigation as the BBC does from those forced to fund it.

            Uniquely.

               8 likes

  5. StewGreen says:

    News is PR
    See how the “EU Ambassador resigns” has been repeated every half hour for 24 hours.
    It’s not just GATEKEEPING : which stories media choose to ignore/hype
    But also TAP-TAP-TAP the length of time a narrative is repeated.
    – See how the George Michael death was Tapped in again and again over 26 hours.
    – A Pak/Bangla abuse gang trial – gets a token 1 or 2 mentions
    – Jo Cox .. millions
    – Death of Bristol prison vandal – 1 mention

       30 likes

    • EnglandExpects says:

      The BBC is still obsessing about Rogers. It reports that the EU Commission regrets his resignation. But hang on, aren’t these people heading the negotiations for the other side? Maybe regret is good then! Rogers’ europhile chums who are recently retired with full honours and pension from the civil service, such as some bloke called Fraser, are being allowed extended ‘patsy’ interviews to tell us what a loss Rogers is.

         19 likes

      • Grant says:

        England,

        If the EU Commission regrets anything, it must be good news for the UK.

           17 likes

        • EnglandExpects says:

          That was my thinking, too, Grant. We need someone to stand up to the drunken, anti- British Juncker and his appointed hatchet man/ chief negotiator, Barnier, whose hostility to Britain and in particular the City, is a matter of record. I don’t see how Rogers was that man.

             19 likes

          • Grant says:

            England,

            I don’t see Rogers as a man at all. We need to clear out Treezer and the other Remainers in the cabinet. All negotiations should be handled by Leavers, preferably with business experience , and not Civil Service bureaucrats, who are almost all certainly Europhiliacs.

            We must also make it clear that we shall never contribute to any EU military “defence force”.

            Financial contributions to the EU should be halted immediately.

            If the UK plays hard ball with the EU, they will crumple , just like Junckers face when he is drunk.

               17 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      SG, as Alistair Campbell would put it ‘managing the news cycle’. The timing of Sir Ivan’s ‘resignation’ (did he fall or was he sacked after a leak investigation?) looked as though it was intended to run over two days. By whom? No.10? F&CO? Sir Ivan?

      I thought Jonathan Powell (another Labour appointee under Blair) dropped Sir Ivan in it, just a little bit, by stating the obvious ‘Civil Servants have to be able to speak truth to power’ by omitting the important word ‘confidentially’. Sir Peter Ricketts did him no favours on WatO either, with his obviously blind support for Remain.

      It then appears, thanks to the EU’s spokeswoman, that perhaps HMG is well rid of Sir Ivan. Christmas 2016 and New Year 2017 appears to be turning into a bit of a nightmare for the BBC, Remain supporters, the SNP (where are they?) and the Lib Dems and, especially and most of all, the Labour Party.

      We are edging ever so slightly closer to a severing of all ties with the EU. Long may that continue and be completed.

      ‘Kraken’! We want to go!!

         19 likes

      • Grant says:

        Looking at Rogers’ very short Wikipedia entry, it seems that he was also a banker for some years. And it would appear that he still is. A very shifty character and I would not buy a second hand car from him.

        Excellent to get rid of a spineless lickspittle like him .

           24 likes

        • Melksham says:

          I have not seen an image of him, either still or video in which he does not look extremely shifty. He must feel very insecure.

             9 likes

          • Grant says:

            Melk,

            I guess that even people like him realise that, at the end of the day, they are whores and I mean no disrespect to prostitutes who are, at least, honest.

               11 likes

  6. Wild Bill says:

    “Labour peer Shami Chakrabarti has been criticised for establishing a £500,000 bursary fund to help girls get into university despite it being boys who are lagging behind.

    The baroness launch the bursary at Essex University, where she is the Chancellor, despite there already being more female than male students.”

