54 Responses to OPEN THREAD.

  1. The Cattle Prod of Destiny says:

    Just watched 'The Politics Show' and heard the lady presenter refer to the 'female fraternity' during a facile discussion on female achievement.

    And they say standards aren't slipping!

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  2. Millie Tant says:

    Perhaps she doesn't know what "fraternity" means or she hasn't yet got to "sorority" in the dictionary. Still, you'd think she might have heard of "sisterhood".

    I am still waiting for the BBC to stop saying the opposite of what they mean. One of their favourite sayings is that people are in the firing line when they actually mean the line of fire. THey were at it again this week over The Apprentice TV programme, not to mention the elections and the political shenanigans in Westminster.

    Another that is trotted out time after time is that something cannot be underestimated, when they actually mean that it cannot be overestimated.

    So they blithely assert, for example, that the influence of Capability Brown on landscape design cannot be underestimated.
    Eh, BBC? So you have just told me and millions of others that his influence was so minimal that it could not be underestimated.
    Liar! Liar! His influence was huge! If you want to be flowery(heh) or emphatic or hyperbolic about it, you could say that it was so great that it cannot be overestimated.

    Words are your business, BBC. Ahem…

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  3. Grant says:

    Not directly related to BBC bias, but I recently heard Mandelson described as " Lord of the Flies ".
    Just thought I would like to share that one.

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  4. will2001 says:

    Imagine… The Artist Formerly Known as Cat Stevens

    Wednesday 10 June
    10:40pm – 11:35pm
    BBC4

    Alan Yentob presents a documentary telling the story of Yusuf Islam

    Wonder whether we will get coverage of Yusuf's eagerness to see Rushdie fried.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens'_comments_about_Salman_Rushdie

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  5. Grant says:

    Millie 3:06
    Despite all their english and arts degrees, the BBC's understanding of the english language can never be underestimated.

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  6. Anonymous says:

    Sky News Video interview with American radio host Michael 'Shock Jock' Savage, who has been banned from entering Britain by former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has now written to the Prime Minister asking for the decision to be overturned
    Sky News Video

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  7. Craig says:

    Martha Kearney (on the 'World at One') was bigging up the 'generosity' of the government today.

    Though a short segment, Martha managed to mention "the existing (NHS) budget, which has doubled in the last decade", as well as "all the money that's gone into the Health Service in the past few years – huge amounts of money", as well as "all the extra cash that was being poured into (the NHS)".

    On a day when Tory Lansley is being battered by Labour spokemen over spending 'cuts', this can only serve the government's interest.

    The fact that it's not generosity at all to have built up an obscene amount of public debt to spend on such goodies in pursuit of party advantage (if I may be cynical about our political class) – debts we taxpayers are going to have to be paying back for many, many years – was not considered by our biased interviewer.

    She then (twice) queried whether doctors' pay should be looked at (in these stringent economic times). Not nurses pay, of course. Only doctors' pay. Doctors are a "difficult lobby to tackle", Martha said. So are nurses.

    The BBC's public sector-loving mentality reveals itself everywhere.

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  8. Craig says:

    Grant,

    Intriguing. Is that a reference to Mandelson being like Beelzebub, or to his interest in the zips on mens' trousers?

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  9. Craig says:

    Millie,

    Not really a related point, but germane to the closeness of politicians to the BBC, is the spread of the perfectly respectable word "resile" (meaning 'recoil') – a word unrecognised by Microsoft Word.

    In the last six months the word has spread like pox in a Hogarth brothel & the BBC is picking up on it too. (Sopel used it recently.)

    MPs, especially Labour MPs, are refusing to "resile" all the time.
    (They aren't too keen to "resign" either).

    I want a moratorium on the word!!
    (And on the word "moratorium".)

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  10. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Has anyone seen or heard from Carol Thatcher on BBC airwaves lately? Supposedly she was only fired from The One Show but was still working at the BBC. Or did they make her the tea lady?

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  11. johnse18 says:

    David: Carol Thatcher was a guest on some chat program (Broadcasting House on Sun morning Radio 4 I think) recently, and I think she's a guest on "Loose Ends" (6:15 Radia 4) this coming Saturday.

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  12. Grant says:

    Craig 3:59
    Of course the current GPs' contract was this stupid government's idea in the first place.
    Another tricky one for the BBC, to try and blame the doctors and not Labour !

