General BBC-related comment thread.

Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. This is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It’s your space, use it wisely

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76 Responses to General BBC-related comment thread.

  1. Gigits says:

    The BBC has gone into full Diana mode over Jade Goody. Is this really news?!!

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  2. MartinW says:

    Well, I changed my attitude to Jade Goody. One must have sympathy for someone who had very disadvantaged start in life and an extremely poor education, then contracted cancer at an early age. She seemed to make the best of what she had, and surely her decision to court publicity in order to provide for her children when she was no longer there, cannot be condemned. Sympathy and understanding are better.
    My utmost scorn, however, for ‘Big Brother’ and all it stands for is undiminished. As also for the Diana-ification of Britian. I don’t think the latter applies to the Goody case.

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  3. George R says:

    People on this site have pointed it out, now it’s official:

    ‘Independent’

    “Foreign Office is beset by culture of timidity, say staff”

    [Extract]:

    “The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has been condemned as a ‘timid’ organisation, terrified of failure and incapable of defending itself within Whitehall, let alone around the globe. Worse, for David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, this withering assessment of his department’s performance has come from his own staff.

    …”The results show that the timidity that has prevented Britain taking the initiative over issues like Zimbabwe and Darfur runs right through the organisation.”

    And, it could be added, the timidity extends to its treatment of Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, etc.

    No doubt the BBC will join in and publicise this criticism of the BBC’s World Service’s employer….?

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/foreign-office-is-beset-by-culture-of-timidity-say-staff-1651331.html

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  4. deegee says:

    This comment is marginally about the BBC both through the original Tim Franks Jerusalem Diary: 16 March which drew my attention to it and through the BBC connection to the British Council Lighting Lamps exhibition (The Guardian predictably was also a partner). Just think the focus (of the project) was on maintaining the highest ethical and professional standards of reporting, ensuring coverage is balanced and properly sourced, but also putting an emphasis on the human side of the major social issues affecting Egypt today. and that was to be taught by the BBC and the Guardian!

    However my real question was what were the British Council thinking when they sponsored this exhibition?

    Franks begins with a demonstrable error that cartoons don’t have much of a tradition in the Middle East because of religious influences. It is an easy mistake to make when you see the wimpy Arab cartoons in the exhibition. You can see the cartoons here.

    Perhaps fortunately the rich history of Arab antisemitic cartooning, so often borrowing from Der Steurmer is absent from the exhibition not that it really matters for by taking the exhibition to East Jerusalem and the Dehaishe refugee camp the Council ensures that no Israelis would be around to be offended. There are no Israeli cartoonists in the exhibition despite all the participating ‘Middle East’ countries (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian Territories and Egypt) having a border with Israel or are very close.

    I can understand but not accept this exclusion because had an Israeli contributed (even an anti Zionist) the exhibition couldn’t have taken place. It follows that Frank’s interview with Michel Kichka is totally misleading because Kichka did not take part in Lighting Lamps. This is never made clear.

    But what was the British Council thinking when they called on the Guardian’s Steve Bell as the British contribution? In the exhibition Steve Bell caricatures George Bush as a chimpanzee (walking around in bare feet with prehensile toes); Margaret Thatcher as a mad woman in a straitjacket; Tony Blair and the former British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, erupting from George W Bush’s backside and the Union Jack flag with a huge white stain, representing the racist killing of Steven Lawrence. How are the Arabs visitors to the show supposed to relate to Britain? Franks claims they will contrast the relative freedoms between their countries. i feel they will see them as indisputable evidence of British evil.

    Franks ends with a Kichka quote.
    “But today, you publish in your country, and it can go anywhere in the world. When I criticise my government’s policy, I don’t want my cartoon used in a country which only wants to destroy my country.”

    The same question could and should equally have been asked of the organizers. How are these cartoons going to be used?

