84 Responses to Open Thread

  1. Anonymous says:

    So Paxman describes the English as “barbarians” at the Guardianista Summer Love-In at the Hay Festival.

    Well, he’s English too.

    And that must account for his arrogant, vain glorious self-important Beeboid personality and his barbaric rudeness to everyone who is not a Marxist, Socialist, Trade Unionist or Lib Dem during his contemptuous interrogations of Conservatives, Israelis and US Republicans on the BBC’s Labour Party Propaganda Showcase aka “Newsnight”.

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  2. Anonymous says:

    I think more love and understanding should be shown towards the seemingly ever increasing amount of Bias-BBC trolls.

    Whenever one has a problem, a little research on Wiki is usually a helpful place to start, but not always.

    “The common troll is nocturnal. Their natural tendency to spend daylight hours dormant led to the stories of them turning to stone when hit by the sun. Though apparently unintelligent, this is due to heat negatively affecting the conductivity of their silicon brains, which operate in a similar fashion to computer circuits (in essence a trollish form of hyperthermia).”

    So its not their fault, they are suffering from hyperthermia. Therefore rather then removing their comments perhaps we should send them a warm blanket or two. Or better still get the government to pay for the heating of their homes.

    Trolls are also said by the less charitable to be rather aesthetically challenged, some even say damned right ugly.

    We should always keep in mind the needs of others, especially of those less fortunate them ourselves. After all being as ugly as sin itself, as thick as two extremely wide and short planks of wood, very likely working for the BBC in some way ( John Reith (remember him?) for example ), while being dangerously chilly, is enough to make even the best of us a little ‘grumpy’ some times.

    Atlas shrugged

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  3. Anonymous says:

    Take that all back

    I have been assured that what Trolls actually need is to be kept in the cold and dark. So I must have completely misunderstood the problem.

    The solution is therefore simple, cheap and humane.

    We should collect them all up and send them to Iceland or Denmark. Where they can all live happily ever after, and stop bugging the rest of us.

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  4. Martin says:

    Anyone else see Ed Milliband on Adam Boulton (Sky News) this morning? Milliband kept hinting to Boulton that ‘lawyers might get involved if he kept going on about Alistair Darling’s dodgy house dealing’

    Can anyone ever remember a Liebour Minister threatening Andy Marr or Toenails in the same way?

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  5. JohnA says:

    Martin

    The BBC creeps would never get near such hard questioning.

    ……………

    Brown has said that any new code of conduct on expenses for MPs has to be extended to other public bodies. And he specifically mentioned the BBC, as well as the NHS !

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  6. Craig says:

    For out-and-out bias it would be hard to beat Jon Sopel on the 'Politics Show' today.

    He snapped away at David Cameron like a terrier with a rat. (Compare and contrast this with Marr's treatment of Brown this morning).

    Sopel asked him about his own expenses, and then went on to ask about several other individual Conservative MPs.

    This would have been fine, if it were not for what happened next.

    On came His Lordship, Peter Mandelson. The two chatted like old friends. Sopel was doe-eyed with respect – a lap-dog springs to mind – & there were even jokes between the two of them. Hard questions were thin on the ground.

    Tough on the Tory, soft on New Labour? That's Sopel.

    The stats only tell part of the story but they are still revealing:

    Sopel-Cameron interview:
    10 minutes
    9 significant interruptions
    (Interruption Coefficient: 0.9)

    Sopel-Mandelson interview:
    9 minutes
    4 significant interruptions
    (Interruption Coefficient: 0.4)

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  7. Craig says:

    John A,

    Yes, my ears pricked up at that.

    That’s the best thing Brown has said in years!

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  8. Craig says:

    Martin,

    Yes, it was a brilliant interview.
    (Great fun in fact!)

    Boulton refused to bow to Weird Ed's repeated legal threats and asked questions, I suspect, nearly every viewer wanted put.

    Boulton, married to a key Blair aide, asked questions (including ones about Blair himself) that might go against his own political (and personal) interests. THAT is what unbiased interviewing is about.

