FRIDAY OPEN THREAD….

Right, that’s Christmas boxed off for another year so normal service has been resumed! Here’s a new Open Thread for your attention and the floor is yours!

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284 Responses to FRIDAY OPEN THREAD….

  1. George R says:

    For pro-TURKEY Beeboids:-

    “Turkey Lira Plunges to Record as Stocks Drop on Political Crisis”

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-27/turkey-lira-plunges-to-record-as-stocks-drop-on-political-crisis.html?

       20 likes

  2. ukridge says:

    Amazing story from the Private Eye
    http://www.private-eye.co.uk/sections.php?section_link=media_news&issue=1356

    WHEN the BBC’s Human Planet series visited the Korowai tribe of West Papua in 2011, it revealed a tribe of people who wore no clothes, spoke their own dialect and used stone age tools. What really captured viewers’ imaginations, though, was Human Planet’s footage of the Korowai building their “new home”, a treehouse 30m off the forest floor.

    “The Korowai are so adapted to life in the jungle, they’ve taken to the trees… teetering in treetops is second nature to the Korowai,” says the narrator.

    Imagine the surprise of one documentary lover when he tuned in to his favourite Hungarian factual series, On the Spot, made by a team of young, award-winning documentary-makers, and saw that they too had decided to visit the Korowai. The team visited the same area and filmed some of the same people as the BBC – but their film was substantially different.

    Naked tree dwellers
    “When the visitors come here there are two things that are forbidden,” Jacob, the Korowai tribesman, tells the Hungarian team. “We mustn’t wear clothes and we mustn’t speak Indonesian.” When one man cuts into a tree with a stone axe, his friend shouts: “You can’t do it with a stone axe any more because you’re used to the proper axe.”

    And what of the treehouse? In the On the Spot film, it looks rather dilapidated. The reporter says: “Jacob claims they were only built to please the film-makers. Nowadays they don’t even think of living that high.” At the end of On the Spot, viewers see the Korowai people back in their village of wooden houses, wearing shorts and T-shirts. A far cry from the BBC’s naked tree-dwellers.

    This isn’t the only time the BBC has skewed documentary footage for greater effect, of course. Later in 2011 Frozen Planet shot a polar bear birth that appeared to take place in the wild but was actually filmed in a zoo. And in 2007 a trailer for a royal documentary falsely made it appear that the Queen had stormed out of a photoshoot.

    LINK to the BBC Human Planet programme

    Link to the On the spot programme

       47 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Glancing around, it may be Mr. Hislop feels his days at HIGNFY are numbered (and given the year-end show calibre, he may be right):
      Top stories in the latest issue:
      LICENCE TO SPEND
      Newsnight outbids Newsgathering to hire Laura Kuenssberg — great for her bank balance but less so perhaps for BBC licence-fee payers.

      Shame it’s paywalled. I’d be interested to see what the Katz slipway has p*ssed away to gain access to her insights on who comes in or departs via doors.

         18 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        The BBC only brought her back because someone has to write Nick Robinson’s blog when he’s out of town and what to say on air when he’s drunk.

        Your license fee hard at work.

           17 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          Two links I will treasure. Tx.
          I was going to offer that if Mr. ‘Sources say’ is cited in matters journalism, the bar is pretty low.
          Seems it has to be to be able to still serve him.
          I still consider Ms. K’s claimed merits in comparison to be better viewed on a relative basis.
          A reasonably programmed bot could create her twitter timeline. So paying her over the odds seems… entirely in keeping with BBC SOP.

             8 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Hey, at least the BBC isn’t making them live in a captive environment so they can film the magical stuff that’s hard to capture in the wild. Although perhaps we shouldn’t give them any ideas….

      But we see yet again that too many academics and liberals who supposedly love humanity and want to help are all to keen on keeping certain people stuck in a stone-age lifestyle for their own pleasure.

      I understand on an intellectual level that there are things to learn about our own past from people like this. But how morally wrong is to deny them the right to join civilization? I guess you can’t hate civilization in the first place in order to ask this question. The kind of documentaries the BBC and others produce in this vein only encourages people to support the idea that these folk must remain as they are.

      Maybe we can swap these apparently hard-working, decent people who want only to better themselves with all those greenie re-skilling dopes who want to return to a pre-industrial society and would climb over the frozen body of their grandmothers who died due to fuel poverty in order to live in such paradise.

         19 likes

      • Ian Hills says:

        “The Human Planet team discovers a lost Amazonian tribe, wholly dependent on documentary crews for a living, which still shrinks foreigners’ heads.”

           28 likes

    • Lynette says:

      As well as documentaries, footage of news reports by the USA was used for a very different purpose by the BBC news team.