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  5. Jim T. says:

    I have every sympathy for those connected with the Goody case, my problem now is that our (so-called) prime minister has expressed his sympathy. Very laudable, I’m sure, but can we now expect him to praise or even join those patriots in Wootton Bassett who turn out in their hundreds to pay their respects when servicemen who have been killed in wars fought for our benefit are driven through their town.

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  6. Martin says:

    Gigits: Can we expect McSnot to state;

    “She was the peoples chav…”

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  7. Martin says:

    JimT: Better still would be if one of the c**ts that sent our soldiers there might have the decency to turn up when their bodies are brought back.

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  8. Cassandra says:

    The BBC would be better employed to give airtime to the thousands of British nationals who have died needlessly of hospital aquired infections such as C diff/mrsa etc, these pointless and avoidable deaths happen every day and they are real people with families who will miss them, these real people are dying every day because of filthy hospitals and cost cutting.
    The BBC only reported the infection rates when they could advertise a slight seven percent fall in the numbers of cases BUT what they didnt advertise were the actual figures, ooooh no, that would have been telling the truth wouldnt it? The BBC trumpet a slight drop while keeping the real tragedy secret from the population!
    I am sorry but Goody is one person and she gets a large slice of precious airtime where the thousands of NHS victims get no platform by the national broadcaster, they have nobody to speak for them, to the BBC they are invisible, like the victims of terror and our war dead and wounded and even the victims of racist violence just because they happen to have the wrong skin colour.
    The BBC cares about victims but only if they are the ‘correct’ type of victim.

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  9. David Preiser (USA) says:

    4200 protested in Orlando, Florida against the Spendulus Bill and President Obamessiah’s socialist policies. It wasn’t non-story about a gathering of extreme right-wing wannabe terrorists, as some on the Left are calling us. Like most of the other “Tea Party” protests, this was covered by local news.

    Also over the weekend, 2-300 people protested in Connectituct, home of rich Liberal celebrities and Democrat society women. A similar amount gathered in Ralegih, NC.

    There are more and more of these happening around the US, and the mainstream media is deliberately covering it up. Because the Beeboids who cover the US don’t do original or authentic reporting but instead take their lead from their Leftoid media friends, the license fee payers aren’t told about it either.

    Instead, the BBC gives you a party political item, stating The Obamessiah’s defense. The article almost seems to admire His stance in the face of such negativism. Of course, the BBC deliberately misleads the reader about how “Questions have been asked over how much the treasury secretary knew about the extent of the bonus payments.”

    Of course, we all know that the actual question isn’t about how big the bonuses were, but why did The Obamessiah sigm the bill which included a clause protecting the bonuses. The Obamessiah has lied about knowing about them, Geithner has lied about, members of Congress have lied about it, and the BBC has willingly promoted the lie. I’m assuming, because US Beeboids are so damn lazy and partisan, that they actually don’t know the facts but instead believe and regurgitate the propaganda they read in The Huffington Post, The New Republic, and The Washington Post.

    The truth is that Geithner and all of Congress knew about the AIG bonuses.

    Here’s video of Geithner himself being told about them in front of everybody at a Congressional hearing on March 3rd.

    A Democrat, Rep. Joseph Crowley of New York (not my rep.) said this:

    For example, just last month, AIG paid 343 employees of AIG FP — their Financial Products division that created the financial hole that AIG is in, and in turn a multibillion-dollar bill for American taxpayers — $56 million in bonuses and are slated to pay an additional $162 million in bonuses to 393 participants in the coming weeks. And there’s more. Further bonus payments totaling approximately 230 million (dollars) are due to 407 participants at AIG’s Financial Products division in March 2010. This makes no sense to my constituency.

    Geithner knew, BBC. So did Congress, so did your beloved Obamessiah. They’re lying, He’s, lying, you’re lying. Why?

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  10. The Cattle Prod of Destiny says:

    And how did the Andrew Marr show deal with the news of Goody’s death? A neutral commentary over images of the woman screaming at the Bollywood starlet. No hidden message there then.

    The BBC, still sticking the boot in after death.