    How different to Marr, Sopel, Robinson & co.!

    Well done to Adam Boulton & down with the biased BBC!

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  9. Craig says:

    Anonymous (1.13 pm),

    I like our Eurosceptic friends, the Danes. Please don't wish our trolls on them.
    How about Lapland instead, which has day for half of the year, and night for half of the year?
    That way we combine both you and Atlas Shrugged's good ideas & rid ourselves of a common problem.

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  10. Craig says:

    PS Sue,

    Thanks for opening this ‘open thread’. Everyone else is doubtless enjoying the sunshine.
    Hence my anorak-wearing (sun-fearing) self having posted all of the last 5 comments!
    Sorry.

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  11. Martin says:

    Craig. Yes the BBC seem to be acting like McTwats attack dogs. For example in addition to what you mention on the 16:00 BBC News 24 news the camp beeboid interviewed Nick Clegg about his comments (funny the BBC have dropped Vince Cable yet it was HE that first called for Darling to go, I wonder why?) yet spent most of the interview attacking Clegg about his expenses.

    Clearly the BBC are getting very worried that McShit’s excuses are just not working.

    Liebour is a corrupt bunch of twats. The comment from McTwat this morning about exposing the expenses of the BBC is very welcome but little more than a warning to the BBC to tow the Labour line and to back HIM.

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  12. Martin says:

    Craig. Yes Ed Milliband was really weird this morning. He acted like a mong. Typical Liebour scum.

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  13. Craig says:

    Martin,

    Given Sopel’s behaviour on the ‘Politics Show’, the Beeb have already got Brown’s message. They are very obedient dogs.

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  14. Millie Tant says:

    Well, I noticed when he mentioned other public bodies, including the BBC.

    Does that mean that someone is going to tell us why Trevor Phillips has a chauffered limousine when other public servants, such as the Sir Humphreys, do not? He is the one supposed to be promoting equality, mind. Promoting himself, more like.

    Besides the limousine, what are his other expenses on the public purse? I think we should be told.

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  15. Millie Tant says:

    Ha ha…Sopel was really getting his keks in a twist as his skippy trippy voice got higher and higher. He nods his head a lot when he talks in that funny light voice and comes over like a comedy puppet. We know of course that he is programmed to say what the puppet master decrees.

    What strikes me is how cool, calm, composed and unruffled David Cameron always is when faced with these hostile barrages. He really does have a very good temperament and a very rational approach to provocation, not to mention the patience of a saint. I think I would be tempted to pick up the nearest glass of water and drench the puppet.

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  16. Anonymous says:

    ‘Craig. Yes Ed Milliband was really weird this morning.’

    Ed Milipede is really weird EVERY morning. Along with his brother, Spliff, The Ginger Vertically Challenged CGT Avoider, the Edinburgh Grey Man CGT avoider, Harriett Harperson, Jack ‘the man in grey’ Straw and all the others that make up a ZaNu Liebour cabinet.

    Crickey, a whole comment and not a single word about McNutter.

    PS – Any comments on that joke of an inetrview this morning?

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  17. Craig says:

    Martin,

    BBC News 24 has just reshown part of Tim Willcox’s interview with Nick Clegg. What a rant by the Beeboid! You would have though he was Darling’s sister, or something, by the sheer violence of his attack.

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  18. Martin says:

    Craig: I thought the BBC was supposed to be impartial? So why is the BBC taking Darlings press release as fact? How does the BBC know? Only the Telegraph has the facts.

    Oh and SIR Michael Shite has just been on Sky News talking about ‘stolen disks’ and how the Tories are getting an easy ride. Oh really, seems to me that the Labour scum are getting the easy ride. Has any other MP had the flack of Julie Kirkbride?

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  19. Craig says:

    Anonymous 6.11

    I was just about to write one!

    Brown was hilariously bad.

    His "not me guv" attitude, as he tried to spread to blame to everyone ("parliament") but himself, was (as you say) a joke.

    His boring stream of cliches and soundbites won't have impressed anyone.

