371 Responses to WEEKEND OPEN THREAD

  1. Teddy Bear says:

    I just caught a few minutes of the Radio 4 Feedback programme this afternoon.
    Somebody questioned just why in this day and age, certain phone calls to the Today programme, from listeners voicing their opinion on a particular issue, seem to ‘develop a problem’ with the line and get disconnected.

    It seems quite a few people have noted this phenomena at the BBC Today show and commented on it.

    I’m wondering if anybody has noticed the same feature, and if they’ve seen it’s more common to certain callers with a particular ‘non BBC desirable’ point of view that ‘develop a problem’.

    Wouldn’t surprise me. Just another way for the BBC to censor the opinions heard.

       67 likes

    • MartinW says:

      Scandalously, this has happened for years.

         40 likes

      • Beeboidal says:

        Sometimes happens on 5Live, but I have to say it always sounds to me like just a bad mobile phone signal breaking up. Nor would I say it happens to one type of call rather than another.

           2 likes

        • Teddy Bear says:

          The first caller stated he wasn’t referring to ‘somebody on a mobile in a war zone’, but landlines.

          Can listen again here at 26mins in.

          He wanted to know also if the BBC kept any statistics on this ‘problem’.

          They don’t!

          If you listen to Today regularly, perhaps you can see if there’s any slant to it.

             16 likes

          • Beeboidal says:

            I listened to that. It is odd. They promised a future programme on this. I wonder what that will reveal.

               7 likes

            • pah says:

              I wonder what that will reveal?

              Perhaps it will be that, like the ‘I’m sorry but we’re running out of time’ routine they pull on people with inconvenient truths to tell, they are biased and are excluding certain thoughts from the airwaves.

              No, perhaps not.

                 18 likes

    • Mo says:

      This is like a badly made B movie showing the first flutterings of the encroaching power of the state towards eventual facist control. But this is the truth. This is the BBC.

         1 likes

  2. George R says:

    Two reports on OBAMA’s latest racial intervention re-Martin case:

    1.) Banned American freedom-fighter, Pamela Geller:-

    “OBAMA THROWS FUEL ON THE FIRE:
    TRAYVON MARTIN ‘COULD HAVE BEEN ME 35 YEARS AGO'”

    http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2013/07/obama-throws-fuel-on-the-fire-trayvon-martin-could-have-been-me-35-years-ago.html

    2.) BBC-Democrat:-

    “‘Trayvon Martin could have been me’ – Barack Obama.”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23382880

       30 likes

    • Ian Rushlow says:

      What a pity it wasn’t him.

         39 likes

      • CCE says:

        Unacceptable

           6 likes

        • Number 7 says:

          Rowlocks ( or something that rhymes) 🙂

             11 likes

          • London Calling says:

            “Could have been me” says the Community Organiser in Chief.

            You wonder, the 12 year old, whose image was touted around by grievance-mongering liberals, or the seventeen-year old with a hoodie and a long wrap-sheet collected in a few years.

            Obama won’t tell you, because he speaks fluent “dog-whistle” – to the black and liberal vote.
            Its about as relevant as David Cameron saying he might have looked like Stephen Lawrence.

               10 likes

    • George R says:

      “Why Obama’s Remarks on the Zimmerman Case Are a Failure of Leadership.”

      http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/07/19/why-obamas-remarks-on-the-zimmerman-case-are-a-failure-of-leadership/?singlepage=true

         32 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        One of many special moments, which will inspire thousands of Beeboids:

        He warned that the attorney general’s review of the case in a civil-rights capacity at the Justice Department may not yield the charges some seek. “I know that Eric Holder is reviewing what happened down there, but I think it’s important for people to have some clear expectations here,” he said. “Traditionally, these are issues of state and local government.”

        “That doesn’t mean, though, that as a nation we can’t do some things that I think would be productive.”

        Translation: I don’t care about States’ Rights or the separation of powers between the Executive and the Judicial. I want something done, and will dispense with the rule of law to do it.

        This is the Community Organizer-in-Chief in action. It’s what He does, has always done. And the BBC will love it.

           47 likes

    • George R says:

      “Why Is Obama Trying to Start a Race War?”

      http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/07/why-is-obama-trying-to-start-a-race-war/#more-29740

         33 likes

      • Mark II says:

        He is presumably trying to avenge his Mau Mau papa.
        Not content with saying that Trayvon could have been his son, he has now decided that he could have been Trayvon himself.
        It is all the fault of slavery of course.

           34 likes

        • Banquosghost says:

          Carter must be punching the air, no longer will he be known as the worst President in living memory. After Obama has gone and is touring the world with Tony Blair giving their double act to packed audiences of dictators, once the dust has settled and the left are tucking into Rubio or whoever will have to pick up the mess I wonder if amongst the eulogies someone will finally be allowed to give the exhaustive list of Obama’s many foul ups.

             12 likes

        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          Mark Mardell must be kicking himself for deciding to spend the last month in China working on a documentary nobody will care about. Here we have the most perfect scenario imaginable for him to support his belief that the US is racist at its core, and he’s missing all of it.

             7 likes

        • johnnythefish says:

          Was Trayvon half-white, then, or is this just another racist betrayal by Obama of his white heritage?

             10 likes

        • Andy S. says:

          The story of Obama’s (presumed) father being a Mau-Mau is a fabrication. The Mau-Mau belonged to the Kikuyu tribe. Obama’s supposed father wasn’t a member of that tribe,so couldn’t have been Mau-Mau.

          It’s more likely he was a Marxist agitator using the uprising for his own ends.

             3 likes

    • Adi says:

      Now that the Messiah is both the Father and the Son; and since the Spirit of Saint Trayvon lives in Him, you have the perfect Progressive Holy Trinity.

         6 likes

  3. Pounce says:

    The bBC, the mouthpiece for Islamic terrorism
    Adebolajo prison officers ‘did nothing wrong’

    Nice to see the bBC bitching about how an Islamic terrorist murderer lost a couple of teeth whilst inside prison. I wonder how long it will be before they bring out a program about how the Islamic terrorist is an innocent man.

       52 likes

    • The Beebinator says:

      al beeb still not telling the truth. 2nd para of that article

      “Michael Adebolajo, accused of killing Fusilier Lee Rigby”

      he hasnt been charged with killing lee rigby, hes been charged with the murder of lee rigby

         62 likes

      • noggin says:

        a filmed violent virtual decapitation? … and subsequent filmed jihadi confession?
        must be the Michael Adebolajo, ahem accusation?
        to which the bbc are refering

           26 likes

      • Joshaw says:

        Where’s that lawyer bloke who was so keen to point out the difference a couple of weeks ago?

           9 likes

    • Llareggub says:

      I am awaiting the trial which will raise issues regarding the defendant’s treatment in prison, how his human rights were denied, and so on. The BBC will spread this to obliterate all evidence submitted by the prosecution. Soon, it will develop into a story about a victimised anti war protester. But my main fear is that Cameron might step in and say that he could have been this man 30 years ago. Or is that stretching the parallel with Obama too far?

         32 likes

      • noggin says:

        “coulda been me” cameron …
        “is it because i is black” … word 😀

           13 likes

      • pah says:

        Perhaps the EDL should start making t-shirts with ‘I could have been Lee Rigby 30 years ago’. I wonder how the BBC would report that?

           23 likes

    • Ron Todd says:

      How will the BBC cover any demand for compensation?

         4 likes

      • kenneth cricket says:

        Demand or demands? No doubt the terrorist’s legal team are already preparing the case to get their hands on my tax money, and then the prison officers will want a pay rise for that important job they do, and the union will tell us we need to employ more of them.

           7 likes

        • Bannerman says:

          With the prison officers suspension that makes 5 more lives blighted by the evil murderer…how many more? Hope someone gets to him soon…shame the police missed a vital bit when they shot him. Expect the BBC to report this day after day until there are more suspensions, compensation claims by spiv traitor lawyers.

             22 likes

    • ROBERT BROWN says:

      This would not be news if the Police had shot him dead as they should have, now he is a drain on our taxes until he does die. The police seem to be able to shoot plenty of innocent people stone dead. So much for highly trained marksmen. The cynic in me thinks the cops were told not to kill them if possible, because they were Muslims, as they guessed correctly, and were fearful of an almighty uproar from the ‘community’. And the BBC would have been in overdrive.

         11 likes

      • Andy S. says:

        The fact the authorities use the word “community” as shorthand for “the Muslim community” is proof that multiculturalism is a divisive failure.

           3 likes

    • Teddy Bear says:

      Worth contrasting just how in the BBC article on Adebolajo they present it clearly from the viewpoint of the guards and those defending them, but on this article from a few months ago concerning a Palestinian prisoner, not much defence of the Israel prison system.

      If anyone thinks it’s an oversight by BBC staff on the subject, then there’s an article from a month ago to really ‘hit home’.

      Inquiry call over Israel’s ‘torture of Palestinians’

      The first line reads: A UN expert has called for an international inquiry into Israel’s treatment of Palestinian prisoners, alleging torture and other abuses.

      The UN ‘expert’ is none other than Richard Falk, and just what he’s supposedly an expert in is not revealed.

      Falk goes on to say: He also said Israel’s blockade of Gaza must end, describing it as “collective punishment” of Palestinians.
      Richard Falk drew criticism for comparing Israeli actions in Gaza to those of the Nazis

      He certainly isn’t an expert on history, or knowledge of what happened during WW2, but for the BBC he’ll do.

         7 likes

  4. AsISeeIt says:

    BBC News 24 sports reporter (didn’t catch his name) gets to review an economic report about the Olympics. Watch out for Stephanie Flanders take on the men’s 4 by 100 metres relay?

    He tells us that David Cameron has visted the Olympic Park ‘but don’t worry there’s no one here for him to jinx!’

    I wonder where this PM jinx idea has come from?

    I don’t hear it at work or at the bus stop.

    Must be something they joke about in the BBC staff room.

       43 likes

    • Arthur Penney says:

      I wonder what jinx

      He becomes prime minister – This year a native male Briton has won Wimbledon for the first time in 77 years, last year the UK have their best ever Olympics and today the English cricket team took 10 Australian wickets whilst the Prime Minister was watching! Not only that it looks as if a British cyclist will win the Tour de France 2 years running (pardon the pun).

      Good luck charm more like!

         37 likes

      • Wild says:

        It started with Guido Fawkes, except it was about Gordon Brown. The Labour Party did not like this, and so their spin doctors tried to get the jinx story going with David Cameron, except that people generally ignored it, except for the BBC.

        BBC News and Current Affairs is simply tax payer funded spin for the Labour Party these days – they are so desperate for another Labour government it is almost as if they are worried, worried that the BBC gravy train is reaching the end of the line.

        Watch next for earnest hand wringing on the BBC about Ed Miliband – you know like they did for Conservative opposition leaders when they fell behind in the polls, right?

           57 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          ‘The Labour Party did not like this, and so their spin doctors tried to get the… story going, except that people generally ignored it, except for the BBC.’
          *****
          Normally such ways of building trust would see a collapse of any news media business model. Luckily, the BBC’s is unique, and unaccountable.

             17 likes

        • Chop says:

          “The Jonah Curse!”

             1 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      The reporter was David Bond. His report was just shown on BBC1 10 o’clock news. His snide ‘jinx’ comment was cut.

         15 likes

    • TIOI says:

      “Must be something they joke about in the BBC staff room.”

      Or maybe he just reads The Telegraph?

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/wimbledon/10156838/Curse-of-Cameron-to-strike-again-Prime-Minister-wishes-Andy-Murray-good-luck.html

         4 likes

      • RCE says:

        Yeah, that’s right – something was suggested weeks ago and proved to be bollocks so never caught on. But the BBC don’t like the bloke in question so pretended it had caught on after all.

