POET BEN ENDS THE YEAR

I’ve taken a bit of a break from the BBC over the holiday period but I had the misfortune to tune in to Today this morning. Oh what joy! The guest editorr was Benjamin Zephaniah.  Poet Benjamin is much loved by the BBC, often appearing on Question Time to dazzle the nation with his wit and wisdom. In a way Zephaniah and the BBC are the perfect match – hard left and unforgiving. I turned off quickly.

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34 Responses to POET BEN ENDS THE YEAR

  1. Jim Dandy says:

    It was moderately interesting, particularly on Birmingham. Not as good as the Leslie or Nurse programmes.

       6 likes

  2. DYKEVISIONS says:

    I reached for the off switch when I just heard a piece about the joys and trials of Multiculturalism in ‘Modern Britain.’

    I was looking forward to a well-balanced piece from a BBC’s roving reporter who was helicopted into the London Borough of Newham.

    The usual suspects were interviewed telling us about the wonders of Multi this and Multi that and celebrating ‘diversity’ in this enclave of London.

    Of course, when the reporter bothered to find just one person who had genuine fears about the lack of housing and jobs due to her perception of uncontrolled mass immigration, the lady was pounced upon and called unreasonable or some such word.

    The piece was then summarised with this fatuous comment which I paraphrase,’ it is not a question about the concerns on Multiculturalism in Newham but it is the fears of facing hard times today which binds the community together!

    Phew, I feel better already; all the correct boxes are ticked. Cuts and austerity brought in by this Government, bad.
    Multiculturalism is good, end of discussion.

       54 likes

    • Framer says:

      Mark Easton at his toe-curlingly complacent worst. The ‘rancid’ white woman must have been sought out as she plainly was not interviewed in the multi-lingual noisy market.
      Poor mark. His editor must have insisted on one piece of ‘balance’ before he went off to the peace of the museum of multi-culturalism in Spitalfields.
      We were there told of the mix of former residents, including the Huguenots and the Palatine Germans.
      Yes, what happened to them?

         16 likes

  3. A Listener says:

    “I turned off quickly.”

    Ah, the Neil Nunes effect.

       14 likes

  4. #88 says:

    You should have stayed tuned David, you could have heard a one-sided defence of multi-culturalism. My! how the BBC and their fellow travellers are fighting to keep alive this out-dated, divisive concept, now ridiculed across Europe and even by those in the ‘equalities industry’.

    And you could have ended the year listening to regular BBC contributor, half-wit and (no doubt) staff pass holder, Owen Jones. I didn’t catch the name of the person they put up against him, but not for the first time, in comparison with someone who has anything approaching a decent argument, Jones came across as shrill and vacuous.

    To give him his due, Zephania’s ‘good news’, news bulletin idea was interesting. Although the idea was rubbished as ‘boring’ by Humphrys, the first two items (about a UN pull-out and positive business sentiment) were indeed good news, interesting and optimistic (something that is not Toady’s stock in trade). They then deliberately did a ‘Minor Earthquake in Chile. No deaths’ story – echoing a ‘factual and boring’ headline from the 30’s, first concocted by Claude Cockburn as a ‘boring’ headline for the ‘Times’.
    This, without a sense of irony. Cockburn was a communist and traitor who lied, manipulated and planted news stories on behalf of his paymasters the soviet government, for the benefit of the communists. No wonder the BBC finds such an affinity with his thinking. Nothing changes.

       42 likes

  5. johnnythefish says:

    He loves his multiculturalism so much he spends all week at his converted lighthouse in a remote spot on the Lincolnshire coast. Still, a bit like his fellow BBC traveller Billy Bragg, he knows what’s best for the rest of us.

    And I wonder whether any of this came across in his little Today piece. I suspect not….

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100194580/lutfur-rahman-and-labour-newham-compare-and-contrast/

       32 likes

    • Mice Height says:

      Just compare Zephaniah with Mo Farrah. One a well integrated, grateful, friendly, proud British citizen. The other a professional self-pity-wallower and race hustler, with a chip on his shoulder bigger than a BBC executive’s annual salary.