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  11. nrg says:

    The late miss Goody will be used to fill up time that might otherwise have been allocated to today’s Labour sleaze expose. How convenient.

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  12. Mike says:

    Jade Goody, she turned into an egg and she’ll be in a box for Easter!

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  13. will2001 says:

    BBC1 Evening News manages to squeeze Mc Nulty expenses scam story in just before the Sport, hoping the audience might have dozed off by then.

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  14. Jason says:

    Jade Goody, she turned into an egg and she’ll be in a box for Easter!
    Mike | 22.03.09 – 6:36 pm | #

    Well observed that man.

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  15. Geoff says:

    Not bias but worth a laugh:

    No Charges For Mugabe Wife
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7957607.stm

    Okay so she gets off with taking a swing at a photographer which is fine if that’s what the local laws accept, but gotta love the excellent journalism of the final two lines…

    “President Robert Mugabe, 85, recently entered a power-sharing agreement with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

    The country is facing economic collapse.”

    No shit, Sherlock. And we taxpayers paid for that?

    The Hamas/Obama love-fest continues with ongoing exchanges of bodily fluids:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7958037.stm

    and…ah no, going to quit whilst blood pressure is within acceptable limits.

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  16. anon126 says:

    it is a tragedy that Jade Goody has died. It is tragic that anyone should die such a terrible death, especially so young and with such a young family. My sympathies are with her family.

    but she is not the only one to die so young. Most of them do not have her riches. She has been transformed into some kind of national treasure when she was not the nicest of people, a racist bully.

    it is strange that the BBC who usually go out of their way to be so PC, especially about raise issues have turned her into some kind of secular saint.

    she was worth more than six million pounds when she was diagnosed. I would have been much more impressed if she had spent the time before her death raising money for cancer research or for the local charity hospice.

    to me Jane Tomlinson who spent the 7 years before her death putting others before herself in raising money is much more of a hero.

    I do wonder if her husband is similarly transformed by he media….if Jade is the People’s Cancer victim, is he the People’s Thug????

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  17. Mike says:

    anon126:

    “it is a tragedy that Jade Goody has died. It is tragic that anyone should die such a terrible death, especially so young and with such a young family. My sympathies are with her family.”

    balls!

    http://isjadegoodydeadyet.com/

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  18. Martin says:

    will2001: I’m sure the BBC will find a Caroline Spelman story to run. You know the BBC never pushes these Liebour sleaze stories unless they get their hands forced.

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  19. Gigits says:

    Martin | 22.03.09 – 4:04 pm |

    McSnot wished her well last week – that was the kiss of death for her. Actually, I bet it was a scam really, she never had Cancer but, after the besh wishes from Jonah, she died anyway!

    I imagine she’ll get a State funeral. Fake Burberry clad morons will line the route and throw flowers (and pick pockets).

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  20. NotaSheep says:

    The BBC are leading on this “news” because Gordon Brown the man who vowed to mark the end of “celebrity culture” has waded in so as to share the nation’s grief. The BBC loyally report that:

    “Prime Minister Gordon Brown is leading tributes to reality TV star Jade Goody who has died of cancer at 27, praising her as a “courageous woman”.

    The prime minister said he was “deeply saddened” by the news.”

    What struck me was that it is more than apt that whilst Tony Blair lead the Country’s grief at the death of the Princess of all our hearts, Gordon Brown tries to lead the Nation’s “grief” at the death of a minor celebrity of limited intelligence.

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  21. Martin says:

    Gigits: So long as there is no f**king charity record with fatty Elton John blubbering “Dole check in the wind” I don’t care.

    I just wonder what bad news Liebour will be slipping out whilst the media are obsessed with this woman’s funeral?

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  22. Gigits says:

    Martin:
    Gigits: So long as there is no f**king charity record with fatty Elton John blubbering “Dole check in the wind” I don’t care.

    Sir, I salute you!

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  23. Zevilyn says:

    Geithner, like Paulson, is loyal to no one except Goldman Sachs.

