Who spends your money?

Quick comment – one thing I did notice during the Beeb’s coverage of the election was that their trailers did at least refer to one of the choices being “who spends your money”…

Bookmark the permalink.

42 Responses to Who spends your money?

  1. alex says:

    Every so often, someone shows gratitude for a morsel from the Biased BBC. This I believe we should avoid.

    As Archbishop Tutu used to say during his struggle for freedom under Aparthied in South Africa “…we do not seek crumbs from the white mans table”.

    We pay for objectivity and deserve it, the BBC is under contract to provide it and fails in this task.

    Lets have no more plaudits for this rotten and out of control State Broadcaster.

       0 likes

  2. Verity says:

    OT – The sainted Mark Steyn makes very honourable mention and provides a link at his site for this site’s (and the blogosphere’s) Natalie Solent, noting that she is “on cracking form”.

       0 likes

  3. Fran says:

    OT

    Did I really catch Orla Guerin blaming male Palestinians (and not Israelis) for repeated acts of violence on their womenfolk? And Justin Webb turning in a piece which showed US Christians in a positive light? Both in FOOC.

    Well, go to the bottom of our stairs and shout …..

       0 likes

  4. thedogsdanglybits says:

    OT
    A magic moment on Radio 4’s Broadcasting House this morning, when Fi Glover mentioned that as BBC reporters prepared to cover the election counts, they kept one eye on Sky News. Just goes to show, even the Corporation’s staff have to touch base with reality once in a while.

       0 likes

  5. thedogsdanglybits says:

    OT
    Magic moment on Radio 4’s Broadcasting House this morning, when Fi Glover mentioned BBC reporters covering the election counts keeping an eye on Sky News. Just goes to show that even the Corporation’s staff have to touch base with reality occasionally.

    The Times http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1602733,00.html reports Labour ministers bickering over Blair’s allocation of jobs like jackles round the carcass of a mortally wounded gazelle scrapping over choice morsels. Meanwhile, backbenchers ready the inhumane killer.

       0 likes

  6. Pauline Buffham says:

    And I suppose over the next weeks and months we will be subjected to the Beeb constantly telling us about the “splits” in the Conservative party in the run up to the election of Michael Howard’s successor, whilst playing down the Civil War that seems about to be breaking out in the Labour party’s ranks

       0 likes

  7. JohninLondon says:

    No – the BBC will play up the Balir situation for all it is worth. They really want to get rid of him – over Iraq.

    If I were Blair, I would have another look at the BBC Charter stuff.

       0 likes

  8. Joe N. says:

    Yes Fran, when I heard mu main man Webb, I thought I must have been dreaming. He did say that the US doesn’t have a welfare system (which is a lie), but I was shocked! shocked!

       0 likes

  9. chevalier de st george says:

    OT
    someone should pick up on the Orla Geurrin story at
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/4522465.stm

    HONOR Killings are the work of christians it seems not Muslims.
    Wow one learns every day!

       0 likes

  10. Verity says:

    OT – But follow-up on the Beeb’s John Humphrys and his “stolen vote”. It seems that first, he went to the wrong polling station (good to know this scourge of the Conservative Party is on top of things) and threw a fit – along the lines of “I brought my little boy along to learn about democracy and now my vote’s been stolen!”

    They then politely explained that as he had moved since the last election, he had to go to a new polling booth. He went on lambasting the system about his stolen vote, and they looked it up and said, in effect, “Well, here’s the form you filled in and you put a tick in the box that said you wanted a postal vote next time.” Uh.

    Worse, he was apparently actually holding his postal vote in his hand while he was standing there throwing his fit. Well, we knew he is a bully.

       0 likes

  11. Pete_London says:

    Joe N.

    Justin Webb repeats that nonsense and pitches in with more here:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/4521721.stm

    Given the preponderance of honour killings in Arab and Islamic societies Guerin is clearly up for nothing more than a spot of Chritian-bashing. I feel another complaint coming on …

       0 likes

  12. Verity says:

    “In a nation without anything but the most basic social services, without a National Health Service…”. Well, of course, it is Mississippi’s good fortune that they don’t have a National Health Service, but the statement that they have “nothing but the most basic social services” borders on the lunatic.