    That the expenses fiddling "offends his presbyterian conscience" is an even bigger joke.

    Did he note vote against the bill to exempt MPs from the Freedom of Information Act? How did his "presbyterian conscience" permit him to employ vicious attack dogs like McBride, Whelan, Draper, Balls (etc)?

    His blaaaaaing on about the 'Kelly Report' only brought back memories of his surreal YouTube performance.

    His habitual recourse to playing party politics surfaced throughout.
    That his new "National Democratic Council" would contain only ministers at first, then outsiders, but NOT opposition parties, was betrayed as such by his saying straight afterwards that "we will be the reforming party". The man is no statesman. He's an ambitious party politician & that's all.

    When he thought Marr had asked him if he was going to appoint himself to the House of Lords, what sane viewer didn't laugh at the idiot?

    He evaded questions and "redacted" history (what's with politicians and the word "redacted"?), as he always does.

    And yet, and yet…

    You listen to Ross Hawkins (the young one) on BBC News 24, & you get no sense of this. It's all "Brown the reformer" with the BBC.

    The BBC is thee biggest joke of all!

    Here endeth the rant!!

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  20. Jack Bauer says:

    Beeboid watchers keep a look out for how they report the news that notorious Infancidal abortionist “Dr” Tiller (the baby killer) was shot dead this morning in Kansas City, Ka.

    For those unfamiliar with Tiller the Baby Killer, this is how he performed “late” term abortions during the birth process…

    Whilst the baby is exiting the womb head first from the mother’s body in the act of birth, he would plunge a steel needle into the baby’s head.

    Nice huh?

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  21. Craig says:

    Martin,

    Exactly.
    And what has happened to the Labour dick who claimed a £5 Battle of Britain church donation? That, to me, beats the duck house and the moat as a symbol for thew whole Expenses scandal. It shows just how shabby our MPs can be. And yet the BBC ignores it.
    Frank Cook MP must be feeling very, very grateful to the BBC for turning a biased blind eye to him.

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  22. Craig says:

    Correction to my post at 6.11: Brown didn’t vote against the FOI exemption (unlike so many of his closest allied). He abstained. How typical of the man!

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  23. Craig says:

    Sorry, I’m writing too quickly. Spelling mistakes are cropping up all over the place!

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  24. Millie Tant says:

    Any Mouse at 6.11pm mentioned the man in grey.

    I have been noting his near total absence from the papers or the screen for a few weeks (the exception was one day last week when he briefly popped up like a jack-in-the-box to claim credit for something or other.

    Other than that, he has become very much the invisible man following the initial revelation about his expenses claim for an amount of council tax that far exceeded his actual council tax.

    However, I am watching like a hawk and will not forget about the Invisible Man, seeing as he is our Secretary for JUSTICE. (Hazel Blears is not in charge of our criminal justice system and what she did wasn’t, legally speaking, criminal or fraudulent, though it was morally reprehensible, so why does Newsnight and Puppet Sopel and all the automatons on all the BBC news-related programmes keep pouncing on her instead of him?)

    I am very interested to hear it being said by party leaders that the police should now investigate the fraudulent and dodgy claims. So they should. I await hearing more about this and about our dodgy Invisible Man from the “impartial” (Hah!) BBC when they bring up who did what dodgy thing among the Labour government and Party.

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  25. JohnA says:

    Today's Telegraph reports that Darling claimed expenses for his flat which was let out to tenants – while he also claimed for expenses for his luxurious grace-and-favour residence.

    Nice work, if you can get it.

    Huge story, I should have thought. Brown will have known about this for weeks. He should have sacked Darling instantly, not preached to us as the man-of-the-manse.

    Let's se how the BBC play it. I expect it will all be Cameron's fault, and the only good guys are the further-left-than-NuLabour LibDems.

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  26. JohnA says:

    Today, 1 June, is a great day. General Motors declares bankruptcy and Obama takes over this derelict company, and full responsibility for all the further tens of billions of taxpayers' money to breathe life into a corpse.