    SEX DISCRIMINATION FROM THE LIBERTY LADY.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/04/anger-atshami-chakrabartis-500000-fund-help-girls-get-university/

       36 likes

    • Wild Bill says:

      “If Shami Chakrabarti is really interested in increasing equality in education then she needs to go and do some proper research to find out what the problem is and then focus her efforts on helping white working-class boys.”

      Isn’t that what the Labour party are supposed to do?

         30 likes

    • scribblingscribe says:

      Doesn’t it warm the cockles of the heart, to see the generosity the left have with other people’s money?

         16 likes

  7. StewGreen says:

    4:30pm on R4MediaShow
    David Blunkett on press regulation;
    – the battle for Saturday night
    – TV ratings (Maybe that Xmas top 10 all got below 10m viewers ..bbc.dominated)

    Overall over 2016 bbc did well but
    “Bake Off episodes occupied all but one of the top 11 slots once catchup viewing was included, with the final attracting an audience of almost 16 million, making it the most watched programme of the year.”
    on other measures ITV got good figures with International Football

    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/dec/21/bbc1-shows-dominate-2016-tv-ratings

       5 likes

  8. matahari says:

    i am fed up with their fake news about Trump. for instance look at this and the way they covered it! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38505398. I complained once again….and said…
    The article’s title is misleading and once again indicates a particularly anti trump bbc agenda. you write ‘Donald Trump: New attack on US intelligence over Russia hacking’. However you describe this attack as a tweet in which Mr Trump said that ‘an intelligence briefing he was due to receive on alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election…had been delayed…(and that he added that)…Perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!”. Where is the evidence of the verbal attack? He just described the situation. You also state that Russian interference ‘…is said to have benefited Mr Trump’. Your statement should have included the word ‘allegedly’. This is because so far there has been no evidence of such a claim. Indeed your article remind us that ‘Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said once again on Tuesday that Russia was not the source for the site’s mass leak of emails…’. Therefore as an unbiased and impartial tax funded news outlet it would have been more appropriate to emphasise that the Russian hacking claim is unsubstantiated and that this is confirmed by Julian Assange.

       20 likes

    • Grant says:

      mata,

      Why should anyone believe a word Julian Assange says about anything ?

         3 likes

      • matahari says:

        the question should be ‘where is the evidence of the hacking claim?’ but also ‘why was obama ok with it (if true) before the election result?’

           11 likes

        • Grant says:

          mata,

          Tucker addresses this issue in an interview on this site. The two questions are :-

          1. Where is the evidence ?

          2. If true, how would it affect the outcome ?

          So far as I can see, no-one has answered.

             13 likes

  9. scribblingscribe says:

    Hidden away in the environment section of the Guardian:

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/04/friends-of-earth-ticked-off-claims-anti-fracking-leaflet

    The advertising standards authority have warned friends of the earth about their lies, and FOE have agreed not to repeat them in return for the ASA not investigating them.

    No doubt the BBC World at One will be all over the deceit FOE and other environmentalist groups use to thwart the UK moving into the 21st century.

       18 likes

    • GCooper says:

      Actually, I have to be fair, Toady did just that this morning, though it was hardly a Paxman-style grilling for the hapless, lying clown from FOE.

         13 likes

      • Alicia Sinclair says:

        I too heard this smarming weasly Friends of the Earth spin doctor( homeopath more likely)snivel and cringe his way around his lies being revealed on fracking.
        We needed Andrew Neil here-but got only the dismal Desmond whose science and maths are -as we all know-crap.
        Terrible interview-but at least we know the nature of Green Science in 2016-which is lies, obfuscation and blarney in “the Good Cause”.
        Absolutely no reason ever again to listen to the Greens on science, let alone their quangos and gangrenous stumps like FoE and Greenpeace.

           9 likes

  10. EnglandExpects says:

    The current BBC environmental obsession is in fact a report from the House of Commons Environment Committee, led by a Labour Remainer, which says Brexit poses a risk to the environment. Heaven help us !

