109 Responses to OPEN THREAD

  1. deegee says:

    Last on the earlier Open Thread but first on this ione.
    Guess where?
    Skin cells turned into healthy heart muscle cells
    Intriguingly the presumably earlier version I have print-screened and linked in a Facebook page shows some editing that the BBC PC police must have missed.

    Sorry this embedding thing is not working for me.
    Facebook link
    Screen grab

       4 likes

  2. deegee says:

    Kidnap of pilgrims in Syria raises tension in Lebanon

    Why would Syrian rebels kidnap pilgrims coming from Iran?(BTW Shia pilgrimage to Iran is larger by several orders of magnitude pilgrimage by all Muslims to Jerusalem, now and before 1967)

    Could it be because Iran is supplying weapons, cash and probably fighters to Syria? As Pounce is prone to say, the BBC and half a story.

       7 likes

  3. noggin says:

    Panto Nikki, 5 live 8.15am a veritable “tsunami” of racism, is being reported especially in schools,
    (due to rabid and ridiculous”anything constitutes racism” regulation, is that any surprise).
    To prove the point perfectly, a mother and daughter
    are on,
    “Tell us what has happened”? ….. cometh the bleat,

    Apparently, names have been shouted from afar, Taliban
    has been shouted at her, and her scarf has been pulled whilst at school, to give even more erm … clarity.
    her mother says “Pakistani s” are getting a raw deal, its bad for “Asians”, since “that 9/11 palava” …. and that half of her family are “from Iran” .

    I think the bullet point here, through this fog of nonsense is that shes muslim,
    erm … just run it by me again … what race is islam again Panto? . anyway after a 5minutes charade of victim mentality, with the most dubious of foundation eh!.

    Are there no genuine incidents worthy of report?
    with this huge rise and all.?
    all this does a genuine dis-service to any real and important cases.

       13 likes

    • noggin says:

      I think if you do the math, its possibly about one incident,(if that) per year, per school

      Factor in the recent , hysterical “criteria” for racism, plus massive influx of for instance eastern europeans etc … in some areas, ie new children, ….

      It is literally a non story, unless that is your from :-

      the colonial guilt lobby …
      OR an pseudo religious ideology that thrives on inherrent victim mentality, to continue to make small incremental gains, at the expense of everyone else. ….
      OR the bbc

      must be … to quote P Kay a
      ” its a tsunami o filth”
      ps … how many bbc incidents of racism against
      white brits?

         11 likes

      • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

        The answer is, if they know they wont say. But I suspect they don’t know either.

           1 likes

  4. As I See It says:

    BBC news this morning: Not enough has been done to prevent the country from descending into racism, far too little is spent on the NHS (read into that all public services including one beginning with the letter B and ending in a C) and some lad with a difficult to pronounce name may be coming here to play for Chelsea.
    Ok so that must be the Labour Party radio channel.
    Now where on the dial do I find our politically balanced national broadcaster?

       21 likes

  5. George R says:

    EGYPT elections.

    What Islam Not BBC (INBBC)’s Muslim Brotherhood Cairo bureau omits:

    voting for Muslim Brotherhood = Sharia = enslavement.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18167224

    An uncensored view of Islamic Egypt:

    ‘Jihadwatch’:-

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/br0nc0s/managed-mt/mt-search.cgi?search=egypt&IncludeBlogs=1&limit=20

       4 likes

  6. George R says:

    “UK ministers discuss war in Middle East amid Iran/Israel tensions”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18170328

    INBBC will be quite clear which side it is on.

       3 likes

  7. George R says:

    MARR and PAXMAN due to gives evidence at Leveson.

    ‘We never trusted Murdoch: he didn’t appreciate Chomsky’.

       11 likes

  8. George R says:

    “Why London must honour the victims of the Munich Olympic massacre”

    by Bob Blackman MP.

    http://www.thecommentator.com/article/1236/why_london_must_honour_the_victims_of_the_munich_olympic_massacre

    Is BBC-NUJ interested in this?

       7 likes

  9. +james says:

    An example of the BBC behaving like Mafia thugs.

    Bodyguard book the BBC tried to ban

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2148556/Bodyguard-book-BBC-tried-ban-Ex-employee-accuses-broadcaster-blackmail.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

    Having written a book about his experiences, he sent a draft to his former employers out of courtesy. Then, in January, he was asked to attend a meeting with BBC apparatchik Fran Unsworth, head of news-gathering and its head of safety, ex-Army officer Paul Greeves.

    ‘I wasn’t bad mouthing anybody in the book.’ says Craig. ‘They said I would lose my friends and that Sky would sack me if the book came out. As I hadn’t signed a confidentiality agreement, they couldn’t legally prevent me from bringing it out. They were just leaning on me.

    ‘At one stage, they said they could help me financially with legal fees if I cancelled the book. Yet, in the book, I praise the BBC. There are some fantastic people there. I was with John Simpson when we were blown up in 2003.’

