196 Responses to OPEN THREAD…

  1. My Site (click to edit) says:

    To any parents with daughters who have ‘older boyfriends’, enjoy the bit at 55s in..

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17254977

    Agenda? What agenda?

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  2. john says:

    The OSCE report into the recent Russian election notes “consderable bias from Broadcasters in favour of one party.”
    Perhaps it is time for the OSCE to report on the behaviour of our BBC.

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    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      I’m sure it’s not as bad as Tower Hamlets!

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      • james1070 says:

        I thought it odd that the BBC was gleefuly reporting about voter irregularities in Russia, when it has been going on here over the last decade and the BBC does not think it an issue. But wait, the voter irregularities favour the Labour Party.

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        • Paddy says:

          Extreme lefties always try to rig votes. It’s in their psyche.

          Just like they rig audiences and news output

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        • NotaSheep says:

          The BBC reporting on electoral irregularities in Russia has been most understanding and has pointed out that the irregularities probably didn’t nake too big a difference. How different from their reporting of ‘hanging chads’ in Florida when the affair was covered in forensic detail.

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    • Geyza says:

      A) They do not report the massive bias in seating boundaries for labour gifting them about 60 seats for free.

      B) How DARE they stand idly by as our Government pisses our democratic sovereignty away, largely ignoring the “election” of Herman Van Rumpoy without so much as a vote, or an opponent, and then criticise Russia for holding a real election?

      Russia is far far far more democratic than the EU, not that the BBC will ever admit it!

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  3. Jane Tracy says:

    Has anybody ever looked at the holiday entitlement at the BBC?

    Stephanie Flanders the BBC economics editor so rarely updates her economics blog these days that she seems to have holiday after holiday. That is in addition to her announced holidays which as many comments to her blog mention already stretch for a long period.

    And the holidays cannot be a reward to good work as Stephanie “petrol prices will fall in 2012” Flanders can confirm.

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    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      They seem to have a ‘school hols’ deal, where for several months in the year they are not obliged to turn up. Robinson is forever ‘off’. Mason seems to post about once a month, and those close in a matter of days.

      Of course, given the output when they do, that short window may be a mercy.

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      • Millie Tant says:

        Paxman takes the biscuit for disappearing for long stretches on top of normal holidays. And of course he only does a three-day week to begin with!

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        • jarwill101 says:

            He’s on refresher courses at the London Madrassa of Economics.

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          • David Preiser (USA) says:

            Paxman also hosts University Challenge and worked probably at least a week of filming to present that recent special. Worth a million per year? Or does he get extra pay for doing specials?

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            • Umbongo says:

              “Or does he get extra pay for doing specials?”  
               
              I don’t know if he gets extra pay direct but he certainly scoops a fair amount of loose change through the book deal associated with the programme.  I don’t know what percentage Paxman gets but I suspect his royalties are generous.  
               
              BTW when, last year, Andrew Marr had Paxman on “Start the Week” to discuss “Empire” he also invited well-known traitor/agent of influence Richard Gott to join in the discussion.  Gott, unsurprisingly, implied that the British Empire was slightly worse than nazi Germany and much worse than Soviet Russia. Of course, Gott (who took money from the Soviets – “for expenses” he claimed) remains assured of a warm welcome at Broadcasting House since his treachery is from the left.  I don’t think John Amery (were he still alive) would be similarly welcome around the table.

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        • ian says:

          Paxman is living proof that you don’t have to be from an ethnic/religious/sexual minority/female to get on telly. You just need to have gone to the right school – like Malvern College, rather than a comprehensive.

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  4. Phil Ford says:

    How BBC Climate Propaganda Works

    Here’s a clear example of The Corporation creating a pro-AGW scare story out of nothing more than some idle speculation…

    “…Up to 900 species of tropical land birds around the world could become extinct by 2100, researchers say…”

    Wow. And upon what hard scientific evidence was this startling, headline-grabbing statistic reached..?

    “…The finding is modelled on the effects of a 3.5C Earth surface temperature rise, a Biological Conservation Journal paper shows…”

    Okay, so now I understand. It’s not based on anything sensible or even remotely plausible, given what we now know from good, honest climate science (and the unreliability of ‘climate modelling’ methods) about the non-problem of natural climate change, which has been creeping up, if at all, over the past decade at a hardly measurable rate and certainly does not look likely to produce anything like the sensational temperature rise being hawked around by these latest rent-seekers.

    I don’t need to ask why BBC is splashing this complete non-story all over it’s environment pages – because it’s for exactly the same reasons the BBC failed, utterly, to cover the criminal activities of one of it’s favourite left-leaning pro-AGW evangelists caught stealing from The Heartland Institute.

    This is how it works with The Corporation – a steady drip-drip of irrational, largely fictitious ‘on-message’ climate scare stories cooked up to keep the issue in the minds of proles, to support the narrative. All news that contradicts the agreed manifesto, challenges the doctrine, will be ignored or ridiculed. The BBC has now drifted so far from objective impartiality on this issue it’s actually rather sad.

    And it’s why they are now reduced to producing this kind of complete nonsense.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/17212765

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    • Natsman says:

      Oh, they’ll still say the temperature is going to rise, even as we plunge into an ice age.  I suppose they’re partially correct in that the planet warms and cools in cycles, so it stands to reason that if it’s got cold, it’ll eventually get warmer again.  
       
      But the models are laughable, and regular (and consistently) proved wrong, so much so as to be laughable.  And anyway, here in France the temperature yesterday was 11 degrees C cooler than it was the day before, but I think I’m still alive, and likely to remain so.  What a load of old bollocks this rubbish is – everyoine decries these forecasts, nobody (rightly) believes them, so why dont they just give up, and spend their public grant money on something more usueful and of benefit to mankind?  
       
      The blinkers are on, and firmly welded in place – the meme will be plugged for ever, so we’ll just continue to ignore it

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    • Louis Robinson says:

      Phil, well said.

      “…Up to 900 species of tropical land birds around the world could become extinct by 2100, researchers say…”

      On news/current affairs shows speculation is rife. Reporters talk to academics who have written reports. These academics are looking for funding and the “respect” of their peers. They give newsmen fodder. The fodder is broadcast and there’s reaction, producing more fodder. Later at parties, the reporters and academics gather and seek comfort in the warm embrace of each other’s admiration. Later still, the State rewards them all with little medals and letters after their names. Their children go to good schools and universities and end up writing papers. Other’s children interview them. The circle turns.

      90% of this fodder is a distraction. It’s all a scam feeding a gravy train – a way to keep our eyes from the real problems in this broken world.

      So, what’s the most important issue today?

      In an “I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again” sketch from years ago – “John and Mary” – Mary asks plaintively, “What happened to everything we had?” John replies, “You spent it all”.

      When is there going to be an honest discussion on the BBC about the perilous state of the country’s finances and its dependency culture? I’d guess the answer is “never” as the finger will eventually point to Labour doctrine (now absorbed by the Conservatives), and to Gordon Brown, then by implication the Beeb’s supine support of his term as chancellor and premiership.

      Meanwhile, I hear that up to 900 species of tropical land birds around the world could become extinct by 2100…    

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    • Cassandra King says:

      “…Up to 900 species of tropical land birds around the world could become extinct by 2100, researchers say…” 

      And not by temperature variations but windmills, those bird mangling subsidy vampires that the BBC loves so much.

      And while there is no actual evidence that CAGW has led to the death of one bird windmills are directly responsible for the mass killing of tens of thousands of birds and bats.

      Still, its a small price to pay to enrich carpet bagger vermin profiteers like Camerons FiL isnt it?

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  5. deegee says:

    Check this before it disappears into nothingness.
    Excess Baggage John McCarthy discusses the diverse attractions of Israel as a destination with three people who like the place.

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  6. deegee says:

    Is it time to save the Moon?
    Surely we don’t have time left after saving the world?

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    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      Is it time to save the Moon?  

      We’re sorry but this site is not accessible from the UK as it is part of our international service and is not funded by the licence fee. It is run commercially by BBC Worldwide, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BBC, the profits made from it go back to BBC programme-makers to help fund great new BBC programmes.’

      Arf.