        Thank you for establishing that.

           12 likes

    • Scummy Leftard run BBC says:

      The Daily Mail also had a go at the Cameron Curse
      here

      Hopefully they’ve now given up on that idea here

      This does show just how far reaching the Labour Spin Doctors can be, and no doubt the BBC will try and keep the story going for as long as possible until it sticks.

      Funny how no one else in the media noticed Guido’s numerous examples of Gordon Brown’s curses, but that just shows how damaging Labour spin doctors are and how weak and ineffective Tory spinners are.

         11 likes

  5. #88 says:

    It’s getting worse
    The BBC seem to have stepped up their activism, as Miliband continues to flounder in the opinion polls, I have no doubt that they will step up their efforts on behalf of Labour as the election approaches.
    The carping and the sneering will only get louder – the unnecessary ‘jinx’ jibes (above) will continue because it serves their purpose. As someone just said on Guido’s site, in the BBC for every silver lining there will be a cloud. Every BBC news bulletin is now a demoralising dispiriting tidal wave of innuendo, negativity and lack of balance.

    And the BBC will also have their army of ‘experts’ there to undermine. The ‘good news’ crime story yesterday, undermined by a ‘999 delay’ story planted by the Labour Party – unsubstantiated, not checked, not double sourced. And tonight one of the usual suspects, lefty BBC regular Jonathan Portes, is there to pour a bucket of sick on Government claims of economic benefit (this after the sneering Evan Davies giggled like a village idiot this morning while Stephanie Flanders dissected those Olympic claims). When o when did the BBC dissect any of Brown’s tractor figures?

    And even tonight’s paper review will leave nothing to chance – analysis will be by someone from the left wing ‘People’ and Labour’s Lance Price ensure all will be on message. No balance there.

    Is it time to stop complaining and to start taking action against the BBC, demanding they stick to the terms of their Charter?

       49 likes

  6. AsISeeIt says:

    BBC anti-Tory bias is often so blatant that is becoming laughable.

    BBC London news and there is great excitment about a couple of grass fires. 20 fire engines attended we are told…. ‘5 of which will be lost under Mayor Boris Johnson’s plans’.

       44 likes

    • nofanofpoliticians says:

      Their is literally not a night that goes by without BBC London having a dig at BoJo over some issue or other. You know they are in overdrive when they reel out Jenny Jones, the Green party mare to substantiate some point or other.

         42 likes

      • Scummy Leftard run BBC says:

        I can assure you it’s the same on BBC South local news and no doubt the same on all local channels around the country.

        There isn’t a day goes by when there’s isn’t at least one Tory-led Government bashing story – A mobile library closing or a pupil denied access to a school their sibling attends, or a council (Tory led) taking too long with roadworks effecting all, or water leak story (Maggie’s bad privatised industry), or bin men on strike over cuts, or a drop in centre closing, congestion on the railways (Major’s bad privatised industry), someone who can’t get an operation because of postcode, food banks (a popular one because their must be a good 150 towns in the region each of which can have it’s own food bank opening story) …

        How I wish someone could plant a mole into BBC news editorial meetings and record how space is always made for these stories.

        Funnily enough it always seemed to be stories about village fetes or the vicar opening some hall or central Government money improving a local road in the 13 years leading up until May 2010.

        Oh and if there is an anti Tory story making the local BBC breakfast slot at 6:30am, you can be sure the story will still be featuring in that evenings 10:30pm local slot.

           9 likes

    • Bob Nelson says:

      Have you noticed how the BBC now use the official measurement of wildfires in the UK? It is ‘football pitches’. A couple of days ago we had one the size of ‘five football pitches’. Yesterday’s was a single ‘football pitch’.
      Compared with US and Australian fires which are measured in Manhattans, or even Wales, ours are pathetic.

         15 likes

  7. Fred Bloggs says:

    While doing my turn at cooking tonight I listened to the ‘News Quiz’. First item was about Lynton Crosby. For the remainder that I listened too, Labour got hardly a bad reference. The rest was anti tory. Glad to see no bias there then!!

       34 likes

  8. Jeff says:

    There’s an ugly rumour circulating that tomorrow there are to be demonstrations across Britain in response to the Zimmerman trial. No doubt it will be the regular rabble; Unite Against Washing and other noisy and violent left wing bigots. Most of these people will have gained their opinions of this tragedy by watching and listening to the distortions promulgated by the BBC. I do hope these fine journalists are proud of themselves.
    But in any case what possible difference do the prospective demonstrators think they will make?

       40 likes

  9. uncle bup says:

    BBC Light News™

    ‘Poly’ Phil Williams interviewing antiques (read tat/ bric-a-brac) expert Anita Manning.

    Poly: I’ve never been to an auction what’s it like?

    Manning then did a pretend auction of the studio clock.

    ‘Wow,’ said Poly, ‘next time you do an auction we’ll have to take in a radio mic or even a TV camera’.

    You could almost hear the creative cogs in Poly’s brain clicking through the gears. Perhaps two sets of teams. Perhaps hunting for a bargain, then finishing off with an auction. But what to call it. And who to pitch it to.

    Well I don’t like to piss on anyone’s shoes but Poly, if yer reading this, they are up to series 35 now of Bargain Hunt.

    Word of advice mate, when you have a guest coming in and the intern slips you a piece of paper with the guest’s name on top of it. That is something called A BRIEFING NOTE, it will be a cut ‘n’ paste from Wikipedia.

    READ IT.

       34 likes

    • nofanofpoliticians says:

      Ah… Bargain Hunt, the show that really does p*** away licence fee payers money. For the uninitiated, this is a show (daily I think) that starts with each team being given £300 of licence payers hard-earned to go and fritter away on whatever tat they can find and return it to an auction where they try to turn a profit. They rarely do. Of course, they are aided and abetted by a group of so-called experts who probably don’t do it for fun, and presented by Tim Wantacock who probably isn’t cheap either.

      I’m not sure which category this particular show falls into, but it misses both on seeking to inform and entertain and is certainly not news.

         12 likes

      • harryurz says:

        The ” bargain hunters” actually go to retail markets and the like to buy their “bargains” at shop prices, and then expect to make profit on them by putting them into what are essentially “wholesale” auctions. …and they wonder why they usually lose money?
        Still, its understandable the BBC adhere to the Labour’s economic policy so rigidly……..

           12 likes

      • Dave666 says:

        The flip side to Bargain Hunt is that is probably excellent value the presenter, the experts and the film crew are (I assume) the only ones paid there are minimal costs for script writing and they show them over and over and over. Just like Eggheads they like to slot repeats in with current series. For example Alonso not driving for Ferrari as I answered but of course Renault. I think they are even showing “Bargain hunt” first thing in the morning on BBc2 these days.

           3 likes

  10. George R says:

    BBC-NUJ campaigns for the freedom of SHAKER AAMER, who’s in Gitmo (following a campaign it did earlier for Gitmo Ethiopian, Binyam Mohamed).

    But BBC-NUJ has no interest in campaigning for Americans GELLER and SPENCER to enter the U.K.

    BBC-NUJ is reluctant to indicate the extent of Aamer’s activities which led to his detention, while at the same time giving the impression that Aamer is British, which he isn’t.

    More on Aamer for BBC-NUJ:-

    “Britain seeks release of the Guantanamo ‘professor'” (2009)

    [Excerpt]:-

    “Documents prepared for Aamer’s hearings at Guantanamo further outline the allegations against him. Aamer ‘was an advisor to Osama bin Laden and organizer at Tora Bora, Kandahar and Kabul,’ a memo produced for Aamer’s first administrative review board hearing reads. Aamer ‘was very close to Osama bin Laden and would ask him for advice.’ He also allegedly acted as a ‘special interpreter’ for bin Laden and knew the terror master’s ‘former representative in the United Kingdom.’ This may be a reference to Abu Qatada, who is currently in British custody and is in the process of being extradited to the US. Qatada has been one of Osama bin Laden’s chief representatives in the UK for years.

    “US intelligence officials believe that Aamer was a member of an al Qaeda cell in London and that he compiled an extensive dossier of terror.”

    http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/03/britain_seeks_the_re.php

    The left’s ( inc BBC-NUJ’s) political alliance with Islam includes campaigning for Shaker Aamer of Gitmo.

    And apparently some comedian is going on hunger strike for Aamer.

       26 likes

  11. stuart says:

    obama tonight has been moaning and groaning about how bad he has suffered from racism all his life in america,really, he waited a long time to come out with that,also i watched a documentary on channel 4 this week called south africans dirty cops,now if you thought white apartheid was bad you should watch this,it was shocking how the ancs black police force torture and murder there own poor black citixens in that country since aparthied fell.if i was a black citixen in south africa i would say things have got worse since the anc took power in that country.

       28 likes

    • David Brims says:

      ”obama tonight has been moaning and groaning about how bad he has suffered from racism.”

      Complete fairytale, he was born rich, went to private schools, he identifies with whites, why is he running off to Martha’s Vine Yard and not hanging out with his fellow race hustling blacks in the ghetto then ?

         47 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Apparently, the President would have attacked George Zimmerman and beat the sh!t out of him as well. No wonder the Beeboids love Him so.

         19 likes

  12. George R says:

    “BBC chief Hall gives ‘crony’ a £600,000 deal:

    “Wife of Britain’s top civil servant called in to make corporation a ‘simpler place to work.’
    “Lady Heywood and director-general of the BBC Lord Hall have worked together before.
    “Threats to call Lord Hall before MPs to explain the employment.
    “Second time he has appointed a former colleague to a high-rise position at the BBC.”
    By ALASDAIR GLENNIE.

    [Excerpt]:-

    “Conor Burns, a Tory MP on the culture, media and sport committee, has written to Lord Hall asking him to publish all the documents relating to the McKinsey contract.

    “‘Tony Hall was brought in as director-general with a clear mandate to put the days of murky relationships and mutual back scratching at the BBC behind them,’ he said.

    “‘It is vital if his credibility is to be upheld that the BBC now urgently publish the tender documents relating to the awarding of this contract, so the licence fee payer can see beyond doubt that this contract was awarded on merit and not on the basis of personal favours.’”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2370851/BBC-chief-Hall-gives-crony-600-000-deal-Wife-Britains-civil-servant-called-make-corporation-simpler-place-work.html

       24 likes

    • Phil Ford says:

      The BBC: a publicly-funded £3.5bn p.a. money pit for the entitled Left to plunder at will.

      These days their cronyism and rank contempt for disenfranchised license payers hides itself in plain sight. This vile cesspit of belligerent, self-congratulatory common purpose trolls should be shut down or turfed out on to the ranks of subscription TV without delay.

      If it’s even half as ‘cherished’ as its endlessly recycled propaganda insists, it might even survive. If not, well good riddance to bad rubbish.

         37 likes

  13. Alex says:

    Just wondered what everyone’s opinion on the BBC’s favourite Left-wing historian, Simon Schama, is? I have just watched his ‘new’ (well, it’s not new, really, because it is the same old apologist, guilt-ridden anti-English crap) History of Britain and conclude that no wonder our youth are brainwashed into thinking the British or English are nasty, evil oppressors. Give me David Starkey, any day… but he doesn’t the BBC’s narrative, I suppose.

       41 likes

    • Phil Ford says:

      *ahem*

      Sat 20th July 2013 (TODAY) – 20.10 BBC2

      “…Crown and Choir
      Episode 1 of 4
      DURATION: 1 HOUR
      Dr David Starkey reveals how the story of British music was shaped by its monarchy. In this first episode he begins with kings who were also composers – Henry V and Henry VIII – and the golden age of English music they presided over. He discovers how the military and religious ambitions of England’s monarchy made its music the envy of Europe – and then brought it to the brink of destruction – and why British music still owes a huge debt to Queen Elizabeth I.”

