OPEN THREAD

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Very busy here so time for a fresh Open Thread. The site is buzzing but I just do not have enough time to cover all the material the BBC so generously provide! Over to you….

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203 Responses to OPEN THREAD

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  1. Jeff Waters says:
    November 19, 2011 at 9:27 pm

    EU 2012 budget: UK says 2% increase is ‘excellent deal’ – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15803400  
     
     
    Who is this ‘UK’ that the headline refers to?  
     
    I’m a UK citizen, and I don’t think it’s excellent that the UK will be donating 129 billion euros to the EU…  
     
    On this matter, the government speaks on behalf of itself, not the entire country…  
     
    Jeff

       1 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:
      November 20, 2011 at 8:16 am

      ‘Who is this ‘UK’ that the headline refers to?’    

      It is odd when the BBC decides to get inclusive and/or all approving, in the name of those it claims to speak for, and when not.

         0 likes

      • My Site (click to edit) says:
        November 20, 2011 at 9:31 am

        The Andrew Marr red sofa does insipire some rather choice commentray for carefully, not doubt impartially selected ‘guests’ that goes unchallenged by our affable host.

        Maureen Lipman just informed me that, of course, Mrs. Thatcher was the woman WE loved to hate. Well, maybe YOU and the bloke next to you and the goblin opposite, dear, but possibly not all watching.

        John Simpson also just about avoids a faux pas rambling on abut the right wing media in responding to Tim Mongomerei, where he almost places the BBC as the left wing counter to the rest of the press (ignoring the Graun, Indy, Mirror, etc).

        Helen would have had a problem spinni9ng that one on her next Editor’s outing.

           0 likes

        • My Site (click to edit) says:
          November 20, 2011 at 9:32 am

          They also get all selectively worried about what is said on twitter.

          Welcome to the uniquely compelled funding world of the rest of us, luvs.

             0 likes

  2. cjhartnett says:
    November 19, 2011 at 9:28 pm

    Let`s hope that Howard Davis and the LSE will be now able to get those fees for the PhD that young Gaddhafi seems to have been running away from as of late.
    Presumably Mandelson will be offering up his bail before we find him later working as a Surestart Community Fruit Adviser.
    Wonder if the liberal elite will be reminding us about the LSEs prize Postgraduate?

       0 likes

  3. Jeff Waters says:
    November 19, 2011 at 10:29 pm

    D’Oliveira’s legacy‘Cricketer began apartheid’s demise, says Jonathan Agnew’

    Talk about hyperbole!

    Sorry, but I cannot accept that a cricketer set in motion the chain of events that lead to apartheid’s demise!

    Jeff

       0 likes

  4. Jonathan S says:
    November 20, 2011 at 12:25 am

    it’s funny how Strictly Come Dancing is hideously white (apart from the token judge), however it’s counterbalanced by the gay quota, mainly all the professional male dancers

       0 likes

    • Scott says:
      November 20, 2011 at 3:59 am

      So one of four judges is just a “token” representation?

      And of the male professional dancers, the vast majority are straight and either married or partnered.

      But hey, this is Biased BBC: don’t feel that the truth should get in the way of venting your prejudice…

         0 likes

      • Dez says:
        November 20, 2011 at 4:45 am

        He does seem to be somewhat obsessed. Just from the last few weeks:

        “the BBC, it’s a gay old world”

        “expect a BBC documentary of the Greenham Common lezzers”

        “what next the US version of Eastenders, set in New York, wonder what they might call it?…Queens?”

        “the BBC wants everyone to be left wing and gay”

        “the thing that annoys me about the BBC, they assume that everyone is left wing and gay”

        “On the Road with…a gay boy reporter”

        “mahogany is a dirty word in the gay world/bubble”

        “if everyone in the region was gay there would be no problem”

           0 likes

        • Scott says:
          November 20, 2011 at 11:49 am

          Mahogany? Oh, he means monogamy.

          Intelligent people, these heterosexuals who think they’re better than everyone else…

             0 likes

  5. George R says:
    November 20, 2011 at 12:50 am

    Banning criticism of ISLAM.  
     