    4 June will show us Obama kowtowing more than ever before to the Arab world. The Arab world that was supportive of Hitler. Far worse than his creepy bow to the King of Saudi.

    June 6 will then show us the Queen – who lived through a few German bombings and who served in the ATS – excluded from the D-Day memorial service. And the surviving British vets who served there will also be excluded from the battle zones, to safeguard Obama's security.

    Anyone got any good news for the week ?

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  27. Llew says:

    JohnA 2:08 AM, June 01, 2009 said…

    “Let’s se how the BBC play it. I expect it will all be Cameron’s fault, and the only good guys are the further-left-than-NuLabour LibDems.”

    They read out the headline, add the line “a spokesman flatly denies that he breached parliamentary rules” and err, that’s it. Not as newsworthy as a Tory backbencher. Next story please.

    Surely no-one expected more from the beeb?! They’re bored with the subject now. Unless it’s a Tory of course.

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  28. deegee says:

    I wonder what or even if the BBC will say about the passing of Israel’s 4th president, yesterday? Apart from his position he was a seminal figure in Israel’s science especially biochemistry and in the IDF Science Corps.

    Just about everyone else has covered Ephraim Katzir’s funeral but not a peep from the BBC. Competent media organizations have obituaries prepared in advanced for significant public figures but not apparently the BBC.

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  29. Roger C says:

    The BBC run a web item "Smaller parties sense big oppertunity" The BBC swoon over the succes of The Greens,big up UKIP, mention Libertas,The Jury Team,& the christion Party but stay strangely silent on the obvious rise of the BNP. Here is bias for all to see.

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  30. George R says:

    This is how the BBC defends its Labour government chums’ ban on free speech:

    BBC report (‘Americas’ pages):

    “Smith to defend ‘shock jock’ ban”

    ‘Mail’:

    [Extract, of comments by Michael Savage]-

    “‘Why me? I’m not a terrorist. I’m one of America’s most popular radio hosts and a happily married father of two.

    “‘Maybe Jacqui Smith just plucked my name out of the hat because I’m controversial and white – to counter-balance all the Arabs named on her list.

    “‘It is totally preposterous but it’s deadly serious because she has made me a target.

    “‘My lawyers have told me I have a very strong case for defamation.’”

    ‘The Spoof’,
    ‘thespoof.com'(6 May 6), has:

    “Michael Savage proposes Jacqui Smith U.S. ban”:

    ” Michael Savage, the Talk Radio Network presenter whose name has appeared on a list of people to be banned from entering the UK, has proposed that the UK Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, be similarly banned from entering the US.

    “Savage, real name Michael Weiner, claims that Ms Smith has put his life at risk by adding his name to a list of Britain’s Least Wanted, a roster of people who have fostered extremism or hatred.

    “The 22-strong list includes such nasty people as Hamas MP Yunis Al-Astal and ‘hate’ preachers Wadgy Abd El Hamied Mohamed Ghoneim, Abdullah Qadri Al Ahdal, Safwat Hijazi and Amir Siddique.

    “Also on it are the murderer and Hezbollah terrorist Samir Al Quntar, and skinheads Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky, who are currently serving ten years in a Russian jail for heading a gang that committed 20 racially-motivated murders.

    “Savage claims that Smith is a ‘lunatic’, and should be barred at all US ports of entry because she is, in his words, ‘as bent as a nine-bob note’, referring to the English idiom meaning ‘extremely corrupt’.

    “Smith is currently at the centre of the ‘MP’s expenses row’ which has alienated politicians in the UK away from the electorate, who now have no confidence in their representatives to behave properly and conduct their financial matters fairly.

    “Smith, it was, who claimed on her expenses for an 88p (1.32$) bath plug, and she was further humiliated when it emerged that her husband had included charges for several homeview porn videos on her claim.