      See http://netanyalynette.blogspot.co.il/2013/01/how-bbc-distorted-news-on-news-at-10pm.html

         4 likes

  3. Thoughtful says:

    An amazing program on Radio 4 typical of the inward looking naval gazing lazy hacks who feel their lives are so important we all need to hear about them.

    So we have a single mother whose job has moved to Salford, but she has decided not to move and to pollute the planet by making a ridiculous commute from where she lives to Salford.

    Personally I believe that when you take a new job there should be a law that you have to live within 50 miles of your place of work, failure to move within a reasonable time should incur a doubling of the tax bill and a £10K pa fine for the employer.

    Soon stop the centralisation of jobs in London and a lessening in train and traffic congestion.

    It’s not political bias, but it just goes to show how far from reality these people are, and what they believe is reasonable.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25498136

       22 likes

    • GCooper says:

      No more new laws, please – we have quite enough already. Even for BBC employees.

         19 likes

      • Thoughtful says:

        I understand your feelings, but there is a deal of hypocrisy in levying stealth taxes to pay for green issues and then using 100 times more energy than the average simply to get to work – and then in many cases getting the people to pay for it!
        Energy needs to be imported to the more we use the more the balance of trade is affected and the value of our currency.

        It also leads to the failing capital London to carry on expanding which is not good for the rest of the country.
        London has to import cheap labour from other countries because UK residents can’t afford to take the low paid jobs.

           15 likes

        • GCooper says:

          I suppose a free market is quite out of the question?

          It’s disturbing when the manifestly statist BBC is opposed by suggestions that we replace one set of government diktats with another.

          Government is the problem – not the answer!

             23 likes

          • Thoughtful says:

            In most cases I would agree with you, but even in the most right wing free market vision, the government exists solely to provide a frame work of laws.

            When the free market produces distortions then the government needs to address those distortions.

            Of course we don’t live in a free market economy by a long way and while the government meddles in things it ought not to, it fails to address the major issues which it should because they’re too complicated.

               10 likes

          • LurkerDroneNumber141 says:

            You’ve hit the nail on the head there because if the BBC were subject to market forces there would be no money for ridiculous cross country commutes.
            No new rules necessary, just free up the BBC to demonstrate their popularity within the commercial marketplace.

               36 likes

            • Ian Hills says:

              Once the unfair subsidy to that London-based broadcaster is axed, it might become economically viable to open up TV stations outside the capital.

                 14 likes

      • David Kay says:

        “No more new laws, please – we have quite enough already. Even for BBC employees.”

        quite wrong indeed. When it comes to the BBC employees we need 2 news laws

        1. Treason Broadcasting Enemy Propaganda Act

        2. Execution of BBC Employess for Broadcasting Enemy Propaganda Regulations

        and i’d like to see a law requiring more purple sweets in tins of quality street. I only got 5 in a huge tin. bastards

           21 likes

        • Buggy says:

          At least you got five of your QS favourites. (Warning: Rant coming). I used to have a passion, largely unsated as you’ll see, for the QS Gooseberry Cream, a choccy of unsurpassed glory. These were a rarity indeed, and didn’t even feature in the normal boxes of QS which might be bought during the year, only in the big ones pur-chased at Christmas (and even then there’d only be two, three tops, Gooseberry Creams in there. But they were delicious beyond the imaginings of mere mortals.

          Yes: WERE. ‘Cos they were without warning banished from the tins by heartless confectionery bastards whose infamy is almost beyond words and who, when my quest to find their names and track them down is finally rewarded, will find themselves force-fed on the utterly vomitsome (yet still extant and massively over-represented QS Strawberry (sic.) Creams like a foie gras goose.

          Rant ends.

             19 likes

          • David Kay says:

            😆

               8 likes

          • Techno says:

            Strawberry Creams are far too good for ’em. Force-feed them the Toffee Pennies, that’s what I say.

               4 likes

            • Buggy says:

              Very difficult to be force-fed a Toffee Penny on account of your jaws being being stuck together by a bond that Boeing would think excessive for glueing jumbo jets together.

              So no fun in that.

              Personally I’m convinced that the chemical gunk that masquerades as ‘Strawberry’ flavouring is from a stockpile left behind at Peenemunde, which makes it a worthy punishment for the Goooseberry Killers. I’m hoping that my researches will turn up the fact that Vince Cable once worked for Nestlé in some capacity which will provide twice the joy. Though not for him, obv.

              BTW, looking at wiki just now turns up a whole host of ex-Quality Street flavours which I’d thoughtlessly overlooked in my keening over the Gooseberry Cream Euthanasia. If any devotees of Peanut Cracknells, Apricot Delights, Coffee Creams etc etc wish to join my quest, then you’ll be most welcome to stuff what I see are now renamed, with SEVERE malice aforethought, “Strawberry Delights” down the maws of the offenders in codign retribution some day soon.