         26 likes

    • Invicta 1066 says:

      When not in Lincolnshire, doesn’t he live in China?
      Why not go and back to where he was born, in Handsworth? At least he would be with his own kind, unlike some of my former work colleagues who were born there in the 50 &60s and now are aliens in their own town.

         30 likes

  6. Mice Height says:

    Did this story appear in his ‘good news’ bulletin? I guess their capture would’ve spoilt it somewhat though.
    http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/delco/Holiday-horror-Woman-kidnapped-raped-and-robbed-by-3-teens-on-Christmas.html

       10 likes

  7. Big Dick says:

    I don`t know ,how any right minded “natives” of this Island can put up with this constant Bbc PC crap! Don`t listen to 4or 5 any more . Listen to LBC for news info , most of their presenters dress to the right apart from 1 or 2 , & never slag off Maggie ,in the nasty BBC way!I know LBC is on not DAB everywhere, but its on net & you can phone app it !Only watch Sky News , & not Left Wing BBC trash now !

       28 likes

  8. statechaos says:

    Switched on BBC News 24 this morning which was in the middle of what they refer to as a ‘Review of the Year’ by Norman Smith. The section I had the misfortune to view was nothing more than pure unadulterated anti-government propoganda so ‘off’ it went. And to think that we all pay for this!

       29 likes

  9. George R says:

    BBC-NUJ, ‘multiculturalism’, Seacole and all that.

    Don’t expect BBC-NUJ to revise its ‘multicultural’ history any time soon.

    ‘Daily Mail’:-

    “The black Florence Nightingale and the making of a PC myth: One historian explains how Mary Seacole’s story never stood up.
    “Claims of her achievements have been hugely oversold for political reasons, says leading historian.”

    By Guy Walters.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2255095/The-black-Florence-Nightingale-making-PC-myth-One-historian-explains-Mary-Seacoles-story-stood-up.html

       21 likes

  10. David Brims says:

    Off topic, I see that Michael Buerk has stuck the knife in and twisted it. It’s like a vipers nest over there, where’s the love and peace ?

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2255096/BBCs-Michael-Buerk-blasted-calling-Tess-Daly-bird-brain-blistering-attack-airhead-colleagues.html

       13 likes

  11. Lord Reith's PA says:

    Why not google Wikipedia’s biography of him? Then, you’ll know why he is so loved and so frequently featured by the BBC.

       8 likes

  12. hothandsdave says:

    Has anyone noticed how the BBC mirrors The Guardian’s news agenda and editorial MO. Compare the Duchess of Cambridge hospitalization with the Hillary Clinton or Nelson Mandela versions and see the difference. In one, speculation and intrusions abound and nasty comments are published; in the others, no speculation or intrusion and definitively no comment is allowed.

       23 likes

  13. Alex says:

    Ah, good old Benjamin Zephaniah… If I recall correctly, this was the bloke who objected to the village, in which he lives, flying the Union Jack. Obviously has difficulty remembering what country he’s living in!

       27 likes

  14. Jeff says:

    Benjy is as much a poet as Tracey Emmin is an artist. I’m afraid we are living through strange times. In years to come, when this pc nonsense has been swept away, we will look back and chuckle over the talentless chancers that have been lionised by the BBC. However, I must confess that I actually quite enjoyed listening to poor Benjy’s puerile half arsed opinions. I think the trick is to laugh at these ultra left luvvies. We had Benjy telling us why he rejected an OBE, tho’ why the fxxk anyone would think he deserved one is beyond me. Then we had an excruciating piece about white poppies; apparently the red ones are too “militaristic”. We had the usual guff about the unparalleled joys of multiculturalism, tho’ our hero seems to avoid too much of this himself. Then we had Benjy telling us we needed more good news; How about they’re scrapping the licence fee?
    Poor Benjy was completely out of his depth. In the end even Humphrys was taking the piss out of him.

       24 likes

    • Alex says:

      Lol, couldn’t agree more. I always thought Benjy was a little simple… whenever I watched him on Question (but no real answers) Time he came across as being somewhat intellectually stretched (to put it mildly!).