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  13. Grant says:

    Amazingly, the word verification for my last post was "excare".
    I didn't realise this website was monitored that closely.
    Is someone trying to tell me something ?

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  14. Craig says:

    David,

    Carol Thatcher re-appeared briefly on the BBC about a couple of months ago, reviewing the newpapers on the 'Andrew Marr Show'.
    Both Marr and pompous ex-Labour leader (and trougher extraordinaire) Lord Kinnock rounded on her (ungallantly) over Golligate.
    It was an obvious ambush and an unedifying spectacle.

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  15. Craig says:

    Grant,

    After I confused William Hague with George Osborne on an earlier post (silly me!), the word verification brought up "Millyme"!

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  16. The Cattle Prod of Destiny says:

    If anyone is in any doubt about the amount of money that has been pissed away by this government they should read 'Squandered' by David Craig.

    1.2 trillion and for what? Dirty hospitals, bog-standard comprehensives and filthy streets. Well at least our MPs are well looked after …

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  17. Grant says:

    Craig 5:42
    I told you, we are being watched !

    Cattle 5:52
    Agree with you about David Craig's book, a professional expose of Brown's spending binge and accounting trick's

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  18. Grant says:

    Tricks !

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  19. The Young Oligarch says:

    Craig –

    I quite like "resile" . It almost makes one think that the speaker has learned Latin , rather than "Peace Studies" or some other modish rubbish at school/university .

    The leftist verbal tic which really annoys me is the constant repetition of "y'know" , often several times in the same sentence . I notice , also , and with some alarm , that Mr. Cameron has also developed this trait .

    Perhaps it's the company they all keep .

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  20. John Bosworth says:

    Just spotted a trail for Jonathan Ross' sleezy talk show on BBC America. I thought the Beeb was playing him down not promoting his brand of shit to foreign audiences.

    And how about this? Gwyneth Paltrow, of all people, is featured in the trail…remember his offensive remarks to her on the show?

    (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1134462/Gwyneth-Paltrow-reveals-familys-anger-Jonathan-Rosss-smutty-chat-interview.html)

    Exporting Ross is nuts and two fingers to the people who objected to him.

    More importantly do we know if the money he earns from BBC America will be counted as his BBC salary? Or, as I suspect, is this the Beeb's way of increasing his real salary while pretending (for national consumption) to cap or reduce it? His US earnings can be invisible.

    As far as I can see here is the BBC again saying, "no matter what you fools think, we're gonna do what we want" – another example of the blatant arrogance of the self-reverential.

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  21. Millie Tant says:

    Grant 3:39 PM, June 10, 2009

    Despite all their english and arts degrees, the BBC's understanding of the english language can never be underestimated.

    Heehee…nice one!

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  22. The Young Oligarch says:

    Craig –

    Just had a thought . I've often seen "resile" used on American web-sites , even right-wing ones .

    The left are famous for using Americanisms in their speech , perhaps under the influence of their cultural Marxist gurus like Chomsky . Indeed , I've often thought that the more anti-American a speaker on the BBC is , the more Americanisms he uses .

    Could this , perhaps , be the link ?

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  23. Craig says:

    Young Oligarch,

    That sounds like a reasonable explanation to me.
    I liked your earlier idea that the use of "resile" shows the influence of a Classical education (not that I've had one!), but (sadly) I bet your later explanation is the right one!

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  24. TPO says:

    Talking of Carol Thatcher's remarks, I came across a hilarious photo of a deranged Ruritanian style leader from a banana republic in Africa bedecked in medals on Little Green Footballs.

    http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/33899_Wacky_Libyan_Dictator_Insults_Italy

    So I had to go and see what the BBC has to say about it on their website, and here it is:

    http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8092535.stm

    Of course when the article gets to where it starts flinging mud, little or none of it is aimed at Gaddafi.

    Can anyone take the BBC seriously any more?? But it's worth a look just to see what a tosser Gaddafi looks

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  25. Craig says:

    More statistics!!

    Of the single-interviewee interviews on normal editions of 'Newsnight' during the last seven days, here are the Bias Coefficients (calculated by adding the Interruption Coefficient (number of interruptions/length of interview) to the Questions Coefficient (number of questions/length of interview)).