       4 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      I think, with the Mafia, certain courtesies still apply, and it’s more another example…
      ‘summoned to BBC HQ in West London and asked to desist from releasing his memoirs.
      As my relationship with BBC complaints goes from ‘bad’ to ‘downright creepy on their part’, I am half-expecting a visit from a Capita thug even though I currently still have a licence because, as they seem to feel merit in demonstrating, they ‘know who I am, where I live and where my kids go to school (kidding on last… not on first)’.
      Unique, if maybe less so in today’s UK.
      Ms. Unsworth is of course the author (and early censor) of this latest ‘we get it right’ navel gaze:
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2012/05/dale_farm_news_media_win_legal.html
      ‘First they came…

         5 likes

      • Demon says:

        It’s amazing how proud the BBC are of supporting criminals, as long as they are of the extreme left-wing type. There are many critical posts there, some rightly blaming the BBC for emcouraging the criminality. They don’t care, though, as long as they can stick it to the police and the ordinary Briton who wants criminals brought to justice.

           8 likes

  10. johnyork says:

    Dear David
    Would you consider a further upgrade to the new site ?
    In so much that 1 million volts of electricity come out of our keyboards if we fail to acknowledge that the BBC is nothing but a Right-wing propaganda machine.

    Dear BBC have your say
    Well I did try, didn’t I ?

    Dear Doctor
    I’ll come quietly !

       5 likes

  11. Roland Deschain says:

    Mr Marr said he was barely aware of Ofcom because the BBC’s own editorial code was so stringent and carefully monitored and anything he did was being watched for impartiality.

    Leveson Inquiry: New Labour favoured some journalists, says Marr

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

    I imagine it’s more closely watched for impartiality here than at the BBC.

       14 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
      To which I can only add… [wry grin]
      One can see how a market rate journo would be unaware of one of the bigger quangos with an impact on his profession…. well, if he works for a entity that tells you what to do and how to think.
      Here’s another repeating often enough…
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/helen_boaden/
      ‘Trust must be at the heart of the BBC’s relationship with its audiences and that is why we listen carefully to the range of feedback audiences give us… We don’t do that because we have some hidden agenda but because the public expects us as an independent and impartial broadcaster to hold governments and opposition parties to account…. criticism, however ferocious, should never deter us from focussing on the basics: telling the story accurately and fairly, testing it against a wide range of opinions and challenging all those opinions with rigour.

      It’s not an approach that makes us popular with everyone of course, but it may explain why audiences have remained so loyal to BBC News output over many decades.
      That’s just from her last post.
      She’s up for DG you know.

         5 likes

    • George R says:

      -‘anything he did was being watched for impartiality, to see that he didn’t absentmindedly slip into it.’

         8 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      He said without individual contacts, and a little “wining and dining”, the public would not have known about the difficulties within the relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, which “came out because politicians were talking privately with journalists”.

      Well, that’s Nick Robinson busted, then. He kept silent about it and ended up apologizing for doing so.

      Levenson is talking to the wrong Beeboids. He should be talking to Maitlis, “Two Eds”, Peston, Naughtie, and quite a few producers.

         8 likes

  12. Guest Who says:

    One for the ‘you might give pause when the home team ask questions too’ files:
    David Allen Green ‏@JackofKent

    Quite the reverse. RT @GuidoFawkes: Marr to #Leveson, you have to regulate blogs or it won’t work.
    Resistance is futile… regulate… regulate…!

       5 likes

  13. George R says:

    Is Andrew Marr the ‘old Uncle Tom Cobley’ of the interminable ‘leftist’ Leveson trial?

       1 likes

  14. Demon says:

    Just watched Prime Minister’s Questions and the Andrew Neil bit surrounding it. Although I thought that Cameron had a generally good performance (certainly better than the carefully rehearsed therefore so false looking Milliband bit) most of the emails read out were highly critical of Cameron. They then (rightly) had a go at Cameron’s “Muttering Idiot” comment against Balls. Toenails Robinson then started to explain what the viewer couldn’t see, i.e. constant barracking from Balls as Cameron is trying to speak so I thought Toenails was, for once, coming down on the side of impartiality. How wrong I was, it was just an excuse for all the BBC lefties and Burnham to have a laugh at Cameron’s expense that Ball was able to get under his skin.

       9 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      So why wasn’t Balls bollocked by Grumpy – sorry, The Speaker? Purely rhetorical, just an observation.

         7 likes

    • Llew says:

      “most of the emails read out were highly critical of Cameron.”

      They always are.

         7 likes

  15. George R says:

    INBBC’s top propaganda today is EGYPT, and its Islamising elections.

    INBBC, via its Cairo Bureau, is closely aligned politically with the Muslim Brotherhood.

    Mr BOWEN makes an appearance today with this guarded ‘excuse’ for the Presidential election result to come:

    “The leading candidates are Islamists and former ministers from the old regime. The secular activists who led the campaign to oust President Mubarak have not been able to seize the imagination of the Egyptian people.”

    In other words, Egypt remains Islamic and all that that entails in terms of the implementation of Sharia law.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18167224

    The impact of the Islamisation of Egypt can be seen in the photo accompanying the BBC’s joyous report showing head-covered women queuing in separate lines.
    ‘Jihadwatch’:more photos –

    “The erosion of women’s rights in Egypt, illustrated”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/02/the-erosion-of-womens-rights-in-egypt-illustrated.html

    INBBC censors what their eyes can see.

       5 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      Just wait until they discover postal voting, there wont be a line for women at all. Hubby will fill in hiw onw “wives” votes himself. Cynical me? never!