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      • Roland Deschain says:

        Let me get this straight.  It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of a body which I am forced to fund and it funds the programmes I have paid my licence fee to watch.

        But I’m not allowed to access it since it isn’t funded by my licence fee?  Ye-e-e-e-e-e-s, as Jeremy Paxman might say.

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    • Louis Robinson says:

      “Is it now time to save the moon?”

      http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120305-is-it-now-time-to-save-the-moon

      “I have always found the first words spoken on the surface of the Moon a little disappointing. All the “giant leap” stuff sounds a bit contrived and, strangely, underwhelming.

      I much prefer the last words, spoken by Apollo 17 Commander Gene Cernan on 14th December 1972: “I’d just like to record that America’s challenge of today has forged man’s destiny of tomorrow,” he said. “We leave as we came, and God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind,” he concluded. Then he climbed up the ladder, shut the hatch and headed home.

      The agenda? If the USA succeeds – BAD. If the USA retreats and cedes the job to an “international” agency – GOOD.

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  7. deegee says:

    Trial of Iceland ex-PM Haarde over 2008 crisis begins
    Now that’s a thought. Let’s sue politicians for incompetence. Where will it end? Suing broadcasters?

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  8. My Site (click to edit) says:

    I have little time for any self-important celeb anchor, and Adam Boulton is more puffed up than most.

    So I was pleasantly suprised when he was presented with one of the spawning infesations of hundred-k harridans from our stoppit industry.

    This clueless harpie was on about her commission and preventing women from getting murdered the first time the hit eHarmony, by blowing every data protection law in the book out of the window. Plus getting the fuzz to act a well-meaning shoulder when some horny chavette falls in lurve again and seems inclined to move in with her brood to the boyfriend’s crib despite the notches on the bedpost.

    All Mr. Boulton, on our behalf, was trying to get at was how it would work, and with what aim.

    All this clueless ninnie could do was intone how long and how much she was going to be spending having meetings on ‘it’, whatever ‘it’ was.

    Why do I get the feeling she will be up with Harperson and Penny on Newsnight tonight to be fed easy balls from the Wark on just how awful men are and… no, that will about do it.

    ps: There was a sensible woman on too (BBC please try one day) who pointed out that existing laws on abuse were fine, but if useless plod is useless there won’t be much change.

    pps: The only thing that disappoints me in these exchanges is the interviewers remain objective even when presented with 24hr carat loons, and simply thank them for their input. I want these cretins sliced and diced, along with their pathetic arguments, such that they, and their over-funded quangos are never seen or heard of again.

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  9. Louis Robinson says:

    So President Barack Obama is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mark Mardell says “The two men have different approaches to the foreign policy issue that is at the top of the West’s agenda: how to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17254302

    The old joke goes: what is the difference between the bacon and the egg? The pig is committed, the hen has an interest.
    Seems to me while Israel is committed, I’m not sure how interested Obama is in stopping Iran getting nuclear weapons. Trouble in the Mideast is a pain in the arse in an election year…and then there’s the base who want peace at any price…and hell, its too much trouble for a president who spent yesterday in one short security meeting and the rest of the day jetting about the country raising money fopr his campaign.
    I fear despite what he says in public, he really thinks he can live with an Iranian nuclear bomb relying on his amazing ability to charm people around to his point of view.
    But as usual Mardell takes the President at his word. I’m not willing to buy his premise. 

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      I expect the President does believe He can keep the peace via his own brilliance. But He really just doesn’t want Israel to screw up His re-election chances. He seriously does not want to appear to be supporting Israel militarily if it all hits the fan, as His extremist base will freak out and vote for Ron Paul instead. He knows He’ll have to (not because He’s controlled by the Joooos, but because of geo-political reality, which the BBC never likes to discuss), but is going to do everything possible to avoid it.  
       
      He personally wouldn’t be bothered if Israel got the crap bombed out them, or even nuked. Like so many Beeboids, He’d most likely think they had it coming. One doesn’t sit through 20 years of anti-Israel sermons and think differently. It’s just politics that’s keeping Him invested in the situation.

      Mardell fits in with that exremist base, so he’ll naturally side with any plan which ties Israel’s hands behind its back.

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    • Teddy Bear says:

      Netanyahu talks tough in Obama Iran meeting

      When I saw the headline for this article on the BBC Mid-East webpage today, I had to wonder what it was that was said to make it ‘tough’.

      All it appears they are basing it on is this statement
      Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told US President Barack Obama that Israel must always remain “master of its fate”.

      Meeting the Israeli leader at the White House, Mr Obama said a nuclear Iran would be an “unacceptable” development.

      Sounds commendable and understandable, especially given threats that Iran has made previously about eradicating Israel.

      Does anybody besides the BBC think that wishing to be master of ones own fate – makes one ‘tough’? That would explain then why the BBC wants the UK to be ruled by socialism and the EU.

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      • Louis Robinson says:

        I was wondering how Obama was going to get out his pledge to help Bibi…then I spoke this afternoon to a Liberal Jewish (Reform) friend who supports Israel, the Democrat party and Obama.  I asked about the possibility of going to help Israel out if the shit hits the fan.. he shook his head and muttered. “I wish Israel didn’t have such bad leadership at this time…” Aha! I think that may be the getout clause for the big O and we know he’ll be looking for one. Stay tuned.

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    • George R says:

      Mardell, Kay and the noise from the over-staffed, like-minded BBC-Democrats:

      ‘Little Sir Echo’



      Inspired by:

      Mardell and Kay:

      (scroll down)

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world/us_and_canada/

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  10. My Site (click to edit) says:

    http://order-order.com/2012/03/05/labour-mp-calls-for-police-investigation-into-mirror-corruption/

    One presumes the BBC will have wall-to-wall Mr. Bryant, as they have in the past when he has something to say on… ‘the press’?

    Or is about time for another bout of ‘watertight oversight’ chez Auntie on the 4th estate?

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  11. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Mardell continues to fret over the drumbeat of an unwanted war. He attended the President’s speech at AIPAC, an organization which many Beeboids believe to the most dangerous of all.  The President averred that he wasn’t bluffing when he said that no options were off the table when it came to preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon of some kind.

    Mardell, naturally, felt the most important thing he heard was this:

    He got a standing ovation, and everybody I could see joined in. Those I spoke to afterwards had a remarkably similar view.

    They liked what he said, but most wondered when words would be turned into action.

    And there you have it. Mardell has proven to himself – and, he thinks, to you – that the Jews want the US to go to war NOW.

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    • deegee says:

      Obama said he has Israel’s back. We want him in front so we can see him!

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        I could make a simile about that referencing Beeboids and Hampstead Heath, but my sense of decorum forbids.

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  12. Pounce says:

    The bBC and its so called defence experts:
    How France helped both sides in the Falklands War
    So the bBC has finally got round to reporting that france helped both sides during the Falkland’s war. Of course as this is the bBC, they use the above article as a vehicle in which to express their contempt for Maggie, I quote:
    In a stinging memo dated 7 April 1982, France’s then ambassador to London, Emmanuel de Margerie, described British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as “Victorian, imperialist and obstinate”. He went on to add that she had a “tendency to get carried away by combative instincts”.
    And its hatred of anything pertaining to British culture:
    Senior French official Bernard Dorin accused Britain of “superpower arrogance” and claimed the country had shown “profound contempt for Latinos”.
    But anyway down to business, out of the 20 Exocet missiles launched by Argentina only three struck targets, the first hit the Sheffield, which was due to the Captain making a call back to London which required the radar switching off. The Atlantic conveyor which was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and HMS Glamorgan which wasn’t hit from the air, but rather from a surface launch from a rigged up assembly from the East Island. The first two took the Brits by surprise, but after that nothing, the Glamorgan incident showed the folly of allowing your ship to be sighted from land.  But according to the bBC’s defence expert this is just not Cricket. I mean how dare the French sell weapons to Argentina, lets see what did the French sell them: Exocet missiles, Panhard armoured cars,Roland  Missiles ,Mirage jet fighters and Super Étendard and off route mines.