    No doubt Islam Not BBC (INBBC) will be pleased with this development, with which it is actively involved:  
     
    “Pickles and Warsi wrestle for control of Government strategy on anti-Muslim hatred”  
     
     
    http://conservativehome.blogs.com/thetorydiary/2011/11/who-is-in-charge-of-the-governments-strategy-on-anti-muslim-hatred.html      
     
     
    There is a certain inevitability about the UK ‘political elite’s move in this direction to appease Islamic interests in Britain and globally.  
     
     In this particular case, it looks as though the UK government is setting up (or, more likely, being set up by) a committee of Muslims to ban criticism of Islam.  
     
     Central to all this is the unelected Muslim, Baroness Warsi, who was unnecessarily appointed as a UK government’s special representative to the global Conference of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which is trying to impose a global ban on the criticism of Islam.  
     
    “UK’s First Special Representative to the OIC”  
     
     
    http://islamicmonitor.blogspot.com/2010/06/uks-first-special-representative-to-oic.html  
     
     
     
    Warsi’s political role seems clear: to implement the OIC directive on the willing British government and on the ignored British vast majority still, non-Muslim people. But it’s coming, with UK government connivance, and Labour in tow, and INBBC on board.  
     
    “Warning! The OIC Wants to Silence Free Speech Around the Globe”  
     
    http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/101130/sec_id/101130

       0 likes

  6. Jeff Waters says:
    November 20, 2011 at 1:35 am

    Wind farms are useless, says Duke – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/prince-philip/8901985/Wind-farms-are-useless-says-Duke.html

    It appears that the BBC news website have overlooked this story.

    How careless…

    Jeff

       0 likes

    • Jeff Waters says:
      November 20, 2011 at 11:25 am

      I tweeted Gary Duffy (the UK editor of the BBC news website), and he told me:

      ‘Second hand account of private conversation which we have not been able to verify. Not at the moment.’

      I knew there had to be a good reason for the omission!

      I’m sure there are no circumstances in which the BBC would ever make public a second hand account of a private conversation…

      Jeff

         0 likes

      • Jeff Waters says:
        November 20, 2011 at 12:57 pm

        The plot thickens…

        The author of the story, Jonathan Wynne-Jones, informed me by email that:

        ‘I’m surprised that they are saying it’s based on a second hand account of the conversation as that’s patently untrue. The story is based on quotes from someone who spoke directly to the duke.’

        Jeff

           0 likes

        • David Preiser (USA) says:
          November 20, 2011 at 2:57 pm

          The story is based on quotes from someone who spoke directly to the duke

          Technically, that is a second-hand account.  But if we’re going to keep track now, since the Coalition took over, half of everything Robert Peston and Nick Robinson report is second-hand accounts.

             0 likes

  7. Reed says:
    November 20, 2011 at 5:14 am

    Occupy Wall St. divides into ‘haves and have nots’ :  
     
    http://vladtepesblog.com/?p=40564  
     
    …and, in a wonderfully ironic move, the key decision makers have moved themselves into the peace and quiet of…The lobby of the Deutsche Bank building !!  
     
    It’s a larf, init. (not sure who the reporter is, but she’s good value).

       0 likes

  9. Craig says:
    November 20, 2011 at 9:27 am

    The ‘Sunday Times’ is leading today with Labour donor’s secret links to Gadaffi’s son:    

    Labour Party donor Imran Khand brokered Saif’s donation of £1.5m to the London School of Economics, according to the Sunday Times. (Sky News)    

    The BBC News website’s UK newspaper review somehow manages to completely ignore this and the story is, so far, nowhere to be found anywhere on the site.    

    They are also still ignoring Wind farms are useless, says Duke, the lead story in the ‘Sunday Telegraph’ (as Jeff points out above).    

    They do, however, feature the ‘Observer’s Bishops unite to condemn coalition cuts on poorest, which they’ve also made the third most important story in the world (on their home page) for good measure and will doubtless be running with all day.    