    Remember, the higher the Bias Coefficient, the tougher the interview:

    Emily Maitlis, Nigel Farage, UKIP 4.3

    Gavin Esler, Liam Byrne, Labour 4.2

    Emily Maitlis, Nick Clegg, Lib Dem 2.7

    Emily Maitlis, Shaun Woodward, Labour 2.5

    Jeremy Paxman, Jack Straw, Labour 2.3

    Kirsty Wark, Peter Hain, Labour 2

    Liam Byrne was interviewed just after James Purnell's resignation was announced.

    Nigel Farage, again, might like to take note of another high score. The Beeb don't like UKIP!

    And also note that some Anonymouse took David V. to task for claiming that Kirsty wasn't very tough with Hain. These figures show that David V. was right & the Anonymouse was wrong.

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  26. Grant says:

    Craig 9:52
    I thought there had to be a reason for the Liam Byrne high score.
    Of course the BBC hate UKIP, but at least they have started giving them air time, and Nigel Farage can easily handle any BBC upstart !

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  27. Philip says:

    Holocaust Museum shooting, Washington D.C. – seems al-Beeb are as quick to point out that it was a 'white supremacist' as they would have been slow to point out if it had been a Muslim sorry, gunman..

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  28. Millie Tant says:

    Craig,
    I quite like "resile" (and it gives us the useful word "resilient") but haven't noticed it particularly on the BBC.

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  29. will2001 says:

    Yentob, in BBC4 documentary, allows Yusuf Islam to deny that he ever supported the killing of Rushdie. Yusuf makes out that he made 1 injudicious remark to a hack. Yentob fails to put him on the spot about his statements in the BBC programme "Hypotheticals" (surely readily available to Yentob), audio for which is available at

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  30. adam says:

    the daily politics is just phenomenally bad. its getting worse by the month.
    increasingly infantile with silly cartoons, the dead studio atmosphere and the appalling discussions on establishment talking points of no interest to the average viewer.
    Andrew's sarcastic comments show he is somewhat aware of the horror show he is part of and he likes to tell us that Prime Ministers questions is his favourite time of the week.

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  31. Carl says:

    I want the muppets on the BBC to stop saying 'absolutely' when they just mean 'yes'

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  32. amimissingsomething says:

    how are things progressing with the return to haloscan? i really miss the 'unread comments' feature (or was it 'new comments'?)

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  33. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Does anyone here remember Rev. Jeremiah Wright? President Obamessiah's former pastor who made some unfortunate anti-(white)US and anti-Israel remarks? Does anyone remember when Candidate Obamessiah threw him under the bus, because He needed to get elected? Some people here may also remember how much the BBC defended Rev. Wright. Some may also remember that star of our rogues' gallery, Matt Frei, going the extra mile and using his particular brand of humor to ridicule the issue. Some people may also remember the contortions a couple of ex-defenders of the indefensible went through to explain to us how Rev. Wright certainly never said anything against the US, or against Jews or Israel, or belittled the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and that we were either racist or didn't understand the culture, or were nasty Zionists, or nasty Republicans, or some combination thereof.

    The reason I'm bringing all this up is because:

    Rev. Jeremiah Wright says "Jews" are keeping him from President Obama

    Oops. But wait: it gets better. Listen to the audio clip. Notice that it's an African-American doing the interview. Don't trust the BBC on US issues, especially when it concerns their beloved Obamessiah.

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  34. Anonymous says:

    will2001
    Yentob, in BBC4 documentary, allows Yusuf Islam to deny that he ever supported the killing of Rushdie.


    11:33 PM, June 10, 2009

    Incredible. Good job he didn't pop it on his FaceBook page, or he might not get an interview for a job (though wall to wall promo for his new album seems easy enough).

    And Carol Thatcher is bounced for an off-air, tactless joke about a person's race?

    The state of narrative shaping by the BBC has really hit a new, sordid level. They really cannot be trusted to provide an objective story at any level, and certainly not a full one.

    As with politics today, it seems that you can say anything you like, or claim you never did, and it will be trotted out without a problem by the national broadcaster so long as you are within their approved comfort zone.

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  35. Grant says:

    The BBC have been trumpeting the NIESR report that the "recession is over" without describing the think tank as "left-wing" and fanatically pro-EU or mentioning that it has no access to government statistics before they are published.
    If the report is right, this has been the shortest recession in World History !

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  36. Not a sheep says:

    I thought that the Today interview with Liam Byrne was quite tough this morning. John Humphrys seemed almost as exasperated with his evasions as I was listening.