              And down Vince Cable too, whether he worked for Nestlé or not. The Toffee Penny could actually be usefully deployed there come to think of it.

                 2 likes

              • Buggy says:

                Here are the utter gits at Nestlé preening themselves over a homicidal maniac enjoying their products as a between victims sugar rush and the supposed sales boost somehow provided by his endorsment.

                OTOH, I’m pretty sure you could win a lot of money posing the question: “What do Jilly Cooper and the late Saddam Hussein have in common ?” to the sort of folk who’ll bet on two rain drops running down a window. So there is that.

                   0 likes

  4. David Brims says:

    As usual Morecambe and Wise was on over Christmas, and as usual the tv pundits / sock puppets said ” 28 million people watched this in the 1970s !!”

    That’s because there was only 3 television channels and there was bugger all else to watch !

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFxKe0DeqUI

       21 likes

  5. cmp says:

    Incredible headline. The BBC shows no restraint these days:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-25446026

       21 likes

    • David Brims says:

      Absolutely brazen and shameless, Mao made Hitler look like a choirboy.

         24 likes

      • chrisH says:

        Coming soon-One Euro, One Volk, Unity is Strength-Beethovens 9th and Wagner…Gaia worship and save the planet by going veggie.
        A reappraisal of that visionary pioneering EUrocrat with a permanent Movember `tashe…Adolf Hitler.
        Where would the EU be without his early work and triumphs of the Will?

           14 likes

      • Lobster says:

        As a matter of interest, when did Mao Tse-Tung become Mao Zedong? About the same time as Peking became Beijing and Bombay became Mumbai presumably. I would love to know who sets the rules.

           28 likes

        • GCooper says:

          Indeed. I am still waiting for the day the rules are applied impartially, so that such long offended-against cities as Cologne, Munich and Paris are pronounced ‘correctly’ by the BBC, ever terrified of causing distress (unless the recipient is British).

             20 likes

          • Robin says:

            Notice that the luvvies at the BBC never call the Italian city Firenze instead of Florence when they go on an opera jaunt .

               0 likes

        • David Brims says:

          I’ve always wondered this, why don’t they start saying Paree instead of Paris and Roma instead of Rome.

             14 likes

    • Ian Hills says:

      An even worse paean of praise to the Chinese state –

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20178655

         6 likes

    • flexdream says:

      “Unlike Stalin, Mao sentenced no-one and certainly did not intend to create a terrible famine. ”

      Really?

      Ironically I have memories of a radio programme on the BBC about the early Mao which told a different tale. I can’t find that just now but I’ve quickly found these
      “Yang noted that Mao implemented a quota for the executions in accordance with local populations. Mao argued that hardline counterrevolutionaries counted for less than 1 percent of the population in all regions, and that roughly 0.1 per cent of the population would have to be executed in order to get rid of the worst counterrevolutionary elements, while avoiding killing innocents” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_to_Suppress_Counterrevolutionaries]

      “Public execution rallies had become a feature of local life since Mao’s arrival, and he had demonstrated a penchant for slow killing” [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=L_bQX73aOvcC&pg=PA65&lpg=PA65&dq=Mao,+the+Unknown+Story+landlord+executions&source=bl&ots=5Yx9ugqJ9b&sig=Wv6nw5wKBvWAZwJlSRwDkDC-sIM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Wgi-UvyvIrHd7Qamx4GwBA&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Mao%2C%20the%20Unknown%20Story%20landlord%20executions&f=false]

      If only the BBC had the resources to research articles before publication eh?

         21 likes

  6. ember2013 says:

    BBC News devoted 30 minutes to a programme called “The Weather Year” – a “year of extreme weather.”

    So, like any other year then? Except in the other years you didn’t make these banal programmes, centred on scaremongering about the weather?

       52 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Annus horribilus for the BBC set to continue to the very end, and beyond, especially as regards its risible abilities with science, objectivity, accuracy and integrity.
      http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2013/12/27/steve-jones-and-his-research.html
      ‘BBC executives tried to get the output of the report changed to make it less critical of the corporation’s reliance on press releases as the source of their stories’
      One might wonder if these were the same market rates telling Mr. Internet who he couldn’t have on in that ‘no top-down imposition’ way they assure us can’t happen.
      Paying breeding colonies of PC social engineering drop-outs £300kpa to do little else than meddle, and then lie about it… seems ‘unique’.

         28 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        No surprise there. It was occasionally obvious that some of Black’s and Harrabin’s output was more or less prompted by an email from Michael Mann or press release from Greenpeace or the ACU.

           27 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          Not to mention immediate editorial updating at the behest of such as the charming Ms. Abbess in the event that such output was still not ‘to taste’ of some more vocal fellow travellers on the climate banwagon.