         6 likes

  16. Harry says:

    Anybody watching the BBC News Channel. It seems they are revelling in and celebrating the fact that the Egyptians now have free elections, despite the fact that the more oppressive than Mubarak, non-secular, MB is likely to win.

    I suppose this is easy to do when you have spent the last year completely ignoring the systematic oppression of Christians and Sufis, the crackdowns on civil liberties, the retraction of women’s rights, the anti-Semitism and belligerence towards Israel, the necrophilia laws, the banning of kissing and hugging on public TV…………..

    These will be the first and last real elections. Just like Yemen, Iran, Gaza and Bahrain.

       11 likes

  17. chrisH says:

    Loved the Today “vox pox” outside a friendly neighbourhood voting booth in Cairo on the Today show.
    You voting MB?…Islamic Fascist….Fascist Islamic?…or for some bloke who gave out leaflets last February, who isn`t organised or charismatic enough..unlike dear Osama, Zarqawi or Qutb?
    Some choice eh?…and the BBCs resident expert there in Cairo knew NOTHING about any of them…but if it creates a new nest of vipers banning women, then…the Arab Street have spoken.
    Ludicrous piece from the Camel Corps at the BBC yet again.
    Did he bother to ask any women what they`d be voting…or indeed, if they`ll BE allowed to vote?

       11 likes

  18. chrisH says:

    For anyone not involved in teaching, the Evan Davis piece this morning on NEETs showed a metrosexual gayist take on why 16-19 year olds are not only unemployed-but unemployable.
    1. “Lack soft skills”…like smiling, getting something when asked to, helping people..that kind of hideously difficult skill we`re talking of here.
    2. “Poor communication skills”-reading, writing, basic maths and being unable to get off their dodgy games and phones to find out anything that might benefit themselves or others.
    Still-“something must be done”…these skills are far beyond them as we speak, after over 20 years of child friendly chillax opinions re sex ed, greenhouse gases and how Thatcher killed the nation.
    Evan seemed perplexed…can we run such course in smiling and being nice on the phone INSTEAD of fripperies like science, history or English?…
    too late Evan…that`s what`s been happening for over 20 years now…where else would you get your leisure enhancing experiences from, if not amoral thickos like these NEETS and their kids?

       13 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Or how about their parents teaching them to behave like civilised people instead of packing out coffee bars, restaurants and pubs every weekend socialising with their ‘friends’ whilst their offspring fend for themselves aka crawling round the floor or running riot.
      (Come on, I’m allowed one rant a day – my doctor said so.)

         9 likes

  19. George R says:

    Leveson today:

    “Piers Morgan gave me phone hack lesson, Jeremy Paxman tells Leveson Inquiry”

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/piers-morgan-gave-me-phone-hack-lesson-jeremy-paxman-tells-leveson-inquiry-7782177.html

    BBC-NUJ Daily Mirror axis and phone hacking?

       5 likes

  20. Sue says:

    For those of you who can’t wait for the result of the first ‘free and democratic’ election in Egypt, and for Jon Leyne who wondered (radio 4,Today; Thursday) why, despite certain candidates chasing women’s votes, females were still being “dealt with in a stereotype way” in politics; “Is it something to do with the attitudes of men? or the attitudes of women” Or w-w-w-w-what is it within Egyptian society that….that leaves politics where it is now?” he mused.
    Just for you here’s an apparent screen shot of the proposed veiled-women only TV channel. No laughing at the back.

       11 likes

    • George R says:

      Islam Not BBC (INBBC) circa 2062.

         5 likes

    • Pah says:

      It’s like something from Monty Python. Are they going to intersperse the progs with stop-motion cartoons?

         2 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Can’t find it now, but worth repeating a point made that in this 3rd world sh*thole embracing democracy it seems the wimmin are queuing up to vote in person, whereas in this culturally-enhanced ballot-based nirvana, things have ‘evolved’ like a BBC ‘report’ to a point where 50% of the population can post in their support for Respect and/or (probably and) Labour without ever seeing the paper.

         2 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      But they wear it because they want to doncha know!
      yeah right.

         0 likes

  21. George R says:

    Ms KNELL, of INBBC’s Muslim Brotherhood supporting Cairo bureau – on Egypt’s Presidential candidate, Mr Aboul FOTOUH.

    Ms Knell defines him in that oxymoronic phrase: ‘Moderate Islamist’.

    Contrasting political profiles of Mr FOTOUH

    1. )
    ‘Front Page Magazine’ –

    “The Man Who Would Rule Egypt”

    by M. Tapson

    http://frontpagemag.com/2012/05/23/the-man-who-would-rule-egypt/

    2.) INBBC:

    “Egypt candidate: Moderate Islamist, Abdul Moneim Aboul Fotouh”

    by Y. Knell

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17356253

       2 likes

  22. Umbongo says:

    If you want to glimpse a fine example of the BBC groupthink hivemind let me steer you to the current (19 May) edition of the Spectator [paywall]. There John Simpson is given a page to tell us all about “Bias, Boris and the Beeb”.
    I won’t go far into Simpson’s excruciating bombast but let me quote just one paragraph “ . . in my 46 years I have never seen the slightest indication of a settled bias in favour of one or the other of the political parties; and I have never been aware of any story that was commissioned, reported or distorted for party political purposes“. He even disputes Mark Thomson’s claim that in the 80s there was a “massive bias to the left“.
    Oddly, he isn’t as dogmatic – well, he doesn’t really mention it – about non-party political bias. He uses the old saw concerning claims of anti-Israel bias being matched by those of anti-Palestinian bias. However he steers well clear of dealing with the BBC’s treatment of CAGW, immigration, Islam etc.
    In his quote on this website Jeff Randle spoke about the BBC in general but he could be talking about Simpson “It’s not a conspiracy. It’s visceral. They think they are on the middle ground“. Simpson is a journalist: he is, or should be, a professional sceptic. Evidently, concerning the organisation which provides him with a comfortable living and a bully pulpit, he’s been going round for the last 46 years with his eyes closed and his ears stuffed with cotton wool. He obviously considers himself a fearless purveyor of disinterested truth. The next time you see Simpson on the box just remember his Spectator article and view his report – and the veracity of his reportage – accordingly.

       14 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘I have never seen the slightest indication of a settled bias’
      There’s none so blind… Jon, me old ‘investigative reporter’ (them’s ‘quotes’ BBC-styly, BTW, indicating I think you are anything but)… none so blind.
      However, keep on saying it, and it may become true eventually.
      Helen & Fran seem to think so, anyway.

         5 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Fat faithful retainer is old Simpson.
      Didn`t he flounce into Kabul in some womans burka that he had saved for just the proper occassion…I wonder if she had been killed before he took it…because she sure as Allah would have been afterwards…probably traded it for his audiotape recording on Mock the Week or something like that.
      All those years-and for the life of me, I can`t think of any actual report of any note that he did-unlike Cole, Buerk, Wheeler and the like.
      He`s been at the BBC long enough to be up with them hasn`t he?…so why no trace of his “legacy” since the Fall of Napoleon…the old bugger has been there as long as that I`m guessing.
      This mediocrity should have stopped wasting our expenses on stories that would not last..and might have been better employed in the contracts or accounts offices that pay “the talent”-and therefore given us a story that WOULD have helped us all , eventually.
      Poor deluded fool…and his flummery reminds me of a skate chucking mud up at the bottom of a dark, deep pool when he`s been gently prodded….the very essence of all that the BBC is today, as long as pew filling gasbags with plummed accents get continual jaunts to hotter places, on our tab.

         5 likes

  23. Teddy Bear says:

    Today, besides the regular numerous BBC correspondents operating in Egypt, there is also Lyse Doucet, Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen, and Wyre Davies. They are all involved on coverage of the elections going on there, presenting it as a democratic triumph of the Arab world.

    So with all these journalists there, what might be the reason that the BBC has ignored the trial where 12 Christians have been sentenced to life imprisonment, but their Muslim attackers have all been acquitted.

    Usually the BBC are quick to cover stories where human rights activists and legal experts criticize a ruling, as they have done in this case, but as we’ve seen time and time again, it’s only when countries like Israel are being criticized.

    I knew when I read this story that I wouldn’t find anything about it on the BBC, it spoils their ‘Arab Spring’ narrative.

    Islamo-Christian violence in Minya: life imprisonment for 12 Copts, eight Muslims acquitted

       9 likes

    • “In modern times the significant Coptic Christian population in Egypt has been free from repression; Muslims and Christians have happily shared a loyalty to the one Egyptian state.”
      Rowan Williams
      http://www.anglicanjournal.com/nc/other/news-items/archive/2011/10/article/rowan-williams-urges-egypt-to-secure-rights-of-all-10154//abp/167.html

      “The last quarter of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty first have seen a deterioration in relations between Muslims and the Coptic minority in Egypt. This is seen in day-to-day interactions such as the insulting of Coptic priests by Muslim children, but also in much more serious events such as attacks on Coptic churches, monasteries, villages, homes and shops, particularly in Upper Egypt during the 1980 and 90s. From 1992 to 1998 Islamist extremists in Egypt are thought to have killed 127 Copts”
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Copts
      I wonder what he means by “modern times”? His next job will probably be with the BBC

         9 likes

    • George R says:

      Close down INBBC’s, and INBBC Arabic’s CAIRO operations NOW!

      REASONS:-

      1.) the cost is very high, especially as INBBC’s Cairo operation has become very much more expensive over past two years.

      Following on from ‘Teddy Bear’s comment about high numbers of INBBC reporting staff who were reporting on Egypt today alone included, among many others:-

      LEYNE

      BOWEN

      DOUCET

      KNELL

      CONNOLLY

      GRITTEN

      KHERA

      DANAHAR

      DAVIES

      In addition, INBBC ARABIC has additional Cairo offices and staff! And British people, as licencepayers, will be expected to pay for all this INBBC’s global empire.

      It’s not as though Egyptians don’t have access to scores of television and radio stations, they do.

      2.) What INBBC EGYPT puts out is political propaganda for the Muslim Brotherhood, and concomitant political opposition to Israel.

      CLOSE DOWN INBBC’S AND INBBC ARABIC’S OPERATIONS, NOW!

         8 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Blimey, was there a hotel balcony unadorned with an ‘on the ground’ (sic) observer?
        Or did the lads send the lasses out to see how things were on the street secure in the knowledge that, thanks to the way they do femininity, they were safe from the unique way the man on that street in Egypt can now view, and treat the sisterhood?
        Oo… look… a pyramid.
        I suspect editorial by highly-selective distraction will be the norm from the ME for a loooong while.