    Of course, the citizens don’t support European style social services for the unemployed for life, but their social services are adequate for temporary relief of poverty and/or unemployment and are as the citizens have voted. People are expected to get back into work and become self-supporting fairly quickly. If they can’t find work locally, it’s a big country. The disabled and permanently disadvantaged are cared for. Americans believe in self-help, which is why there are so many thriving charities, along the lines mentioned by Justin Webb. Most Americans, even Democrats, don’t have a lot of time for socialist ideas.

       0 likes

  13. jamesg01 says:

    Hi Pete,
    I first approached Webb’s article with “here we go again…”, but toward and in the second half of it, he blew away the possible connection between devout evangelicals and racism. He, in fact, talked about the good that can come about across racial barriers when Christians get together.

    Agnostically yours,
    James

       0 likes

  14. Andrew Kinsman says:

    John Humphrys taking his little boy to teach him about democracy?

    If he had kept his cool, would he have voted Liberal Demagogue?

       0 likes

  15. chevalier de st george says:

    orla Guerrin’s Christian Honor killings

    The point of this article is that it is yet another example of the blatant use of the BBC (with full approval, I suspect) to further the aims of Orla Guerrin’s pro Islamic agendas.
    This article would never have been written if it had to focus on Islamic honor killings, but by suggesting in a “read between the lines” fashion that it was committed by Palestinian Christians it will suggest to naive readers that Honor killings are committed by Christians and ,dare i suggest, are a polluting influence on peaceful Islam.
    I can imagine Hanan Ashwari sitting with Arafat in a morning meeting in Ramallah and being asked to reinforced this with respect to the western press.
    “And what do you offer in return Chairman Arafat?”
    ” I will ask Suha and Raymunda to lay off the accusations of the Israelis poisoning our drinking water to sterilize Palestinian women and the rumours that Palestinian Christians are exploiting Muslims in Bethlehem”
    ” Very well, I will get on to my BBC contacts right away and do not worry it will not cost you one dollar. It will be paid for by the British taxpayer”

       0 likes

  16. Alex Swanson says:

    OT

    The BBC keeps suggesting that during the Great Patriotic War (the Nazi/Soviet part of WW2) the Germans killed approximately 27 million Soviet citizens. Despite the popularity of this figure, which many people have heard so often that they take it for granted that it’s true, it’s false, because it refers to the total number of unnatural deaths during this period, and hence includes those who died in the Gulag – more than half the total. To ignore this fact amounts to a left-wing equivalent of Holocaust denial.

    This happened on the website last week, and on the Radio 4 news this morning.

    I’ve posted a complaint via the BBC website, and asked for a reply. I expect that, as on previous occasions, no reply will in fact be forthcoming.

       1 likes

  17. David Field says:

    Talking of morsels and crumbs…

    I nearly fell off the sofa watching a BBC News 24 report on Iraq by Humphrey Hawkseley showing – wait for it – happy shoppers and well ordered streets with traffic policemen directing cars and lorries.

    Strange this should appear just after the election. Were they holding it back because the BBC policy was to punish Blair (up to a point)? I’ve never seen a report like this before from a BBC reporter.

    What does it presage? I have always pointed out before that the BBC are not Islamists. They aren’t in favour of Al Queda gaining control of Iraq.
    Perhaps the general feeling now in teh BBC is that it is time to apply the brakes a little since the election is safely out of the way and Blair has been punished to a satifactory degree.

       1 likes

  18. Anonymous says:

    “The point of this article is that it is yet another example of the blatant use of the BBC (with full approval, I suspect) to further the aims of Orla Guerrin’s pro Islamic agendas.”

    The report plainly states that it is a widespread phenomenon

    “In recent months there has been an increase in honour killings in the West Bank and Gaza”,

    and that muslims also commit honor killings:

    “Forty-eight hours later, and a half an hour’s drive away, two sisters were killed – this time in a Muslim home.”