    The BBC filtering the news, as usual. 

       0 likes

    • Craig says:
      November 20, 2011 at 9:33 am

      The paper review on Radio 4’s ‘News and Papers’ also ignored the main story in the Sunday Times.

         0 likes

      • Craig says:
        November 20, 2011 at 9:45 am

        Andrew Marr did what he’s so often done before. During his initial run-through of the Sunday papers, he skimmed over the Labour donor story and focused on another story from the Sunday Times‘s front page instead:

        “Lots and lots of Saif-al Islam all over the front pages. There’s the ‘Sunday Times’ there. They’ve also got an interesting story saying that universities are going to axe 5,000 degree courses…as the cuts bite.”

        Typical Marr. [The “as the cuts bite” bit was his own added commentary].

        Unfortunately for him, one of his paper reviewers – John Simpson, no less – did actually read out the headline later. 

           0 likes

        • Craig says:
          November 20, 2011 at 5:37 pm

          For the record, Paddy O’Connell’s run-through of the papers also failed to mention the story (though the bishops were quoted). God, the Beeb are certainly consistent!
          (I would expect nothing less from Paddy). 

          Unfortunately for Paddy, one of his guest paper reviewers was a Tory MP, and can you guess which story she wanted to begin with? (Was it Paddy scrunching up that paper at about a thousand decibels as she talked?) Worse, she went on to attack the BBC for (on one programme, apparently) setting Gaffafi Snr’s death to music. 

             0 likes

  10. RCE says:
    November 20, 2011 at 9:35 am

    Whilst driving to work yesterday morning:

    At approx 7:20 on Today there was an item that covered the Leveson inquiry and contained criticism of how the tabloids obtain information about and then report certain events, one particular example being The Sun getting hold of Kate McCann’s diaries through the Portuguese police.

    About 10 minutes later there was an item about a revelation in the BBC’s print edition (The Guardian), who had somehow(!) obtained information from the ongoing IPCC investigation into the shooting of Mark Duggan which “contradicts the original Police’s version of events.”

    Do you think anyone in the entire editorial staff identified any hint of irony, or, dare I say, hypocrisy in this?

       0 likes

  11. RCE says:
    November 20, 2011 at 9:49 am

    Whilst driving home from work yesterday evening:  
     
    R4 Loose Ends featured none other than the BBC’s favourite Dorchester-dwelling class-warrior multiculturalist Billy Bragg, who was given a good 10 mins or so to spew his outdated and serially repudiated political views incorporating the same old hackneyed bilge.  
     
    I actually have no problem with this per se.  Bragg has evolved into a delightful self-parody of ignorance and contradiction who I find to be an amusing and incredibly useful example of the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the hard left.  My issue, though, is whether Loose Ends – or indeed the wider BBC – plan to have someone like Mark Steyn, Theodore Dalrymple or Roger Scruton invited along to be indulgently mollicoddled in a similar fashion in the interests of balance?  
     
    Perhaps Dez/Scott could address this question in his next post?

       0 likes

    • RCE says:
      November 20, 2011 at 9:54 am

      I recommend listening to the Bragg stuff for the reasons I’ve highlighted above.  It starts at 31:30 with a song called…  Wait for it…  ‘Never Buy The Sun’!

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b017c8cv/Loose_Ends_19_11_2011/

      Truly priceless!

         0 likes

      • cjhartnett says:
        November 20, 2011 at 11:20 am

        REC!
        Well done sir!
        The first person ever to put the words “recommend” and “Billy Bragg” together by free word association and in the one sentence.
        No reasons to ask what was on all those cassettes that the Taliban were hanging from trees anyway now! 
        The Army were able to swap Billy Bragg for James Blunt…so only THIS one area of public life seems to be on the up.
         Looking forward to his new CD…“But you vill ALL buy the Guardian”/”All Heil the Detecta Van(rools is rools!)