             12 likes

    • Phil Ford says:

      Just seen Call Me Dave on the BBC News 24 claiming that ‘we’re seeing more of these type of events’. The claim, of course, went entirely unchallenged by the interviewing Beeboid (it fits the narrative, after all). I would be very interested to know if we really are seeing more of these type of events – I suspect the historical record just wouldn’t support any such claim.

      Ironically, one of the next news stories was that concerning a ship currently trapped in extremely thick Antarctic pack ice (currently at near record-breaking extent). Not a peep from the worker drones regarding that particular inconvenient truth.

      Funny old world, ain’t it?

         43 likes

      • OldBloke says:

        Yes Phil. I heard the comment from our Prime Minister about “we are seeing more of these type of events”. My heart sank and head shook. As you say it fits the narrative. Of what records I have concerning our weather, what we are having this winter is the norm. The cold weather does not normally arrive to blanket the U.K. until January and through February. Before that it is wet and windy with floods. Those that have a defined interest in weather related issues can only shake their heads in disbelief but then we are called sceptics which is a word tainted like the words “Right Wing”. As a footnote, no sign of the Russian Block of High Pressure yet this year, but come it will. And wasn’t it the Met Office who said that this years winter was going to be one of the coldest, hardest and longest on records? (I have their statement cutting from a newspaper)

           31 likes

        • Chuckabrick says:

          And the Met Office are now intending to forecast and report on the ‘weather’ on the sun, and how it will affect us. They are stark staring mad.

             19 likes

        • Ian Hills says:

          Even before winter set in, a bunch of loonies had to give up canoeing around the Arctic (to prove how warm it was) because of all the ice.

             23 likes

      • Old Goat says:

        It’s the Antarctic summer, too…

           11 likes

  7. will says:

    Nick Higham, interviewing Alan Johnson on hard times in the Smoke, says that the arriving West Indian immigrants “were put into slum housing”. I don’t think so Nick, I don’t think they were “put” anywhere. Despite the currency of the socialist Atlee government, people were subject to less state interference than now, and the immigrants sought accommodation where they could find it in bombed out Britain. Unfortunately that accommodation was crap, just like that endured by millions of native residents.

       71 likes

    • GCooper says:

      Indeed – a very good point! When criticising the atrocious BBC 4 programme on shipwrecks recent;y, I neglected to mention that one of my objections to it was the way the presenter pretended the disregard for the welfare of sailors was in some way unusual. Most of our ancestors lived unpleasant lives – it was not something reserved for the victim group du jour – black, white, or yellow.

         50 likes

      • Milverton says:

        I finished watching the final episode last night. The whole series was riven with historical presentism, and sweeping generalisations. It was every bit as awful as a Dan Snow junket.

        I’m not sure what the great history broadcasters of yesteryear might have made of it. Not much, I would guess.

           32 likes

        • GCooper says:

          I admire your powers of perseverance. It felt too much like watching a sociology lecture at Bloxwich Poly for me to be able to endure it.

          It could have done with a bit more hearts of oak and lot less brains of straw.

             22 likes

    • ember2013 says:

      I can well believe they made a year’s review of “Meet the author” – self-indulgence++

         10 likes

  8. Thoughtful says:

    Hate crimes against Muslims DOUBLED In Gloucestershire they went from five to eleven !

    Of course a hate crime can be anything that the victim perceives it to be so although there are a handful of serious incidents every year, and lets face it these are often carried out by other migrants, simply saying ‘Hello Good Morning’ can be classed as a hate crime if the victim wants to perceive it to be so.

    In addition there is no reporting of hate crimes committed by Muslims who from the data I’m aware of are ten times more likely to be the perpetrator of a race hate crime than any other group.

    Yet again the BBC are blowing an issue out of all proportion and covering up the crimes committed by their favourite brown eyed boys.

       68 likes

    • Barlicker says:

      The expression “hate crime” is just another left-wing, playground insult. Or are we to assume that crimes such as rape, murder and burglary are motivated by a deep sense of ‘love’ for one’s fellow human beings?

         48 likes

      • Llareggub says:

        Murders, sometimes involving rape by relatives, are too often described b the BBC and most of the media as honour killings, but never hate crimes.

           39 likes

    • chrisH says:

      My local authority announced a 138% increase in anti-traveller prejudice as measured in schools in 2008.
      Basically, a lad from the “travelling community” insisted on being called “Gypsy” by his mates that year.
      The teachers and TAs noted the name being used, and-despite everybody knowing and allowing for this_ they dutifully passed on the data…and we got a few more race hustlers from County employed as a result.
      So-I`d always be careful about these “increases”…you just KNOW that some weasels salary requires there to be a “problem”.
      And-where there isn`t one-give them a term or so-and there surely WILL be one!