           3 likes

  24. #88 says:

    As widely predicted, Livingstone’s BBC career is well underway. His appearance tonight on Newsnight being hard on the heels of his effort on HIGNFY last week.

    I don’t think I will be alone in saying that I don’t want to see this dishonourable, discreditable tax dodger moralising on my TV screen.

    The BBC of course won’t be in the slighted bit concerned, no doubt he now has his staff pass.

       15 likes

  25. Doyle says:

    Some bloke on Newsnight from the IPPR debating benefits. No mention that it’s a left-wing think-tank, just some waffle about working for an MP. With the beeb you always have to join the dots yourself, don’t you? Nice bit of bias by omission there.

       11 likes

  26. Guest Who says:

    By way of ‘balance’ Sky News had on a chap from the Taxpayer Alliance (not introduced as low tax, small government entity, but that’s what it says on the tin, unlike the LLIPPR). The spokesman lay bare that lastest dire attempt to ‘blame’ tax collection failures on the ‘cuts, Cuts…CUTS!’by the usual suspects.
    Quite rightly, a stance the anchor couldn’t but agree with. More beancounters than bean makers won’t find more beans. Gold goose-gouging economics utterly discredited outside only a few delusional interest-conflicted entities.
    However I am sure that the BBC will be an open book for every muttering idiot (Cameron was, for once right, and for the ‘bubble’ to try and spin Balls was the victor is pathetic – he’s a heckling Marcel Marceau bag-lady with Tourettes) to broadcast endless ‘more public sector staff is the right thing to do’ soundbites.

       7 likes

    • Reed says:

      “a heckling Marcel Marceau bag-lady with Tourettes”

      Love it! 🙂
      Every time Cameron lets off a quip like this the media try to portray it as ‘inappropriate’ or ‘misguided’. They even claimed that he ‘lost his temper’ this time. Absolute nonsense – he was completely calm in the face of Ed Balls’ usual demented gesturing, which the cameras don’t always pick up. The only journalist who tells the viewers the complete picture is ITV’s Tom Bradby.

      Ed Balls deserves all the contempt and mockery that Cameron can throw at him. Repulsive creature.

         12 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Tx.
        ‘the media try to portray it as ‘inappropriate’ or ‘misguided’.’
        But which ‘media’?
        Best I can judge even those who delight in any lampooning any pol for the lightweights they are, are cutting some slack as Balls is, by any measure, deranged.
        http://order-order.com/2012/05/24/109065/
        What we are left with, therefore is ‘analysis’ via the likes of a Nick Robinson, still fresh from ‘getting it about left’ accidentally posting his PR advice to Labour’s PR department as a ‘report’.

           5 likes

  27. As I See It says:

    Mad-for-it Dame Nikki and Vicki D with their allied playmates are falling over themselves to celebrate the popular beat combo The Stone Roses. Once again the Beeboids are in ecstacy. Free gig – yeh cool! Queue vox pop of happy Mancs who – we hear – were pleased to walk off the job to attend. [Best make no points here about youth unemployment figures and those earnest northern youngsters so beloved of the Beeb who are always telling the employment mininster in BBC arranged debates how they are deperate for a chance to work].
    So as the Salford Local Radio team are celebrating how down with the kids they are Gameshow quips how the vox pop voices ‘…were the Coalition cabinet’ Oh ha-ha! Vicky D says ‘..more’s the pity’. Ooooh, she broke the mood there. Never mind, it is all just ‘banter’. Never mind the BBC only employ these peolpe to present and manage ‘balanced’ news and current affairs debate.

       7 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Fat bloated drug-addled Mancs with two catchy tunes lifted from the 60s….but all attitude a la Liam Gallagher…which is how the REAL powerful elite like their rebels…drug addled, provincial and smelling of old drugs…no threat to them!
      Hence the BBCs lionisation of these no marks…but wealthy enough now to recreate that “rave and Tory bans” vibe so beloved of Vine, Derbyshire and Bacon…the “new wave” of cultural backwash/hogwash coming our way.
      Any questions about Ian Brown assaulting a stewardess on his flight then?…or about these lads saying that they`d not reform?
      Probably not…which tells me that the Euro crisis is worrying even the accountants of spaced out luck puppets like the Stoned Roses.

         7 likes

      • Doyle says:

        The Stone Roses’ ‘Elizabeth My Dear’ was an anti-monachy song so they should fit in well at al beeb. I suspect that the Stone Roses are the beeboids idea of cool – drugs, assaults, monosyllabic grunts and most importantly Republicanism in the year of the Queen’s jubilee. Before anyone moans I used to love the Stone Roses but here’s the thing – I grew up.

           6 likes

    • As I See It says:

      You have to wonder how come Monarch of the Glen Nicky Campbell is so smug.
      I guess he pins his future on a General Election Labour win. Gosh they do have some cool policies!

      http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/apr/20/lords-salford-move-approval

      ‘Barbara Keeley, MP for Worsley and Eccles South, gives backing to Lord Adonis’s suggestion to move the House of Lords’

      Move the House of Lords? Where do you want to move it to?