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p018rffp

      One small, shining beacon of uncompromised broadcasting still exists in the mire of current BBC output. Against all the odds, the singular Dr Starkey still somehow gets to make new programmes for the hateful Corporation.

         22 likes

      • Deborah says:

        but we haven’t had the endless repetitive trailers that we usually get for Mr Schama. But it will be a real treat (I hope) to have something on a Saturday night that I can sit down and watch without Mr D worrying about my blood pressure. (We have been watching the repeats of Foyles War and the wonderful Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett on ITV3 all week but we can usually remember who and why they did it within 5 minutes of the start).

           14 likes

      • RCE says:

        David Starkey is one of the few right wingers wheeled out by the BBC to prove that it is balanced, as elucidated here:

        http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/10159310/Nigel-Farage-The-bloated-BBC-bullies-those-who-disagree-with-its-liberal-bias.html

        The odd voice, here and there and presented as a sort of quaint peculiarity, does not balance out the slew of leftist propaganda that characterises every other aspect of output.

           15 likes

        • Joshaw says:

          A sort of educated Jeremy Clarkson?

             3 likes

        • Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

          Starkey is probably tolerated because he is homosexual, which always counts highly with the bBBC.

             17 likes

          • David Preiser (USA) says:

            I think that just makes them hate Starkey even more. A traitor to the cause, you know?

               2 likes

            • Wild says:

              David Starkey is an English Constitutional Historian. If he was on the Left politically the BBC would have commissioned a contemporary political programme from him (like they did when they asked Simon Schama [whose specialty is the history of art] to do some pro-Obama programmes about the American election) but instead they asked him to talk about the history of English music.

              It is that famous political balance of the BBC again – Starkey talking about William Byrd balances up Schama talking about Obama. Who does the BBC think they are kidding? They are incapable of political balance, and proud of it. For every 100 films on the BBC about left wing commentators views about life in the UK today there will be approximately zero films from right wing commentators. Channel Four offers a variety of different views. The BBC are Stalinist trash in comparison.

                 12 likes

      • Daisy Letts says:

        He’s a homosexual – that’s why he’s still allowed in the club.

           0 likes

        • Albaman says:

          Nothing to do with him being a historian then?
          Your homophobia will endear you to the natives of this site.

             4 likes

          • johnnythefish says:

            Ah, the tired old ad hominem ‘phobia’ ploy, always a ready substitute for reasoned argument.

            To label this whole site as anti-gay is yet another example of your own blind prejudice.

               8 likes

          • RCE says:

            What is homophobic about Daisy’s post?

               2 likes

  14. graphene fedora says:

    A sharp needle to prick the BBC elite’s bubble of subsidised self-indulgence. An extract from: http://www.bogpaper.com/2013/07/17/russell-taylor-privatise-the-bbc/
    ‘In the Neverland of the BBC, there are rarely any consequences for making bad decisions or holding stupid opinions. Events may prove you wrong, but providing enough people join you in ignoring the truth, you can carry on believing whatever you like. In such an environment, outcomes matter less than motives. Being good & doing good become confused, meaning the most conspicuously compassionate ideas trump the most efficacious. Anyone concerned with the real-world effects of ideas & who appreciates the need for trade-offs looks like a nutcase or a hater, whereas liberal airheads with a nifty line in society-wrecking utopianism come across as saints.’

       35 likes

    • Phil Ford says:

      Wow, it’s an amazing piece – possibly one of the best I’ve ever read criticising all that’s wrong with the Corporation. For instance, this excerpt:

      “… it’s worth considering the kind of people who work at the BBC. A great many of them are humanities graduates, who emerged from university with little more than a towering sense of entitlement and an aristocrat’s snooty disdain for commerce. In joining the BBC, they opted out of the productive sector and bought a ticket to the Shangri-La of intellectual self-indulgence, where chin-stroking moral exhibitionism passes for work. Because they deal in ideas and opinions, they over-estimate their value.”

      Readers here are urged to visit the full article: http://bogpaper.com/2013/07/17/russell-taylor-privatise-the-bbc/

         36 likes

  15. David Brims says:

    Why is the media showing a photograph of Trayvon ‘the Risen Christ’ Martin as a 12 year old child when he’s in fact 18 ?

    Why is the media portraying George Zimmerman as a blond, blue eyed, Nordic white man, when in fact he’s a half jewish, latino Hispanic Mexican, his mother is from Peru descended from the Incas ! I suppose it doesn’t fit the media’s anti white narrative.

    If Trayvon Martin is Little Bo Peep, what was he doing late at night, skulking about in a gated community ? he claims ”to buy a bag of skittles. ” Really ?

    On his Twitter Account, Trayvon referred to himself as ”No Limit Nigga.” It’s a litany of ebonic babble, One of his tweets was

    ”Plzz shoot da #mf dat lied 2 u!”

    I suppose the ‘mf ‘ stands for ‘mother f**ker, since they’re all very fond of using ”dat ” expression.

    dailycaller.com/2012/03/26/the-daily-caller-obtains-trayvon-martins-tweets/

    dailycaller.com/2012/03/29/second-trayvon-martin-twitter-feed-identified/

       23 likes

  16. Thoughtful says:

    A jaw dropping revelation on the Today program.

    It appears that Leftie David Cameron has carried on with mass immigration because it’s an easy way to give a better appearance to economic figures.
    Most of the growth in employment has come from immigration and yet again the indigenous populace is frozen out of employment.
    The tired old lie – but they won’t take the jobs which immigrants will was trotted out, but this time there was a challenge.
    There was a statement made that mass immigration meant that Labour didn’t have to address benefits reform in the way the Tories have had to.

    My conclusion from this is that Mass immigration is so fantastic that it needs to been hidden from the great unwashed but only when Labour are in power.

    When the Tories are undertaking mass immigration, then the negative side of it can be broadcast.

    Yet more bias !

       21 likes

  17. AsISeeIt says:

    What happens when a guest invited to speak on a BBC current affairs show either neglects to make or fails to be bumped into making that all important call for more public expenditure?

    Well following the interview just as the mikes are disconnected and the guest is leaving the studio if that point is still not made the BBC presenter will simply step in himself to make the call for more public money to be spent!

    Sounds awkaward but it has to be done.

    This morning Tony Livesey on BBC 5 Live played host to an unfortunate woman who lost her son to an outdoor swimming accident. Serious public service broadcasting was the oder of the day as we learn that although it’s hot the water is cold and people can easily get into difficulties. Fair enough. The lady in question now speaks to young people in schools to warn them of the dangers. Good for her. Tony needs to sum up the discussion with a ‘something must be done’ sound bite. What can we do? The woman (who is rapidly becoming a hero in my eyes) says ‘Parents and children need to find out and know about this for themselves’. Quite right.

    Tony Livesey and Caroline Barker say their good byes (why do the presenters on 5 Live always have to double up?) and our Tony muses (as if he’s just thought of it) ‘There used to be all knids of Public Information Films – I don’t think they do those anymore….’

    BBC: Charlie Says – whatever the issue ….. spend more public cash

       23 likes

    • pah says:

      The BBC with its phenomenal wealth could easily produce or commission a set of information films for kids. They could do this with ease. Why don’t they? After all they are supposed to ‘Inform, Educate and Entertain.’

      Alternatively they could squeeze the old films in between the indoctrination on CeeBeebies.

      Unfortunately we know what would happen if they were to do it. It would just be more anti-Tory propaganda and AGW alarmist posing as ‘information’.

         12 likes

      • Banquosghost says:

        You just know some mole will now pitch this to his Commissar and within months 5 minute films featuring left wing luminaries will be all over the airwaves.

        Harriet Harman standing by the side of a road telling kids to look left, look left and look left again before crossing the road and don’t forget to report the green man for flashing.

        Stephen Fry telling kids they must wear a bicycle helmet before giving a little eulogy on the delights of soft yet firm helmets. etc. etc.

           10 likes

  18. #88 says:

    When you get an opportunity to do so, listen to Toady’s Sarah Montague on the shameful case of poor Michael Adebolajo and his missing teeth (sometime after 8am this morning).

    Montague had someone along from the Prison Officers Association (notice how the BBC and the unions are forming a closer bond, nowadays?) to discuss what she describes as an ‘attack’ on this poor innocent (until proven guilty) individual.

    The POA guy put her right. It wasn’t an attack…this happened in the course of restraining someone who’s behaviour required FIVE prison guards to attend him.

    Montague accepts the word ‘incident’…then immediately calls it an ‘attack’…the POA interviewee repeats that the description is not acceptable.
    The interview proceeds. Clearly having been briefed, the interviewee is aware of, but unable to say more about the circumstances. But Montague, is either incredibly stupid…or her mind is made up as she then, for the third time, describes the incident as an ‘attack’.

    As we have come to expect, in Montague’s BBC world, while Adebolajo is afforded all of his rights, and she goes in to bat for him…the prison officers are granted none. Judge Montague is quite clear, they have attacked the animal.

    PS: Poor Michael Adebolajo. If only he celebrated Christmas, I know a little ditty he could sing.

       53 likes

    • kenneth cricket says:

      Genuine LOL at your Christmas comment.

         14 likes

    • Mice Height says:

      Just because ramming someone at high speed in a car, and then hacking their head off, is frowned upon in our society, it doesn’t mean to say that it’s unacceptable in all cultures!
      Who are we to say that our way of life, laws, traditions and culture are superior to anyone else’s?
      Adebolajo should be free to attend UAF demonstrations, at least until his case comes to court.

         31 likes

      • Ron Todd says:

        I would have no problem saying that our culture is far superior to most. One of the main reasons being I have the freedom (so far) to say that and the liberals who hate their own country have the freedom to disagree with me in many places openly disagreeing with the dominant culture or religion would be very dangerous.

           13 likes

        • pah says:

          Yes, its like when people say things like ‘you think all your opinions are right don’t you?’ Well of course I do. How could I hold an opinion and know that it was wrong?

          It’s illogical, Captain.

             16 likes

        • kenneth cricket says:

          I agree, we still have a great culture of freedom, but it is being eroded. For example I think the homosexual act of anal sex is disgusting, but I also believe in individual freedom, so therefore consenting adult should be free to be dirt-box cowboys.
          What the politically correct don’t get is that I should be allowed my freedom to say and hear what they would regard as homophobic, racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Islamic, disablist, irreligous, or obscene.
          I reckon these self-appointed moralists want to curb my freedom because they get off on some weird power trip.

             15 likes

          • pah says:

            I’m no fan of buggery but if other people want to do it then so what? Where I disagree with you is that I believe it is common manners to be not homophobic, racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Islamic, disablist, irreligious, nor obscene. It is a quintessential part of being English to tolerate others, despite provocation.

            However, why on earth people feel the need to broadcast their peccadilloes is beyond me. If they are truly at easy with themselves why do they need others to validate them?

               6 likes

    • Beeboidal says:

      Newssniffer is interesting on the website write up. The headline starts off as Adebolajo prison officers ‘did nothing wrong’. By version 3 this has changed Adebolajo ‘attack’ inquiry: Prison officers suspended It seems that because officers have now been suspended, someone decided, á la Montague, that ‘attack’ is the correct word to use. Perhaps someone else thought better of this, and in version 5 the current headline appears as Adebolajo injuries probe: Prison officers suspended

      Back on the day, Adebolajo attempted ‘suicide by cop’. Prison officers may now have accidentally killed two of his teeth. Get over it , BBC.