    “Also on her claim were several other seemingly non-essential-to-government items, such as:

    Barbecue (£39.99)
    Outdoor heater (£104)
    Plants for a terrace
    Plant pots (£334)
    Television (Samsung 32″ flatscreen) (£370)
    Washing machine (£320)
    Toothbrush holder (£2.50)
    Towel (price not known)
    Doormat (£14)
    White rope (£30)

    “Commentators in the UK say the Home Secretary has apparently made an attempt to deflect criticism from herself and her party. but that quite the opposite has resulted.

    “Conservative Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling, said:

    ‘What we need from the Government is not the gimmick of a name and shame list, but a consistent strategy on who can and can’t come into the country.’

    “Savage, presenter of The Savage Nation, informed his listeners that he now intended to sue the British government for defamation, and that Smith, herself, should be banned from entering the US under the premise that corruption is not welcome in the United States.”

    “The story above is a satire or parody. It is entirely fictitious.”

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  31. Martin says:

    I see the BBC are spinning for Alistair Darling “He’s done nothing wrong” stated some camp male beeboid. Oh really, so last night and this morning the BBC were telling us that Darling owed no money, now HE has admitted he did claim for money he shouldn’t have.

    The BBC – bias is what we do.

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  32. Umbongo says:

    The BBC balances news of crookery by Darling with ho-hum second home troughing by Howard: both amoral but one happens to be illegal.

    BTW I’m used to BBC bias but total incompetence is just as bad. The interview by Davis (at a cost to us probably in excess of £90,000 per year) of Brown was useless. We had a tour d’horizon of Brown’s spurious debating points eg he was first to act on the troughing scandal (which, apparently, has only benefited the Telegraph); according to Brown the government looked on helpless as Parliament looted the taxpayer; he says the crooks in office should change the constitution and then have an election; he was “shocked, shocked” at the revelation that political thug McBride acted like a . . er . . thug etc.

    Davis refused to pin him to the wall (despite Brown struggling to justify himself) and let Brown repeat his rehearsed mantras ad nauseam (does Brown do nothing spontaneously except pick his nose – and I bet he rehearsed that). Obvious follow-up questions were not asked as Davis obligingly and repeatedly changed the subject as the holes Brown was digging looked like getting deeper. Then fingernail comes on and says the Conservatives are terrified of Johnson becoming Labour leader (but admits there’s no chance of Johnson inheriting this side of a general election). Evidence? The Conservatives have discovered that the NHS is as efficient at healthcare as the Red Army and have attacked the person responsible. The Conservatives had better lay off Jacqui Smith – and every other cabinet minister – otherwise fingernail will say that she’s in line to inherit.

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  33. Martin says:

    Yet more crap on the BBC. Some mincing queen called Jonathan Coe just came on to Radio 5 and started slagging Thatcher off immediately. He blamed Her for the current economic mess. Simon Mayo of course let his spout this crap without comment.

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  34. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Whenever the BBC hides details about trials of members of a certain religion, defenders of the indefensible always claim that there are rules and laws prohibiting them from reporting details of an ongoing trial.

    Yet, here’s a report about details from a trial going on right now about a white student who threw a shoe at the Chinese Premier. The details include the accused’s motivation and more, the exact things defenders of the indefensible say the BBC isn’t allowed to report. I guess those rules only apply on certain occasions.

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  35. Peter says:

    It’s tragic and it’s news for sure.

    I am just unsure if this is how all will be reporting it:

    Britons could be on lost jet – PMhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8077437.stm

    Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he fears….As with him finding time in his busy schedule to call fellow [insert too many similarities to count, plus a few differences… popular, voted for..] Scot Ms. Boyle, it seems Dear Leader is now personally in charge of finding out the news, commenting upon it, and then PR’ing that he has commented.

    The BBC just seems to offer the bandwidth.

    Is everything that happens now going to be shared with a ‘Gordon hopes/thinks/says..’ Headline and intro?

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  36. David Vance says:

    Yes – Gordon “hopes” he will be in a job next week! LOL – did anyone else spot his phone calls to Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan re Subo? What a busy PM he is and how nice of the BBC to report it in such a breathless fashion.

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  37. Martin says:

    More classic BBC crap. On Radio 5 Drive a camp sounding male Beeboid was going on about crook Alistair Darling.