    The Uk on the other hand only sold Argentina, 2 Type 45 Frigates, 1 aircraft carrier, Sea Cat and Sea dart missiles, Blowpipe missiles, Shorts skyvans, Sterling submachine guns, Canberra jet bombers
    Puma and Gazelle helicopters used by Argentina are aircraft jointly produced by France and the UK.

    Funny enough the 1000lb bombs used by Argentina were made in the Uk.  In total 13 ships were hit by 1000Lbs bombs which didn’t detonate , this was due to them not fusing due to the low level tactics the Argentine airforce used, but that changed when the bBC broadcast what was happening and the Argies bought new fuses from Spain which rectified the problem.

    So while the bBC bitches (Like a gay man on heat) about the nasty French, they leave out that by informing the enemy about how their bombs weren’t working, the changes they made ensured that Many British service men (Bluff cove) died. Then lets not forget how the bBC broadcast to the world that the Paras were marching on Goose green thus allowing the Argentine armed forces to reinforce the Hamlet with over 750 extra men. Now why would the argentines expect the Brits to go in the opposite direction to Stanley other than being informed by the cock sucking wankers at the bBC who deserved to be shot for treason.  But like all f-ing cowards they point out the lesser mistakes of others in which to play the concern card.

    The bBC, the traitors in our midst.

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  13. Pounce says:

    The bBC and how it is remaking the bomber of Pam AM flight 103 into an Innocent man
    Lockerbie bomber Megrahi ‘visited Malta for sex’
    The Libyan jailed for life following the 1988 Lockerbie bombing told investigators he travelled to Malta regularly to have sex. Prosecutors said the bomb which destroyed Pan-Am Flight 103 was in a suitcase loaded on the island. Previously secret documents, seen by BBC Scotland, detail the explanations of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, 59, for his presence on Malta. They also suggest he could travel there without a passport or identification. The Mediterranean island was key to the case which saw Megrahi convicted, in January 2001, of murdering 270 people in the bombing. Megrahi was returned to Libya on compassionate grounds in August 2009 after serving 10 years of a life sentence; he has inoperable prostate cancer….. “As a Libyan Arab Airlines employee and as someone well known, both at Tripoli airport and at the airport in Malta,” he told the lawyers, “I could get away with not using a passport or an identification card at all, but simply by wearing my Libyan Arab Airlines uniform.
    “This may sound ridiculous but it is true.
    Actually it is a lie as al-Megrahi worked for the Libyan secret service and his cover was a airline worker. But hey why mention the facts when there’s the huge task of painting a man convicted in a UN court in a neutral country of 270 counts of murder of being an innocent man.
    I mean what’s with this:
    Megrahi was returned to Libya on compassionate grounds in August 2009 after serving 10 years of a life sentence; he has inoperable prostate cancer.
    Err bBC , 10 years? He was found guilty in jan 2001 and released in Aug 2009. (That’s 8 and a half years) As for being released on compassionate grounds I seem to remember the bBC reporting in August 2009 that this odious man had days to live,
    However, after taking medical advice it was expected that three months was a “reasonable estimate” of the time Megrahi had left to live.
    Over 30 months later, the bbC is still reporting he has days to live, well they did until this report.
    Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi is ‘in coma’
    Lockerbie bomber ‘should be left to die in peace’
    Megrahi critically ill says son, as BBC allowed into home
    Lockerbie bomber protests innocence in ‘last’ interview
    Hague ‘outrage’ at Lockerbie bomber’s TV appearance
    Lockerbie bomber Megrahi’s cancer not fake – Sikora
    Lockerbie bomber asks victim’s father ‘Pray for me’
    Bomber’s condition ‘deteriorates’
    Jailed killer being freed to die
    Bloody hell, even Captain Scarlet is easy to kill than this terrorist.

    Now contrast this bBC rebranding of a convicted terrorist into an Innocent man with their coverage of how an theological autocratic Islamic regime which has no problems picking people off the streets, proclaiming they are guilty and the bBC reports that as fact.
    Iran overturns death sentence for ‘CIA spy’ Hekmati
    Iran’s Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence given to an Iranian-American national accused of spying for the CIA and ordered a retrial.
    Funny that?
    The bBC, the traitors in our Midst.

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      I definitely remember Bowen standing outside Megrahi’s house during the non-war/liberation/Western-imposed regime change in Libya, telling us that the old mass murderer was in a coma. How many months ago was that now?

      I’m going to ask for his doctor’s number next time someone I know is diagnosed with terminal cancer,

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    • London Calling says:

      I’d like to see the name of the hack medic who opined Al Megrahi had three months to live. His diagnostic skills are seriously lacking and I hope he is not practicing on real people with such faulty judgement. He needs to be struck off.  He won’t be name of course as the whole point was to kick the ball into the long grass – no one dares question a doctor. After all, he’s a…a… doctor (bow down). Shameless opportunism.

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    • ap-w says:

      To be fair in the Al Megrahi case they didn’t just go to one doctor. They also got a second opinion from Ronnie Biggs’ GP.

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    • Millie Tant says:

      That’s very interesting to note the Beeboid Corporation’s response and the reasons it gives in response to a campaign by Broadcast magazine to get more women on radio and television:

      BSkyB and Channel 4 have both come out in support of the campaign, by the trade magazine Broadcast. ITV is in discussions about signing up to the target.
      However, the BBC – which has recently admitted it does not have enough women in serious news and current affairs roles – said it would not sign up because of its duty to represent all licence fee holders.

      The campaign comes as research shows that BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today programme is one of the worst offenders for interviewing women experts.
      City University in London monitored five programmes over four weeks and found that male experts outnumber female across television and radio by an average of four to one. But the Today programme had six times as many male experts as female.
      A BBC spokesman said the corporation was “sympathetic to the aims of the Broadcast pledge” but the licence fee means it is unable to endorse campaigns.

       More weaselling by the Beeboid Corporation. 

      Duty to represent licence fee holders would mean a duty to represent women proportionately, would it not, Beeboids?

      Unable to endorse campaigns. That’s a laugh! This is from the Corporation that has appointed various highly paid people specifically to promote the d word and gaily publishes targets for ethnic minority representation – or possibly over-representation, though only for black’n’Asian, natch.  And that doesn’t mean all Asians, either, lest it slip anyone’s mind for a moment.

      Unable to endorse campaigns unless they are those of the Labour Party, and the various other favoured client groups

      [Can we compile a list here? ]

      e.g. the militant homosexual loony activist fringe

             the Muslim fanatics

             Trevor Phillips’s special interest groups

              ……………

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  14. David Preiser (USA) says:

    It’s Compare and Contrast time again, boys and girls.

    BBC:


    US manufacturing growth eases in February


    After three months of acceleration, the pace of growth slowed at US manufacturers in February.

    NASDAQ, an impartial organization not dedicated to supporting the President:


    US Factory Orders Fall 1% In January

    U.S. factory orders declined for the first time in three months in January as demand for steel, machinery and other big-ticket items fell.

    Orders were down 1.0% in January to $462.58 billion, the biggest drop in more than a year, the Commerce Department said Monday. Orders grew a revised 1.4% in December, up from the previously estimated 1.1% increase.

    NB defenders of the indefensible: the NASDAQ report is from today, and the BBC’s is from last Thursday. There’s a reason why one talks about January while the other talks about February. And the BBC censors the bit about the figures being the worst in more than a year.

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  15. RCE says:

    Monday night, 9PM… It’s time for Empire according to Paxman.

    Actually, nah… I’ve got some red hot pokers I’d rather stick in my fucking eyes.

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  16. Merlin says:

    Click like if you hate the BBC, the Guardian and middle class rivita-eating, sandal wearing, rainbow coloured cardigan wearing fairtrade coffee sipping left wing rich kid drama student socialists.

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  17. Merlin says:

    On a more serious note, anyone else getting a little pissed off with the sanctimonious BBC putting the boot in to Putin? Now, I’m no fan of Putin but we all know that the BBC are only coveing this whole ‘coorruption’ crap because they hold Russia and China  responsbile for foiling their little socialist ‘revolution’ in  Syria (even though many Syrians don’t support the ‘rebels’) This organisation is getting more left wing and biased under Cameron then it was with Liebour.