         20 likes

    • Beez says:

      And the support of anyone with Muslim connection continues at the BBC. Absolutely scandalous. Montague should be ashamed of herself, but lets face it, she and her self-indulgent pals at the beeb will be patting each other on the back. Sickening.

         21 likes

      • chrisH says:

        Well I know that when poor Michael-the alleged, accused potential driving offender of late May-was first taken into custody, my-indeed ALL OUR thoughts were about whether or not his pearly front gnashers would survive the vagaries of prison dentistry…what with those Tory cuts and all.
        So grand of the BBC to inform us of a complaint to the Met…so good of the BBC to accuse prison officers of attacking the little chap with the cleaver-and indeed, I do hope that the BBC will keep us informed of Saudi efforts to pay for the cosmetic dentistry required, so we don`t all have that unfortunate image of a Nigerian psycho with a bloody meat cleaver.
        Sarah Montague hopefully will do a stint or two at Belmarsh or Feltham. to show the trogs of the POA how best to placate those poor chaps in there, in need of a suitably mellow apple juice, freshly pressed.
        Only the BBC could make this kind of shite headline news to smear the poor sods who have to meet the likes of Michael-far better to bring them out to Woolwich Square after Friday prayers, as Saudi Arabia does-little bit of judicious Sharia may yet work a treat.
        Meanwhile, if you`re a Syrian Christian or a Norwegian woman in a Dubai prison for the offence of getting raped(and then telling on the rapists)…sorry bub…bad line…can`t hear you…and NOT a f***in chance you`ll make the BBCs news list(let alone headline it on all channels all morning).
        Tomorrow I`m walking for the POA…and will give my money over in the express hope that I can sponsor them knocking a couple more of Smilers fangs.
        F888Off BBC!

           25 likes

  19. AsISeeIt says:

    It is often instructive to have a peek at what they are thinking on ‘the other side of the hill’.

    Vis-a-vis Labour’s difficulties and what the poster sees as BBC Tory bias (I know – don’t laugh)

    From a Guardian comment:

    WorthlessLabour amoebaEd
    It’s difficult when the Tories are so ready to lie to further their cause, whether it’s welfare or the NHS, lie after lie after pours forth unabated, with a craven media, including the BBC, only too happy to peddle them. Later retractions and correction are lost;. the circus has moved on.

    Having said that, Labour have chosen this most critical time in politics to have probably their weakest ever leader. We still have nothing concrete coming out in terms of policy, nothing that doesn’t sound like triangulation and slightly watered-down Toryisms.

    When two parties have identical policies, why be surprised when the poll start to give them identical percentages?

    A Tory victory is beginning to [look] like a certainty, I’m sorry to say. The amount of suffering this will engender is enormous. Foodbanks, Workfare, homelessness, privatised NHS…all coming to a place near you soon. But if you don’t think you will be affected, think again. Over 50% of us will become unemployed over the age of 50. An that means the Work Programme, Workfare, and zero hour contacts. While the BBC were peddling Tory propaganda, Reuters reported that a fifth of all new jobs in recent years have been zero hour contracts.
    Welcome to Banana Republic/Airstrip 1.
    So don’t laugh too loudly Toryboys.

    Beyond the conspiricist ‘lie after lie’ and the relentless slogneering this guy seems to want Labour to turn further Left. He admits Miliband minor is rubbish – because he is too much of a ‘watered-down Tory’. So as a radical Leftist this jerk wants the BBC to be radical Leftist in message and then that would be balanced? I suppose at least he didn’t damn Tory policies as too ‘populist’. You have to read the above the line Guardian article for that illogical attack.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/19/summer-labour-tories-hog-fuelled

    ‘And it is nurtured by the pep talks of Lynton Crosby, the Australian campaign guru currently credited with honing the Tory message, tilting it in a populist – and rightward – direction…’

    God forbid the BBC fairly reflects popular British views – that’s called bias on the Left.

       14 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Ah, the good old days of Private Eye, when it WAS a satirical mag. How we miss ’em.

      Oh, a Guardian reader you say….?

         2 likes

  20. George R says:

    “BBC in £500k bill fury.
    “The latest ‘money-saving’ idea from BBC bosses sparked anger last night – because it involves spending up to £500,000 of licence-payers’ cash”

    http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/327621/BBC-in-500k-bill-fury?

       8 likes

    • kenneth cricket says:

      Managers who won’t manage. They hire consultants because they don’t have the balls to take responsibility and make a decision.

         8 likes

  21. George R says:

    INBBC has increasingly a policy of delegating issues relating to ISLAM to its growing Islamic staff, and to largely exclude non-Muslims.

    Not only are more and more Islamic issues (which directly affect the vast non-Muslim majority of British people) being fronted by INBBC Muslim staff such as Ms HUSAIN and Ms BADAWI, but the INBBC’s head of religious broadcasting, Muslim, Mr Ahmed commissions ex-Beeboid, Muslim Mr OMAAR from Islamic Al Jazeera to present pro-Islamic programmes on INBBC 2.

       21 likes

  22. George R says:

    And today, INBBC Asian Network voices its opposition to the English Defence League’s presence in Birmingham, referring to the costs of EDL policing without mentioning the UAF physical hostility and obstruction which is afflicted on all EDL attempted demos.

    Note: the growing political power which INBBC delegates to its apartheid Asian Network (a music station!), which is being used to dictate INBBC’s pro-Islam, anti-EDL political line.

    1.)

    EDL:-

    “Why We are Coming to Birmingham”

    http://englishdefenceleague.org/edl-news-2/1945-why-we-are-coming-to-birmingham

    2.) INBBC Asian Network:-

    Cost of policing EDL protests a ‘considerable concern’
    By Divya Talwar,
    INBBC Asian Network.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23364013

       16 likes

  23. noggin says:

    the bbc are now providing “profiles”? of zimmerman (boo hiss) and according to the photo, some 12 year old kid?
    i think its supposed to be trayvon, couldn t they find a pic of zimmerman when he was 12?.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17682245
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23382880
    even better – ‘People locked doors as I walked past’ 😀
    i know theres a joke in there somewhere
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23387496

    fatty nolan had i guy on ranting its like 1955 all over again?

    anyone going invest in a demand justice for Trayvon hoodie??
    only 17.99 complete with a pic of the “gangsta” when he was 12???
    or fill up on garbage like this
    Members of the public please convene outside the American Embassy in Grovesnor Square at 1.30pm wearing hoodies and carrying a packet of Skittles, the brand of sweets Trayvon was carrying when he was shot.
    “Please come, wear a hoodie, bring a packet of skittles, your children, friends, family and anyone else you can gather to say no to racism and call for justice for Trayvon Martin, who died walking home while being black!”

       20 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Springsteen dedicated one of his milksop songs to the memory of Trayvon Martin at a recent concert in Ireland-to the applause and cheers of the cult camp followers of the Tin God that is Brooce.
      Like other Gods who rock among us-he needs no gated community, and doubt he`s been on level terms with a black man since his sax player died…in Florida of course.
      No wonder the empty liberal heads, and checked wristbands love him so….Ireland deserves the Euro.
      Justice for Mr Zimmerman placards for Cardiff anybody?

         30 likes

    • kenneth cricket says:

      I’m reminded of Bonfire of the Vanities.

         8 likes

  24. Kev says:

    hello

       1 likes

  25. Kev says:

    Trayvon Martin’s death was a modern lynching by white racists.

       1 likes

    • David Brims says:

      Kev mate

      If George Zimmerman is ‘white’, according to that logic, then I suppose, Sammy Davis Jr is ‘white’ too !!

         25 likes

    • Joshaw says:

      A “white racist” who waited until he was pinned down and having his head bashed before shooting Trayvon Martin.

      Not exactly “The Day of the Jackal”, is it?

      The 1973 film, incidentally, was directed by Fred Zinnemann. Wow – another conspiracy!

      Foxtrot Oscar. Over and out.

         17 likes

  26. DB says:

    Senior producer at BBC Radio Five Live Richard Lawson:

       47 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      Lots of US opinion polls have now shown that it is only the angry and bigoted and blind that oppose the Zimmerman verdict., delivered after a long trial.

      But yes, I am aghast. Aghast that the US has so many young gangstas like Trayvon Martin, who make racist remarks and think it is OK to assault someone and start bashing their head against a concrete path. And aghast that fools like this BBC producer is so ignorant of the evidence presented in the case, so determined to dispute the idea of jury trial and self-defence – and so free at our expense to foist their twisted ideas on us.

         47 likes

    • Alex says:

      Brilliant, DB!

         11 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Hey, DB, how much do you want to bet Lawson is as ignorant as David Willis and thinks Zimmerman tackled Martin, and shot him in cold blood?

         8 likes

      • Colditz says:

        Amazing you know what happened when it took a jury and a trial a considerable period to try and work out a sequence of events.

        What prescience!

           3 likes

        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          Colditz, you’re either appallingly ignorant, or being dishonest. Which is it, I wonder? Prescience? I don’t think that word means what you think it means.

          The trial is over, and we’ve seen all the evidence, haven’t we? Unless there’s been some rift in the space-time continuum and I’m writing this before the trial and you’re only just now seeing it, I’m talking about what we know now that the trial is over and all the evidence is out there. Prescience? What a bizarre thing for you to say.

          Let’s all consider how ridiculous your statement is. The entire trial was broadcast from start to finish. All testimony was not only aired live, but rehashed over and over again all day and all night the whole time. Not on the BBC, of course, as they kept shtum while unapproved facts came out.

          I know everything the jury knew when they chose their verdict. BBC audiences will be seriously uninformed, as the BBC has been atrocious on this story. Contrary to the lie David Willis told on air, there was eyewitness testimony of the physical fight between Zimmerman and Martin. We know Martin was on top, beating the daylights out of Zimmerman. We’ve seen photos and video of Zimmerman’s injuries as a result.

          Zimmerman says Martin attacked him. We’ll never know Martin’s side of the story, of course, but his friend and the prosecution’s star witness said that Martin was angry about being followed and looking to go after the “creepy-ass cracker”. Instead of continuing on to his father’s home, he confronted Zimmerman.

          Thus, unless you want to claim that Zimmerman and Ms. Jeantel and the eyewitness were all lying, I know what happened. And if you claim they’re all lying, it’s based purely on your own emotion, as you have no evidence that they are. Remember, it’s not just Zimmerman’s word against the rest of the world. There was a witness, there are the facts of Zimmerman’s injuries, and there is Ms. Jeantel’s testimony of Martin’s intent.

             39 likes

          • colditz says:

            I was being ironic. I forgot Yanks don’t do irony.

            I apologise.

               2 likes

            • David Preiser (USA) says:

              Ironic? I don’t think that word means what you think it means, either. Try again.

                 22 likes

            • Alex says:

              “Yanks” – ahh, right. You’re a racist as well as rude. Personally, I class the Americans as close cousins and allies and resent that type of language, the type of language you spend most of your time looking for here.

                 26 likes

          • johnnythefish says:

            Also, David, I’ve never heard the BBC mention ‘forensic evidence’.

               0 likes

        • Andy S. says:

          Colditz, I see you are talking out of your fundamental orifice again. If you can’t post anything even resembling actuality, you should give up, old son, because putting your intellectual shortcomings on public display is painful to see.

             17 likes

          • colditz says:

            Jokes on you chum.

               2 likes

            • London Calling says:

              Really? Why? You are the one who looks the prat here. Those of us following the trial ( I recommend Fox, it really is uniquely fairly balanced, unlike the other one party media) you would know why Trayvon is pushing up daisies. Everyone knows why, except grievance-mongering blacks and white liberal Obama voters, who don’t want the rubbish they believe shown up by the facts of the case.

