Open Thread

The Open Thread is slipping down the page, so here is a replacement. There’s plenty to talk about at the moment….enjoy!

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68 Responses to Open Thread

  1. Travis Bickle says:

    David, what’s happening with the book?

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  2. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Panorama’s feature “Is Britain Full” is a pretty astonishing piece of misdirection.  To an uninformed observer, it seems like a perfectly balanced, incisive, well-rounded discussion of the immigration problem in Britain.  But there are two glaring omissions.

    John Ware challenged the Government’s claims that immigration was decreasing, wasn’t going to be the problem it’s made out to be.  He even mentioned that Gordon Brown was busted for misrepresenting the figures.  He spent time on the LibDems’ “regional” distribution policy, although without really challenging its feasability.  But unless it happened when I blinked, there was no time for Tories, never mind other parties such as UKIP.

    The problem is that Ware and his Panorama producers made a huge effot to give the appearance of a serious discussion of the very real problem of mass immigration.  They covered the housing shortage problem from a couple of different angles, as well as school overcrowding, resources, and employment.

    The jobs angle was, of course, presented as a net positive (standard BBC narrative).  1 in 5 businesses hired a foreigner, and a typical chain, Pret a Manger, had only 17% British workers while having the other 83% from 105 different countries.  A vibrant, economy-boosting melting pot.

    The missing element is only the elephant in the immigration room:  Islam.  Not a single mention of the number one objection regarding excessive immigration into the UK, the primary reason why it’s an election issue.  The BBC portrayed immigration as being a problem of too many people coming from France and Poland and Korea.  The issue of Islamic balkanization and transformation – the single, solitary reason immigration is a key election issue, which is why Panorama was doing this segment in the first place – was ignored entirely.

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    • Martin says:

      Actually UKIP did get a mention alongside the BNP. But as you correctly stated no mention of the millions of Muslims living here. Remember the Government only counts head of house (the male) so for every official Muslim here you can add another 6 or 7 on at least.

      Generally second or third generation immigrants to the UK tend to merge in with the culture, marry into the general community etc, but this is NOT the case with Muslims. They don’t like British culture, don’t like our way of life and don’t really like us. They have no desire to integrate, but rather dominate.

      The BBC just don’t want to go there.

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Then the mention of UKIP and BNP must have been extremely brief.  I was on the phone only for a minute.  But they gave plenty of face time to Woolas and the LibDem leader, and not to a Tory.

        The main complaint is about the total silence on the perceived Islamification of Britain.  Immigration wouldn’t be a key election issue, and Panorama wouldn’t be covering it, if the BNP was getting votes because of too many Polish plumbers and Chinese delivery men.

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      • hippiepooter says:

        In fairness to John Ware he has ‘gone there’ although very much against the wishes of his bbc bosses.

        http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/07_july/30/panorama.shtml

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  3. George R says:

    BBC ‘Panorama’ did a micro-study od the town of Blackpurn 3 years ago, under the title ‘White Fright’.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/6631541.stm

    It shows the growing Islamisation of Blackburn (now about 30%), through Islamic immigration, relatively high birth-rates aomong Muslimss, and white exodus from Blackburn.

    The growing apartheid in Blackburn,  is a consequence of mass immigration policies; and despite Labour’s and BBC’s latest claims, mass immigration is  still increasing.

    http://www.migrationwatchuk.org/pressReleases

    Of course, the BBC has retreated from asking the difficult question about Labour’s 13 years of an open-door immigration ‘policy’ in terms of e.g. the impact of over 3 million Muslims allowed in.

    Labour, Lib Dems, (to some extent the Tories), with support from sections of the MSM, including the BBC, oppose anything to do with British past ‘colonialism’, but such political groups regard Britain as suitable to be colonised by Islam, for some inexplicable motive of national suicide!

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  4. George R says:

    BBC’s Black sermon (on white guilt) to British people:

    ‘We have ways of making you feel guilty about using water’

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8628832.stm

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  5. George R says:

    Will the BBC attempt to reduce its political propaganda in this area for one day, 23 April?