    That christians and muslims commit honour killings apparently indicates that Guerin is pathologically anti-christian. I guess it makes a change from the accusation that she is simply pro-palestinian. How incisive to learn she is rooting for those barbaric islamic types and not the christians.

    Such fine points of distinction are important in tracking BBC bias. Keep up the good work, Chevalier. The knight is still young and all that..

       1 likes

  19. Pete_London says:

    It seems like tomorrow night will be a good time to paint the kitchen, wash my hair, do anything except watch BBC2. Anyone unfortunate enough to catch it will be in for what appears to be a Che Love-Fest:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4518213.stm

    “Ernesto “Che” Guevara may be an icon of revolution to millions, but for Alberto Granado he was a friend. He tells the story of their extraordinary friendship for a BBC Two documentary.”

    An interview follows with Granado which is most complementary to Che (‘Che’) Guevara. No mention of a cruel, mass-murderer though.

       1 likes

  20. chevalier de st george says:

    I for one, have not heard of Honor killings within the Christian or for that matter Jewish communities.
    However i stand to be corrected by yourself Anon. Please provide documentation of the plurality of such events.
    Women rights groups calculate that well over one Hundred such killings occur every year within Gaza and the palestinian territories.
    What percentage, one wonders, are perpetrated by Christians?
    it is evident to me that honour kilings by christians are a very rare occurence, but of course Orla Guerrin could prove me wrong ?

       1 likes

  21. Cockney says:

    Pete,

    Are they not showing the film which is a decent bit of cinema whatever your political persuasion?

    Not sure why they couldn’t work the interview into a proper historical documentary from which people could make their own lives up. I’d wager that the average student with a Che poster has no idea what he actually got up to.

       1 likes

  22. Monkey says:

    Didn’t Che Guevara once shoot a child in the head? I’m sure I heard that before.

    Anyway, the BBC election night coverage was far superior to Sky News. Adam Boulton has got to be the most boring, unintelligent, wooden political correspondent around.

    If anything he’s even WORSE than most BBC correspondents when it comes to bias. He is every bit the sycophantic to labour, obnoxious to Conservative, smirking liberal twat.

    I refuse to accept that the ‘Murdoch Media’ is right wing. The Times seems to be competing with the Guardian for the title of most liberal broadsheet, the sun runs its ‘come on you reds’ headline asking readers to vote Labour, and Sky News has become virtually indistinguishable from Channel 4 News. I can’t think of a single non-liberal Sky News Correspondent.

    There could just as easily be a http://www.biased-skynews.blogspot.com.

    For the BBC, the American guy who analysed the results was sharp and informative, Peter Snows animations were cool, Ian Hislop and Boris Johnson were funny, Paxman was brash, and the results at the bottom of the screen (i.e. a blue arrow over a red rectangle signifying a Tory gain) worked well.

    I heard afterwards that ITN had a live party on the Thames with Margaret Thatcher. I missed that unfortunately. But between the BBC and Sky, the BBC came out on top.

       1 likes

  23. Pete_London says:

    Cockney

    I have no idea if they’re showing The Motorcycles Diaries at this week but I expect Channel 4 to get around to it at some point.

    The opining line of this piece states:

    “Ernesto “Che” Guevara may be an icon of revolution to millions, but for Alberto Granado he was a friend. He tells the story of their extraordinary friendship for a BBC Two documentary.”

    So an interview it is.

       1 likes

  24. Pete_London says:

    Monkey

    It’s odd how we don’t hear as much whining from liberals about the evil Murdoch empire and about how iniquitous it is that an Ozzie/American can wield so much influence here. Sky News has indeed joined the BBC in its bias. The difference, of course, is that Murdoch won’t try to have you incarcerated for not giving him money.

       1 likes

  25. Anonymous says:

    So Chevalier, you don’t know anything about christian honour killings therefore it is evident they are rare?

    What fabulous logic. Do you use your ignorance of any other phenomena to prove their rarity?