    The position of Treasury Secretary should be barred from any Wall Street banker due to conflicts of interest.

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  24. PeterN says:

    Yesterday foolishly left my car radio tuned to Five Live from previous days sports coverage. First sentence on news “Gordon Brown has expressed his deep regret for the death of ……anticipated – a leading politician? a world statesman?……. Jane Goody.
    Whatever one thinks of her, what is the motive of the BBC in elevating this to No 1 item and the way in which couched? If they thought this worthy of top story, why is it expressed in terms of it’s effect on MvSnotty and not the usual announcement of death followed by tributes from…etc We are truly in an age reminiscent of Ceacesceau and Honecker when news is deemed to be a reflection of it’s relevance to the ‘Father of the Nation’.

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  25. LP Gasse says:

    Theres something faustian about the Jade Goody life story….as if the chav desire to be a ‘celeb’ was granted – with the inevitable ultimate pay-off.

    From hideous gobshite you wouldnt want to meet – to main BBC news item – they have to do that – they’re trying to hook the younger generation to maintain the life of the corporation and this is their ‘readership’.
    Pity the rest of us have to put up with similar gobshites on the streets while BBC execs scurry off to their media enclaves and second homes.

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  26. JohnA says:

    Some good slides from the New York Heartland conference on “climate change”:

    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/03/023144.php

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  27. JohnA says:

    Obama is so utterly awful, so ignorant, so naive, so leftist, so narcissistic that some people are getting very depressed by the damage he could do to the US :

    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/03/023140.php

    http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/thoughts-about-depressed-americans/

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  28. Millie Tant says:

    David Preiser:

    I’m assuming, because US Beeboids are so damn lazy and partisan, that they actually don’t know the facts but instead believe and regurgitate the propaganda they read in The Huffington Post, The New Republic, and The Washington Post.

    The truth is that Geithner and all of Congress knew about the AIG bonuses.

    Here’s video of Geithner himself being told about them in front of everybody at a Congressional hearing on March 3rd.

    A Democrat, Rep. Joseph Crowley of New York (not my rep.) said this:

    For example, just last month, AIG paid 343 employees of AIG FP — their Financial Products division that created the financial hole that AIG is in, and in turn a multibillion-dollar bill for American taxpayers — $56 million in bonuses and are slated to pay an additional $162 million in bonuses to 393 participants in the coming weeks. And there’s more. Further bonus payments totaling approximately 230 million (dollars) are due to 407 participants at AIG’s Financial Products division in March 2010. This makes no sense to my constituency.

    Geithner knew, BBC. So did Congress, so did your beloved Obamessiah. They’re lying, He’s, lying, you’re lying. Why?
    ——————————–
    Heh heh…one of the things that makes me laugh out loud is the way that one individual, David Presier, is effortlessly more informative than The World’s Greatest Broadcaster.
    Mission to inform, eh, BBC? That arrogant, idiotic North America “editor”, must be The World’s Laziest Journalist.

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  29. Millie Tant says:

    Oops…typo above: I meant Preiser

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  30. JohnA says:

    Millie Tant

    Precisely. All the news is out there, all the facts – and these days the relevant video clips too. You can sit at home, surf a couple of regular round-up sites like HotAir or RealClearPolitics once a day, and be far better informed about US politics than the entire BBC US staff appear to be.

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  31. DB says:

    The Culture Show’s “web producer” blogs:
    When the details of this year’s Manchester International Festival were published lots of things caught my eye: Elbow with the Halle Orchestra, Laurie Anderson performing with Lou Reed, but one event in particular leapt out – It Felt Like a Kiss.
    A collaboration between installation theatre group Punchdrunk and the documentary maker Adam Curtis, the piece is about “America’s rise to power in the golden age of pop, and the unforeseen consequences it had on the world and in our minds”.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thecultureshow/2009/03/adam-curtis-meets-punchdrunk-i.html

    Just the sort of thing to get a BBC media luvvy moist. The festival’s website provides a bit more info: “…the audience is forced to face the dark forces that were veiled by the American dream • a dream that ultimately returns to haunt us all.” Typical Adam Curtis, then.