    “England ‘least patriotic’ country”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7608125/England-least-patriotic-country.html

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  6. Pounce says:

    If you click on name it will take you to the blog I belong to and today I have hosted a rash of stories which for some reason the bBC hasn’t bothered its arse in airing the full story;
    For example;
    How nice Mr Khan treated his girlfriend

    How Allah was jailed for raping women and threatening to rape a boy 

    The difference between how the bBC report this murder and the real story.

    How the bbC doesn’t even mention this story of how a convicted rapist wins his fight against deportation because of his human rights.

    How while the bbC reports on this tragic death of a little girl by her uncles  american bulldog they kind of don’t ask the question: What’s a Muslim doing with a dog in the house???

    lastly not yet written about on the blog, but why does the bbC refuse to call the victims of this attack-civilians- because you can bet your bottom dollar if the Yanks were behind it (or the Brits)   then the bBC would be shoiting out for all to hear that civillains were killed.

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  7. Pounce says:

    link for the last story

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  8. NRG says:

    NRG<img src=”http://cdn.js-kit.com/images/icon10-external-url.png”/>
    Beeboids report on dysfunctional Doncaster Council which has had to be taken over by government (government control being a good thing in Beebworld)  
    Here:  
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/8628066.stm  
     
    and on TV news.  
     
    But what is missing from the beeboid propaganda, oops, I mean news?  
     
    Oh yes: A city where public services are in meltdown because of a war between the eccentric elected mayor and Left-wing Labour councillors is to have its council taken over by the Government…Labour councillors staunchly opposed to the elected mayoral system were blamed for the effective collapse of the council which serves 291,000 people and has an annual budget of around £600million.  
     
    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1267267/Failing-Doncaster-Council-Government-takeover-damning-inquiry.html#ixzz0lZIYIHgU

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    • All Seeing Eye says:

      The Mail is much clearer on the fact that Doncaster, a corrupt Labour fiefdom for generations, voted for change with the English Democrat Mayor and that he has been opposed at every stage in a standoff with the unreconstructed and corrupt Council. Remember “Donnygate”?

      Sorry, did I say “Labour fiefdom”? Don’t know how I knew that…the BBC article doesn’t once mention the political hue of the council.

      Frankly I’m stunned that they didn’t mention that Davies is the father of a Conservative MP – that’d really show him up for the evil child-eater that he is.

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  9. Umbongo says:

    BBC1 London News at 10:30 this evening devoted just under half its time to covering – not reviewing – the current play (“Posh”) at the lefty Royal Court which (badly and boringly – according to MSM critics) tries to demonise the Bullingdon Club – thinly disguised as the “Riot Club” in the play.  I have never seen a play given so much publicity on a news programme.  Just in case we missed the point, we were informed that members of the privileged Bullingdon Club included members of the current Conservative shadow cabinet as well as (just to give the coverage a spurious “regional” significance) the curent mayor of London.  Obviously this was just a piece of “impartial” information supplied by the “neutral and disinterested” BBC.

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  10. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Watch the Obamessiah get heckled off the stage by gay rights activists.

    If this had happened to Bush, the BBC would be the first to inform you.

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    • Martin says:

      Luckily for Obama he’s not a Tory or the BBC would be all over it like they are with a drunk rent boy.

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  11. David Jones says:

    Well Europe’s busy but not England – http://www.flightradar24.com/

       0 likes

    • David Jones says:

       An aeroplane has just appeared in Scotland.(I’d better get on with my work!)

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      • Travis Bickle says:

        Jesus christ, just looked at the map.  Only the UK and the south of France are dead.  No surprise there from the two biggest dustbins in Europe.

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  12. Bupendra Bhakta says:

    BBC’s Friend-of-Gordon and Dementor-in-Chief James Naughtie was displaying one of his favoured tactics this a.m.