                 24 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Lawson probably also doesn’t know that Twin Lakes, the gated community where this happened, is a mixed-race neighborhood. Martin’s father lived there, after all, and one of the residents who spoke on tv about the crime problem was a black woman.

      Zimmerman’s Twin Lakes Community Was on Edge Before Trayvon Shooting

      In attempting to understand Zimmerman’s actions, much attention has been called to the fact that Martin was black, and to the frequency with which Zimmerman, who is half-white and half-Hispanic, called police in the years leading up to the shooting. Twin Lakes is almost 50 percent white, with Hispanic and African-American populations of about 20 percent each.

      Far more diverse than BBC management, and I’d wager far more diverse than the neighborhoods in which most BBC journalists, producers, editors, on-air talent, and management live.

      Conversations with several residents, however, suggest that Zimmerman’s calls reflect a wider feeling of concern and distrust in the community. For years, Twin Lakes residents had been on edge—demonstrated by their decision last September to start a neighborhood-watch organization, which was initiated by Zimmerman himself. The burglary of Olivia Bertalan’s home was just one of at least eight reported over the previous 14 months—several of which, neighbors said, involved young black men. On Feb. 26, the odds were stacked against Martin: he was a young black man in a neighborhood that was feeling besieged by crime and blaming it—fairly or not—on people who looked like him.

      Unless someone can provide evidence of residents complaining that Zimmerman had profiled and harassed them, it ought to be clear that he was profiling people he didn’t know who were, for example, peering into windows.

         22 likes

  27. chrisH says:

    Any Questions(Radio 4, 8p.m 19/7/13) came from Bridport Arts Centre..so no problems getting a lefty bunch of toadies to heckle Nigel Lawson.
    Bridport surely isn`t stuffed to the gills with farmers being to stay in the EU, for anti-fracking charity wonks, past-it teachers that reckon 40% of kids being unable to read their secondary textbooks…is it?
    I had it down as a sensible Dorset county town…not one full of Guardian do-gooders that won`t forgive Lawson for having a mind of his own…let alone for being one of the brainiest politicians we`ve produced.
    An utter disgrace of a programme…despite the decent panel, the audience deserves investigating-they can`t ALL have been bunking up for Tolpuddle can they?…
    Or were they all Billy Braggs nannies and beaters who`d lose their jobs for ther squire if they didn`t attend the Church of the Poisoned Mind that is the BBC at a provincial Arts Centre.
    Bulldoze it as an example…and sell the rubble to Lord Saatchi as a piece of provocative new artwork!

       29 likes

    • will.duncan says:

      So if people disagree with your view they need investigating. Where do we stop then?

      Do you understand democracy or just your voice?

         3 likes

      • Cosmo says:

        It’s the constant drip drip drip of “BIAS”. No f’in democracy in the “BIASED BBC ” hence the site “

           16 likes

        • Colditz says:

          This site is bias towards a bizarre far right viewpoint that finds few takers when its put to to the electorate

          What if the BBC actually reflects what Brits thinks rather than the world reflected here. No election supports the views here so for most Brits it isn’t biased!

             4 likes

          • Cosmo says:

            British lethargy. We are famous for it.

               7 likes

          • Andy S. says:

            Some comments can only be described as “far right” because of the extreme left wing viewpoints of people like yourself.

            Twenty years ago those “far right” opinions were considered mainstream. Just shows how far the extreme left have come in that time.

               22 likes

            • colditz says:

              20 years ago we had Major as PM. He was pro EU, anti-racist and had little time for the far right Tories who he smashed in a leadership contest. We also had Labour and Libs.

              None of these mainstream parties even touched your viewpoint.

              I suspect history isn’t a strength.

                 3 likes

              • Wild says:

                He defeated the Far Right Tories Douglas Hurd and Michael Heseltine?

                What is your speciality? Leftist idiocy?

                   24 likes

              • Andy S. says:

                I’m talking about the viewpoints of REAL people, Colditz. Unlike you, I’ve led a life where I’ve mixed with people you would call “underprivileged”. Spent thirty years working on many council estates and housing association developments. Now, I know these are places where many lefties fear to tread, but I consider the opinions of these people mirror the opinions of others around the country living in similar environments. What those opinions DON’T mirror are the views of the political establishment and the so called left wing intelligentsia. They also don’t mirror the opinions of people like yourself. I speak from experience. You obviously speak from your brainwashed dogmatism.

                Does it scare you that you are out of step with the opinions of the “hoi-polloi”? Or do you, like most other other lefties, ignore them, treat them like ignorant children, tell them what the approved thinking is and pretend to speak on their behalf?

                   29 likes

                • Persona non grata says:

                  Do “Real” people claim that abusive comments here are “false flag” operations by fictional left wing infiltrators, designed to discredit the site – and then, when the truth is revealed, refuse to acknowledge their mistake, and just carry on attacking the people they falsely accused?

                  Or is the real world actually filled with grown adults who’d be too ashamed to indulge in such behaviour?

                     3 likes

                  • Andy S. says:

                    You are Scott and I claim my £5.

                    You have to be Scott as you show the same predilection for digging up previous posts and hanging on to them like a rabid rotweiller.

                       3 likes

                    • Persona non grata says:

                      Classic Biased BBC “I’m not going to answer the question because it shows me up” deflection, too.

                      I asked you before why a post you claimed was posted to discredit this site somehow became less critical once your accusation of it being a “false flag” was shown to be a fabrication. If people like you answered the question the first time, and stood up to your errors, maybe the rest of us wouldn’t have to repeat ourselves.

                         3 likes

                    • Andy S. says:

                      You ARE Scott! Bless!!!!

                         3 likes

                • DotheMobot says:

                  Do you understand how representative democracy works? If a view is held by a large segment of the population, parties arise to represent that view. The fact that in a representative democracy not a single legislator holds views like yours is vivid illustration of how fringe they are. I found this site because I’m in sympathy with its aims, but since most of the commenters seem to think that the Conservatives are essentially dangerous left wing zealots, I can see there’s nothing for me here. Have fun pushing your dark age views, and I’ll carry trying to find somewhere that campaigns against liberal bias without being a cretinous outpost of the EDL.

                     6 likes

                  • Wild says:

                    So what are these “fringe” views? Do tell. and then we can discuss if they are fringe or not. You being Mr Democracy and all.

                       6 likes

                  • Andy S. says:

                    Who was the poster who kept being outraged by posts on this site and saying he wasn’t visiting any more, only to return a number of other times under different names and say the same thing.

                    I’ve lost count of the number of times he’s said he’s leaving. He’slike a dose of Herpes – you’ll never get rid of him!

                       6 likes

                  • Stewart says:

                    What total nonsense. We have only the democracy that the bourgeois liberal patrician class will allow. In the same way we only have the right of free expression that they will allow. And if their foot soldiers who post on here are anything to go by ,we would have only the thoughts that they allow
                    Time and again we have seen political parties that represent your so called ‘fringe ideas’ make rapid political gains only to have the, self appointed, ‘liberal inquisition’ use all the power of the state and media that they control to suppress them
                    The latest example is UKIP (hardly extreme in any ones book except that used by the liberal establishment to determine what is heresy) which has come under concerted and prolonged attacks, that have from, ranged ,planted audience members on question time to having foster children taken into care and all points in between
                    Yet at the same time the (very)far left are not only give a critique free platform by the leftist media (most notably the BBC) but are often funded by the state.

                       4 likes

                    • DotheMobot says:

                      Deluded conspiracy theory rubbish. UKIP who incidentally I think a perfectly respectable and reasonable group of people, had a good showing, but if they fail electorally in future it’s because other parties do better. If you think it’s a liberal conspiracy then revolution is the only answer. The truth is that the country at large is rather more centrist than you understand.

                         2 likes

                    • johnnythefish says:

                      This is hypothetical rubbish from both sides as the actuality is we are run by an unelected socialist bureaucracy in Brussels.

                         1 likes

          • johnnythefish says:

            ‘What if the BBC actually reflects what Brits thinks rather than the world reflected here. No election supports the views here so for most Brits it isn’t biased!

            Like those election manifestos which excluded a mass immigration startegy or denial of our democratic right to a vote on Europe? Is that the sort of election you’re referring to?

               21 likes

          • chrisH says:

            Do you reckon that the BBC would dare run as the pro-pedo, pro-Islamic, pro-fat cat tax fiddling(for themselves only) Party of weasel fellow travellers in any coming election-to test your theory that we like, trust or support their frankly weird world view( Belmarsh, Qatada, Bin Ladens killing?).
            Any Martin Bells there at the Beeb going to risk it?
            Nah, thought not!
            Tata Colditz!

               15 likes

          • RCE says:

            Does your new-found fondness for democracy extend to making the BBC subscription only?

               6 likes

      • chrisH says:

        OK pal…let me be a bit clearer for you.
        If I say “the means by which a solid conservative country town in Dorset can throw up such unrepresentative placed questions” to an unusually broad and intelligent panel ought to be “looked at again”…will that help make it a bit more palatable to you?
        Your bizarre closing sentence tells me more than I need to know about your worldview…but seeing as you`re straining at gnats here-get yourself over to Points of View and send them something nice about how balanced the BBC is.
        You could yet be a BBC Governor-like being one in a school but better Doughnuts to Dunk!

           18 likes

    • Andrew says:

      There was a remark from Dimbleby J at the end of the show about people having a “safe journey home”, not for the first time. Who are these people and why is their journey a long one?

         26 likes

      • Colditz says:

        Safe home was clearly a code to the socialist apparatchiks when they went home in comradely spirit to Brixton.

        Or have you seen the potholes on most roads? Thanks to the cuts, councils neglected to repair the roads a few year back and most now have huge holes. I had to replace the coil springs as a consequence last month.

        But of course we must now think every word has a coded secret message.

        Tin foil hats help.

           5 likes

        • Andrew says:

          Wonderful logic: “Tory” cuts, so more potholes in roads, so journeys more dangerous, so the need to wish people a safe journey. Sorry, I don’t buy it.

          The panel was impressive but the Bridport audience was a little suspect to me, too ready to clap the approved line. Dimbleby’s remark may have been innocent, of course, I wonder what others think.

             13 likes

        • Arthur Penney says:

          Tyler’s toast

          “Here’s to all masons wherere they may be, a speedy relief to all their suffering and a safe journey home if they so desire”

             0 likes

        • Chop says:

          I shattered 2 Alessio alloy wheels on a massive pothole…£250 a pop.

          This was in 2005, in Labour run Atherton (Hamilton Street, as your asking)

          And, even though I provided photographs of the damage done to my wheels, and the offending pothole, did Labour run Wigan council compensate me?…I think you know the answer to that.

          The potholes were there WAAAAAAAAAAAAY before the Tories got into power, anyone remember Alistar Darlings “Dollop” plan to fix the roads?…I do…anyone remember the “There’s no money left” letter left to Osborne?…I do…anyone know why the Tories are having to introduce “Toricutz(tm)”…I do.

             4 likes

    • Richard Pinder says:

      It was pointed out that even majority of Labour voters want to leave the EU, so it did seem a bit odd when the audience exploded with applause for pro-EU statements, much more so than those on the panel who reflected the majority opinion. From personal experience, I find that most pro-EU people are too demoralised to clap in support of pro-EU statements knower days, so I suppose the audience was made up of people who have not left the Labour, Liberal or Tory party. So I bet that the BBC Any Questions audience was made up of the tiny minority of the population who are stupid enough to remain members of the Tory, Labour or Liberal parties. Do remember that the only people in society who actually benefit from our membership of the EU are people on the political/bureaucratic gravy train.

         24 likes

  28. Alex says:

    The Tories want to privatize everything, how about they start with the BBC?