       23 likes

  11. G says:

    Will it be 5 (perhaps less) or maybe even ten years before this is commonplace in the UK? –
    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9639/europe-women-islam
    Perhaps it is already happening in the UK somewhere that the BBC know but will not tell you about to save you fretting.

       14 likes

  12. Grant says:

    BBC Website. Fake News and and Post -Truth. Re.Gambia. The opposition to President Jammeh plan to declare Adama Barrow President “on 18 December” . BBC time travellers. This is not Dr. Who, you idiots.

    Under the Gambian Constitution , Jammeh’s Presidency ends at midnight on 19 January 2017. Now , if the little kids at the BBC cannot even get that right, why should we believe anything they say about anything.

    Sloppy, third rate, unprofessional and total crap. That is the BBC .

       13 likes

  13. Flexdream says:

    Compare this Daily Telegraph interview with Farage, full of colour and light

    with this BBC interview with Farage, hostile from the start

       14 likes

  14. StewGreen says:

    Rotherham research from.Anne Marie Waters from Nov 2015
    .. Are people familiar with it ?

    Just now Andrew Northam was on the R4Media show claiming his paper took therisk of publishing a suspects name and that triggered the police investigations and prosecution…
    They only mentioned it as an example of what might not get reported if the press was hampered by new cost laws.

       9 likes

      • G.W.F. says:

        StewGreen

        Excellent and revealing link Here is a prediction that I hope will not happen. Our cops have behaved cowardly and disgracefully, afraid of being branded as racist and Islamophobic, but sooner or later the monsters who rape children will murder a police officer. Whether the police will open their eyes or whether they will turn their backs on the need to find justice for one of their colleagues may be a turning point in our history.

        Something similar may be said of the BBC whose cowardly restraint in reporting these atrocities may be put to the test.

           13 likes

        • Grant says:

          GWF,

          I suspect that the muslim rapists and terrorists know that the BBC, the mainstream politicians, and Plod are on their side, so will not target them .

          If I were a terrorist wanting to strike at the heart of the Establishment, that is what I would aim for. The fact that they do not, tells its own story.

             9 likes

        • ToobiWan says:

          I wonder how many of those approached for information, in the police and local authorities are Common Purpose graduates or respond to such graduates?

             5 likes

  15. Thoughtful says:

    Interesting report on the Radio 4 PM program regarding Brexit.

    “The Civil Service is impartial”

    I wonder if that is ‘impartial’ in the BBC sense of the word, because I know from personal experience that the civil service is anything but impartial.

    I believe that if they were required to oversee policy which they did not agree with then there would be strike action across much of the public sector, and that those who enter the civil service are already motivated towards the left.

       14 likes

    • Tom_Kenny says:

      An old university pal of mine is high up at the FO. He and I had dinner about 4 years ago. His jaw literally dropped when I showed him my UKIP membership card.

      “A vote to leave the EU would be terribly reckless,” he said.

      My point is not that he is not entitled to his view, but that he was so shocked that a friend could favour Brexit. Clearly he was utterly unaccustomed to meeting anyone who espoused a view contrary to his own.

         31 likes

      • Grant says:

        Tom.

        I have similar stories. Civil Servants , FCO, included will just say whatever their paymasters want. They have no principles beyond money.

           8 likes

      • GCooper says:

        The prevailing belief of the Mandarin class of top civil servants (and that very much includes the same types who masquerade as journalists at the BBC) is that Britain is a post-imperial nation whose condition can only be one of ‘managed decline’.

        As such, having seen us become subordinate to the USA after the second world war, they sought solace in the EU, without which they fear we would sink.

        This cowardly and defeatist belief is near universal among this self-styled elite and if you were to consider it little better than traitorous, I certainly wouldn’t disagree. As many have pointed out, it is they who really govern the country, not the series of pop-up cartoon figures who hold ministerial office for a few years.

        We could do a lot worse than to sack almost all our senior civil servants, whose minds were warped at university and who have learnt nothing from the past 70 years or so. Then we should start with the faux academics who did (and still do) the warping. The country would be a great deal better for it.