    Mandelson’s monologue on the Toady Show was mildly seasoned with truncated ah’s buts ifs and no’s as Naughtie pretended he was trying to interrupt but unfortunately just couldn’t get a tough question in edgeways.

    Funnily enough when Naughtie was interviewing Liam Fox a minute later he managed to get all his interruptions in.

    Same old same old with this fellow.

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    • ap-w says:

      I enjoyed the fair and balanced discussion led by Naughtie at around 8.55 on regional development agencies. After he set the scene by explaining that where he was, in the North-East, the regional development agency was doing a great job and actually very popular, he spoke to someone from the said regional development agency and someone from the Institute of Public Policy Research (North). They came to the quick conclusion that regional development agencies were a good thing and should not have their funding cut.

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      • Bupendra Bhakta says:

        Yes such is the way with the client state (inc the BBC) ‘our funding’ is always a good thing. 

        That ever-bountiful Magical Money Tree again.

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  13. Will says:

    A R5 “business” correspondent on “Upallnight” interviewing an employment law expert about the position of employees stuck around the world & unable to get into work because of the ash.
    The BBC man is absolutely aghast that some employers could be so Dickensian as to not pay employees who did not work. “They can’t do that, can they?” he squealed at the lawyer.
    It amuses me the attitude that if the employee is not to blame the employer must pay (as a former local government employee I am familiar with the situation that the generous annual leave entitlement was only to be used for sitting on the beach, any other occurrence that required time off work – child’s illness, child minder unavailable, death of great aunt, etc – had to be treated as additional paid leave)

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  14. Martin says:

    Just heard the vile Nicki Campbell (Queen of breakfast radio) give a luvvie duvvie interview with Alex Salmond. Compare it to the bile of hate Campbell tipped over Nick Griffin yesterday.

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    • hippiepooter says:

      The BBC should be biased against extremists.  Its just a pity that far from being biased against Marxist extremists, they’re in bed with them.

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  15. George R says:

    A non-BBC article on Clegg:

    “Banker’s son Nick Clegg says ‘I’ve been very lucky'”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7608422/General-Election-2010-bankers-son-Nick-Clegg-says-Ive-been-very-lucky.html

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  16. dave s says:

    AS I expected the Panorama show on immigration and population was as deeply dishonest as it was mendacious.
    A puerile attempt to close down debate and to control the agenda in a nice caring deluded liberal way.
    These people are fools. But their lunacy now threatens all of us.
    What is happenning is colonisation by any other name. It cannot continue without provoking a reaction.
    When the city of Leicester, an ancient English city tracing it’s history back to the Romans becomes less than 50% English then something is happening that urgently need to be discussed by all of us.
    That is just not allowed to happen. It is no wonder that the BNP- the only people prepared to face up to what is happening- is gaining momentum. I do not like the BNP but if there is nobody else prepared to speak for our people and culture then where else can many of us turn?
    This failure of the political class to face up to reality in this matter as in so many others is beyond comprehension.
    This election has become irrelevant. An incestuous gabbling of loons.

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  17. cjhartnett says:

    Say what you like about Andy Kershaw,but he is right about the awful and fatuous pedel bin of prejudice that is Womans Hour.

    Yesterday they managed to run a serial about gays in Nottingham beck in the late 70s…a drama…and they played the final part as the first episode!Maybe they need a man in there!

    Still-clearly competence or coherence is not the point is it.?..that it promotes the linen suit/turkey baster agenda is all we need to concern ourselves with here!It sent a signal did it not?

    Every cartoon cliche of gay life back then is here-Donna Summer,Charlies Angels and the thugs from the pubs of Nottingham looking funny at out heroes at Yates Wine Lodge…and yet…because it promotes victimhood and prejudice by the oiks on the estate-then it gets aired, even though no one in charge has checked about playing these sad little vignettes in the correct order!Ooh Matron!

     Surely such cliches need Tatchell to investigate the stereotyped nature of this “drama”?

    No complaints though presumably?..or else we surely would have heard by now! Either that or no one cares or even listens(do we have the ratings for Womans Hour and the demographic?)…in any event to “flag up the issue” is all we need to concern ourselves with here.