       1 likes

  26. Cockney says:

    Monkey,

    The Sun’s and (to a lesser extent) The Times’ editorial lines are clearly right wing – pro war, anti EU, anti immigration, pro low tax & regulation etc etc etc – more so than the real Conservative party would dare to be.

    The fact that they continue to theoretically support Labour largely reflects the fact that it would be bad for PR if they were seen to be supporting the losing side – the Sun in particular makes much of it’s supposed leadership of the masses – and is partly due to Labour’s courtship of Murdoch. Both papers will be back with the Tories like a shot if they ever get themselves into a position of looking likely electoral winners again (ETA 2099).

       1 likes

  27. Monkey says:

    Interesting take on the BBC’s coverage of the Communist celebrations in Vietnam last week by the ‘labour sceptic’ blogger.

    http://bbc-bias.blogspot.com/2005/04/bbc-remembers-communist-victory.html

       1 likes

  28. Verity says:

    Anonymous – “So Chevalier, you don’t know anything about christian honour killings therefore it is evident they are rare?”

    I think that is a fair assumption. Given the deluge of information available in which we are all drenched in this age of instant information, if we haven’t heard of Christian “honour killings”, I think it is a good bet they are a figment of someone’s imagination. “Honour killings” are not congruent with the Christian ethos, whereas they make perfect sense within the parameters the Islamics have devised for the subjugation of women: women not being allowed outside the house unless accompanied by a male of her family, women not being allowed to shake hands with a man not in her family, blah blah blah. Many, many more rules means many, many more opportunities for outrage and infractions.

    Perhaps you could post a couple of threads from reputable sources on “Christian honour killings”?

       1 likes

  29. alex says:

    I agree with Monkey. Although Sky News is not the subject of this blog, it is for the most part just as putrid as the BBC. I think that the problem here is the so called “Westminster Village” i.e. lots of lazy “journalists” all fishing in the same small pond, all reading from the same press releases and all meeting up in the same bars and pubs after a days “work”.

    There is an opportunity here for the blogosphere to change the face of news coverage, It may take time but soon it will seem as if it was ever thus.

       1 likes

  30. Cockney says:

    Re: Sky news, you’re p*ssing into the wind here chaps. Murdoch isn’t prone to broadcasting evil biased lefty stuff for the hell of it.

    The reason that there are no mass news outlets pushing libertarian economics, Christian conservative morality and steadfast support for the War, Israel etc etc etc is that these are very much minority views amongst the British public. It’s our old friends market forces at work. At least you’ve now got niche blogs to rant on to an audience of fellow believers.

    To my mind as someone who came pretty much dead centre in those annoying ‘who to vote for’ pre election quizzes, Sky News is as close to unbiased as British TV. What bits do you specifically object to?

       1 likes

  31. Anonymous says:

    Verity – I don’t have to prove they are rare or not. I’m not making unfounded assertions based on ignorance as to their existence or not.

    The original article claimed that honour killings were endemic among Palestinians, and also discussed their cultural, rather than strictly religious origins.

    But, as it happens, there are several examples of “christian” honour killings, insofar as it makes sense to talk about the religion, rather than culture or context. Anyone familiar with Northern Ireland would be able to give you countless examples.

       1 likes

  32. Monkey says:

    “The reason that there are no mass news outlets pushing libertarian economics, Christian conservative morality and steadfast support for the War, Israel etc etc etc is that these are very much minority views amongst the British public. It’s our old friends market forces at work. At least you’ve now got niche blogs to rant on to an audience of fellow believers.”

    That’s what they used to say in the States. But Fox News has obliterated the 4 liberal networks.

    Secondly, if such views are in the minority, why have Conservative Newspapers traditionally dominated the Newspaper Market (A REAL market where consumers actually get a choice, unlike the TV monopoly)

    Thirdly, again if such views actually were minority views in the UK that’d be as a RESULT of relentless propagation against them by the liberal institutions of popular opinion and popular culture (media, universities, music etc) not the other way around.