           14 likes

    • Tom_Kenny says:

      The Civil Service is absolutely not impartial.

      I’ve worked in heavily taxed and regulated industries, specifically gambling and other age-restricted goods & services (alcohol, tobacco). Over the years my job has involved dealing with civil servants, including some v senior, including haggling over tax and oversight.

      Whether consciously or not, the vast majority seemed to espouse “soft left” paternalistic politics. The state is seen as a force for good, so more = better. They had it very good indeed under Blair and Brown, and look back fondly on those regimes.

      Hardly surprising – why would someone who had strong views to the contrary choose to become a civil servant?

      Critically they tend to favour approaches that protect and / or grow public sector headcount, and therefore which involve the public sector accounting for a higher % of GDP. Ultimately that’s a political question: big state v small state.

         11 likes

      • GCooper says:

        Well said! Just as lawyers love law, civil servants love governmental control. Both ‘professions’ need culling.

           8 likes

      • ToobiWan says:

        I took a course as a “mature” student in the early 80’s (BB, Before Blair) in electrical engineering and power distribution and one of the topics in the general studies module was power distribution in the UK. Seemed appropriate given the reason for the course but it was given by a leftie, ex-tank regiment officer. It covered the roles of the HoC, HoL and the civil service, sweet FA to do with electrical distribution! He spoke very fondly of the civil service, saying that its overriding strength was its vehement inscrutability and impartiality. (Obviously had very little contact with the MoD) These qualities playing a large role in the way that governments could change 180 degrees after an election, yet seem to hit the ground running as it were due to the all the cogs and wheels of government already being in place. He contrasted this with how our system differs from the US, where when red turns to blue and vice versa, they start with a clean sweep, everybody out and jobs re advertised/selected. Not sure what he would think about it today though.

           4 likes

        • GCooper says:

          Over the years numerous politicians have revealed just how ‘impartial’ the civil service isn’t. And as for effective, all you have to do is look how tenth rate civil service rackets like OFSTED, OFCOM, OFWAT are to see that the whole rotten edifice needs pulling down.

             5 likes

  16. taffman says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38510314
    Bet the ‘four’ were not originally from Oldham.

       8 likes

    • ToobiWan says:

      In military parlance this would be classified as a blue on blue, taffman, judging by the names of those involved. “…also of Oldham…” my arse!

         8 likes

      • Grant says:

        The names published do not seem to be originally Anglo-Saxon !

           8 likes

        • Mustapha Sheikup al-Beebi says:

          The notion of Old ham, or even fresh ham, is Islamophobic and the name of the place should be changed to more inclusive and less divisive.

             9 likes

          • Al Shubtill says:

            They’re probably Roma, certainly the girls who died look like they are. They are absolutely dreadful people – even the Paks don’t like them, although that doesn’t appear to stop our Islamic friends buying their young daughters off them, as a second or third wife.

            You could hardly pick worse people to let into your country from Eastern Europe, the Czechs; Slovaks; Hungarians etc must have turned cartwheels when they saw that Britain would take this human rubbish off their hands.

               13 likes

  17. Excartographer says:

    My first entry to this great site so apologies if O/T – Alex Jones, presenter on the One Show has just responded to a viewers message on the subject of ‘predictions for 2017’. Viewer predicts that Donald Trump will throw the towel in before the end of the year, Alex Jones one word response “Good”

       22 likes

    • Grant says:

      Excart,

      Welcome ! Is that Alex Jones or Aled Jones ?

         6 likes

    • ToobiWan says:

      Uber lefty, requirement for employment at bBBc. Never forgot the episode where she was all over two jags Prescott! Sitting on his knee and snogging him. Don’t know who was the most repulsive.

         8 likes

    • Tabs says:

      The guest on the right hand side of the sofa also said “Marie Le Penn in France is also doing better than anyone wished or hoped for”. No bias there then!