     Certainly matters more than the content-truly a NuLabor concept Damazer and Thompson have taken to heart…”ah bless!”

    So then-any takers to get Kershaw as head of Radio4 now Damazer is scooting off?Lets to it citizens!

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  18. John Anderson says:

    Craig has been keeping track of how many references each party gets on BBC election tracking.

    Not surprisingly,  Labour remains well ahead of the Tories.

    But it is also worth noting that the LibDems get almost as many as the Tories.

    UKIP gets damn all,  of course.

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  19. George R says:

    Not picked up by BBC:

    Brown gives misleading advice, and false assurances to British people trapped in Spain.

    1.) Brown talks glibly about Madrid being a ‘hub’ en route to UK, but there is no  unbooked on-travel available from there.

    2.) His advice for trapped British people in Spain to go to Santander to catch HMS Albion is misguided because Albion has just sailed full, leaving hundreds on the qauiside, and the Brittany Ferries sailing from there tomorrow is fully booked.

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  20. Roland Deschain says:

    Have Your Say wants to know what you would ask the Green Party leader.  Fortunately, this is being treated with healthy disrespect. I particularly liked this one:

    8. At 09:42am on 20 Apr 2010, Wu Shu wrote:
    As the green lobby has become almost religion-like in its obsessive attempts to emotionally blackmail us in order to extort money out of us, when is the Green Party going to construct places of worship where people can go to and kneel before a bowl of lentils to cleanse their soul?

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  21. FunkyTeaPot says:

    Sad though I am, I was looking at BBC parliament in the wee small hours last night at the “Election Coverage”.

    Between the Lib Dems and Labour news conferences there was a “dramatised” Today Program slot from 26th May. It proposed that the Tories had won and was an entirely negative piece of propaganda. Double dip recession due to cuts, China having the hump about Cameron’s comments etc.

    Can’t find it on iPlayer so don’t know if they did them for Labour and the LibDems. If not then I think this needs to be looked iinto.

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  22. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Having failed to learn a lesson from Climatgate, Richard Black is now warning that the UK needs to reduce importing anything from developed countries because of a water crisis.

    UK water use ‘worsening global crisis’

    It seems that the current level of imported goods is unsustainable, because too much water is used to produce the stuff imported into the UK.  Black presents us with an interesting math display:

    The report, focusing on the UK, says two-thirds of the water used to make UK imports is used outside its borders.

    Only two-thirds?  How do other countries produce goods outside of the UK while using water inside the UK?  I’m guessing this is a garbled interpretation, and there’s a metric I’m missing.

    But never mind that.  You’re all meant to worry about the “perfect storm”.  It’s another lifestyle engineering piece of agit-prop, one more attempt to convince people to reduce their standard of living back to subsistence levels.  The nomenklatura such as Richard Black won’t have to make such sacrifices, of course, but the rest of you must reduce your destructive consumption.

    Who cares about how that would hurt the economies of those developing countries?  No mention of how things like EU farm subsidies, lop-sided trade agreements might affect this.  Black’s not going into any of that because it doesn’t suit the agenda, which is to scare people into reducing consumption rather than finding better ways of doing it.  If environmentals like Richard Black weren’t so obvious in their attempts to break down civilization people outside the bubble might listen to them more.

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    • John Horne Tooke says:

      Black never seems to question any conflicting interests in his “reports”.  
       
      Engineering For Sustainable Development  
       
      “The Centre has grown to encompass the delivery of a one-year full-time taught MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development, which was introduced in 2002, and a research community covering sustainable development issues in the fields of water, waste, sustainable communities, assessment methodologies and fragile nation states. ”  
      http://www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/sustdev/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1  
       
      Next report by Black  Going by underground is much better than going by bus or any other type of transport bar none, a new report by  Nexus. http://www.nexus.org.uk/  
       
      Black has no right to call himself a “journalist” he is an activist who uses our money (like all good quangos) to  peddle his propaganda

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        No, see, in the minds of Beeboids and their fellow travelers, it’s only a conflict of interest if oil companies fund it.