         42 likes

    • Chuckabrick says:

      If a Muslim gang goes about the streets shouting you are wrong to drink alcohol, convert to Islam, and abusing women for wearing the wrong style of clothing, is that not a Hate Crime? If not what sort of crime is it?

         67 likes

  9. George R says:

    Not politically worth BBC-NUJ reporting this?:-

    “NO HALT TO EXECUTIONS WHILE E.U DELEGATION VISITS IRAN”
    http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2013/12/no-halt-to-executions-while-eu-delegation-visits-iran.html

       18 likes

  10. Alex says:

    I was out for a spin in the car with my folks, and was enjoying taking them to their favourite coffee shop only for the drive to be utterly ruined by exposure to BBC5 Live or whatever it is. Now, I never listen to radio but my father does. It was on for only a few minutes before I subtly requested a change to Classical FM. Some smug, opinionated prat presenter was sardonically impugning the decision to make Chancellor Politician of the Year, and was heckling a supporter of the decision and then arrogantly passed the MIC to that odious little Marxist toad, Owen Jones. The platform was his for an entire three minutes whilst he spouted pathetically absurd negativities concerning the economy. How he was allowed to get away with this pure fantastical excrement is beyond reason. I’ll never be listening to Five Live again. Repugnant bias.

       61 likes

    • Milverton says:

      That’s a normal day on Five Live. Owen Jones in particular is often invited but rarely questioned.

      As I’ve said before Lynton Crosby needs to challenge Five Live’s bias as a matter of urgency. It makes the rest of the Beeb seem positvely Reithian in its outlook. Waiting until the pre-election purdah could be too late.

         47 likes

      • Alex says:

        I’ve never listened to it, mate, but was appalled by its blatant Left-wing bias. It was terrible. The presenter was openly slagging off the Tories and cracking anti-Tory comments… He also merrily supported what Owen Jones was spewing. It was simply terrible, no, in fact – It was insufferable!

           42 likes

  11. stuart says:

    why have the police not revealed the figures for muslim on non muslim hate crime and violence,all day the bbc and radio 5 live have been championing these slated figures about the numbers of attacks on muslims by non muslims since lee rigbys murder by muslim terrorists,there is alot of bias going on here because muslim pressure groups like tell mama and faith matters are sectarian muslim groups who dont record attacks on non muslims by muslims but just like to feed this false narrative of muslim victimhood in a islamphobic society,here is the problem with hate crome and racist attacks by non muslims on muslims in this country,there is no reporting mechanism or lobby groups for non muslim who have had hate crimes commited against them in this country,i think hate crime by muslims on non muslims goes undereported and is a more serious problem than the police and goverment like to admit.

       41 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      This little outrage outing has been doing the rounds, but I’ve noticed more and more now pressing for more detail of the sort that these affront merchants and their #prasnews media outlets are proving keen to obscure.
      I find any ‘attack’, especially unprovoked, to be unjustified, but as these clowns designate anything as an ‘incident’ and any ‘incident’ as an ‘attack’ to drive headlines through complicit media, all sympathy, and hence value, is expended.

         16 likes

    • flexdream says:

      So far as I’m aware the number of Muslims killed for their religion in the UK by British people this year is again, er nil.
      I think the number of non-Muslims extradited from the UK to face terrorism charges this year is also I think nil.
      The number of child grooming gangs where the victims were Muslim this year – nil I think.
      Just another typical year.

         33 likes

  12. Paddytoplad says:

    BBC climate ship stuck shocker.

    For the second time this year a BBC/Guardian propaganda vessel has got stuck in ice. ice that should have melted.

    Like the argies who were treated on ships they thought or were told they had sunk, the beeboids must have a sinking feeling.

    http://www.cfact.org/2013/09/19/gullible-green-sailors-trapped-in-the-arctic/

    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/26/so-much-ice-in-antarctica-that-a-research-vessel-gets-stuck-in-summer/

    Now lets see them get stuck in a Himalayan glacier for a couple of thousand years.

       46 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      For such things #needaheartofstonenotto was created.

         8 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      “Helicopter rescues on Arctic ice are incredibly expensive, involving hundreds of miles of flying by copters and crews expensively maintained in that icy and sparsely populated region. Additionally, all the lovely boats become write-offs”

      One imagines that there is a carbon consequence to all this too? Though I have noticed that the BBC seems to view a lot of helicopter travel… At least the kind they feel they require… is powered by fairy pharts and unicorn wee.

         25 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Worth repeating: ‘UPDATE: Turns out this “research” vessel was mostly a taxpayer funded junket for getting video stories to BBC in the UK and ABC in Australia’
      —-
      Guessing comments may soon dry up on this latest genius investment by the world’s least financially savvy media corporation? The comments on the WUWT story are pretty priceless already, too.