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    • dave s says:

      It is obvious the Russians were annoyed at the regime change in Libya and felt conned by Nato. And they were. I have not heard any BBC droid express anything remotely along these lines.

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  18. Cassandra King says:

    6 March 2012 Last updated at 06:21 GMT Nissan set to create 2,000 jobs<img src=”http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/58891000/jpg/_58891890_003584122-1.jpg” alt=”Nissan logo”/>

    Carmaker Nissan is to build a new model at its Sunderland factory, a move that will create 2,000 jobs.

    Now here is a perfect example of the dishonest BBC in action, as usual what they do not say is key to this report, what they try to hide is key to understanding the BBC mindset.

    You may remember the Nissan Leaf, it was peddled as the future of motoring, it was going to sell like hot cakes, it won an award ya know, it was a sure fire winner. And funnily enough a search of the BBC archives finds that the BBC reports filled with wildly optimistic claims has disappeared.

    The Nissan Leaf is a gigantic flop, it was found to be a gigantic flop even as the production lines fired up, nobody wanted a 30 grand car that only went a few miles before dying and for 30 grand you could have an Audi A1-3/BMW 3 series/Merc etc, cars that actually work.

    Now to cover the disaster of the Nissan Leaf and to cover the loss of taxpayers cash, the regime went begging to Nissan and offered yet more cash for the new compact car. It helps the regime out of a great big hole, a regime that promised so much and delivered yet another example of why government cannot pick commercial winners hole that the BBC would normally be only too happy to expoit to attack the libdem lead regime.

    This is how the BBC works, they cannot admit that electric cars are a gigantic flop because they peddled the idea with all the fanaticism of a cultist zealot. All the taxpayers money pissed up the wall building a car nobody wants not least because they dont work, all the promises of a new dawn found to be a pack of lies. The BBC finds itself wrapped up in a web of lies and deception doesnt it?

    Oh and BTW I wonder what Bojo is going to do with all those redundant charging points for the hundreds of thousands of electric cars THAT DONT EXIST. Perhaps we can use them to adminster the final jolt to all the Quislings and traitors come the revolution ๐Ÿ˜€ ๐Ÿ˜€ .

       0 likes

    • Cassandra King says:

      No, sorry I just have to make the observation.

      Whats the betting that this ‘new’ Nissan compact is just a Nissan leaf with a real engine crammed in and the battery removed?

      What will they do with all those Leaf badges? If I had my way I would super glue every badge to the foreheads of all those regime retards who happily squandered taxpayers cash on a Bristol Brabazon Mk2.

      The BBC toady show are going mental pimping this new car, nothing about how terrible internal combustion engines are murdering polar bears and drowning us all.

      A cunch of bunts =-O

         0 likes

      • My Site (click to edit) says:

        To be fair.. SKY is in full ‘future of motoring’ mode, too.

        Have to say it was funny the Irish bloke seemed a little unsure what a Nissan might be.

           0 likes

        • Cassandra King says:

          But you can see the corruption of the MSM, this story highlights it perfectly.

          Nissan(taxpayer)invested a great deal of money building a production line, ordering shed loads of components, recruiting workers, seats and car bodies and dashboards, a 1001 parts needed to build a car and its a car nobody wants to buy, it is missing its production targets not by a few but by almost 100%, they have a whole production line waiting to build a car nobody wants. Its stunningly obvious to anyone that rather than dismantle this idle production line they hastily remove the reason for the cars failure to sell. All Nissan has to do is redesign the drive unit and replace the electric components with a real engine.

          Yet rather than admit the gigantic failure of the Nissan Leaf they use old bury bad news tactic, it becomes a story not of the failure of the Nissan Leaf but the triumph of a ‘new’ car being built in its place that will only be a Nissan Leaf with a real engine.

             0 likes

          • Natsman says:

            It’s a ‘concept’ car, Cassandra, that is, one that is “An abstract or general idea inferred or derived from specific instances”.

            If the specific instance is the Leaf, I wouldn’t worry – just wait until autumn, and it’ll fall with all the others…

               0 likes

          • My Site (click to edit) says:

            Actually, if there are 2k manufacturing jobs going on the EU subsidy circuit, I guess it’s better here than elsewhere. Not sure how other countries view the bribe, mind.

            What intrigues is how the MSM decides between sycophantic ra-ra BS as we are being served on this, or tribal boot in as usually happens.

            Just watched Young Mr. Cable literally being asked by a SKY male moppet ‘just how jolly well’ it is all doing. He was happy to confim and wave to the fire extinguisher.

            Our politico-media estate is one sick joke.

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  19. My Site (click to edit) says:

    Jose Manuel Barosso:

       0 likes

  20. London Calling says:

    Its no “King Edward” that’s for sure.

       0 likes

  21. Jeff Waters says:

    Employment tribunals: Government considers overhaul  – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17181327

    The BBC tells us why the government’s changes are a bad thing…

    Jeff

       0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      Employment tribunals: Government considers overhaul  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17181327  ‘

      Like anything, it is not a simple matter, and abuse is a pendulum that swings both ways… a matter the BBC, typically, fails to engage with fully.

      For every chef downright abused by a non-attending employer, there is some poor sod trying to run a small business with half the work force not quite managing Monday as they are ‘sick’. And defending against that they are up against a wall of time, money, funded legals, unions… and the nanny media where no one sees they pay packet affected by their actions or beiiefs.

      My favourite was when the Law Society was caught inbetween a rock and a hard place in s senior bullying spat between a wimmin and an ethnic minority. They, literally, could not win. I am sure it got billed to the clients and the exec who dropped the ball got promoted, like a BBC ageism case.

      I recall early in my career turning up to work to find a bloke at my desk. ‘Who are you?’ I asked.. ‘The new xx,’ he replied, ‘who are you?’. All I could manage was: ‘The old one, apparently’. My boss had gone into hiding that day. I got a month in lieu. Worked out OK in the end. 

      Who the heck wants to work with twats who don’t want to work with you?

      I concede protections are now needed for the vulnerable against abuse, but all it has become is yet more jobs for the boys and girls forcing square begs into round hols, failing to accpt that the world is a competitive place.

         0 likes

  22. Roland Deschain says:

    O/T, but this popped up on my Dilbert desktop calendar this morning and seems worth sharing.

       0 likes

  23. Radio2LunchTimeLoather says:

    Ooops! I forgot to post this here yesterday…
    Lembit Opik sent the following tweet to the abominable Jeremy Vine on Sunday evening:
    Lembit Öpik  @lembitopik

    @theJeremyVine Jeremy, hope you’re well. My book on future of Lib Dems and its leadership is out tomorrow. Your listeners may be interested?

     

    And so it came to pass that Lembit Opik appeared on yesterday’s R2 Jeremy Vine Show for 30 minutes to promote his new book.

     

    http://lunchtimeloather.blogspot.com/

       0 likes

    • Natsman says:

      I was idly looking at anagrams of Lembit Opik,  I particularly liked this one:  Limp Bet Oik.

         0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      Guessing Lunctime Loather’s ‘Holding Power To Account: The escalated review years’ will not be a featured tome any time soon?

      As one also involved in the music industry I recall the BBC and payola, where no money changed hands (well…) but it didn’t hurt if your plugger took the Radio 1,2 producers out to lunch a lot.

      It’s not corruption… it’s BBC ‘unique’ corruption.

         0 likes

    • Millie Tant says:

      He’s doing the Beeboid studio tour, evidently: he was on The Daily Politics, yesterday. I only caught the tail end of it when reference was made to some book and he was shown holding something that looked vaguely like the Yellow Pages.

         0 likes

  24. Natsman says:

    I heard Martin Rees receiving a adulatory bum-licking this morning – was he not a former President of that corrupt, august and non-scientific body the Royal Society a little while ago?  Everyone was so nice to him.