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    • deegee says:

      It’s a weird sort of logic combining British water use figures with water embedded figures.
      The average UK consumer uses about 150 litres per day, the size of a large bath

      Yet
      Embedded in a pint of beer, for example, is about 130 pints (74 litres) of water – the total amount needed to grow the ingredients and run all the processes that make the pint of beer.
      A cup of coffee embeds about 140 litres (246 pints) of water, a cotton T-shirt about 2,000 litres, and a kilogram of steak 15,000 litres.

      If a consumer drinks one glass of beer and one cup a day (not excessive) they have more than used up their bathtub allocation and that’s without taking a shower.

      By the logic of this article British consumers should boycott all imports from developing countries to save the producers from death by thirst and allow them to die from the more ecologically acceptable death by starvation or from lack of imported medicine, etc.

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  23. NRG says:

    Caught a piece on R4 at around 1.30pm. Report from constituency in SE England. Full on anti-Conservative hatchet job, and positive messaging for Libs and Labs and an simple ABC of how to vote tactically against Conservatives who look likely to win. The bais is now full on and relentless. 

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  24. George R says:

    Because the BBC ‘thinks’ that it cannot give out enough ‘greenie’ propaganda, the BBC provides this publicly subsidised output for yet another one:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8629529.stm

    Surely it must be the turn of critic Christopher Booker to write a piece on this BBC site against all this; or is he ‘Blacklisted’?

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    • Guest Who says:

      One doubts there would be ‘space’ from any other contributors, such as Mr. Booker.

      However, as they have included a HYS and the mods didn’t get at it, this seems to sum the response so far up quiet well:

      Somebody with an interest in Carbon trading did this article!!! The BBC is supposed to be impartial and yet we see more “propaganda” from a “interested” party.’

      Cue a sulky Beeboid in a Blazer on Newsnight claiming that getting his Hampstead dinner party chum Bryony in to offer her opinion ‘was about right’.

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      • dave s says:

        Carbon trading is the ultimate unreality. I wonder what future historians will make of it? There is no product. Nothing is grown or made. It is pure illusion.
        It is beyond childish. I have no doubt that Clegg is all for it as are the other fools and crooks who control our lives.
        All civilisations as they end exhibit  some kind of madness. We certainly seem to be no exception.

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    • Guest Who says:

      Actually the notion of a Black list is quite credible, as one is sure our Richard, David and Roger have been asked, along with their contacts at CRU, etc, to draw up who they believe to be ‘on’ or ‘off’ message to assist programming the speed dials of producer iPhones across the entire BBC output.

      ‘Hello George, could you and Jonathan pop round to ask Caroline some tough questions on Green Party policy?’

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  25. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Remember how the BBC was quick to point out Bush’s ties to Enron?  Well, with all the Goldman Sachs bashing going on due to their recent (unfair!) profits and even more recent fraud allegations and impending inquiries, I’m wondering why the BBC hasn’t reported on this:

    Is Goldman Obama’s Enron?  No, It’s Worse


    Campaign contributions from Goldman Sachs employees to President Obama are nearly seven times as much as President Bush received from Enron workers

    Not only that, but Hillary also got three times as from from GS as Bush got from Enron.  I await the BBC’s reporting of this fact.

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  26. David Preiser (USA) says:

    The BBC has at last done a news brief stating flat out that the “blockade” of Gaza is the responsibility of both Israel and Egypt.  No excuses, no shading, and at long last the BBC has stopped calling it a “siege”. So credit where due.  It only took them three years or so.

    However, they are now helping to support a lawsuit against the Egyptian government for wanting to build an underground barrier to stop the smuggling tunnels once and for all.  They even created a helpful visual aid to give an impression of what the barrier would be.  No emotional manipulation on evidence there, then.