           1 likes

    • cjhartnett says:
      November 20, 2011 at 10:56 am

      NO Sir!
      This will not do at all…don`t want to go all Dezzy on you, but the the Bellicose Quack of Barking does NOT live in Dorchester.
      He lives in another place beginning with B( makes it easier for him!)…Burton Bradstock near Bridport(another B there!)..which IS in Dorset, I grant you…but NOT Dorchester.
      I think he only comes to Dorchester to get his plaid shirt stuffed with Victim Impact statements to distribute to the rest of us as he tours the local prisons…talk about Community Payback!
      Ned Sherrin would not have put up with him, surely to goodness!

         1 likes

      • cjhartnett says:
        November 20, 2011 at 11:13 am

        The PM Show on Friday did yet another one of its in-house paeans to one of its own.
        Tim Gudgin…no, none of us would know of him would we?…is “retiring”-albeit after many years in his job as reading the Pools results…wup-di-doo!
        He got five minutes to say that he took over from dome bloke who threw himself from the top floor of the BBC(those were the days!)..and that he`s been allowed to rumble on well into his eighties.
        He did concede that the girlies may not have been so indulged by the BBC(Miriam O Reilly etc…ahem!), so it went all odd at that point until the BBCs internal intercom piece to the rest of us down here petered out. Twas Friday after all.
        What wasn`y mantioned was that he`s damn well not moving up to Salford at his age…really hard thing to do this editing isn`t it?

           1 likes

  12. noggin says:
    November 20, 2011 at 10:09 am

    S.M.live, bleating about racism this morning, very first sentence
    to set up the (un)-biased show…..wait for it….
    if your white you could never understand…….oh brother!
    i hope unintentional comedy spokesman Rosenoir doesn t turn up
    after his stint on R5 with J Barnes…
    😀

       1 likes

  13. Craig says:
    November 20, 2011 at 10:17 am

    John Simpson was sounding off about Europe, in true BBC fashion, on the Marr Show this morning:

    “I mean you get all the newspapers, all the right-wing newspapers, writing amazing stuff about Europe…I mean devastatingly and often misleadingly inaccurate stuff which people, of course, believe. You never hear the other side.”

    Thankfully, Tim Montgomerie was on hand to say “It’s the right-wing papers that have been vindicated over the years.”

    It’s pretty clear where John Simpson stands on Europe. (Not far from where his doppelganger Chris Patten stands, I’d say).

       1 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:
      November 20, 2011 at 10:43 am

      ‘Tim Montgomerie was on hand to say “It’s the right-wing papers that have been vindicated over the years.”  

      Mr. Simpson saw the minefield this was leading into, and hit ‘full waffle’ button to bail.

      Him stoutly defending the BBC’s mission to ‘counter’ the reporting of independent media with bias of their own would have been a treat.

         1 likes

  14. Craig says:
    November 20, 2011 at 10:35 am

    Andrew Marr interviewed Ken Livingstone today. Livingstone has some memoirs to plug and Marr was only too willing to help. His introduction to the Livingstone interview took brown-nosing to new heights:

    “Ken Livingstone was one dubbed ‘the most odious man in Britain’, but that was the verdict of ‘The Sun’ newspaper. So for Red Ken, it must have been a badge of honour. Few public figures have been so reviled by the press but still hit a real popular chord. And even the victor in the last London mayoral election, Boris Johnson, praised Ken Livingstone’s very considerable achievements.”

    “Ken Livingstone has been hard at work on his memoirs. Welcome. And substantial memoirs they are too.”

    Livingstone looked very happy at this introduction. Understandably. A very soft interview followed. The toughest it got was when Marr asked Ken if Boris had won the election because “his jokes were better”.

       1 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:
      November 20, 2011 at 10:46 am

      ‘A very soft interview followed.’

      Any chance Marrshmallow tasked his old mukka on some of his less special pronouncements of alte, which would have seen anyone else villified or even up for hate crimes or incitement?

         1 likes

  15. As I See It says:
    November 20, 2011 at 11:49 am

    Meanwhile 5 Live’s Double Take is quite a thing to behold. They call it ‘A sideways look at the week’s news’

    Oh yes and no prizes for guessing from which side the news is going to be observed.