      ‘Lord Adonis’s comments about relocating the House of Lords 200 miles north in Salford or Manchester have been greeted with cautious optimism’

      Cool. Tell us why that would be a good idea?

      ‘The BBC move to its new base at MediaCity in Salford Quays has been a great success despite attempts by some to talk it down.’

      Cool.

         9 likes

      • As I See It says:

        Why not move the entire next Labour Government to Manchester so it can sit comfortably near the Beeb?
        I suppose if the mountain won’t come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain.
        See what I did there?

           6 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        Think of the extra travelling expenses, overnight allowances, extravagant gourmet experiences at Harry Ramsden’s….

           1 likes

  28. Wayne X says:

    Jeremy Bowen covering the elections in Egypt.

    Visiting a polling booth “for women only” Jeremy states, “well, this is a Conservative country” and he said it with such authority and emphasis too.

    Now there are people about that would think they know what he meant by “conservative”, that is to say “in favour of preserving the status quo and traditional values and customs, and against abrupt change”. Then again there are those and probably the majority of BBC news (ha ha) program viewers that would think that he meant Conservative meaning “belonging to, or supporting a Conservative Party”.

    Now I am just a simple country boy but I did laugh at Jeremy, fancy trying to confuse David Cameron’s Conservative Party with the conservative Muslim Brotherhood. Even the Honourable member for Bradford West would smile at that one.

    By the way has the Muttering Member for Morley and Outwood taken his little red pills today?

       8 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Good aspects of a culture = ‘traditional’, bad = ‘conservative’. BBC doublespeak, in all its biased, Tory-hating glory.

         2 likes

  29. zemplar says:

    Just watching a piece on the BBC about the Egyptian presidential elections.

    Reporter: “it was perfectly calm here, yesterday, apart from an assault on one of the candidates”

    Beautiful. Just beautiful. And so BBC.

       11 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Arf.
      One for the ‘apart from that, did you enjoy the play Mrs. Lincoln?’ school of MSM reporting files.

         9 likes

  30. As I See It says:

    Mehdi Hassan straight to air! Mehdi Hassan straight to air!
    BBC loving some minor (0.01%) statistical adjustment in GDP figures. That probably equates to about half of one half of one Dimbleby fee.

       4 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘Mehdi Hassan straight to air!’
      That will be on account of his move to speaking for the nation even more since his move to the 6 and 3/4 audience New Statesman to ‘can’t give it away, or pay our staff’ HuffPo blog, then?
      Unique.
      Was in in his suit? They like suits chez Aunty. Though polishing a Typical Undgrad Right-bashing Terrorist-lover does spring to mind too.

         3 likes

  31. Leha says:

    Now that we are finally in a double dip recession, gameshow Nicky is “debating” the euro on 5dead. One caller was speaking about Norways association with the EU and why could’nt have Britain have a looser relationship with the continent. “Looser or loser” giggled gameshow.. Another caller was asking for a referendum with a simple in or out of Europe “in or out – shake it all about” hahaha what a wag he is, I nearly fell off my chair laughing.

    sony award my arse

       8 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘“Looser or loser” giggled gameshow
      From ‘I’d rather have a dose of’ VD to Mr. Campell, this new BBC toddler trait of mocking their audience is gaining ground.
      Rather biting the hand of those whose views they want, IMHO.
      And for those of a more critical bent, brave considering most of them are not immune to the odd faux pas that can be used in evidence to mock them.

         5 likes

    • uncle bup says:

      re sony award my arse.
      ————————————-

      It is with regret I remind readers that Radio 5 Live Three Chuckleheads Corpsing At Their Own Jokes missed out on the Sony (Everyone Must Have An) Awards this year.

      Take a heart of stone not to roar with laughter.

         4 likes

  32. Harry says:

    BBC News Channel 10:22 AM this morning

    They got a man in to talk about the down-revised GDP figures to -0.3%.

    Interviewee
    “I have been saying this for 2 years now, the Coalition were wrong when they came in government, the austerity plan would not work. I’m sorry to keep saying it”

    Simon McCoy (BBC anchor)
    “It’s always good to hear you say it”

       8 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘Simon McCoy (BBC anchor)
      “It’s always good to hear you say it”’

      Repeat often enough… et voila!
      A capture of that would be a fun new addition to the ‘getting it about genetically impartial’ archive.

         6 likes

  33. tonyel says:

    BBC Breakfast this morning actually had Will Hutton, the arch Guardianista on as an economics expert ranting on about the Euro – which of course we should have joined. Talking the usual load of b….ks, and the presenters didn’t ask one question, he just ranted free – I don’t suppose anyone with a bit of practical experience could be found

       7 likes

  34. zemplar says:

    Doyle,

    As an aside, the first Stone Roses album is the best album by a British band of the last twenty five years. It hasn’t dated, and could have been recorded yesterday. As opposed to the follow-up, which was sh*te. Shame.

       1 likes

    • Doyle says:

      Mmmm … not sure about the ‘best album of the last twenty five years’ moniker – that’s the sort of thing the NME would say. If it is the best album then it doesn’t say much about the music during the intervening twenty five years. I suppose it could have been recorded in a garage yesterday, this gives it a certain charm and a few of the songs are still good . Each to their own I suppose – people can listen to what they like – personally I moved on, it isn’t Madchester, dance-rock and baggy jeans anymore. The re-union is just a bit of nostalgia, enjoy in while it lasts and fingers crossed they put on a decent show at Heaton Park. P.S. I always had a soft spot for The Second Coming.