       0 likes

  25. cjhartnett says:

    Anyone able to help me untangle the BBCs direction of travel in a few areas?
    1. Tories looking at getting rid of child benefit for those on over £40,000 so I`m told.
    Surely the savings could pay off the debt, or go towards those who earn nothing like this grand sum…well down here in THIS part of the world anyway.
    But no-£40,000 is the cost of 2 nannies and an intern thrown in to a Beeb person…so I`m guessing that the media class think this is slave labour wages….well to them, maybe; but not to us.
    How disconnected ARE this lot?…to be wailing at this “attack on social cohesion”…this “equaliser of childrens entiltements” seesm pretty contrived to me.
    If Darling had chosen to do it..wouldn`t it have been seen as “fair” by the BBC etc..but just because the Tories are doing it…
    2. And in the same vein.
    Legal services are getting opened up to competition, so you`d think that the prices might drop and the feather-bedded legal aid industry of grievance farmers might take a hit.
    Not a bit of it-Justin Webb worries about the quality of service we`ll get if solicitors and barristers are made to stop opening veins and start having to be competent.
    I`d have thought that the fat cat aimless litigation of human rights, obscenely paid partners in Temple Bar and Eurotroughers at the human rights temples…the Prescotts and Levi Bellfields…would be sitting ducks for “bankers outrage”…bringing the country in disrepute and costing us billions…
    Oh yes, the Balen Report…the joys of Savile and the terrors of Hutton…sucking up to Lamings…sorry to waste your time…I`ve answered my own questions.
    Think I`ll go to Strasbourg re my right to stay analogue…what the hell am I supposed to do with my old tellies and radios…toxic leakage, bad for Gaia?…and I was not consulted either!
    Didn`t Birty boy say it was MY BBC then?…that a legal and binding commitment then?

       0 likes

  26. Cassandra King says:

    Update.

    St Vince Cable appears on the BBC toady show…dont mention the Nissan LEAF…the government doesnt pick winners claims Cable, you got that right mate…dont mention the Nissan Leaf…investing in low carbon and green technologies, like the fossil fueled replacement to the Nissan Leaf?…dont mention the Nissan Leaf…two thousand new jobs, yeah the ones recruited to produce a car nobody wants to buy…dont mention the Nissan Leaf.

    So there you have it, the lying regime trumpeting a technology they have hissed and booed at for years, fossil fueled cars was the new tobacco products, the enemy of the planet spewing the evil pollutant CO2. Neither St Vince or the beeboid toadies bothered to mention that the picture of the new car and the nissan Leaf look the same, neither wanted to mention the elephant in the room, that electric cars have been a gigantic failure and a waste of money, the only good thing to come out of it was a commercial company making use of the failure to create a success.

       0 likes

    • Bupendra Bhakta says:

      For the price of the battery for an electric car you can treat yourself to a Ford Fiesta straight off the assembly line.

      There’s the rub.

         0 likes

      • Alfie Pacino says:

        forty thousand dollars to replace the burnt out pack on a Tesla…. That’s a Sports Fiesta or a hell of a lot of petrol

           0 likes

  27. Leha II says:

    A double reason to avoid V.Drearyshire today, Ed Millipede will be on answering your vetted questions…….

       0 likes

    • Bupendra Bhakta says:

      I note his brother, The Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs, invited himself onto Newsnight yestereve.

      (Note to BBC – Labour lost the last election)

         0 likes

      • My Site (click to edit) says:

        invited himself onto Newsnight yesterday’

        As Lunchtime Loather points out, it’s easy to do.. if you know the ‘right’ people.

           0 likes

  28. My Site (click to edit) says:

    Loving the missed irony of this..

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17257124

    Especially as I read this from one of the over-promoted ‘we are imaprtial ‘cos it says so right here where I wrote it’ harpies in BBC senior management:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2012/03/why_bbc_journalists_are_in_bes.html

       0 likes

  29. Cassandra King says:

    Hello hello hello, what have we here? ๐Ÿ˜€

    Boris Johnson: Ken Lingstone a ‘tax dodger’ and a ‘hypocrite’ <img src=”http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02122/KENLIVINGSTONE_2122535g.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”Ken Livingstone, Labour’s candidate for London mayor”/>  

    Boris Johnson attacked his Labour rival, Ken Livingstone, as a “tax dodger” and “hypocrite” yesterday after The Sunday Telegraph revealed that Mr Livingstone has avoided at least £50,000 in tax by having himself paid through a personal company.

    And the BBC are all over it like a rash, the panorama crew are rushing to the scene for a front page  expose….or maybe not eh? I just happened to drop Livingslimes name into the Bojo faliygraph column and I got the news from the superlative Guido Fawkes blog who broke the story days ago.

    Obviously you can see why the BBC didnt want to cover the story, they have been busy peddling and promoting the would be bankster hanging rich people persecuting man of the people comrade Livinglsime. He was ahead in the polls and had a chance of unseating the hated and despised Bojo.

    Well, its in the MSM now and Livinglime is as quiet as a hypocrite caught red handed. hahhahahahahahahaha…just choked on my cherry brandy….hahahahahahahahah.

       0 likes

    • Umbongo says:

      . . .and BBC1 London News last night was devoted to bashing Boris for Kit Malthouse’s ancient attempt to convince the Met to switch its resources from phone tapping to “ordinary” crime.  Again, the BBC screens the almost 2 year old clip of Boris commenting (on the basis of misleading information from the Met, which the BBC knows was misleading info) that the phone tapping fuss was mostly bollocks.

      The BBC piece of propaganda was backed up by interviews with Labour and LibDem MLAs while Boris was given 10 seconds in the street on a distant OB camera: how impartial can you get?  I look forward to the BBC screening clips of its candidate for Mayor of London praising the thieving and race-hustling of the Livingstone years with comments from Conservative MLAs.  Mind you, given the Conservative comment record it’s not as if the BBC need fear that the Conservatives in question would actually attack Livingstone or, God forbid, the BBC.

         0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Pkenty of on-air talent do the same thing. They’re technically freelance, but the BBC pays their production company. So they take a lower salary from their own company at a lower tax rate than they’d have to pay otherwise, and then earn off the top as owners of the company.

      So you shouldn’t expect too much scrutiny on this topic from Beeboids doing the exact same thing.

         0 likes

  30. Bupendra Bhakta says:

    Radio 5 Dead this morning had a piece about the cost of care for the elderly.

    Nicky Chucklehead (briefly) stopped corpsing at his own jokes to ask,

    ‘Would it help if all the multinational enterprises and large companies paid tax?’

    Last I heard, multinational enterprises and large companies do pay tax.

    Questions he was too busy corpsing to ask included,

    ‘Would it help if BBC ‘talent’ stopped avoided income tax by setting themselves up as private companies?

    ‘Would it help if we abolished the television license fee?’

    having pursued his own/ the BBC’s agenda, Nicky Chucklehead passes the baton onto Wake Up To Manny who wastes FTSE Chief Executives’ time with Labour Party planted questions about Plan B for the economy, and utter drivel like

    ‘would the 50p tax have put you off starting up in business?’

    All in all a tragic waste of electromagnetic spectrum.  AM spectrum – but spectrum nevertheless.

       0 likes

    • As I See It says:

      Couldn’t help but notice that Game Show ought to have been hoist by his own feminist petard this morning.

      As he chuckled along with the girls in the office over Prince Harry meeting the Jamaican PM he quipped…….’It will be all smiles when he meets him

      Of course Light-Weight miss-spoke. He forgot that Jamaica’s republican-minded left-of-centre PM is Portia Simpson Miller. A woman.

      Gwaan?

      I only make a point of this because it is just the sort of thing that Dame Nikky loves to point out to others.

         0 likes

  31. Umbongo says:

    As previous commenters have noted, Evan gave Vince the usual soft focus blow-job which has become standard for the BBC-LibDem love-in on Today.  Among the many topics for congratulation, Evan and Vince agreed that, in return for LibDem agreement to the dropping of the “temporary” 50% top income tax rate, a mansion/wealth tax “to tax the rich more heavily” was OK with the LibDems, the BBC and Cameron.  Well, they didn’t actually mention Cameron, or Osborne, but, unless Vince is playing a deep game or just plain lying, given the amount of leaking to the MSM on this topic, the deal is in the works.  BTW, the mansion tax will kick in just above the value of houses in Twickenham which, by no coincidence at all, is Vince’s constituency.