    We have presenter Sam Walker (that’s a gal) and to add some gravitas this week there is that old trooper Angela Rippon.

    Top story: Yoof Unemployment.

    Item introduced by (one of) Sheffield’s finest 1980s synth pop bands. The Human League no less. To wit their rendition of ‘Don’t you want me baby’

    (Get it? 1980s? I was working at a chip shop? You had better change your mind or we will both be sorry?)

    Then we hear from someone who was faced with unemployment in the 80s and he may be able to give some words of wisdom to the youngsters of today.

    Well this may be interesting.

    I’m afraid you couldn’t have made it up.

    ‘I from Sheffield. I am now successfully employed. I’m a manager with a staff and a budget of three quarters of a million. I work for a charity. I run the health and safety department.’

    And if that was not inspiring enough for you we have a second piece of real life testimony.

    A lady who ‘got on her bike’ back in the day and travelled from up north to find work in the south. She would do anything to get off the dole, catering, whatever.

    And what does she do now?

    She coordinates some form of support group for unemployed young people. What does she say to potential employers? Well she doesn’t do that herself, she has a dedicated team working under her.

    Ok, so when did things turn around for her?

    She has to rack her brains to recall….’Er… it was about….er….must have been about 1997, when the….er ….Labour Government….’

    Let me paraphrase or we may be here all day….started such and such a scheme.

       1 likes

  16. George R says:
    November 20, 2011 at 12:01 pm

    Gaddafis, Islam, and the West’s complicit ‘political elite’.

    “Saif al-Islam Gaddafi: the favoured son feted by the West ”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8901770/Saif-al-Islam-Gaddafi-the-favoured-son-feted-by-the-West.html

       1 likes

  17. George R says:
    November 20, 2011 at 12:52 pm

    Peter Hitchens’ finger on the political pulse:  
     
    “How long before the grey dictators march on London?”  
     
    [Opening extract]:
      
    “Civilian juntas have seized power in Rome and Athens. Soon, similar gangs of grey men may be sweeping aside national governments in Madrid and Lisbon. Nobody much is protesting. In time – don’t rule it out – it could be our turn here, with Lords Patten and Mandelson forming a  cabinet of none of the talents.  
     
    “Our ruling Left-wing elite seem oddly untroubled by the ruthless snuffing-out of national sovereignty across southern Europe. If the same thing had been done by a bunch of colonels, they would have been piously outraged.  
     
    “But of course these putsches are the work of the European Union, a project the Left have long supported. And the EU is more subtle than any colonels. There is no need for midnight arrests or tanks on the streets. The enormous invisible power of the EU’s law and institutions gets its way without any need for such things.”  
     
     
    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2063693/Peter-Hitchens-How-long-grey-dictators-march-London.html#ixzz1eFWfpBkR      
     

       1 likes

  18. George R says:
    November 20, 2011 at 1:09 pm

    Islamising TURKEY’s British helpers.

    Islamising Turkey’s GUL is on a political propaganda visit to E.U. and Britain to ensure Cameron, Clegg and Miliband keep up their  campaigns to Islamise the E.U even more rapidly by getting entry of 80 million Muslim Turks; many of such Turks will then be able, by the millions, to join the many Turks already in Britain and E.U. The Islamisation of the E.U. project is well underway.

    INBBC, as part of the ‘political elite’, joins in.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15809306

    ‘Stop Turkey’:

    http://stopturkey.blogspot.com/

       1 likes

  19. RCE says:
    November 20, 2011 at 1:29 pm

    Brooke’s father had died the night before, that was the bereavement.

    Dez will love your little faux pas, cj…

    However!  I have heard/seen some BBC news that did not make this clear, or indeed mention it at all.  I think it was the Thurs lunchtime news on R4 that mentioned the judge telling the jury not to let their “sympathy” for Brooks affect their judgement without mentioning the reason why.

       1 likes

    • RCE says:
      November 20, 2011 at 1:44 pm

      Brooks.  Not Brooke’s.  Doubtless my unwitting racism made me spell his name wrong.