      The bloke in the middle said he cannot comment on Brexit due to his job (meaning he has to be impartial) and then immediately said “the very next day after Brexit I heard a Leaver say they were trying to think of an insult to call the losers”. He then asked the bloke on the right if Le Penn and nationalists are doing better because of Brexit. The man on the right said “no, the reasons for voting nationalist were always there but we didn’t see that”. Who is ‘we’ that he is referring to? Does he mean the BBC didnt see it?

      The One Show is the perfect example of the biased BBC bubble. The vast majority of the guests are other BBC employees. The guests that are different are only there to plug a book or a new CD.

         9 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        Bloke on the middle : you mean James Lefty-Shock-Jock O’Brien
        LBC by day, Newsnight presenter by night.
        His 2017 prediction “people will come to love experts”
        Female boss was hissed by all when she dared to point experts reputation is terrible.

           2 likes

  18. Dover Sentry says:

    BBC Online News:

    “”M62 police shooting: Yassar Yaqub’s family attend vigil””

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-38509806

    The BBC should be asking as to why there is a ‘vigil’ when Mohamad Yassar Yaqub had a gun with him when he was shot by the police.

       22 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      The question everyone should be asking is why the Political Correctness Enforcement Squad did next to nothing in spite of everyone knowing the guy was a major drug dealer, shot once, his house shot once, dropping drugs into prison by drone, no visible means of support for his lavish lifestyle, and reports of him owning ‘hundreds of homes’.

      Why wasn’t he in court every other week until convicted, and are they now going to be seizing all these ill gotten gains and selling them as proceeds of crime?

         13 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      (Reported by accident. Sorry).

      I wonder if the BBC provided a helicopter to the family by way of assistance?

         0 likes

  19. Thoughtful says:

    This is the man accused of killing two schoolgirls in Oldham and yet again we can all feel positively enriched by the vibrancy.

    JS108408163.jpg

    Yet again we can blame the Political Correctness Enforcement Squad which was once a Police force, overseen by the Fascist Tony Lloyd, outed by Melanie Philips and condemned by members of his own party for visiting Palestinian warlords flying the Swastika, and translating Mein Kampf in Arabic, and distributing it free of charge.

    I do wonder if this kind of offence would be sufficient under EU law to repatriate him back to Hungary.

    No doubt the BBC will be playing it all as low key as they possibly can.

       13 likes

    • wronged says:

      Thoughtful
      ‘I do wonder if this kind of offence would be sufficient under EU law to repatriate him back to Hungary.’

      What about his ‘Uman rights’

      Liberty will love him. I expect they will complain that his car was damaged by his victims, they will probably sue the dead children’s family for a new car!
      He probably had a difficult upbringing and lacked a loving relationship. They will ensure he gets some ‘game’ female pregnant and regard a cat as a member of his family ensuring his Britishness. He might even get a council house due to his distressed state for which we will have to pay for his counselling. Alternatively we could send him to prison and the taxpayer could fund him to the tune of a further grand a week.

      Lawyers in Britain ensure crime pays.

         8 likes

      • Thoughtful says:

        As it’s not an asylum case there’s no reason why any partner & kids couldn’t go with him so article 8 wouldn’t apply in this case.

           1 likes

  20. Dover Sentry says:

    BBC Online News:

    “”Ellen DeGeneres bans Kim Burrell after homophobic comments””

    “”Ellen DeGeneres has said Kim Burrell will not appear on her show after the gospel singer made homophobic comments””

    “”Burrell referred to “the perverted homosexual spirit” during a sermon at a church in Houston, Texas””

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38505964

    Lesbian v Black Woman.

    Oh, the agony of choice for the BBC.

       10 likes

  21. wronged says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38505964

    ‘Ellen DeGeneres bans Kim Burrell after homophobic comments’

    Firstly. What is this report doing on the main BBC webpage?
    Secondly. Who are they ?
    Thirdly. Who gives damn!

       17 likes