         31 likes

      • chrisH says:

        I note a Guardian journalist is on board, and telling the BBC que passa.
        No problems there re expenses then I take it!
        Also…votizpoint?( To quote Gary Bellamy in Down the Line).
        If it`s simply to show us how some Aussies ended up having to eat their sled dogs 100 years ago in a similar venture…then maybe we could build a big bubble car with rockets, and send the BBCs finest up to “recreate” Apollo 14 come a decent anniversary(45 years seems grand!)
        Ground control to Major John!…oh dear…

           9 likes

  13. chrisH says:

    No surprise then that the BBC bemoan the “rise in anti-Muslim”
    verbiage/activity this year…and ACPO helpfully tell us that the butchering of Lee Rigby might have something to do with it.
    Don`t know about you-but I`m gratified.
    What sort of country would we be if we let a British soldier be run down and nearly beheaded by some Nigerian skunk dealers with a Koran for a shield?
    Thank God, some British people are rising up to deal with the knotweed in the English country garden…it may have strangled any spine from the BBC, but it`s not going to turn us all into Owen Jones or Polly Toynbee…let alone Anjem Choudhury.
    52 died for nothing in London 2005…Drummer Rigby must not be allowed to die, just so the BBC can squirt other peoples blood onto their dope plants in what used to be the BBC garden.
    If Islam starts to learn that the BBC don`t speak for us-and that their targeting of whitey women and girls, soldiers or isolated Christians etc will commence a backlash they`ll need to think on before they start on us…Soldier Rigby will be the tipping point for our benighted society.

       52 likes

  14. Andy S. says:

    Watched the re-booted “Still Open All Hours” last night. The opening titles had only just finished when Granville’s first customer in the shop was—- a scarf wearing Muslim woman with a strong Yorkshire accent! His second customer was an Asian bloke, again with a strong Yorkshire accent. Later on in the programme his customers were all white. Typical BBC slipping in “diversity” where it’s not needed.

    Now I know many Yorkshire towns have seen a big increase in the Muslim/Asian population since the last episode of Open All Hours was broadcast, but speaking with a broad Yorkshire accent? Not only that but Granville was seen constantly slicing bacon on the counter throughout the programme. Does anyone really think Muslim women would be shopping at the same counter where bacon was being sliced and sold? Apart from the fact that Granville would have been put out of business a long time ago by local Asian corner shopkeepers, or been bought out by them.

    Other than that, the programme itself wasn’t a patch on the original series,although it tried very hard. Perhaps writer Roy Clarke was under PC restrictions enforced by Beeboid producers.

       31 likes

    • will says:

      Quite so, people with Pakistani connections living in Yorkshire speak with an accent all their own – not Yorkshire & not Kashmir

         17 likes

      • Mark B says:

        ” . . . Granville was seen constantly slicing bacon . . . ”

        So long as he wasn’t selling alcohol, I think he might just escape the 40 lashes he’s owed.

        But someone somewhere must have known what was going on and slipped it in just to spite those who would be so up themselves to see it, and those totally oblivious to the slant.

           9 likes

  15. Leha says:

    greenpiece protesters start arriving back in the uk

    twats won’t be doing that again in a hurry 🙂
    hope they convert the boat for mackeral fishing in the Baltic.

       40 likes

    • Alex says:

      Yeah, and what typical spoiled middle class brats they are. One of the little brat rich-kids was blaming everyone but herself… she’ll now run home to mummy and daddy for a few months and regale the locals at her wealthy middle class village pub of her heroics and the evil Russians. I despise lefties.

         54 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      With any luck Putin will have had it sunk by now. Stand by for a sob-fest across all albeeba channels about how dreadfully they were treated in some Gulag or other.

         32 likes

      • Mark B says:

        I hope not. Greenpeace would be able to claim on the insurance.

        Best leave it where it is and charge them a mooring fee.

           14 likes

    • richard D says:

      I sincerely hope Greenpeace has been footing the bill for Moscow accommodation after their release, and then transport to the UK for these plonkers, and not the British taxpayer….

      (And wouldn’t it be sweet justice if Greenpeace had been charged for their jail costs as well…)

      *sigh* – why do I suspect my taxes are paying for these idiots’ little adventure.