       0 likes

  32. james1070 says:

    The Arab Spring has been so wonderful, so diverse and liberating according to the BBC. Well here is something that the BBC is hiding from the public, but you can find it on Russia Today. Our Libyan ‘friends’ are at it again, putting Black Africans into zoo cages and force feeding them Libyan flags.

       0 likes

    • jarwill101 says:

        Whoah! Beeboids no likey this sort of nasty imagery: spoils their fantasy ‘narrative’. Angelic muslims being waycist? Allah forbid. Of course, the muslim slave trade never happened, did it? Not on the BBC it didn’t. It was all whitey’s doing. Bonnie Greer said so, as she was being wheeled into the secure ward at Trumpton Psychiatric Hospital.
        Probably too late, the BBC will realise why the gut instinct of so many Brits not to mix with, let alone trust, muslims, is intelligent, instinctive self-preservation. The Kafir, & the moon jockeys, are diametrically opposed. Given the Islamic imperative to dominate, then they can only be our enemies. Any other interpretation is specious cant. It’s our traitor class, the Politicos/BBC/Foreign Office, who should be in zoo cages, having Union Jacks stuffed down their lying throats. Muslims are welcome to them. We need to start again. With a few thousand Paul Westons sorting out our institutions.

         0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Not that it makes this any less of an ugly display, but are those black Africans by any chance some of the mercenaries and fighters from Chad and other places that Ghaddafi brought in for protection during his last days in power? So not really just basic racism for no reason?

      Are they being made to eat the flags entirely, or just hold them in their mouths for humiliation? And I hate to say it, but if these were AQ terrorists (to use the BBC coinage) being held by US troops, the scene would look pretty much the same, except instead of flags in their mouths they’d have sacks over thier heads.

         0 likes

      • My Site (click to edit) says:

        Saw a History channel doco on sieges. Little to excuse but a lot to explain.

        Maybe the market in propping up despots might be a smidge less on the supply side, merc-wise, as a result of this or… when thinsg at kick-off are going more the dictator-du-jour’s way, it might give pause when he says ‘shoot my own people’.

        Just acting as devil’s advocate.

           0 likes

  33. As I See It says:

    Ed Miliband attempted relaunch on BBC 5 Live this morning.

    It’s a phone in but Vikky Derbyshire and her Beeboid editors come up with their own plaintively delivered question ‘…but with all this austerity and unemployment and lack of growth….why are you behind in the polls?’

    You have to admire their hutspah. Of course in Beeb world the Labour Party are the natural party of Britain and of Government so it is confusing for them that any leftie might be trailing in the polls.

       0 likes

  34. sue says:

    Having noticed several disturbingly anti Israel comments by the blogger Old Holborn I was impressed by this blog post by a former follower of his.
    Also, at the end of my Jenny Tonge post I said she’d still be busy.  And that was before I saw this, and see here at Harry’s Place.

       0 likes

    • Umbongo says:

      I never visit OH any more since it seems to me that whenever his stats start to fall he slips in something more or less anti-semitic to ramp up the ratings.  He is, after all, on the Poujardist wing of the libertarian movement and, as a small businessman he apparently feels threatened by more successful types, many of whom are probably Jews.

      As Pat Condell says – and it applies to Baroness Tonge and possibly OH – people dislike Israel because they dislike Jews, not the other way round.

         0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      OH is, like Gudio, a pretty nasty bit of work.

      But they do find stuff out, hence I allow myself to swim in their sewers.

      As with the BBC.

      The trick is to sift the sh*t for nuggets of gold, and let the rest wash away.

      The key differences between them and the BBC are:

      a) I choose to visit them

      b) They are free

      Otherwise, little difference. Well, there is the £4Bpa budget thing too.

         0 likes

      • Span Ows says:

        No, both Guido and OH have “aides” who do most of the work these days.

           0 likes

  35. George R says:

    We licencepayers pay for BBC-NUJ propaganda in SPAIN too.

    In the following BBC-NUJ video clip, a putative journalist gets in the following comments:

    1.) ‘this system is not offering’ (young people) ‘what they want.’

    2.) (Spain needs): ‘more for the population, less for the banks.’

    Of course, BBC-NUJ propaganda allows no mention of the possible culpability of the two terms of the recent Zapatero Labour government on the Spanish economy.

    “Lost Generation: Fears for the future in Spain”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17269928

       0 likes

    • cjhartnett says:

      Funny that isn`t it?
      Like PASOK in Greece or Zapateros bunch…when socialists screwed the country over, we get the Brown defence….“nothing to do with us mate, it were broken as I found it”.

      As for the BBC.. “well,who`s to say…we are where we are…no use crying over spilt milk and lessons will be learned I`m sure”.

      Except in the case of Mrs Thatchers years-from which we`ll always need our smelling salts lest we get an attack of the vapours at the very mention of her name!

         0 likes

  36. George R says:

    “A ‘human-rights sceptic’ and proud of it.
    “Anyone who values liberty should be a card-carrying ‘sceptic’ of the European Court of Human Rights.”


    (by Luke Samuel) –

    [Excerpt]:-


    “When Shami Chakrabati, director of British lobby group Liberty, appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Today last week to argue against proposed reforms that would see far fewer cases going before the European Court of Human Rights, she branded her opponent, Dominic Raab MP, a ‘human-rights sceptic’. Such is the confidence of the human-rights lobby today that it has adopted a tactic established by climate-change activists: accuse your opponent of having committed a thought crime with their arguments, which they will then – as Raab did – be forced to deny vehemently .”


    http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/12199/


       0 likes

  37. cjhartnett says:

    let`s go one step further-not just a “sceptic”-but in this case “a denier”.
    That should get Shami to choke on her latte.
    She speaking up for Saif Gadhaffi at his coming trial then?

       0 likes

  38. cjhartnett says:

    Nice of the BBC to tell us all about Lewis Hamiltons brother and his disability scooter racing round Silverstone. It`s on telly tonight , so Toady Show tells me.
    Now doesn`t racing a car pointlessly round a track with Ecclestones cigarette brand emblazoned on the chassis constitute a threat to Gaia and so our 2020 targets of having no carbon in our pencils by that glorious date? How many polar bears will be crying tonight after this disability carousel has been put on for the likes of Clarkson?
    Yet-no Black, no Harrabin, no Juniper?…why so Beeb?
    Not racing Nissan Leafs are they?

       0 likes

    • john says:

      Not racing Nissan Leafs are they ?

      Well that would mean one of two new Formula catagories :
      1) F1 Still Life
      or
      2) F1 Pyrotechnic

         0 likes

  39. Louis Robinson says:

    A few days ago I posted on this site expressing my disquiet about the “Sandra Fluke” narrative. As I suspected, over the last few days new facts about her have emerged.
    I listened to Rush Limbaugh’s apology to Sandra Fluke yesterday and heard some interesting facts about how she appeared before the “committee” in the first place.  Here’s the link to Limbaugh’s relevant webpage and read the stuff about how the Dems got Fluke into the limelight. If you are short of time read from the paragraph beginning: “Now, the hearing that started all of this, I want to go back and put the timeline here in context, start at the very beginning…”

    http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2012/03/05/why_i_apologized_to_sandra_fluke

    As I suspected Ms Fluke is not a random 20 something Georgetown student but a 30-year-old liberal feminist activist who enrolled in Georgetown with the sole purpose of attacking the university’s practices. But now there’s more: “She also, apparently, believes that it is discrimination deserving of legal action if “gender reassignment” surgeries are not covered by employer provided health insurance.” In other words she wants the cost of sex change operations covered by government and/or company health care.

    http://mrctv.org/blog/sandra-fluke-gender-reassignment-and-health-insurance

    Ms Fluke has appeared on national television and been embraced by the left as a poster child for sexual politics. I have two words to say to her: “Cindy” and “Sheehan”, another useful idiot. When that lady had served her purpose she was dumped by the very people who used her. Take care, Ms Fluke, anonymity awaits you – but only after an invitation to appear on BBC’s “Question Time” the next time they do one of their “New York” shows.

    Postscript: the disappointing group in this fracas is the Roman Catholic Church. Having been disrespected, played, and undermined they seem to be strangely silent. A defeat for those storm troopers of Christ, the Jesuits, I fear. 