         17 likes

  15. Scoobywho says:

    Watching Zephaniah et al is a bit like watching spitting image.

       8 likes

    • Hugh Janus says:

      Not in the slightest. Spitting Image was funny and clever. Zephaniah, whom the BBC seems to have on permanent speed-dial, is neither. He’s an insufferable bigot, just like whoever it was at the BBC who thought he should be allowed to edit Toady. Yuk.

         2 likes

  16. tckev says:

    Thank gawd for Classic FM, I retuned almost immediately.

       6 likes

  17. Lynette says:

    May I sugggest to all those on this site a New Year’s resolution – to email or even better write in complaints directly to the BBC. and follow up complaints at least to Head of Complaints. The BBC are obliged to answer complaints and individuals are employed to answer them.The BBC needs to account for it’s biased reporting.

       9 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      May I commend the sentiment and endorse it, if with a caution.
      ‘The BBC are obliged to answer complaints and individuals are employed to answer them.’
      The BBC are obliged to reply; there is a semantic difference in not answering if it doesn’t suit they will exploit mercilessly, so no matter how valid your complaint they will by default reject it out of hand at least two times unless you persist.
      Then it may get bumped to ECU, who will assign a Director who will try exactly the same tactic. Even if you have them bang to rights factually, s/he will retreat into areas of ‘belief’ and ‘personal comfort’. Again, if you feel your complaint has merit, you need to persist.
      It may then, after about six months, end up in front of the ill-named ‘Trust’.
      Other than a few very rare instances, they will of course drown you in paperwork before coming to the conclusion the BBC got it about right.
      If you go through this process more than a few times they will then try and expedite (ie: ban…censor) you.
      They will do so on the basis that dealing with your complaining about the BBC having poor professional integrity is not… in their view… the best use of licence fee payers’ money.
      However paying FoI lawyers hundreds of thousands to suppress what’s in the public domain is, or paying off DG’s with twice what they are entitled to, or spraying hush money around like a fire hose….
      You can of course appeal, but on a guilty until found secretly really guilty basis.
      They will issue vast documents (mainly cut and pasted justifications culled from their own rigged guidelines) in support of supposed ‘independent’, ‘impartial’ investigations held internally by the BBC of the BBC, to which you will not allowed to be part or given access. They will demand you communicate with no one else, when they freely admit they will give you details to anyone they choose. You will not be allowed to challenge any BBC staff version directly, even if they flat out misrepresent. You will have no access to anything that passes into archive, even if they do. And they can and will change it if it suits. Everything, in and out, passes through a BBC-only gatekeeper filter, over which you have zero control and can only… ‘trust’.
      A >1500 character complaint can blossom, thanks to the BBC systems, into a year and hundreds of pages and multiple MB of data. From many, many individuals ’employed’ to ‘answer’ or commissioned to ‘investigate’, but all tasked to kick into the long grass or suppress, and paid… by us.
      And they will accuse you of using up their time.
      It’s what makes the BBC so unique.
      But, one day, it’s what will get held up for them to account for.
      And they will find they can no longer get away with saying it’s about right any more just because they say it’s about right.
      So it is worth doing.

         11 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Lynette, this may also help steel tour resolve…
      http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100196238/why-we-fight/
      Amongst much that resonated in dealing with BBC CECUTT and indeed Flokkers here, I liked this bit:
      ‘So I wrote again to ask what exactly these “denialists” were denying. He replied: “Oh dear. I think you know exactly what I mean, James.”
      When in doubt, or caught out… dissemble!
      Then cry to nanny. And finally, flounce.
      Reminds me of a few folk.

         2 likes

  18. Detectorvansdontwork says:

    Heard about half an hour of this hogwash and had to turn it off. There were a couple of interesting bits but most of it was straightforward propaganda.

    But then I turned on Radio 4 this morning and heard Melvin Bragg talking to a professor who did a total hatchet job on multiculturalism, even said it was ‘dangerous’ . Five minutes of that doesn’t ‘balance’ three hours of Ben though.

       7 likes