         36 likes

  16. Deborah says:

    5pm Radio 4, Friday. I now understand that this windy weather over the Christmas period is all Mr Cameron’s fault , the fact that power lines are down is also his fault; and that some people (5,000 homes means a couple of villages) had to cook Xmas lunch on the barbie – did they have no friends that would have said, “come to us”? Yet people without power were only too willing to contact the BBC to tell listeners how awful it all was. Did people really not have children/parents/cousins/friends that would let them stay. Mind you it sounds as if Mr C is psyching himself up to tell us it is all the fault of man-made climate change

       36 likes

    • richard D says:

      On the BBC news on Christmas morning (probably like yourself, Deborah) I observed at least 2 family representatives who were bemoaning the fact that they had been flooded out, that they had hordes of relatives all about to descend upon them, demanding to be fed their Christmas dinner on time, and as advertised in the invitation – and they hadn’t had the wit to actually plan for that possible eventuality, despite all the forewarning about flood plain susceptibilities, and relocate of the Christmas repast to one of the relatives’ homes, where, presumably, no such problems existed.

      It’s time we started reflecting the true costs of insuring idiots such as these – especially as it’s mostly purely a matter of choice where they live – nobody forced these numpties to have a house near a lovely babbling brook, which, regularly, bursts its banks and floods the neighbouring area.

      A bit like the Indus delta in Pakistan – for which we repeatedly keep having to fund flood relief.

      You pays your money, you takes your choice – but don’t expect me to foot the bill – no-one is going to support me when a problem arises. (But then, I am pretty careful about where I live, and the construction of my abode)

         30 likes

      • Arthur Penney says:

        Sorry – but the insurance industry has agreed to make a levy on all house insurance policies – to cover idiots such as these.

           14 likes

    • Chuckabrick says:

      There was a bloke from Yalding being interviewed by the BBC, complaining that he had not received any warning, then he admitted he had. He seemed to be claiming that wasn’t enough. I guess he is setting out his stall for compensation.

         6 likes

      • Buggy says:

        Anyone local knows that Yalding floods at the drop of a hat and always has done. Equally, anyone with half an ounce of brainpower would, you’d think, be able to figure out that being at the confluence of the Beult, the Medway and the Teise might make you a wee bit vulnerable in the event of persistent, heavy rain. But no. Here once again we have the whole shebang being presented as a) An Act Of God and b) Something that someone, somewhere MUST be to blame for. It is entirely possible for the right mindset to hold both these positions without any thought that they might be at all contradictory.

           9 likes

  17. will says:

    The BBC News Channel report on this story
    Former Lebanese minister and opposition figure Mohamad Chatah has been killed by a car bomb in central Beirut.
    opens with “an abrupt end to festive season in Beirut ….

    WTF would that festive season be in the Middle east?

       22 likes

    • hadda says:

      Around 41% of the population of Lebanon is Christian (2013 figures). Does that help you answer your question?

         11 likes

    • flexdream says:

      In Iraq the Islamists celebrated Christmas with the customary church bombing. Though their celebrations aren’t restricted to Christmas, or even just to Christians.

         16 likes

  18. George R says:

    “BBC’s Investigations Service monitored staff email accounts 140 times in past five years”

    http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/12/27/bbc-s-investigations-service-monitored-staff-email-accounts-140-times-past-five?

       7 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      “Responding to the publication of the figures, a BBC spokesperson said that it “rarely monitors staff email accounts” and only does so when “it is reasonable, necessary and represents a proportionate response.”

      Four glorious weasel words: ‘rarely’, ‘reasonable’, ‘necessary’ & ‘proportionate’.
      Especially when deployed by unnamed BBC staff in justification of what they do to each other.
      When British MPs describe you as ‘rats in a sack’, there may not be enough money (though, lord knows, not for want of trying) to not feel the smallest twinge when saying one thing but doing another.

         9 likes

    • Ian Hills says:

      Quick, ring the Guardian.

         8 likes

  19. chrisH says:

    Should anybody out there want to rob a bank…and avoid train disruptions so as not to be a Biggs-type hero to the Beeb…you could do worse that listen to PM tonight( 2712.13/5.45 pm or so, Radio4).
    Carolyn Quinn and one Geoffrey Robinson(that name again) helpfully tell us how best to do this, and not get caught.
    Public service at its best eh?..thanks BBC!
    Now then-if you want to vote UKIP, to question global warming or avoid paying exorbitant taxes-let alone how to avoid Capita and the License fee-PM will not be helping you anytime soon…”incitement to think for yourself” being a hate crime there at the BBC!
    F888Off…yet again…BBC scummies.

       17 likes

  20. john in cheshire says:

    My list of **its in no particular order:-
    King of speed
    Gangsta granny
    Death Comes to Pemberley
    Still Open All Hours
    Ben & James versus the Arab
    Great American Rock Anthems
    Dr Who, what, why, when, where, how?
    Something about baubles
    And Midwifes (who are God’s representatives on earth after Jesus)
    And then there’s sodding Sherlock
    Oh, and if we haven’t been totally fuc***d up there’s t op of the effing pops: Christmas – whatever that’s supposed to mean
    I wish all Christians a very Happy New Year. The rest of you can sort yourselves out.