         0 likes

  35. Peter says:

    How’s this for bias?

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-18186964

    “Man ‘tried to abduct boy’ from school in Surbiton
    Map of Surbiton and Worcester Park

    An attempt to abduct a boy from a south-west London school is being linked by police to an incident where a man and a woman approached a girl.

    A white man, aged in his 20s, tried to take the boy from the grounds of a primary school in Surbiton on 21 May, but the boy managed to run away.”

    Why is the mans race reported?

       7 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘Why is the mans race reported?’
      Ah but, you see, they have ‘listened’ to feedback on not being more helpful in IDs, and hence… ‘balance’.
      If that odd, ‘unique’ one the BBC Depts. of Standards & Hypocrisy can only attain.
      It was only once, you see.

         5 likes

    • As I See It says:

      Be fair, given the ethnic make up of most of London this description may actually help with his identification. It will certainly narrow down the number of suspects.

         8 likes

  36. As I See It says:

    Salford Local Radio
    Remember when BBC 5 Live was broadcast from London?
    Does anyone recall constant references to cockles and whelks and Pearly Queens? Were we always hearing how much the presenters liked hanging around Piccadilly Circus or rocking along with Chas ‘n’ Dave?
    No. Thought not. If we wanted all that we might try BBC Radio London.
    So why is it that we have to put up with this incessant barrage of talk of the Hacienda and the Stone Roses?
    Take a chill pill Beebs!
    How about you try to rein in a little on the Newton & Ridley Betty Turpin Lanacshire Hotpot of love for all things Mancunian. I’m tired of hearing how much you love Morrissey, the Salford Lads’ Club and how you all do SO prefer it up the Stretford End!
    [Which for some reason reminds me….I do rather miss Martin and his unique and robust views on all things BBC. Things here are just that little less gay without him]

       8 likes

  37. Guest Who says:

    One supposes if you are silly enough to breach commercial IP issues you reap what you sow, but still interesting the precedents that are being set in handing over matters of free speech to overseas media entities with plenty of commercial interests and pressures of their own on top of those they host..
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/9284511/Twitter-suspends-Olympics-protestors-account.html
    Not that the country’s most trusted media monopoly would do that.

       2 likes

  38. Peter says:

    And look here! A blatant bit of socialist propaganda.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18036009

    “Vienna is one of the best-run cities I know.

    It is, in comparison to many other European capitals, a safe place. Most of my female friends think nothing of walking home alone late at night.

    Decades of Socialist-led administrations have brought in generous and affordable housing and other public services.”

       5 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘Most of my female friends think nothing of walking home alone late at night.

      Decades of Socialist-led administrations have brought in generous and affordable housing and other public services.”
      Well, at risk of being held to account, propaganda of any hue, much less socialist, seems a bit of a given from a BBC peroxide sink called Bethany (do any have less Costwoldesque names?) Beyond the accuracy of the non-sequitur which, despite BBC’s complaints system, may be worth a punt.
      The generous and affordable housing and other public services in other capitals thanks to her favoured regimes might make a stroll at night through, say Peckham, and eye-opener for young Betts.
      A stroll through the BBC EdGuds might make her ECU supervisor choke on his skinny latte, too.

         3 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Good catch. I like how the opening blurb at the top says that “there is also an unexpectedly strong tradition of discontent and complaint”. But then the piece itself reveals that this Beeboid didn’t expect anyone to complain about such a lovely Socialist scene. I guess the proximity to Alpine springs is also thanks to Socialism?

         3 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      A decade and a bit of a socialist administration here left us more than £2 trillion in debt (when PS pensions and PFIs are added in) and absolutely bugger all to show for it unless you count jammed, potholed roads, overcrowded trains, a bloated, overpaid, unproductive public sector and 2.5 million more immigrants. Don’t suppose any of that got a mention, though.

         6 likes

  39. Guest Who says:

    Just watched Ed ‘OneFlanders’ on Sky news.
    Whatever deal with the devil Yvette Cooper made, wasn’t worth it.
    Especially dragging the country down with her.
    At least Adam Boulton posed some counter questions.
    And, I think, caught him in another lie, which he blustered over.
    One presumes he’s on a smurcuit (smug circuit) and once in BBC home ground will be lobbed soft ‘balls’ only.

       3 likes

  40. guest says:

    Seems that vienna also has some interesting demographic stats. wonder why it is so safe? Must be due to socialism. ………..

       4 likes

  41. David Preiser (USA) says:

    For a while now, I’ve been saying that the BBC hardly ever mentions Canada in the “US & Canada” section of the website. But I must point out that even I’ve noticed that they’ve started reporting about the country again in the last couple of weeks. I wonder what took them so long?

    One possibility is the ongoing violent student riots in Montreal. Of course that’s going to get the Beeboids’ attention, seeing as how they love a bit of ultra-violence against police, especially when it’s on behalf of a cause they support. With this in mind, check out this glowing portrait of one of the leaders of this violent movement:

    Quebec protests: Student rebel with a cause

    Somebody wake me up when the BBC starts giving time to someone explaining why free university education for an entire population might not be feasible. Or, hell, just why violence is wrong.