       0 likes

    • Louis Robinson says:

      Latest: I learn that when Sandra Fluke opened her twitter account the first person she chose to follow was Rachel Maddow, MSNBC’s main on air personality. The second was Ed Schultz. Ed Schultz was the same man who called conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham “a slut”. Anyone see the irony?
      By the way, the BBC is way behind the curve on this story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17267526

         0 likes

    • DB says:

      Carbonite – the first of Limbaugh’s sponsors to abandon him over the weekend – has seen its stock price dive this week (over 9% down today alone as I write.) Unsurprisingly BBC US journos – eg Katty Katy and US online editor Claudia Milne – who just a couple of days ago were making a big deal on Twitter about social media’s power to influence Limbaugh’s advertisers – have now gone silent on the matter. Funny that.

      (And it turns out that Carbonite CEO David Friend supports MoveOn and other Soros-backed anti-GOP, pro-Obama groups. What a surprise. Maybe Friend can persuade Soros to buy up the Carbonite stock nobody else wants.)

         0 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Just like Go Daddy lost a tone of subscribers and took a hit after they backed SOPA. Who’s got their finger on the pulse of the public, BBC?

           0 likes

        • DB says:

          Just another day for Michelle Malkin. Where are the BBC sisters rushing to her defence?

             0 likes

  40. Radio2LunchTimeLoather says:

    I’ve just received an 11-page PDF file being the response to my “expedited complaints” appeal to the BBC Trust. I love the way they have copied vast swathes of text from my letter to them in to their response, but no matter. Anyway, the Head of Editorial Standards’ decision came as no surprise at all…

    “In the light of all the correspondence in question, the Head of Editorial Standards does not feel the BBC has a case to answer concerning its decision to apply the expedited complaints procedure in relation to your complaints about the Jeremy Vine show.”

    This paragraph made me laugh: “Finally the Head of Editorial Standards notes that the BBC suggested that there had been dozens of complaints over 17 months and you noted that you had made 19 complaints during the past 13 months. I appreciate that this difference concerns you however it does not seem to the Head of Editorial Standards to make a material difference to the essential issue which is that the BBC is expending resource on replying to similar complaints on which you have already had an answer and know the BBC’s position and on which you have no reasonable prospect of success.”

    So, use of the word “dozens” was incorrect after all. Usual BBC accuracy at play then! And you can tell them that they are crap once, maybe twice, BUT DON’T DO IT AGAIN!

    There is no “please keep this secret” instruction so I will publish it in full in due course, and I will be taking up their invitation to appeal to the trustees (I refuse to use a capital T on that word) to review this decision.

    Your BBC, accountable to anybody but you!

       0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      they have copied vast swathes of text’

      I think they think they are paid by the word.

      But if they think anyone is fooled by it, good luck.

      90% of what I get is what I told them played back (‘You said..’), so I just file and forget and focus on what they have to say, which is usually…zippy, bar the fact that, after due pondering of navels, the BBC thinks the BBC is just wonderful.

      What is worth doing is to look back and see what they have not chosen to tell you you told them, and point that out in the strongest terms. Their reputation of editorial by omission precedes them.

      They don’t like that either. So I do it a lot.

      There is no “please keep this secret” instruction’

      And if there were, I’d tell ’em where they can stick it. So long as this farce is kept between them and you and no one else it will go nowhere, as they hope.

      I’d be keen on a legal view on their right to even try that one on, frankly.

      That ‘dozens’ dismissal attempt exposes a key weakness. These weasels thrive on semantics and bail-free trapdoors on the slightest straying from their procedures and expectations of ‘good faith’.

      I’d serve that one up in spades, and point out if they can’t even handle the contraints of their complaint reply without hyperbole to suit their biases, then it hardly helps their defence on their standards of journalism, which seem mainly exaggerated for ratings and skewed for agenda.

         0 likes

      • Millie Tant says:

        It would be interesting to ask Ofcom for a steer on the status of such correspondence and on what basis the Beeboid Corporation could attempt to impose an obligation of confidentiality on a television licence payer re the licence payer’s complaint of bias and correspondence relating to it.

         I mean maybe a phone call to Ofcom making a general enquiry rather than a formal written approach which I imagine would tie one up in a nightmare tangle of bureaucracy akin to that of the Beeboids’ labyrinthine complaints machinery.  If you can manage to speak to a person who is knowledgeable about the subject of confidentiality of communication, you may be able to find out without all the longwinded bother of formal procedures and writing back and forth.

           0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      A mini-quickie just in (not a complaint but referral appeal) to amuse…

      Thank you for your email.

      It appears that your comment has been referred to BBC News for a
      decision as to whether or not it breaks house rules.

      You will need to wait for the outcome of this decision before lodging
      any appeal.

      Regards,
      Central Communities Team.



      {Comment:}
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2012/03/why_bbc_journalists_are_in
      _bes.html

      It says it has been referred. Of course, it has not.

      It has been intercepted as what I wrote in critique of the BBC cannot be
      but removed by default until an excuse has been manufactured to prevent
      posting or delay long enough.



      At 15:29 5th Mar 2012, You wrote:
      ‘when there is so much material provided by local(s)’

      Well, that has not stopped the BBC in other areas of contention and
      conflict.

      And given some of what has resulted from such ‘sources’, paraded as fact
      with the most basic and credulous verification, its value can be treated
      with as much heft as, well, so much that is so happily garnered via
      Twitter these days, which is working so well too.

      I am confident that such as Paul and Fred are ensuring what Paul and
      Fred know is brought to us. As to whether that is all there is, or all
      we need to know, or being shaped as objectively as it might be… that
      is less surely less certain than being claimed.



      This is a thread about what we, the audience, are served back here,
      through the filter of home edi… censorship. The author has made a
      claim. I have taken issue and added a caveat.

      The irony of this ‘referral’ is not lost in the circumstances.

      If I read this right, they are saying I can’t appeal becuase they can’t make their minds up as to who I need to appeal to. Awesome logic.

         0 likes

      • My Site (click to edit) says:

        Gets better.

        They write to me to tell me I can’t appeal, so I weigh in on the logic of that, and they write back digging deeper. Meanwhile, guess what.. my appeal is vindicated!

        I wonder if they realise I see these efforts as a nice bit of mental exercise away from the day job as I have my tea and biccy.

           0 likes

        • Radio2LunchTimeLoather says:

          My appeal letter to the BBC and their reply are now available on my blog for all to see: http://lunchtimeloather.blogspot.com/2012/03/my-appeal-letter-to-bbc-trust.html

             0 likes

          • My Site (click to edit) says:

            Thank you for that.

            A rivetting read, at least to any, like me, similarly engaged in trying to get answers but being served mostly defensive internal attempts at dismissal based on the odd notion that the BBC, despite being your customer servants, consider they are answerable only to themselves and themselves alone… but keep sending the money, or else.

             “Tell us what you think” – a pharse which, along with “we want your views”, should join in infamy such as ‘the cheque’s in the mail’, ‘no, I promise I won’t c..’ and… my personal favourite.. ‘the world’s most trusted news organisation’. “Tell us what you think” 

               0 likes

  41. Will says:

    On “Today” St vince allowed to waffle on saying the same thing 2 or 3 times without a hint of interruption from Evan Davis. Poor vince probably thinks himself loved by the Today gang, but his value to them derives only from the possibility of them luring him into quotes that will put more grit into the workings of the coalition.

    Davis was particularly obvious this morning with his school boy enthusiasm of pitting both the BBC and the Lib Dems against the evil, “laissez-faire Tories”.

       0 likes

  42. Cassandra King says:

    Hows this for a scaremongering headline? Its hard to fathom these muppets isnt it? And the reality? Its grass, it does no harm and it is a regular visitor and only actually lives during the summer months dying off in winter and replaced each summer and has been doing so on and off since Antarctica became frozen. Anyone would think by the headline it was a rerun of day of the triffids FFS.