    So Egypt has decided to turn it up a notch and put this barrier in, and the Beeboids are not happy.  They report that a group of Palestinian supporters claim that this is against international law.  The BBC qualifies this by saying that this group includes US and UK citizens, as if that’s supposed to add gravitas and credibility.  No mention whether or not they’re Palestinians or Muslims or Vanessa Redgrave.  The BBC hides this information for some unknown reason.

    Mohamed ElBaradai, not exactly a fan of Israel, is apparently concerned that this new barrier will stop vital medicine and supplies.  So does Hamas, but I don’t recall him complaining when they were seizing aid packages from trucks and taking it for themselves, or using a UN-run school to launch rockets at Israel.  Yet the BBC expects the reader to assume that he’s an unbiased, respected voice.

    No mention is made of the section of the Hamas Charter which calls for the destruction of Israel.  The BBC mentions that the blockade was “tightened” after Hamas took over control of Gaza, but there is no mention of how many rockets were fired into Israel since then.  No balance at all.  Palestinians are only victims, not responsible for anything.

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  27. David Preiser (USA) says:

    The BBC celebrates the conversion of African villagers to Islam: 
     
    Cameroon’s conjoined twins help spread Islam 
     
    The superstitious primitives of a village in Cameroon were apparently frightened of the twins.  Something about demonic revenge for the killing of a local witch doctor…sorry…”traditional leader”.  But the twins had an operation and were successfully separated, so their situation is changing local opinions. 
     
    It seems that no less a Good Samaritan than the king of Saudi Arabia paid for the operation, plus set them up for future visits for further care and prosthetics.  In exchange for this…oh, sorry…with no strings attached whatsoever, the Saudi government is funding a madrassa…sorry…Koranic school and Islamic center, plus a health care center, in the village.  I’m sure there’s no connection whatsoever as the BBC doesn’t mention it. 
     
    There have been some conversions to Islam due to all this.  Now, I can’t remember the BBC ever celebrating a Christian organization for paying for vital surgery in exchange for setting up a church and converting the locals to the white man’s religion.  Maybe back in the days of John Reith.
     
    And finally, what kind of “Koranic schools” does the Saudi government generally set up?  Funny how the BBC doesn’t find the space to say…..

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  28. Bupendra Bhakta says:

    A week or so ago now but it’s just come back to mind.

    In an article on casino gaming on INDIAN reservations in the US – allowed there for some time now as they are deemed not to be federal territory or somesuch – the hapless beeboid, schooled from the womb to use the PC term ‘native Americans’ ran into a metaphorical brick wall.  You see, in the interviews the INDIANS repeatedly referred to thmselves as… gasp… INDIANS.

    What to do?  What to do?  Call them ‘native Americans’ and be seen to patronise them, or go against twenty-one years of brain-washing and call them INDIANS.  The poor lad opted for the latter and the slot subsequently had to be cleared AT THE VERY HIGHEST LEVELS before being broadcast.

    One day the poor sap may even be forced into using the term ESKIMO rather than ‘Inuit people of North America’.

    Hint from Uncle Bup to that reporter – when you start shaving, might I recommend Gillette G111 – they give a nice close cut.

    In the 70s Scargill thought that mines were there to provide jobs for miners rather than to provide energy for Britain.  40 years on the BBC believes it is there to provide jobs for eachother, shill for the government, and propagandise its staff’s liberal left views to a grateful world. 

    The creation and broadcasting programmes is merely a mechanism that allows them to get free money to fund these aims.

    And it shows.

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    • Grant says:

      Excellent post !

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    • Paddy says:

      I’ve sold bingo to the indian reservations for a long time. They are normal people not some special subspecies to be patronised by some art school idiots.

      Imagine calling black people ‘coloured’ they would squirm in embarrasment. Surely the colour of a blokes skin is irrelevant
      and pussyfooting around a definition is both insulting and counter productive. My Crow and seminole customers dont give a toss. They are not ashamed of the word Indian. Cheesecloth wearing angst ridden hippies should grow up and treat people like grownups not infants that need protection.