       5 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      ‘The son of two environmental activists he grew up immersed in grassroots politics’. Instant attention, not to mention admiration from the Beeb, where being an environmentalist instantly qualifies you as a ‘grassroots’ politician. So apart from destroying GM food experiments without any understanding of the science, ditto for ‘climate change’, what solutions exactly do these ‘grassroots politicans’ have for making this world function for its 9 billion human inhabitants? And let’s face it, there’s so much we can learn from these students with all the experience of their teenage years just behind them. Budget? Isn’t that a rental car company I saw somewhere on my gap year?

         4 likes

  42. peter says:

    The BBC seem to have forgotten to report about 6 gang related stabbings in Hackney within 24 hours.. Odd… They did report about a cracked ceiling in the MPs cafe…

    Found on London24:

    “60 Met police drafted onto Hackney’s streets after wave of six gang-related stabbings within one day”

       7 likes

  43. Guest Who says:

    There’s something here I can’t quite place…
    afneilSo Cameron removed Cable from BSkyB process because biased against Murdoch bid. And replaced him with Hunt, who was in favour #leveson
    Oo… I know… a sense of irony (or shame), as the next ‘we decide on how left we get it’ is installed as DG at the head of an unaccountable entity that rigs… everything.

       5 likes

  44. johnnythefish says:

    Been in the car twice today. The first time the radio came on it was in the middle of yet another Ed The Balls outpouring about Cameron being ‘complacent’ and ‘out of touch’ (why don’t they just record one of these and replay it each time and save time and money? – nobody would notice the difference) . The second was some twerp from some institute or other being asked if the government should be doing more about growth and him compliantly answering with a suggestion that the government needs to borrow more money whilst interest rates are low to fund road and housing infrastructure investment which, of course, would create thousands of new jobs. No challenge about why there might be a reason for our low interest rates or what’s the point anyway because all the new jobs will be taken up by Eastern Europeans. No siree, ‘fraid that would get in the way of the ‘growth’ narrative.
    Relentless, like effing Chinese water torture.

       5 likes

    • Harry says:

      “why don’t they just record one of these and replay it each time and save time and money?”

      So so true. haha

         5 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Borrowing yet more money “while interest rates are low” is the exact same thing “Two Eds” Flanders always recommends. I remember back when everyone was being asked to cough up cash to bail out Portugal, she said that Britain should do it because it would cost “next to nothing” to borrow the money.

      The only things growing are the bank accounts of redistribution advocates.

         3 likes

      • JaneTracy says:

        Hi David

        Actually Floundering Flanders made a worse gaffe than that as she said the amount of money the UK would provide as part of Portugal’s bailout was “next to nothing”. In fact of course our share is in the billions….

           3 likes

  45. wally greeninker says:

    Comments about crooked postal votes are a commonplace in internet discussions of elections in constituencies containing a large number of BBCspeak Asians. Given this public interest, therefore you would think the Beeb would be all over this story, involving a statement by a local MP, for goodness sake, complaining of police inaction over complaints of voting irregularities and intimidation at polling stations:

    http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/at-a-glance/main-section/police-turning-blind-eye-to-asian-voter-fraud-says-mp-1-4578172

    but not a sausage on their website, up to now.

    They also, now have six reports on the Shafilea Ahmed murder case,currently being heard at Chester Crown Court: on only one occasion have they used the phrase ‘honour killing’, even then prefixed it with a mealy mouthed ‘so called.’ You’d have thought parents murdering their grown daughters was quite a frequent event in Britain – if the Beeb keeps covering for a whole segment of the population like this, without any demands for a change of attitude, it’s more than likely to become a regular occurrence.

       6 likes

  46. Biodegradable says:

    Spot the difference:

    Etan Patz death: Man claims role in NYC boy’s vanishing

    Man admits involvement in 33-year-old case of missing Jewish boy, say New York police

    Hint: The “J” word is missing in the entire BBC report, not just the headline.

       1 likes

  47. Reed says:

    Here’s a small article about the Spanish entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest being concerned that winning the competition might place too much of a burden on her country to host the event the following year. I highlight it only for one quote at the very end…

    “The Spanish government has slashed spending in public television, resulting in the cancellation of several popular programmes.”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18187148

    So, austerity might have some positive effects beyond deficit reduction, if only our spineless government had the same courage to act. I would happily see the back of several ‘popular’ BBC programmes.

    My first vote…Eastenders!!!!!!!!!! – noxious cultural polution!

       7 likes

  48. jonuk says:

    anyone finding that National Treasures Jubilee Special on BBC1 is trying to portray that Royalty is bad?

       2 likes

  49. jonuk says:

    weird, innit? That no one at work has brought up a conversation about the Leveson Enquiry? I guess, that in the real world, no one gives a shit.

       5 likes

  50. JaneTracy says:

    The BBC Economics Editor Stephanie Flanders has blogged that things are getting better in the Euro zone. Not much chage there you might think as Floundering Flanders has consistently supported the Euro establishment.

    The catch is that the fix is working slowly when Floundering Flanders has told us time and time again they are responsing promptly! I guess she hopes no-one will spot her floundering..

       5 likes