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  37. DB says:

    Tuesday's PM programme on Radio 4 ran a 6 minute 45 second segment about Indian students suffering racist attacks in Australia (listen again – 46 minutes in). No details were given about who was carrying out the attacks, leaving the clear impression that the perpetrators were white.

    ABC reports:

    More angry scenes erupted in Sydney's west overnight as tensions increased between local Indian students and the Lebanese community.
    About 70 students gathered in the heart of Harris Park, but this time they were confronted by local Lebanese youths.
    Police were forced to hold back the angry mob in the third straight night of protests.
    The Indian protesters continue to say they are being attacked by Lebanese youths and police are ignoring their pleas for protection
    .

    There is a short video report from the BBC's Phil Mercer in which the tension between the Indian and Lebanese communities is identified, but Mercer's report for PM avoided all mention of this. On the radio there are no pictures to give the game away, so it's much easier to avoid telling the whole truth.

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  38. Abandon Ship! says:

    I would put quite a bit of money on the likelihood that if the guilty ones were hideously white, and the victim hideously black, then the BBC would be firmly pushing the racist motive for this quite awful crime. But this is UK 2009:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8091215.stm

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  39. JohnA says:

    The odious Barbara Plett on From Our Own Correspondent discussed the odd language used by some Pakistani interviewees. One guy kept calling the Taliban "miscreants". She suggested that this was a bit tame, terrorists is the word for the US audience and militant is the word for the BBC. So from then on the guy called them miscreant militants !

    How dare Plett put the BBC's euphemism in the interviewees mouth – so that he can satisfy some BBC requirement or inclination. How dare she steer him away from using the word terrorist ? Terrorist is the word that most of the BBC's audience would use, and Plett and her BBC colleagues have no right to seek to prevent interviewees using the T-word.

    Mind you – even when the T word is used, Plett et al usually alter it. That is – they mis-report.

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  40. disillusioned_german says:

    Did Al Beeb cover this?

    "A driver told a blind cancer sufferer to get off his bus when a woman and her children became hysterical at the sight of his guide dog. George Herridge, 71, told how the mum flew into a rage and shouted at him in a foreign language. A passenger explained she wanted him to get off the bus during the incident on May 20.
    Mr Herridge, from Tern Close, Tilehurst, said: “Her child was kicking and screaming and someone off the bus told me her child was frightened of my dog. The driver said, ‘Look mate, can’t you get off? I stood my ground. I had not done anything, my dog had not done anything and I was getting off the bus for no one.”

    And a day after the latest bus incident a lady began screaming “I don’t like dirty dogs” at Mr Herridge at the Royal Berkshire Hospital.

    A week earlier he faced further animosity from a couple at Asda in The Meadway, he said.

    He is unsure what has provoked outbursts but said he thinks some have come from Asian people and that it may be due to religious or cultural differences.

    Drivers have been re-instructed to convey the blind and the bus company has sought advice from the Royal National Institute for the Blind and hopes to speak with Muslim leaders. As part of a Muslim Council of Britain project, Mufti Zubair Butt, Shar’ia advisor to Muslim Spiritual Care Provision in the NHS, admitted Muslims “require some education” on guide dogs.”

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  41. adam says:

    Abandon Ship! said…
    I would put quite a bit of money on the likelihood that if the guilty ones were hideously white, and the victim hideously black, then the BBC would be firmly pushing the racist motive for this quite awful crime. But this is UK 2009:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8091215.stm

    we need to do something about these people. they are completely out of control.

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  42. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Robert Peston thinks President Obamessiah took a lesson from the UK on restricting CEO pay.

    Apparently, Peston wasn't paying attention to Candidate Spread That Wealth Around, or the President who called Chrysler's major investors "a small group of speculators". “I don’t stand with those who held out when everyone else is making sacrifices,” Mr. Obama said. He even went so far as to say that the major investors who wanted their legal rights were ruining it for everyone.

    Then He basically violated US contract law and redistributed the share of major investors to the UAW. Workers control the means of production.

    It's with this mindset that the President created the scene to restrict executive pay for companies who took government loans. He had these ideas long before he had any knowledge of UK practices, or Gordon Brown.

    But Robert Peston knows that he can say whatever he likes and get away with it. He's slyly – "whisper it quietly" – promoting Mr. Brown's policies, and at the same time denying President Obamessiah's own statements and past actions.

    He's also being dishonest when he says this:

    Some might point out that Special Master Feinberg's appointment provides a bit of cover for the president's mildly embarrassing decision to drop his previous insistence that there should be a $500,000 cap on the compensation of those running firms that are in receipt of bailout funds.