    “Commissioned by Manchester International Festival and the BBC.”

    Naturally.

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  32. George R says:

    BBC’s predictably vague, pro-Labour web headline:

    “Complaint made over MP’s expenses”

    Questions for BBC:

    Who is the MP?

    Which political party does he represent?

    Is he simply an MP, or is he a Minister?

    A headline rewrite, BBC:

    ‘Complaint over LABOUR MINISTER McNAUGHTY’

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7958390.stm

    In contrast,

    ‘Mail’ today –

    Melanie Phillips:

    [Extract]

    “Maybe the minister should seek treatment for a split personality. (Perhaps he could claim that on expenses, too.)

    “Mr McNulty certainly sees no contradiction in directing his sanctimony at everyone but himself. He was quick enough to condemn failed bankers for their enormous pay- offs; yet when asked to return the taxpayers’ money he has trousered through his second-home scam, he was strangely reluctant to agree.

    “What grotesque hypocrisy. But Mr McNaughty is merely the latest in a dismal procession of ministers who use ever more ingenious ruses to exploit the expenses rules.”

    Read on for more on the similar behaviour of Labour Ministers – Ms. J.Smith, Mr. E. Balls and wife Y. Cooper, Mr. J. Purnell..

    http://www.melaniephillips.com/articles-new/?p=654

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  33. Martin says:

    We all know this by now. The BBC plays down the Liebour links but plays up the Tory ones. The BBC is always happy to try to remind us of ‘Tory sleaze’ every time some Tory screws up, yet Liebour seem immune.

    Has the BBC EVER mentioned scumbag Mandelson’s dodgy dealings since he returned to Government?

    This is a man that told a blatant lie on his mortgage application form, something that us prolls would be banged up for.

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  34. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Millie Tant | 23.03.09 – 1:11 pm |

    Thanks for that. As JohnA says, I’m not making much effort. The facts are widely available, and the Beeboids are so sloppy and obvious.

    I don’t object so much to their laziness in taking their lead from US media on what’s a story and what isn’t. My main concern is the lying, whitewashing, censorship, and propaganda.

    If the British Public can’t trust the BBC to report honestly about a mass-media-driven, open society such as the US, how can you trust them to report on the affairs of any other country? If the BBC North America editor allows himself to report on issues in which he has a stated, personal stake, what other BBC international editors are doing the same? If Matt Frei takes his lead from his friends in a certain segment of the US media, how do you know other Beeboids in other countries aren’t doing the same?

    Whom at the BBC can any of you trust for any international reporting?

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  35. Martin says:

    I heard that vile twat Stephen pound spouting on about McNulty on 5 live. He did the same when 5 bellies got found out.

    This pathetic specimen of a human being must have more excrement on his tongue than any beeboid.

    Every time someone is needed to provide a pro Government sound bite up pops Pound.

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  36. Martin says:

    And what is all this shite about ‘sticking to the rules’?

    If I drive down a road at 30mph in a 30mph zone knowing that the road is slippery and I hit a child, I’m driving within the rules, but I know I’d be doing wrong.

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  37. George R says:

    POSTIE: SPEAK ENGLISH!

    OK, so the BBC reported this story:

    “Foreign ban postmaster leaves job”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/7956570.stm

    And why did he have to leave his job? -Because :

    “He claimed he was threatened and said Muslim leaders in the community started a petition against him, so he moved at his own request.” (BBC report, above).

    But ‘Jihadwatch’ as usual, puts it all in the correct Islamic context:

    ‘UK: Muslim threatens postmaster who refused to serve customers who couldn’t speak English, postmaster moved to undisclosed location’

    [Extract]:
    “Deva Kumarasiri” [postmaster] “said that he believes immigrants should take pride in their new culture. This has made local Muslims ‘very, very angry.’ Taking pride in their new culture would require them to accept that a jahili society — a society of unbelief — had any value, despite its not being ruled by Islamic law. No wonder Kumarasiri has them so enraged.”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025349.php

    There’s plenty of Englishophobia among Muslims in Nottingham area, and beyond, it is clear.
    These are the predictable results of Labour’s continuing mass immigration and ‘multiculturalism’ (BBC approved).