    6 March 2012 Last updated at 13:51 GMT Alien invaders threaten Antarctic<img src=”http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/58897000/jpg/_58897382_58897319.jpg” alt=”Antarctic research station”/>

    The fringes of Antarctica are being invaded by alien plants and tiny animals, scientists have found, with the average visitor carrying 9.5 seeds.(Im sorry, how the f*ck can grass threaten anything let alone a continent?) (and grass is not an invader, its a natural colonizer FFS, its how grass and other plants spread)

    The BBC invites a shifty rat like looking rent seeker from the BAS, why is grass a problem asks rent seeker, er…uhm…well…we found it at three locations..er uhm. And for the record the Antarctic sea ice is currently well above the 30yr average and has been that way for years. the average temperatures over the entire continent have not risen and over the tiny northern peninsular only by a fraction of a degree.

    I mean these CAGW fraudsters are really desperate, to see natural biomass regeneration in action you only have to visit volcanic islands, its completely natural, it does no harm whatsoever and it has been happening for hundreds of millions of years. And as the planet cools and the peninsular cools down the visitor will die out as it does each winter now. So there you have another recycled bag of lies spread by another rent seeking gravy train riding sell out all too ready to ditch his principles for money.

       0 likes

    • Cassandra King says:

      And what do the intrepid explorers of the BAS do when they find plants? Rip them up of course, what could be more natural than destroying fragile habitat for animal life?

      These mindless hooligans deciding what plants should be where and destroying that which they think shouldnt? Plant life is the ultimate colonizer, it moves all around the planet in an endless search for habitable niches, is carried around on the trade winds and visiting birds from nearby islands.

      Now read into the article and what do you find tucked away? This so called problem is confined to the islands around the continent not the continent itself but according to the computer models if nothing is done in a hundred years it might spread to the continent….aaah those ever reliable models, what cant they do?

      A pack of lies with a scary headline and a recycled one at that. Thats the lying scum at the BBC for you, and no sceptics invited to explain the truth were invited to comment, not invited because to do so would destroy this pack of lies in aone minute.

         0 likes

      • My Site (click to edit) says:

        And what do the intrepid explorers of the BAS do when they find plants? ‘

        Logic like that, and next you’ll be telling me they reckon the best thing to deal with solar system magnitude level events is throw buckets of money at unproven technologies that either don’t work or break.

           0 likes

  43. Martin says:

    I caught a bit of game show Nikky this morning. I noted that once again the worthless left were spitting their hate at anyone who might have bought their own house “why shouldn’t you sell it to pay for your care” spouted one obvious socialists SWP member.

    Funny that they don’t seem to think that prisoners or their families should sell their assets to pay for their care in prison.

       0 likes

    • Natsman says:

      How many times over in your working (and retired) life are you expected to pay for your future care?  So much for “cradle to grave”  I bet those who don’t own property shout the loudest.  Philistines.

         0 likes

    • RCE says:

      I’d happily sell my house to provide for my healthcare. On the proviso that I wasn’t taxed throughout my working life to pay for the care of others.

         0 likes

    • Demon1001 says:

      stating the bleeding obvious:-  Why should those who’ve carefully saved for their old-age and for their children to eventually have a little something have to throw it all away, to be level with those that have had the same amount of money but frittered it away on booze, fags or other luxuries?

      The hard-working, thrifty and conscientious will always be penalised in a Socialist Utopia.

         0 likes

  44. Teddy Bear says:

    This article pretty much spells out what we knew and write about already on the BBC, but it’s good to see MP’s telling it like it is.

    ‘Unambitious’ BBC had to have its arm twisted to save YOUR money, say MPs on the Public Accounts Committee

       0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      That chairperson’s name is going to get the twitterenes confused and choking on their skinny latinos.

         0 likes

  45. My Site (click to edit) says:

    Started badly, and is now turning into an awesome hole digger.

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100141173/am-i-imagining-things-or-is-this-new-eu-video-rather-racist/

    The BBC is going to be all over this like a rash. Empire-building. Unaccountable funding. Racism…

    No, really.

       0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Oh, my. That’s rather unfortunate imagery. They didn’t even realize it looks racist as hell. Racist and militant feminist at the same time. It could have been done properly so easily, too. Funny.

         0 likes

      • Millie Tant says:

        It’s open to interpretation and I’m not sure what to make of the cartoonish action-man figures but the woman in yellow I take to be a representation of Europa, finally turning into several women in a circle to represent the EU logo of twelve yellow stars in a circle on a deep blue background. I am though, far more alarmed about the EU’s advertising its intention to bring in more countries, even from other continents. Hannan might have mentioned that.

           0 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      Don’tcha love the EU statement:

      It was a viral clip targeting, through social networks and new media, a young audience (16-24) who understand the plots and themes of martial arts films and video games. The reactions of these target audiences to the clip have in fact been positive, as had those of the focus groups on whom the concept had been tested.

      The clip featured typical characters for the martial arts genre: kung fu, capoeira and kalaripayattu masters; it started with demonstration of their skills and ended with all characters showing their mutual respect, concluding in a position of peace and harmony. The genre was chosen to attract young people and to raise their curiosity on an important EU policy.

      The clip was absolutely not intended to be racist and we obviously regret that it has been perceived in this way. We apologise to anyone who may have felt offended. Given these controversies, we have decided to stop the campaign immediately and to withdraw the video.

      Translated: We listen too much to focus groups.  If you’re offended, it’s because you didn’t understand it and it’s your fault you took it all wrong.

      Hoist. Petard. Own.

         0 likes

    • Louis Robinson says:

      Loads money spent. Great production values. Fine location. Tasty woman. Evil baddies. But WHAT the hell is is for?

         0 likes

  46. Deborah says:

    Can anyone tell me what has happened to Jeremy Bowen?  I had expected that with all the trouble in Syria he would appear so often on the BBC pontificating about Homs etc.  Well he obviously hasn’t left the BBC because he pops up now and again, gives one report and then disappears for several more days.  Half term is well and truly over and yet like McCavity….

       0 likes

    • Alfie Pacino says:

      Probably still trying to get back his notebook from Saif Gaddaffi. The BBC without Bowen is better for it. Just.

         0 likes

    • NotaSheep says:

      Was it Jeremy Bowen who at the time of the first wave of ‘Arab Spring’ demonstrations that Syria would be imune because the Syrian people admired their President for ‘standing up to Israel’? Middle East expert?

         0 likes

  47. George R says:

    “BBC had to be pushed to find savings, say MPs”

    http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2012/03/bbc-had-to-be-pushed-to-find-savings-say-mps/

       0 likes

  48. Daniel Smith says:

    Great post by my favourite blogger The Venerable Bede here:
    http://venerablebeads.blogspot.com/
    On his pet subject of media cowardice and intellectual dishonesty.

       0 likes

  49. cjhartnett says:

    Good question Deborah.
    The great man was all smart his best suit and tie the other day on some 24 hour Beeb jawfest.
    I imagine he`s letting Orla and Lindsey do the checking for landmines and other unpleasantness, before donning an outsize burka a la Simpson…before getting the fearless war correspondents award for getting lattes under fire near Portland Place.
    or else he`s cutting up the sandbags to make sandcastles with Ken Livingson until the whiff of grapeshot is once again replaced by cinnamon whirls gently warming.
    If I were Orla. I `d get that recipe from the boys and get herself onto Womans Hour for a few years…never looks happy does she?
    Now if only the`d send the anti-semitic sandbag that is Jenny Tonge over there to Homs to do a check on license fees being paid( Bin Laden never gave us a rial for the Whitney stuff did he?)…then we could sleep easier in the BBC hammocks couldn`t we?

       0 likes

    • Will says:

      “The great man was all smart his best suit and tie the other day” That’s different, his studio appearances usually have him smart  only from the waist up. Glimpses below the desk show him to have retained his demins – essential wear for the 52 year old groover!?

         0 likes

      • Millie Tant says:

        They nearly all do that – cling on to the blue denim below the desk. Do they think they are still students with meagre resources to spend on trouser wear? Maybe it’s the Tory “cuts”!

           0 likes

        • Umbongo says:

          If you are missing Bowen, he’s shown nightly in the BBC link piece aired before the BBC24 News on the Hour.  He is shown escorting and being, apparently, very deferential to some Arab loonie: OK the loon in question is the Great Leader Gaddafi before the unfortunate incident with a bayonet and his (Gadaffi’s) backside.

             0 likes