         1 likes

      • cjhartnett says:
        November 20, 2011 at 4:41 pm

        Thanks RCE!
        Now then…what was that you werre saying?
        Anything rather than facing up to Desmond!

           1 likes

  20. George R says:
    November 20, 2011 at 2:18 pm

    EGYPT.  
     
    INBBC’s Ms KNELL’s politically partial and myopic ‘reporting’ on EGYPT.  
     
    One has to search, but in half a sentence, about halfway down her ‘article’ about demonstrations in the oh-so-convenient Tahrir Square of Cairo, Ms Knell is good enough to mention once, who the demonstrators are:  
     
    “Protesters – mostly Islamists and young activists”.  
     
    Her unsatisfactory ‘article’ is here:  
     
     
    “Egypt violence resumes around Tahrir Square”  
     
     
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15809739      
     
     
    ‘Jihadwatch’:  
    Egypt: Tens of thousands throng to Tahrir Square as Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic supremacist groups rally  
     
    [Opening extract]:  
     
    “This is the ‘Arab Spring’ uprising that Barack Obama so enthusiastically endorsed. There will be no flowering of freedom and democracy; there will be an Islamic state.  
    I tried to tell you. More on this story.”  
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

       1 likes

  21. David Preiser (USA) says:
    November 20, 2011 at 3:14 pm

    You know your movement’s over when:

    Occupy Wall Street protesters stay at $700-a-night hotel

    Hell no, we won’t go — unless we get goose down pillows.

    A key Occupy Wall Street leader and another protester who leads a double life as a businessman ditched fetid tents and church basements for rooms at a luxurious hotel that promises guests can “unleash [their] inner Gordon Gekko,” The Post has learned.

    The $700-per-night W Hotel Downtown last week hosted both Peter Dutro, one of a select few OWS members on the powerful finance committee, and Brad Spitzer, a California-based analyst who not only secretly took part in protests during a week-long business trip but offered shelter to protesters in his swanky platinum-card room.

    Interesting that this guy is on the finance committee.  It’s like the Occupiers have, within two months, become as corrupt as the Government they supposedly despise.  Laura Trevelyan was unavailable for comment, but Matt Danzico is soliciting the public’s help to resupply their library.

    The BBC reporting on the Occupiers is so far removed from reality it’s sickening.

       1 likes

  22. Jeff Waters says:
    November 20, 2011 at 3:17 pm

    Any chance of a new open thread please?

    Thanks

    Jeff

       1 likes

  23. Craig says:
    November 20, 2011 at 3:56 pm

    You’ve got to hand it to Paddy O’Connell, that man can bring his biases into any subject under discussion.  

    There was a segment on the fascinating topic of memory on this morning’s ‘Broadcasting House’. Apparently, we have a tendency to forget things when we pass through doors into a different room. (I certainly do). Then all of a sudden, it hits you as to why Paddy is discussing memory with a scientist – it’s so he can play that clip of U.S. Republican candidate Rick Perry forgetting the third thing yet again!  

    Paddy then laughed, though the professor’s laugh sounded forced (perhaps he was thinking about the psychology of ulterior motives at the time). 

    Now, unexpectedly, Radio 4’s doubtiest defender (in my opinion) of the Labour Party then played a second clip – of Ed Miliband forgetting the name of the frontrunner in the Scottish Labour leadership race. My jaw dropped open. That was totally unexpected. He’s never done anything to embarrass a Labour politician before.

    Still, Paddy then did the sort of thing I DO expect of him. He put a gloss on it:
    “What I hear there from our own Labour leader is a form of denial really, cos it’s sometimes as humiliating to say ‘You know what, I can’t remember this at this time. We don’t seem to allow people the same memory loss that we ourselves suffer.”

    Phew, that’s more like it, Ed’s a victim of our own double standards, he’s just like us all!! The professor played into Paddy’s hands, agreeing that we all do that.

    …and thus ends this Open Thread…

    …or does it?…

       1 likes

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