       25 likes

  29. chrisH says:

    The past-it teacher on the programme wringing his hankie over 40% of kids being unable to read and write was called Paul Taylor.
    He`s been presiding over this scandal for over 25 years now-yet is still in a job for life, with union backing and no prospect of improving those odds, based on his whining.
    Maybe if the do-gooders and toadies had to make up names for themselves like Tommy Robinson has to…instead of blurting out their names, safe in the knowledge that the BBC will never expose their complacency/incompetence…maybe THEN, we`d get a public sector worth the damn!

       31 likes

    • will.duncan says:

      Eh?

      Why is this man past it? I thought most jobs wanted experienced staff. I assume you are childless of course.

      40% of children can read and write. It’s at a lower standard that were we want them to be. Some (quiet there) are recent immigrants. They quickly pick up at Secondary. Where were you at 11?

      Since when did this man preside over anything other than a class? What’s this job for life? I’m a school governor and we can remove staff in 30 days. So we can take it that this gent does otherwise he would join you as a retired grump.

      What on earth has this to do with Tommy Robinson or you using false names? He used his real name which neither of you do.

      I take it the retirement home will be putting you to bed soon to recover.

         4 likes

      • Cosmo says:

        Whatever happened to your splendid “Walnut whips” ?

           6 likes

      • chrisH says:

        I`ll not deal with the personal stuff-says much more about you that it does about me though.
        But
        1-the teacher who is still happy to accept that 40% of kids can`t access the curriculum once they leave his school is NOT the one I need advice from in regard of an initiative to try to address this scandal.
        Of course experience is fine-but your equating it with complacent presiding of inertia shows you`re a bit of a concern as a governor. If your methods aren`t working in your classroom-they might need to change after 25 years of letting Blair, Blunkett and the like set your agendas for you eh?
        2. Do you really need to be reminded how many teachers get dealt with for incompetence/unfitness to teach?…it`ll be less that thirty or so nationally(ask your pals in the NAS/UWT/NUT!).
        3. You seem a simple soul-a patsy governor type-so let me expand on the point re Tommy Robinson.
        No serving teacher would lose his job if he went on the radio to defend the scandal of 40% of kids not being able to access the secondary curriculum after 25 years of professional teaching under a compliant, dumbing down Labour Government( Tories guilty too of course). He can use his own name-all teachers together in a conspiracy against true teaching.
        Robinson would lose his head if not his job, for saying things that are far less injurious to the vast majority of children, but upset your twee little applecart(that you hint at , oh so coyly in your post).
        In effect-anybody that threatens the liberal blob consensus like Robinson can`t easily give his real name-whereas a failing education system can let its ciphers trot out the usual lame cliches for failures on Radio $ and get easy applause.
        And-I`m guessing you didn`t hear this “teacher” completely ignore/fail to address the testimonies both of Lawson and Ashdown who have serving teachers in their families-but that won`t be valid to a Bridport placeman who`s not inclined to listen to clever people when they come to his “catchment area”.
        As I say-I`ve resisted the personal stuff-I expect the same from you.

           20 likes

      • Richard D says:

        will.duncan – I think you will find that, far from ‘quickly picking up’ at secondary school, recent statistics record an almost 20% illiteracy and innumeracy in school leavers (i.e. from secondary, not primary education establishments) – basically 16-19 year olds with a reading age of 11 or below. Now, what that says about the proportion of school-leavers not attaining a reading level or numerical skill level commensurate with their age is not actually recorded, but around 20% of them are 5 or more years behind the standard expected of them …..

        I recall some years ago (around the Blair-Brown boom in pupils proceeding to University), that some 25% of University bursars in England had instituted remedial classes in literacy and numeracy for many first year undergraduates, because they were incapable of meeting the needs of being a student. Somehow, that didn’t surprise me.

           20 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        ‘Where were you at 11?’

        You don’t want to know will, really you don’t. The calamitous drop in educational standards I’ve witnessed over the years from children to grandchildren is bloody heartbreaking.

           16 likes

  30. George R says:

    Muslims, Niqab and violence in PARIS.

    Will INBBC report this:?

    “Paris: Muslims riot, injuring five, after Muslim tries to strangle police officer ticketing his wife for wearing face veil”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/07/paris-muslims-riot-injuring-five-after-muslim-tries-to-strangle-police-officer-ticketing-his-wife-fo.html

    Another portent of Europe’s Islamising future.

       29 likes

    • Colditz says:

      Why would they report a minor scuffle in a foreign country? What about a road accident in Lyons or a fire in Strasbourg?

      It appears you think the BBC has to report every minor incident involving moslems but ignore everything involving non-moslems. What a bizarre view.

      Since there are plenty of blogs to feed your bigotry why should the BBC have to bow to your biased viewpoint?

         5 likes

      • AsISeeIt says:

        What a bizarre comment. The BBC has enormous journalistic resources and it would be rather a good idea to air more European news and events. Considering the amount of Islam related reports that do make the BBC news is it not rather remarkable that this slipped through the net? And see how you fell for the Gordon Brown Law of on line discussion….. you couldn’t help yourself but use that ‘B’ word.

           32 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        ‘It appears you think the BBC has to report every minor incident involving moslems………’

        Attempted strangulation in the street of a public official trying to uphold the law = minor incident. How bizarre.

           30 likes

    • George R says:

      Supplementary.

      “Allahu Akhbar!:
      Burka Check Leads to Muslim Mob Attack on French Police Station”

      (video clips.)

      http://islamversuseurope.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/allahu-akhbar-burka-check-leads-to.html

         16 likes

  31. David Brims says:

    ”The 4 most unhinged responses to the Zimmerman verdict.”

    ” In no particular order of degree of insanity, here are four notably unhinged responses to the verdict, no doubt with more to come:

    “God is a white racist.” An online editorial declared that the Zimmerman verdict confirms that the Christian god not only hates blacks, but is actively walking around looking to shoot them:

    As a black woman in a nation that has taken too many pains to remind me that I am not a white man, and am not capable of taking care of my reproductive rights, or my voting rights, I know that this American god ain’t my god. As a matter of fact, I think he’s a white racist god with a problem. More importantly, he is carrying a gun and stalking young black men.

    Anthea Butler, who – and this will shock no FrontPage reader – is a professor of religion and Africana at the University of Pennsylvania, continued in that vein:

    “Their god is the god that wants to erase race, make everyone act ‘properly’ and respect, as the president said, ‘a nation of laws’; laws that they made to crush those they consider inferior.”

    Read the rest of the liberal insanity here.

    frontpagemag.com/2013/mark-tapson/the-4-most-unhinged-responses-to-the-zimmerman-verdict/

       17 likes

  32. Louis Robinson says:

    Actress Ruth Wilson (“Luther”) plugging “The Lone Ranger” on Test Match Special a few moments ago: “It’s thoughtful. Anti-American. Its a really great film.”

    Bewitched by her star quality, there was no response from Aggers. Where is Geoffrey Boycott when you need him?

       25 likes

    • Andy S. says:

      The Lone Ranger might be liked by Ruth Wilson, but it’s tanked at the US box office – another multi-million dollar loss. Could be that a lot of the American movie going public are getting sick of all those blockbusters with anti-American, leftist messages and all those whingeing, multi-millionaire limousine liberal actors pushing their naive leftie opinions on the public.

         27 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Unfortunately, the new Ultimate Star Trek movie is one big Truther message, and it’s been a box office success.

           7 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      Oddly Aggers (the consumate BBC man) moved very quickly to hush up Boycott (the rather more free thinker) on friday when his comments turned to politics

      Cf. Boycott on David Cameron ‘he’s working hard to fix the country’.

      Sadly BBC people never seem to qualify the Leftist political comments. Strange because the BBC is supposed to be balanced.

         22 likes

      • Louis Robinson says:

        Aggers has been repeatedly referring to “Geoffrey’s politics”. So on the BBC, left is normal, right is “politics”.

           9 likes

  33. chrisH says:

    Global warming is clearly a problem after all.
    Nice hot sunny day-and instead of the likes of Colditz and will.duncan getting a bit of sun,outside?…the heat attracts them to the Biased BBC website as to flypaper in a French gite.
    Trayvon Martin and Any Questions seems to have brought out a bit more antsiness than deserved, but I do hope that they`ll heed Al Gore-load up with water, run their electrics full through the summer and build as many wind turbines as possible up in the North before the frackers come along.
    It`s Official Greenpeace advice you Righteous Brothers…so hope you`ll act on it eh?

       27 likes

  34. chrisH says:

    Delighted to hear of Frankie Boyles hunger strike.
    Is there any chance of us setting up a site that allows us to nominate which comedian WE would support in their wish to raise their issues…I honestly don`t mind at all which causes would allow me to sponsor Marcus, Jeremy, Mark 1, Mark 2, Russell 1, 2 or 3…as long as they don`t bottle out of the cause that I “passionately would like to support”.
    Why not a contest to see who lasts longest…a TV series I`d be happy to watch if that helps me swing the idea with the BBC!

       28 likes

    • Buggy says:

      I have a better plan for Prickstocke than a hunger strike, as outlined at some length and on multifarious occasions.

      “Watch Out For The Wolverine !” (coming soon(ish) to Channel 5 ! (Brought to you by New Swarfega & Rice Flavour Pot Noodle)).

         10 likes

    • Jeff says:

      I take it Jo Brand won’t be taking part…

         18 likes

    • CCE says:

      I will be flabbergasted if Boyle sticks to a nil by mouth protest for more than a couple of days. I suggest that he has set no criteria defining when he will end his protest; so he can declare victory, his socialist credentials re-validated and a new gig on the BBC assured.

      Anyway, by way of an unhinged fantasy, I would pay a subscription channel to watch Hardy et al on permanent and involuntary hunger strikes. CCTV should be used (without sound of course) in a Big Brother style ‘hunger house’, with an accurate gulag food ration

      http://gulaghistory.org/nps/onlineexhibit/stalin/living-src/images/bread.jpg

      where the jolly antics and food intake can be monitored by relays of interested viewers.

      “Each time they brought in the soup… it made us all want to cry. We were ready to cry for fear that the soup would be thin. And when a miracle occurred and the soup was thick we couldn’t believe it and ate it as slowly as possible. But even with thick soup in a warm stomach there remained a sucking pain; we’d been hungry for too long. All human emotions—love, friendship, envy, concern for one’s fellow man, compassion, longing for fame, honesty—had left us with the flesh that had melted from our bodies…“

      V.T. Shalamov, “Dry Rations,” from Kolyma Tales.

      The house will have the complete works of Stalin* and Polly Toynbee as spiritual sustenance to make up for the lack of food. The comics can reach an understanding that socialism can’t be built without some (involuntary) sacrifices, just like the 1,500,000 Ukrainian Kulaks who had to be starved to death as they stood in the way of the forward march of utopian socialism.

      *Particularly relevant as there seems to be approval of Stalinist judicial practices (where political criminals were always convicted and murdered along with their families and everybody they have ever met) Acquittal against the legal criteria based on evidence and the deliberations of a jury seem to be irrelevant to the left –

         12 likes

    • Reed says:

      The comments aren’t really that sympathetic, to say the least…

         9 likes

      • Deborah says:

        Reed you should have warned us about seeing Boyle’s face loom large out of the computer screen as we click on the link. But the comments are marvellous – hope they burst his bubble.

           8 likes

  35. George R says:

    A non-INBBC report on English Defence League:

    “Are British soldiers joining the English Defence League?”

    http://www.channel4.com/news/edl-reborn-how-anti-muslim-group-appeals-to-soldiers?

       8 likes

  36. Teddy Bear says:

    I see this was commented on above, but there’s a little more to this story.