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  38. Cassandra says:

    News just in about an major volcanic eruption in Alaska, mount redoubt blew her top in several explosions last night with the ash cloud reported reaching upto 50.000ft, the amount of CO2 released has just made the ridiculous and costly EU insprired reductions in man made CO2 useless, all that money p****d up the wall for nothing, nature has spoken and it makes human endevours seem puny and irelevent.
    I wonder if the BBC will rush to explain that our costly and suicidal attempts to cut our CO2 emmisions has just been shown to be useless?
    If it turns out to be a major eruption the fallout could lower northern hemisphere temperatures and inhibit the usual summer melt, it could herald an accelerated global cooling.

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  39. George R says:

    Labour to continue with policy of ‘multiculturalism’ and ‘cultural relativism’:

    BBC report-

    “Rights Bill ‘sets common values'”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7959471.stm

    How it looks to someone outside Britain:

    “British are gutless supporters of multicultural tolerance”

    [Extract]:

    “England, from whom we derived our religious and political values, concepts of liberty, justice, and equality under the law, has lost its way. Today’s England is a multicultural mess, whose basic values are being challenged by its largest immigrant community, migrants from the Muslim world mainly Somalia, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The challenges are coming from polygamists who not only want the British justice system to permit them to practice, but also expect it to pay welfare to them, their many wives, and hordes of children. The British courts have become gutless supporters of multicultural tolerance — which is finally stirring up public wrath.”

    http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/opinion/ci_11964666

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  40. Millie Tant says:

    Much of that looks to me like a right ragbag of odds and ends – provision of services plus bits and pieces of civic duties and responsibilities that don’t belong in a Bill of fundamental rights.

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  41. Dave S says:

    All Straw’s guff really amounts to is- obey the state. Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights and the Act of Settlement are all we need. And governors who govern as if they truly understand what the word Freedom means.
    Straw and all the statists, facists and liblefties can only comprehend a nation where the state- the very word is disgusting- will only let us live and thrive by their leave.
    We are free by virtue of being born and never by anyone’s leave.
    I am growing to despise them all.

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  42. David Preiser (USA) says:

    The Obamessiah Administration has gone from misstep to misstep in its various forays into foreign policy. The BBC has so far refused to report any of it.

    We were promised time and time again by various Beeboids that a President Obamessiah would be much more intellectual and connected to the real world, and would have highly competent people around him who would reach out to the rest of the world and restore my country’s standing with their brilliant new diplomacy.

    A few days after the election, the BBC touted Tony Blair’s hot air that The Obamessiah would play a ‘healing role’ in the world. Blair echoed the sentiment we heard from various Beeboids – especially Matt Frei and Justin Webb – for months, that The Obamessiah had the “intelligence and sensitivity” to fulfill many of their expectations.

    The BBC has yet to report a single error of current Sec. of State Hillary Clinton. They haven’t reported either the Russian button screw-up, nor her mispronunciation of dignitary names, nor her claim that the US invented democracy. The BBC has not reported that The Obamessiah gave Gordon Brown a bunch of DVDs that were coded for the US region and wouldn’t play on his machine. The BBC is so busy shilling for The Obamessiah, that they won’t tell you about the latest example of Foreign Policy Amateur Hour:

    Confidential: Barack Obama a écrit à Jacques Chirac

    Yes, The Obamessiah has written a letter to Jacque Chirac, in which he says the following:

    “I’m certain that we can, over the next four years, come to work together in a spirit of peace and friendship to build a safer world.”

    Dude. Sarkozy is President of France now.