    “He’s the sort of man you want as Chancellor” spouted said camp Beeboid.

    “This is just a minor problem” (I was half expecting a Duck house to be mentioned)

    So of course Alistair Darling WON’T be sacked at the end of the week then? To be replaced by an even bigger twat in Ed Balls.

    Has anyone else noticed how the BBC refuses to attack St Vince Cable over calling for Darling to be sacked? Yet the BBC were attacking George Osborne for NOT calling for Darling to go.

    I guess the BBC just can’t bring themselves to attack St Vince.

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  38. pounce_uk says:

    The bBC its love fest for Hezb-allah and half the story.

    Lebanon’s intelligence war with IsraelIsrael’s ability to wage another war against the militant Shia movement Hezbollah may have been compromised by an unprecedented wave of arrests of people in Lebanon alleged to have been spying for the Israelis.Experts say the arrests appear to add up to a major strategic blow to Israel.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8074848.stm

    The bBC goes all out in denouncing Israel of Machiavellian intent towards Lebanon while pouring cold water on any link between this rash of arrests and the upcoming elections. Which is strange as that most leftwing of Middle Eastern journalists Robert Fisk has this to say on the very subject;

    The mysterious case of the Israeli spy ring, Hizbollah and the Lebanese ballotSpying is as familiar in Beirut as it was in post-war Vienna – there’s even a giant “Third Man”-type ferris wheel here – but the events of the last few days are growing more mysterious by the hour. Over the past two weeks, a special unit of Lebanon’s Internal Security Force (ISF) has been arresting a clutch of Lebanese allegedly working as spies for Israel.
    ………………………
    Indeed for Sunni Muslims and a good many Christians, Mr Nasrallah – who appears on a giant Big Brother screen at Hizbollah rallies, speaking from his various hiding places – is talking as if he is the president of Lebanon rather than the actual office holder, the ex-general Michel Suleiman. Add to this the growing belief that the Lebanese opposition, whose backbone is Hizbollah, might win next week’s national elections, and the arrest of an Israeli spy network takes on a much darker complexion.
    ………………….
    So far so good. But it is becoming increasingly obvious that some of the “intelligence” behind these detentions – and more than 50 people in all have so far been questioned – came from the Shiite Hizbollah, who are, of course, Syria’s and Iran’s best friends in Lebanon. This comes just a couple of weeks after four senior pro-Syrian Lebanese security officers were released from jail after being held on suspicion of helping to plan the assassination of ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri and 21 others in 2005. So are the intelligence authorities in the country back to their old tricks of hooking up with Hizbollah?
    This is not an idle question, because Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbollah’s chairman, is now demanding that Lebanese “collaborators” of Israel be executed. Mr Nasrallah, it should be remembered, is the man who kicked off a war with Israel in 2006, in which more than a thousand Lebanese were killed, and then called it a “divine victory”.
    http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-the-mysterious-case-of-the-israeli-spy-ring-hizbollah-and-the-lebanese-ballot-1693844.html

    Anybody here wish to inform us all which bBC middleastern editor lives also in Beruit and who could have ensured that the full facts were presented to the British public over those so called spy arrests. Instead of parroting what his Hezb-allah minders dictates to him at morning prayers.

    The bBC its love fest for Hezb-allah and half the story.

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  39. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Why hasn’t a single Beeboid challenged one of Darling’s defenders by pointing out the shamelessness of using taxpayers’ money to avoid paying taxes? They’re happy to bleat about the mooooooat, gardening expenses, and paying rent to a family member rather than to an independent landlord, so where’s the BBC moral standard? It seems like there isn’t one.

    Not only does Darling get to say which taxes the public has to pay, but he uses the money he collects from them to avoid paying more himself. I can’t understand how that alone isn’t reason enough for him to be fired, and forced to stand down as an MP.

    Seems pretty simple, yet no BBC employee will spell it out on air. They have no problem spelling out how important “perceptions” are when talking about Tory backbenchers. Yet, Darling has only “faced questions” about changing his second home and “why he claimed for tax advice.”