    Another example revealing precisely the mindset of Tony Hall regarding no aversion to paying high salaries courtesy of the licence fee payer, and hiring his mates.
    What a cosy world

    How very cosy. BBC director general Lord Hall wants a management consultant, so for a mere £600,000 he hires his old friend Lady Heywood from the Royal Opera House, who also happens to be the wife of Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood. What a very small and incestuous world we live in.

    It’s worthwhile looking a bit deeper into the above latest story.

    First let’s look at how Hall describes the need for creating this new position, and why this particular woman, and a few surrounding details.

    Her study with global management consultants McKinsey is not expected to cut the BBC’s headcount or save money.

    ‘Tony Hall was brought in as director-general with a clear mandate to put the days of murky relationships and mutual back scratching at the BBC behind them,’ he said.

    ‘It is vital if his credibility is to be upheld that the BBC now urgently publish the tender documents relating to the awarding of this contract, so the licence fee payer can see beyond doubt that this contract was awarded on merit and not on the basis of personal favours.’

    He added: ‘It seems extraordinary when you have so many highly paid executives that you need to bring in highly paid consultants to do a job they should be able to do themselves.
    Announcing the plan, Lord Hall said: ‘I want, as far as I can, to turn more of the organisation toward the programmes and our services, and less on the other things a big organisation like this does.

    ‘We all know that working in matrices is a very complex way of operating. We can make it simpler for people to take responsibility for what they do.

    ‘I hope that by this time next year, I will be standing before staff and licence fee payers with a simpler organisation, where responsibilities are much clearer.’

    Earlier this year, he was criticised for appointing another former colleague to a top post at the BBC on a £395,000 salary. Anne Bulford, who was Channel 4’s chief operating officer, was handed the role of managing director of finance and operations without the job being advertised. Miss Bulford spent three years with the Royal Opera House as director of finance and business affairs before joining Channel 4 in 2005.

    Lord Hall knows her from their time together at the Royal Opera and also from his time as deputy chairman at Channel 4. When he appointed her, he sent an email to staff saying she was a ‘direct appointment rather than an advertised one’ because he believed her talent and experience ‘make her the best person for this role’.

    Anyone would imagine that making life simpler for BBC staff was Hall’s role, which he is more than adequately rewarded for. But in the BBC world you can pay whatever you like for somebody else to make those decisions.

    So far not much has been made of the fact of just who her husband is. Here’s an excerpt from the Mirror in March 2012 describing him:

    The most powerful unelected man in Britain… and you will never have heard of him

    He is one of Britain’s most powerful men – but you would probably pass him in the street without a second glance.

    Sir Jeremy Heywood has advised three chancellors, three prime ministers and as Cabinet Secretary he is one of David Cameron’s key advisers.

    Now he has increased his hold over the Government after seeing off the Premier’s controversial blue sky thinker Steve Hilton in a bitter No10 power struggle.

    Sir Jeremy, the mandarin’s mandarin, has intimate knowledge on how Whitehall works. Each time Hilton sought to accelerate policy or make radical change, the bespectacled civil servant was there to say “no”.

    So who is Sir Jeremy, now the most powerful unelected man in Britain?

    An unwelcome spotlight was shone on him last year when he was dragged into the Southern Cross scandal.

    During a break from the civil service in 2006, he was a senior executive at bankers Morgan Stanley when it advised on the flotation of the care homes provider. Although he did not work directly on the deal, he was the ultimate boss of the team which ran the float.

    Sir Jeremy, 50, was accused by the GMB union of being “up to his neck” in the disaster which saw 31,000 elderly people put at risk of being made ­homeless. The firm’s 750 homes were later rescued in a new deal.

    Downing Street was forced to defend his City career robustly, and he survived – but not without a bashing from his critics.

    Political commentator Peter Oborne wrote: “Heywood is a perfect manifestation of everything that has gone so very wrong with the British civil service over the past 15 years.”

    Are you smelling rat, or is it fish?

    With Hall facing a grilling by MP’s over his recent appointments, who better to have sitting next to the Prime Minister than a man, with apparently few scruples, and who’s wife is now £600,000 richer.

    We see you Hall!

    You might look like a clown – but you’re quite evil.

    article-2370851-190AC436000005DC-2_306x447.jpg

       19 likes

    • George R says:

      ‘Daily Mail Comment’:-

      {Scroll down.}

      “What a cosy world.

      “How very cosy. BBC director general Lord Hall wants a management consultant, so for a mere £600,000 he hires his old friend Lady Heywood from the Royal Opera House, who also happens to be the wife of Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood. What a very small and incestuous world we live in.”

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2370864/Hacking-hypocrisy-flawed-inquiry.html

         20 likes

    • Buggy says:

      He looks eerily like Roy Walker of “Catchphrase” fame. Or semi-fame, rather.

         14 likes

    • David Brims says:

      Very camp photo of Tony Hall

         3 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Another enormously-salaried new management position? Are they ever going to throw a little cash Newsnight’s way so they can hire a little more staff? After all, we were told – even by Paxman – that budget cuts and a lack of staff are the reasons for that McAlpine fiasco. And didn’t Hall say he was going to streamline the management system anyway? Has any money been spent on more journalism at the BBC lately? Apart from creating that new position in the US to write and curate yet another opinion blog, I mean.

         7 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      ‘‘We all know that working in matrices is a very complex way of operating. We can make it simpler for people to take responsibility for what they do.

      ‘I hope that by this time next year, I will be standing before staff and licence fee payers with a simpler organisation, where responsibilities are much clearer.’

      In other words for years nobody has had an effing clue about what anybody else is doing (but they’re all getting paid very handsomely for it).

         3 likes

  37. Alex says:

    I’m sick of the BBC continuously using the word ‘black’ in the Zimmerman case. Why not just use ‘teenager’ like they do when a white teenager gets whacked by a black kid? They are the first to cry ‘racist’ and yet they persist in peddling the race card. Oh, and now the Obamessiah has stepped in (cue BBC hacks going weak at the knees in awe):

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23387496

       28 likes

  38. Reed says:

    Sad news, and a reminder of a time when the BBC produced some genuinely funny comedy, rather than smug leftist rantings…

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewmcfbrown/100227332/mel-smith-rip-the-master-of-world-weary-comedy/

       20 likes

    • Deborah says:

      But News 24 had to chose as an example of Smith’s work Smith playing guitar with the rest of the Not The Nine O’Clock News cast singing wondering why Bush had been elected – they could have chosen something non political.

         12 likes

  39. OldBloke says:

    I haven’t caught much of the radio today, been busy doing things, but tonight on another web site, I learn of the demonstration in B’ham by the EDL. The report pointedly blamed members of the EDL for throwing bottles at the police, but the article also stated that opposition to the EDL were there also. so could it have been them that threw the bottles? Anyway this also followed in the article:

    Speaking after the protests, Birmingham’s chairman for social cohesion and community safety said he believed they had passed off relatively peacefully.

    Councillor Waseem Zaffar said: “We are obviously disappointed that the EDL chose Birmingham to host this demonstration. Birmingham doesn’t really need this sort of attention but the police have executed a great plan to keep both groups apart.” Pointing out that other nearby areas of the city centre had operated normally and were unaffected by the rallies, Mr Zaffar added: “My message to the EDL would be to stay away from Birmingham – your message of hate divides communities and is not welcome.”
    Whether you like it or not Mr Zaffar, welcome to Democracy. I wonder how the BBC will spin this?

       39 likes

    • Alex says:

      It’s funny how these so-called leaders for social cohesion and community relations, the BBC constantly refer to, are never about when Muslims burn poppies, march down the street calling for Islam to dominate the UK and behead the unbelievers.

         39 likes

      • fred pond says:

        Does social cohesion, or multi-culturalism exist except in the minds of lefty social engineers? I’m more inclined to think that there is no such thing as society. I am in to freedom from government control, so I can’t criticize poppy burning. I know it is distasteful but that is the price we have to pay for our freedom. Pity our freedom has been curtailed in recent years so we can’t legally say what we think.

           7 likes

      • colditz says:

        All these events were reported otherwise you couldn’t endlessly repeat them.

        So you are writing utter tripe as ever.

           3 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      ‘I wonder how the BBC will spin this?

      I can tell you how the 6pm news spun it – with a verbal sleight of hand which implicitly connected the EDL not only with the bottle -throwing but also with the attempted attacks on 3 mosques.

      Impartial my arse.

         9 likes

    • Ian Hills says:

      Who, exactly, is the “We” that Councillor Waseem Zaffar represents?

         4 likes

  40. fred pond says:

    I am not ashamed (as the politically correct would want me) to be a racist. However I am an elitist, so the EDL are just undereducated scum to me.

       1 likes

    • George R says:

      Which makes the UAF, and its myriad supporters?

         13 likes

      • fred pond says:

        I believe in democracy (a great idea from the Greek roots of our civilization). It is a bad system but better than any other.

           1 likes

    • Ancient Legends From The Woodlands Of Old says:

      fred pond, that sentence doesn’t make sense.

         6 likes

      • fred pond says:

        What I say makes sense. I admit my first sentence is a bit clunky. You don’t understand elitism and/or racism.

           0 likes

  41. George R says:

    “Immigration allows Britain to fake progress, not make progress”
    By Fraser Nelson.

    {Excerpt]:-

    “John Humphrys, presenting, put to me a widely-held view: that the problem was one of attitude. That some Brits just don’t want to work.

    “This is what I call the ‘lazy Brit’ fallacy. The idea that we need immigrants because our own people too busy watching daytime TV. But if welfare pays more than work, why work? Worse, if the low-paid do more work, welfare is taken away from them so quickly that they keep just 15p in every extra £1 they earn (details here). ”

    http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2013/07/give-me-your-tired-your-poor-your-huddled-masses-but-first-make-schools-better/

       13 likes

    • David Brims says:

      Strange, a couple of years ago Fraser Nelson ( he of the peculiarly contrived Scots accent were he puts the emphasis on all the wrong syllables, must have went to the Malcolm Rifkind school of elocution ) gushed that multiculturalism has been a ”great benefit” to the country because ”immigrants are so dynamic and enriching.”

      But then, to Fraser Nelson and the rest of the brain dead, London dinner party set, multiculturalism is buying fair trade coffee from Peru at your local Waitrose, eating a croissant and listing to Vivaldi .

         20 likes

      • David Brims says:

        Nelson is really on the ball, yeah !! Winston Churchill said in 1955 ” our welfare state system will become the Mecca for the Third World immigrant.”

        ”Just before he gave up the Premiership in 1955 Mr. Churchill told Spectator owner and editor Ian Gilmour that immigration “is the most important subject facing this country, but I cannot get any of my ministers to take any notice”

        ”Problems which will arise if many coloured people settle here. Are we to saddle ourselves with colour problems in the UK? Attracted by Welfare State. Public opinion in UK won’t tolerate it once it gets beyond certain limits.’

        ”Even he did not forsee the malicious propaganda that would be used to destroy the British people by their own elites!”

        http://www.traditionalbritain.org/content/prescience-sir-winston-churchill

           24 likes

  42. Reed says:

    Diary of a BBC complainant by Neil Turner

    When was the last time you shouted at the telly ? Over the last twenty years I have had occasion to complain to the BBC, and I guessed the reason I got fobbed off was down to my lack of preparation or perseverance. So, for twelve months – as an experiment – I have kept a diary of our dialogue, so I could learn, adapt and evolve. I’m glad I did, otherwise – as you will see – I might have started to question my own sanity.

    http://hurryupharry.org/2013/07/21/diary-of-a-bbc-complainant/

       11 likes

    • Old Goat says:

      His last comment “We want our BBC back” should be secondary in importance to all those who want their country back – maybe the one will follow the other, but I have my doubts…

         15 likes

    • George R says:

      Yes, also from above piece:-

      “My beef is about the BBC’s coverage of Israel. Yours might be the EU, political correctness, global warming, or some other. I read with interest Nigel Farage’s comments about the BBC’s Europhilia and its stereotypical reporting on UKIP. Well said that man. In fact, were one to take Mr Farage’s words and substitute ‘Israel’ for ‘UKIP, I wouldn’t be writing this now. So I’m not alone. You don’t have to share my particular views, but just stay with me a bit longer.