    Yet, the BBC spared no effort to point out errors and simple gaffes from the Bush Administration when it came to foreign policy. For example, when then-VP Cheney accidentally called Hugo Chavez leader of Peru, the BBC reported it.

    But now? Sound of crickets chirping over at the BBC’s Obama Diary. What a joke.

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  43. Grimer says:

    Boys accused of school bomb plot

    Two teenagers have appeared in court accused of planning explosions at a school and shopping centre.

    The boys, aged 16 and 17, from Denton, Greater Manchester, planned to strike on 20 April, Tameside Magistrates’ Court was told.

    They are charged with conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life and injure property between 1 November 2007 and 15 March 2009.

    Both boys, who cannot be named, were remanded in custody until 30 March.

    They spoke only to confirm their name, date of birth and address during the brief hearing and were not asked to enter a plea.

    It is alleged they had a plan of a school, which has hundreds of pupils, and the plan of a shopping centre and had the knowledge and method to carry out the attacks on 20 April.

    Vivien Vince, chairwoman of the bench, remanded both youths into custody to appear at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, on 30 March.

    Does anybody know anything about this? Is this a RoP plot?

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  44. GCooper says:

    The Obamessiah’s Chirac gaffe – if true – is almost beyond belief. That the BBC has ignored it is absolute proof that the Corporation has finally abandoned any claim to impartiality.

    If GWB had done anything even remotely similar we’d have had a BBC TV ‘comedy’ series about it commissioned within an hour.

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  45. George R says:

    The BBC: pro-the Islamic Republic of Iran since 1979-

    The BBC is, McNaughty-like, quite proud of its record of political bias against the Shah, and for the Islamic ‘revolution’ of Iran in 1979.

    The BBC ‘Today’ programme referred to the situation this morning (08:42):
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7958000/7958482.stm

    And the BBC, like much of the political ‘liberal/left’, both in 1979 and today remains ignorant of the tenets of Islam, and the aims of Islamic supremacism against infidels.

    What much of the political left (inc. much of the BBC) don’t get is here in Ibn Warraq’s critique of Michel Foucault, on Iran and Islam:

    http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/31136/sec_id/31136

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  46. Anonymous says:

    BBC News: Prick Robinson spinning for Labour.

    Get that Roy sleaze in there, point out that Tories have second jobs and that all MPs use expenses to boost thier low salaries.

    So Prick Robinson, why are so many WELL PAID Labour Ministers on the fiddle.

    Oh and BBC Newsnight, guess WHAT story isn’t mentioned?

    Guess which story is?

    answers below.

    No mention of Liebour sleaze and lots of mention about Tory tax plans.

    Now WHICH STORY is really more important? Another f**king Labour Minister on the fiddle or some proposed Tory tax cut?

    And the BBC isn’t biased?

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  47. Martin says:

    That was me above. Poxy Firefox won’t keep my settings.

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  48. Millie Tant says:

    As far as I read it, there is no suggestion in the Le Figaro article that the messiah isn’t aware that Chirac is not the President.

    Le Fig’s take on it is that the use of the word “peace” in the letter is an implicit tribute to the former President Chirac’s action in opposing the Iraq war, which it points out that the future US Pres…sorry, Messiah, also opposed as a Senator.

    So is this the Messiah cosying up to the French, albeit by a distinctly odd route and another example of his peculiar notion of how to conduct international diplomacy? At times, I think the man is a loon. What will he come up with next?

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  49. Dave S says:

    Far from being outraged at the lying cheating behaviour and the stealing of our money and our wealth by these politicians, quangocrats and their media groupies we should welcome, even quietly applaud them.
    Most of us are not yet angry enough. Most just shrug their shoulders

    “What can you expect. They are only politicians and their hangers on. This is normal for them”
    Things have to get a lot worse.
    Till the too tolerant majority have just simply had enough.
    Stealing our lives, our country and our children’s future this is the real crime of the elites.
    Claiming expenses is small change.
    I look forward to the day when no current politician dare show his or her face in the street.
    Wonder how the BBC will report that.

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