    “Why” he claimed? No, BBC, it’s because he claimed for tax advice.

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  40. deegee says:

    DAY IN PICTURES http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/8077018.stm

    The BBC has often been criticised in this blog for using ‘they say’ meaning an unverified claim and therefore dubious claim for reports from people they dislike, such as, Israel, the British Army, etc. and reporting the claims with no skepticism or disclaimer from people they like, e.g. Hamas.

    However, sometimes, a report cries out for a ‘he says’.
    “Ken Unsworth, one of Australia’s pre-eminent contemporary artists, displays his sculpture Razed by Glass in Sydney. He built the installation to honour his late wife.

    The photograph shows Unsworth with an upside down, twice life size human skeleton. Irony?

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  41. deegee says:

    As if to illustrate my last point. They say or don’t say 6:17 PM, June 01, 2009

    Jewish settler attack injures Palestinians http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8076597.stm

    No evidence provided at all. Not an ‘allegedly’ or a ‘Palestinians claim’ or even some skepticism that masked men can be so definitely identified. Not even the ubiquitous BBC ‘scare quotes’.

    The report does insert ‘they say’ in a couple of inappropriate spots, however. Two Palestinians were treated in hospital for serious injuries, medics say Given that the report is illustrated by a picture taken in a hospital bed I am willing to accept that although the Palestinians do have previous form for telling lies, even about that.

    One example does stand out for hypocrisy. The violence happened on a road between Nablus and a nearby settlement called Kedumim, founded by Orthodox Jews in 1975 who believe the West Bank was promised to them by God.Are we supposed to conclude that the Arabs don’t believe the land was given to them by Allah?

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  42. deegee says:

    I forecast that the BBC will ignore the death of Ephraim Katzir 6:44 AM, June 01, 2009

    Guess I was right.

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  43. Craig says:

    I just switched on BBC News 24 at about 5.30 & only caught the end of an interview between Nick Robinson and Alistair Darling. Did another else catch the whole thing?

    All I heard was Toenails's last question, which began by saying he could see how "upset" the poor poppet of a chancellor was looking & went on to call the scandal over Darling's expenses a "fuss".

    A "fuss"!?!?!

    What planet is Nick Robinson on?

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  44. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Understatement of the week from BBC Europe editor – soon to be North America editor – Mark Mardell, regarding Geert Wilders:

    He is the Netherlands’ Mr Provocative, determined to poke sensitive Muslim opinion in the eye.

    Mardell makes the case that Wilders is the inheritor of the Nazis, and even says a couple of things that would cause some cognitive dissonance in the minds of certain past defenders of the indefensible:

    I would have thought that both an element of socialism and populism are almost key ingredients in a hard-right recipe. There’s also a tendency to see previous movements as cruder than they really were. There may be a good few supporters of far-right views who are obsessed with measuring skulls, but even the Nazis or the Klan identified their enemies by behaviour, beliefs and culture and saw themselves as defending Western Civilisation as well as blood lines.

    How many times have we had defenders of the indefensible freak out when people here inform them that the Nazis were Socialists? In any case, there’s no question about the impression that Mardell wants to create here. Mardell – good Beeboid that he is – keeps the Narrative going.

    There is another very important point. The men surrounding Wilders wear white jackets of flimsy synthetic material with party slogans, but that’s not a uniform. There are no shaven heads. Of course not even the hardest of hard right parties marches in jackboots these days.

    Who said anything about the BNP? Not Mardell, no, sir. Never suggested it or hinted at it in a million years. Yeah.

    What’s ridiculous is that Mardell even points out that Wilders is against violence, and illegal or extra-legal action. So how can he honestly compare Wilders with Nazis and the Klan? Mardell and the BBC don’t want an accurate or honest analysis. They’re interested only in their agenda.

    I can’t wait for more of this kind of stellar reporting on the US scene.

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  45. Red Lepond says:

    It is a classic now, but BBC documents obtained by the Independent suggest that the corporation hated the first series of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

    Management memos call its jokes “appalling, disgusting and cruel”.