      “The conclusion of my twelve month experiment is that the BBC is in reality accountable to no-one but itself. It is quite simply, the largest political party in the country: immensely powerful, biased to its core, either wholly oblivious of its prejudice (or cynically aware of it) and defiantly unrepentant. It is a totally closed system, with processes engineered to repel feedback from its customers.”

         26 likes

  43. nofanofpoliticians says:

    Whilst I didn’t listen to Desert Island Discs on the day, I was intrigued to read this following the appearance of Russell Brand recently.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23383451

    Somebody should put him right, and tell him that actually it was his (and Ross’) odious and vile behaviour that was the problem not any bias against the BBC.

    I bet they didn’t or won’t though, (a) because he is very articulate with a somewhat piercing tone which would overcome any shreek-level threshold and (b) because it fits a narrative.

       14 likes

    • Beeboidal says:

      Missing from the BBC online report is the fact that Kirsty Young did actually challenge his claim.

      Kirsty countered by saying the 42,000 people who eventually complained “weren’t being motivated by some agenda against a publicly-funded media”.

      BBC online prefer Brand’s line to Kirsty’s.

         12 likes

    • Ian Rushlow says:

      Presumably the mad ravings of this alleged comedian mean he is about to be rehabilitated by our alleged public service broadcaster.

         6 likes

    • tommy says:

      Brand’s point was that only 2 people complained until the Mail (which doesn’t pay much tax) made an issue of it because it was pursuing the longterm strategy of the commercial sector to kill of the BBC. So the Mail was biased.

      The BBC is quite entitled to defend itself against interests wishing to destroy. Brand isquite entitled to point this out.

      OH and he was very funny as well on DID. Do listen.

         1 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        His and your conclusion: the vast majority of the British people didn’t find his phone call to Andrew Sachs offensive.

        Alternative conclusion: the vast majority of the British people were unaware of what had been broadcast and were rightly shocked when the Mail published the details. And if that’s your idea of humour, best of luck in life mate, hope a similar harmless jape never happens to your sister/grandad/fill in your own equivalent family members.

           3 likes

        • Beeboidal says:

          Exactly right, Johnny. Now if Brand would like to explain fully how the Mail misrepresented the thing and therefore everybody’s perception of it is wrong, including the perception of Sachs and his daughter, then he might have a point. The BBC couldn’t explain it. Two people had to resign, and I’m not talking about Brand and Ross..

          By the way, what went to air was a toned down version. The uncut version must be Brandtastically funny.

             0 likes

  44. AsISeeIt says:

    I sense a growing bromance…

    At first the BBC held to her natural aversion to his association with the county set and his in-bred Toryism

    But Dave was always gentlemanly, proper and polite to her – despite her adolescent rebeliousness and lingering puppy love for another

    At last her true-love, Gordon, took himself out of the picture leaving her bereft, hurt and angry

    And there really was no one of any consequence left on the scene

    The BBC were shocked and outraged at Dave’s Euro aloofness – she damned him for his haughtiness and isolationism

    Then when the BBC landed herself in a mess of her own making with difficulties over Savile and McAlpine – like a true gent Dave refused to spurn her when she was really down. He even offered his hand in friendship

    But it was when Dave championed ‘gay marriage’ – that was the ‘wet shirt moment’ when the BBC could not help herself – in an instant she simply swooned for him

    Yes she still hated most of the crowd he associates with; George, Michael and that Hunt chap – she can’t stand them – they threaten her interests

    Oh it is sad but their love must remain a secret

    However, little signs tell that some love is the air for Dave

    This morning Dave invites the BBC to come for a spin – to join him for an inconsequential but pretty-looking internet censorship dance – how could the BBC refuse?

    Dear reader, later, in time, when this is all over, then she will marry him

       10 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      If Dopey Dave is seduced by the faux love of al beeba, let the idiot take the consequences.

         1 likes

  45. kevstaf says:

    i saw a preview of a channel 4 documentary called ‘why don’t you speak english’ about new immigrants to britain. as they where all non-white, the real question should have been, why are’nt they white english speakers of british descent. then it would not be a prpblem.

       8 likes

    • Albaman says:

      “why are’nt they white english speakers of british descent. then it would not be a prpblem.”(sic)

      Just another racist troll I expect. Strangely, a bit like GeorgeR’s favourite newspaper this site seems to attract views such as this.

      The “regular contributors ” may claim that the site is not an attraction to racists but posts such as this appear all too often for it to be a coincidence.

         4 likes

      • Ralph says:

        One of the oldest, and lamest, ways to attempt to discredit a website is to take one or two comments and claim their contents say something about that site.

           13 likes

        • Albaman says:

          But taking individual tweets from people and claiming that the content of that tweet is evidence of their bias is acceptable.

          You can’t have it both ways.

             3 likes

          • Mat says:

            Sorry but this commenter isn’t paid to be impartial like the BBC staffers you soooo love you chorus line monkey !

               10 likes

            • Albaman says:

              In the absence of a valid argument you resort to the trusted bBBC tactic of personal insult.

                 5 likes

              • Andy S. says:

                Albaman, if you dislike this site so much, why do you insist on visiting it?

                I’m sure there are many other sites more conducive to your delicate sensibilities.

                   5 likes

                • Albaman says:

                  It is cheaper than buying a comic. Is that reason enough for you Andy S?

                     4 likes

                  • Andy S. says:

                    Your superiority complex is showing again, Albaman!

                       4 likes

                    • Albaman says:

                      Not hard to appear superior on a site when any challenge to regular contributors for factual evidence of their assertions results in either personal attacks or Alan taking the huff and banning you.

                         3 likes

          • Ralph says:

            The two issues are separate. I think it is perfectly reasonable to judge an individual on what they tweet, but unfair to judge a website on one or two stupid comments left by third parties.

               6 likes

      • Ian Hills says:

        “Racist”, “racists” – you score double PC points for that comment.

           2 likes

  46. Alex says:

    Why is the BBC even reporting this?

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23393852

    Who cares?

       14 likes

    • Maturecheese says:

      I know, do they think that anyone in the real world gives a flying stuff what happens to that piece of scum. They must do it to wind people up. Where is their ‘community cohesion’ ethic when it comes to upsetting the white working class community?

         14 likes

      • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

        My dear maturecheese, that is exactly why they do it, to wind up the folk who disagree, basically because, well because they CAN!
        They delight in shoving the proverbial two fingers up to all who dont subscribe to their agenda.

           11 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Probably to prove what a racist society we still are.

      Never mind, as our trolls keep telling us the BBC are merely ‘reflecting the views of the majority’, who no doubt subscribe unreservedly to the European Human Rights Act and are very concerned that Adi-whatever could (allegedly) be treated so inhumanely.

         8 likes

  47. George R says:

    “BBC’s pension bill rises to £2 billion”

    ‘Telegraph’ (£).

       12 likes

  48. John Anderson says:

    The BBC is still yammering on about Trayvon Martin. Striped across all World Service and Radio 4 news bulletins was the demonstrations in America. Big deal ? The BBC tries to make out there is a huge nationwide outburst of protest. But only 2000 gathered in New York, with small numbers at demos in other cities. Even with Obama, Eric Holder and Al Sharpton still stirring the race pot, this issue is well off the boil. There was a lot of trouble just after the death, sure – but that was based on ignorance of what actually happened. Most Americans now know from watching the trial that the truth was different to the original myth. So they are not willing to hit the streets.

    Interest in the Trayvon Martin case is miniscule in Britain. So why does the BBC keep pushing it ?

       22 likes

    • will says:

      The BBC is still yammering on about Trayvon Martin

      I think it is UBT Traylon Martin to give him his full & always stated full title (Unarmed Black Teenager) – similar to MBT Stephen Lawrence.

         10 likes

      • Maturecheese says:

        Compare and contrast the coverage of Traylon Martin to that of Lee Rigby. One is played up and in our faces as a travesty of justice whilst the other is not to be talked about for whatever reason.

           23 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Funny you should say that, John, I’ve heard R4 only very briefly this morning – once at about 7.15 (the ‘religious’ programme with Ed Stourton) and then again about 2 hours later when Mrs jtf switched it on in the kitchen. Both times they were going on about the Martin case and racism. Relentless.

         20 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Racism has been the most important story about the US ever since the early part of 2008. At the moment, it’s little more than an emotional exercise for journalists, and especially the over-emotional, Left-wing BBC journalists. It feels so good to scold and fret and express concern and ask all the important questions, and ride that high horse for all it’s worth. Journalism can be very fulfilling in this way. Reporting the facts and leaving it at that is old-fashioned, and out-moded. It’s all opinion and story-telling now.

      Best of all, it keeps the focus well away from the IRS scandal (which has now fingered a political appointee at the top in DC, with no sign of letting up), Benghazi (the survivors and witnesses have been forced to sign NDAs; the rash of dismissals of Marines commanders); the ongoing trainwreck of ObamaCare – skyrocketing premiums, unemployment, companies shifting to part-time hiring, the all-important mandate has been postponed; St. Edward and the Russians, a total foreign policy fiasco; Syria is still a disaster, and nobody’s wondering about the President’s actions for the time being; Egypt is still a disaster, and nobody’s wondering about the President’s actions for the time being; the President still hasn’t submitted a proper budget, ever; His green energy policies are as bankrupt and bust as Detroit. There are probably even more disasters the President is happy everyone’s ignoring at the moment, but you get the idea.

         18 likes

  49. Maturecheese says:

    BBC spin, agenda? Knock the free press.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23383451

       7 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      This is the same excuse we heard at the time. It’s a non-story, outrage about nothing ginned up by the Mail. Savile-gate wasn’t really a problem until enemies of the BBC tried to pounce, nobody really cares about all those golden handshakes, etc. It’s tiresome, but since the BBC is ultimately accountable to no one, they’ll continue to get away with it.

         14 likes

    • John Standley says:

      I think Brand’s cringing sycophancy towards he BBC says everything about the corporation’s stranglehold and monopoly on UK broadcasting.

      Gotta keep on their good side if I want to make a living.

         1 likes

  50. Old Goat says:

    I wonder if the BBC will show this picture anywhere?

    http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2013/7/21/energy-impact.html

       11 likes

    • Phil Ford says:

      I somehow very much doubt it. It doesn’t fit the agreed narrative – therefore it is to be ignored.

      The photo you’ve linked to shows us that – visually – the ‘environmental impact’ of wind turbines massively outweighs that of numerous fracking wells – in fact, it’s very difficult to spot the wells at all in that photo. We can hardly say the same about the huge, monolithic wind turbines.

      Sadly, evangelical, heavily politicised greens (an especially rampant strain within the BBC) cannot jump the simple intellectual gap between their permanent rage at anything that even remotely whiffs of ‘fossil fuel’ and the sound economic and environmental arguments in favour of fracking (especially when compared with the disaster that is – allegedly – ‘wind energy’). For them, nothing less than the complete abandonment of fossil fuels and ‘a return’ to an entirely agrarian utopia nightmare will suffice. You know, like Pol Pot tried in Cambodia. How did that work out for them?

      Still, as your link perfectly confirms: a picture is worth a thousand words.

         14 likes