    Apparently, it was too messy to insist on this cap at a time when Congress has slightly different ideas on how to limit bonuses and pay excesses.

    "Slightly different?" Not exactly. It seems that, in fact, not only did the President's dogsbody, the Sec. of the Treasury oppose it, but the Democrat-led Congress jumped on the anti-business bandwagon and passed even more restrictions which, if combined with The Obamessiah's hard cap plans, would be disastrously punitive. So He compromised, still getting serious restrictions on pay, decided by an unelected, unaccountable bureaucrat, under directions from Him. Either Peston wasn't aware of this, or he decided to be dishonest to support his point about taking a lesson from the UK.

    Don't trust the BBC on US issues.

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  43. Barry says:

    Philip said…

    "Holocaust Museum shooting, Washington D.C. – seems al-Beeb are as quick to point out that it was a 'white supremacist' as they would have been slow to point out if it had been a Muslim sorry, gunman.."

    Yes, but was he a plumber, electrician or what? We have a right to know.

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  44. hippiepooter says:

    Credit where it's due. Thought this was a great snippet from a BBC piece:-

    "On other issues, Mr Griffin argued there was no scientific evidence for global warming and he had no intention of trying to save the polar bear.

    Well, if even the BNP refuses to stand-up for white bears, one wondered, what hope does the species have?"

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8094337.stm

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  45. The Cattle Prod of Destiny says:

    this charmless article contains this wonderful appraisal of Kinsellas death:

    Throughout 2007 and 2008 a total of 54 teenagers were stabbed to death in London, most of them belonging to ethnic minorities.

    Three of the most high profile victims – Jimmy Mizen, Rob Knox and Ben Kinsella – were all white.

    Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair once said the media reported disproportionately on white victims and called crime coverage "institutionally racist".

    Mr Charman added: "Killings which are black on black don't tend to get much publicity – black boys killing a white person would get more coverage."

    I suppose the the fact the the three 'white' victims were not part of a gang fight has nothing to do with the shock and revulsion people feel about these feral beasts murdering any one that upsets them.

    IIRC Knox was killed trying to protect his brother from a passing nutter, Mizen by a nutter in a bakery queue and Kinsella was trying to flee a fight.

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  46. TPO says:

    Shahid Malik admits claiming expenses for two houses at once… just 48 hours after returning to government.
    Gordon Brown's hasty decision to bring Shahid Malik back into Government has spectacularly backfired after further serious questions were raised over his expenses claims.
    It has emerged that the newly-appointed Communities Minister charged taxpayers for the costs of office space in his constituency house, while at the same time using the second home allowance to pay for his London home.
    The revelation is certain to increase the pressure on Mr Brown. The Prime Minister only returned Mr Malik to a ministerial position in the reshuffle after a secret inquiry into previous allegations of expenses abuse cleared him of any wrongdoing.
    Mr Brown will now come under pressure to sack Mr Malik in what would be a disastrous dent to his authority
    .

    I'm not going to bother linking to the BBC take on this as it's their usual obfuscation when one of their pals or cronies are caught out.
    Needless to say they're starting with the rebuttal first and give scant coverage to Malik's "indiscretions". His blustering is given the credence of 'Mr Malik says', Whilst the Telegraph's documentary evidence is palmed off as 'The Telegraph claims'. This is a standard ploy of the BBC.
    Funny also that the BBC fails to mention the fact that Malik's dodgy dealing was mostly 'cash in hand'

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  47. Grant says:

    BBC TV 1 o'clock news led with the Kinsella killing but as they were talking about the victim the picture behind the newsreader was of one of the black killers.
    Anyone not aware would assume that Kinsella was black.
    I assume this was just the usual BBC incompetence , but the fact that I would even consider it may have been deliberate, shows the level of my suspicion of the BBC and all their dirty works.

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  48. TPO says:

    Grant 5:31pm.
    Is it cos dey is black that they are the 'victims', a line often peddled by the BBC and one which outrages my black friends who say that this is the real racism.

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  49. Grant says:

    TPO 6.08
    I have mentioned before that my wife is a real black African and she and my in-laws and black friends hate being patronised by "whiteys".
    The problem is that the Beeboids never mix with ordinary black people, therefore they have no way of knowing what they really think. Maybe that is why they feel guilty and patronise them so much. Or maybe they are just using black people to further their own political ends.

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