    The controller of BBC1 said the show had “gone over the edge of what’s acceptable” but improving ratings and public response saved it. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8076447.stm

    Twas a time when the BBC execs had taste…

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  46. Craig says:

    ITN’s News at 6.30 featured Brown repeating himself like a cracked record over Darling, and political editor Tom Bradby noted the Prime Mentalist’s “careful use of the past tense” in describing his chancellor.

    ‘Times online’ notes that Gordon Brown “stonewalled” over Darling’s future and “refused to say” he would keep his job.

    The ‘Daily Mail’s’ headline reads, “Pressure grows on Darling as Brown refuses three times to say he’ll still be Chancellor next week”.

    The ‘Guardian’ tells us, “Brown also repeatedly dodged questions about whether Darling would remain in his post in the forthcoming cabinet reshuffle”.

    In contrast , what does the BBC Six O’Clock News have to say? George Alagiah’s introduction tells us, “Mr Darling HAS got the Prime Minister’s backing” (my use of upper case reflects Alagiah’s own emphasis) and sultry Jo Coburn’s report claims that “for now the PM is standing by his chancellor”.

    Four against one.

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  47. Martin says:

    Craig. Yes the BBC have been very sympathetic towards Darling all day. For starters the BBC simply parroted the statement that Draling had NEVER claimed for two houses at once, when he later had to admit he had.

    As Jon Snow pointed out to Darling on C4 News anyone else over claiming on benefits wouldn’t be allowed to simply pay it back.

    Yet again the BBC are out of step with most of the printed press and the political reporting of ITV, C4 and Sky News.

    And how often is McTwat going to be allowed to get away with the old “I’m getting on with the job” shit?

    Nice to see Paddy Panstdown sticking the knife into McTwat as well claiming that it was Brown who during the Blair years opposed all reform of the Commons.

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  48. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Oh, dear. Justin Rowlatt, the BBC’s Farcical Man, is upset that The Obamessiah is no longer trying to destroy the coal industry like He promised before His Ascension.

    It is a radical vision. The system will be “as aggressive or more aggressive than anyone else’s out there”, he says. All the permits will be auctioned which, according to Obama, means “every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases that are emitted would be charged to the polluter”.

    “So”, he proudly tells the interviewer, “if someone wants to build a coal fired plant they can, it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for the greenhouse gas that’s being emitted”.

    I have written about how carbon pricing systems like cap-and-trade could transform whole economies. This is clearly a man who agrees.

    Yes, let’s continue to use a BBC special project to advocate for neo-Marxism. FFS.

    But it seems that The Obamessiah isn’t going to be as “radical” as the Beeboids dreamed He’d be. And now Farcical Rowlatt is whining.

    Now, I understand that democratic politics is about compromise. I understand that the architects of this bill needed to make concessions to the power companies and to congressmen and women from coal states. But did the compromise really need to be on this colossal scale?

    So, this is what I want to know: why didn’t President Obama use some of his extraordinary political capital to force through truly transformative cap-and-trade legislation?

    Everybody loves Him, so why can’t He just snap His fingers, eh? Say, Justin, do you think He might have been, you know, pandering during the election? Or were you just convinced that He shared all your hopes and dreams? Are all Beeboids this naive about the President? Sadly, I think that’s a rhetorical question.

    Ultimately the question I really want answered is this: has Obama, as we say in Britain, lost his bottle?

    Awwww. I tell you this Obamessianic Age just isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

    There are some good comments from Jack Hughes, and a “tattoo0616” gives Farcical Justin a good smack as well.

    But I must say it’s refreshing to see somebody at the BBC actually being openly critical of the President, even if it’s just to advocate a neo-Marxist policy.

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  49. backwoodsman says:

    Sureal discussion on farming today, the early commedy spot, where discussion between randomly selected towny beeboid and talking head , on fishstocks, manages to avoid mentioning EU fisheries policy. The bbc, taking irrelevance to new levels.

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