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  29. hippiepooter says:

    A Report on Brown here where he gets the final word.

     

    A report on Ken Clarke here where Gordon Brown gets the final word.

     

    Completely unscientific I know, and too much work to do to investigate further right now, but B-BBC readers might be able to say if this denotes a trend or not.

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  30. capriole says:

    No doubt the BBCs “Today” programme will mention :
    at some stage the student who threw an egg at David Cameron
    at Cornwall College, in Saltash.It is news. I wonder will it be the hardhitting  Sarah Montague?
    She also used to throw eggs when she was at university but we still don’t know who it was?

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  31. David Jones says:

    What’s on your mind…

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  32. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Mark Easton is playing with violence statistics again in support of Labour.


    Violent crime falling says new study

    Easton shows figures from the British Crime Survey, police stats, and the just-released data from Cardiff University’s Hospital data report.  He claims that, contrary to what the Tories and LibDems say, violence is going down under Labour.

    Easton highlights the Cardiff report’s statement that victims of violence seeking treatment in emergency rooms is down 15% from 2001.  He combines this fact with his little charts to support his claim that violence is on a downward trend.

    I’m not going to bother parsing the rest of it, except to mention that the report he links to which is supposed to show the LibDems are wrong seems to show that they’re right.  I will point out, however, that in both reports as well as Easton’s charts, there was a spike in violence in 2008.  No speculation on why that is from Easton.  In fact, he plays it down using the LibDems’ claim of 3% when the Cardiff report he’s celebrating actually says violence rose by 7%.

    With this fact in mind, it’s important to note this bit from page 3 of the Cardiff report:

    Overall, serious violence remained at similar levels to those in 2008 – there was a decrease of only 0.4% in 2009 compared to 2008.

    Oops.  So basically violent crime has not gone down at all in the short term, which is why people have the impression that it has gone up:  because it has.  Easton is trying to tell you that’s a false impression, yet there it is in the report he’s championing.  And there seems to be no explanation as to why it went back up in 2008.  All Easton can say is that it’s now “stable”, which is kind of disingenuous.  This makes a comparison to 2001 more or less irrelevant, especially when the green line of England stats is more than 50% higher than the other stats, which puts the whole thing into question, really.

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    • John Horne Tooke says:

      As usual Mark Easton is doing Labours PR work on crime stats. Why is he using Hospital stats to measure violent crime? Is he now admitting that official police figures have become useless under Labours constant changes in “reporting and recording”? He won’t do a piece on that though, even though the police also know the deliberate massaging of crime figures.

      “As usual, the latest crime figures (September to November 2009), are pure fantasy, but at least the Chief Officers will get their 15-20% bonuses (except Gwent, who are the only force to report an increase in crime).

      It’s hardly surprising that no one gives them any credibility. In the real world, we would expect to see monthly or geographical variances. You would have thought that they would have employed someone with half a brain to spot that not every force will achieve a crime reduction every month, month in month out.”
      http://thinbluelineuk.blogspot.com/2010/01/top-cops-are-still-fiddling-crime.html

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  33. George R says:

    BBC has:

    “Voting for God – How important will the Christian vote be in the

    UK elections?”

    But BBC doesn’t have:

    “Voting for Allah – How important will the Muslim vote be in the

    UK elections?”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8607964.stm

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Would the fact that Nick Clegg is an avowed atheist have anything to do with the BBC’s sudden concern for the Christian vote?

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    • deegee says:

      Would that be because the Muslim vote is more geographically focussed? The Muslim message can be confined to the seats where it matters but ignored nationally.

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  34. Martin says:

    When ex defence chiefs came out and attacked the one eyed liar the BBC happily joined in with Mandelson and smeared them as “Tories”.

    Funny that now a couple have come out suggesting Trident be scrapped the BBC are happy to big them up, I notice the BBC targets the Tories over Trident not Liebour.

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  35. Martin says:

    God now the BBC are going on about bloody homosexuals again! Shut up you drugged up arseholes!

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