       1 likes

  33. Susan says:

    To be fair Christian honor killings do occur in the Middle East, but they are far rarer than Muslim honor killings which occur not only in the Middle East, but in non-Arab Muslim countries like Turkey and Pakistan. (According to estimates I’ve read, from 5,000-6,000 women per year die in the Middle East due to honor killings — the vast majority of these would be Muslims.)

    To also be fair, Islam as a religion doesn’t sanction honor killings — the punishment for women suspected of “lewdness” in the Quran is to be locked up for life within a single room in the home, but not to be killed.

    But Islam certainly hasn’t done much to stamp out the practice over the past 1400 years, and, indeed, the practice was spread to every culture the early medieval Arabs conquered (Subcontinent, Anatolia, Egypt, Persia etc).

    I suspect Orla’s report highlighted this comparatively rare Christian honor killing in Palestine for the usual PC BBC reasons — to disguise the fact that honor killings are largely an Islamic problem.

       1 likes

  34. Cockney says:

    In case you haven’t noticed mate, the States is a rather different place to the UK. How many votes would their President get if he ran on the same programme here?

    Conservative newspapers largely dominate the newspaper market because the British (or certainly the newspaper buying British) are pretty conservative (as distinct from radically right wing), because right wing views are far more interesting to read and debate that turgid left wing dogma, because newspapers tend to be owned by high wealth individuals who tend to be in favour of low business regulation and low taxes on high wealth individuals, and because the right wing papers in the UK are far better edited and readable than their left wing equivalents.

    Propaganda? Poor lickle things – write some songs or academic texts, set up a TV station or newspaper or magazine. If it’s so obvious surely there’s money in it?

       1 likes

  35. Anonymous says:

    “Secondly, if such views are in the minority, why have Conservative Newspapers traditionally dominated the Newspaper Market”

    On the assumption you are now talking about the UK, the most obvious answer to this is that while TV stations are governed by a code of objectivity, newspapers are not.

    Your perceptions of bias are not widely shared by the public, or at least are not cared enough for by the public to prompt significant action. Secondly, the presentation of content by the main news providers BBC, Sky and ITN has a broadly similar feel to it in terms of approach (especially so, when comparing the same news presented in the newspapers) – not surprising when one looks at the movement between public and private sector broadcasters.

    This either makes the more committed BBC bashers the enlightened few, or the deluded few.

       1 likes

  36. Susan says:

    I suspect that distrust of the BBC will grow exponentially in the coming years as its pro-Islamic bias will continue to piss off more and more people. It was easy for the left-wing media elites to get away with propagandizing the Gulag, or Mao’s murderous Cultural Revolotion, because few people in the West ever suffered from those atrocities.

    Quite a different matter to propagandize suicide bombers in your own backyard.

       1 likes

  37. Susan says:

    Although the BBC does try its best, God bless its little trendy-lefty heart.

       1 likes

  38. alex says:

    I`d like to take Susan on a date.

       1 likes

  39. Susan says:

    Sorry, alex, I’m attached. But thanks for the offer anyways 🙂

       1 likes

  40. David Field says:

    On honour killings I would say the following:

    1. The West has its own problems with what you might call “jealousy killings”. Sometimes divorced men go so far as to kill their children in order to punish their ex wives. I wouldn’t personally make too much of the phenomenon of honour killings to criticise a whole culture.

    2. That said, if teh subject comes up it is pretty clear that Islamic culture taking its lead from Islamic law certainly toelrates honour killings in a way the West does not condone jealousy killings.

       1 likes

  41. chevalier de st george says:

    Thank you Susan.
    I have no first hand direct evidence of the earth being spherical. Does that mean i must consider or accept the theories of the Flat Earth society?
    Orla’s agenda is clear for all to see except perhaps the flat earth society members.

       1 likes

  42. DavidC says:

    “Quite a different matter to propagandize suicide bombers in your own backyard”
    For years the BBC was pro-IRA while they were blowing up bits of London. Even after the McCartney affair they are prepared to give the time of the day to them.

       1 likes