       16 likes

    • Banquosghost says:

      Gangsta Granny? Are you serious? Is this a program aimed at children where crime and the Jamaican patois loved by the ignorant is glorified?

      Sweet Lord, I bet it’s on right after Rasta fucking Mouse.

         8 likes

  21. George R says:

    Somalia.

    INBBC’s reports on its “militant Islamists”:-

    “Somali soldiers killed in Mogadishu blast”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25525907

    Supplementary for INBBC on Islamic jihad in Somalia with British Muslim connection:-

    “British female convert to Islam fomenting jihad in Somalia on back of a camel”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/12/british-female-convert-to-islam-fomenting-jihad-in-somalia-on-back-of-a-camel.html

       4 likes

  22. George R says:

    Is dominant BBC-NUJ stance on ‘Islamophobia’ much different to this?:-

    “UK’s Guardian: ‘For decades, western men have hijacked the language of women’s liberation to justify their Islamophobia'”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/12/uks-guardian-for-decades-western-men-have-hijacked-the-language-of-womens-liberation-to-justify-thei.html

       12 likes

  23. Chilli says:

    BBC1 10pm News report on the arrival back in the UK of the Greenpeace militants who rammed and boarded Russian ships and oil rigs in the Arctic. The VT of the incident the BBC showed was carefully edied to omit the ramming of the Russian vessel and instead only showed the Russians firing warning shots into the water and the Greenpeace terrorists raising their hands in surrender. This gave the false impression that they were entirely innocent of any wrongdoing.

       40 likes

  24. chrisH says:

    Note that St James in Piccadilly( a green New Age Media darling of the new Christian movement) has erected a wall around itself to show(yes, you`re ahead of me) “solidarity” with those pipe bombers of Bethlehem…Arafats pals etc.
    What`s the betting now that Lucy Winkett-the popsie “in charge” of the church..will be invited onto Thought For the Day, Stourtons Sunday mashup and all other vehicles of trendy anti-Semitic “Christian” pointlessness.
    What too is the betting re Giles Fraser showing up…Jeremy Hardy, Mark Steel, Mark Thomas and the like…to trash Israel and to advocate for the Gazan terrorists to get a clearer shot at babies in prams, off-duty soldiers or pizza delivery kids?
    Netenyahu the only leader of the free west who wishes Christians a happy Christmas?…but the church cares not-and knows even less!
    God Bless Israel!…the last canary at hells gates as far as I can see.

       28 likes

  25. Dazed & Confused says:

    The BBC have recently been asking the question “Should we now talk to the Taliban”?…….Quite….

       3 likes

  26. David Preiser (USA) says:

    From the “I’m Shocked, Shocked, To Learn” Dept.:

    Russia says Syrian toxin removal deadline will be missed

    Deadly toxins that were to have been removed from Syria by December 31 under an international effort to rid the country of its chemical arsenal have not yet been delivered to port to be put on ships, a Russian diplomat was quoted as saying on Friday.

    The deadline will be missed because toxins that can be used to make sarin, VX gas and other agents were being packed up and still faced a potentially hazardous trip to the port of Latakia, RIA news agency quoted Mikhail Ulyanov as saying.

    “The removal has not yet begun,” he said after an international meeting on the chemical arms removal effort.

    Hey, didn’t the BBC tell us this was a victory for The Obamessiah?

       10 likes

  27. Dave666 says:

    So I’m back after avoiding almost all the bbc’s output over Xmas, apart from seeing if they now covered the already forgotten M&S “pork & alcohol gate” they didn’t I had the misfortune to suffer some of the Xmas eve “entertainment” as I was at the in-laws. Eastenders, Holby City (aka Causualty on a week day) and last tango in Halifax. All were as bad as I expected them to be. Elsewhere it seemed to be the usual rubbish and repeats.
    Just watching now 2:15 more extended coverage of Pussy riot. Exactly how these giants of the music industry are getting so much coverage is a mystery…well no it’s not is it. It’s all part of the continued anti Russian storyline from the BBc .

       26 likes

    • DICK R says:

      The anti Russian stance only started after the fall of the Berlin wall , strange that !

         15 likes

      • deception says:

        Or how Putin keeps putting the spanner in the works, towards the “global” oligarchs, from monopolizing, whats not been already engulfed on this earth by the Imf collectivists banking elite.

           1 likes

  28. Doyle says:

    Just watched ‘The World’s Most Expensive Stolen Paintings’, an interesting documentary about art theft however … in the section about Caravaggio’s ‘Nativity’, when interviewing an Italian policeman, the subtitles had several wrong spellings such as ‘irrelavant’ and ‘unfotunately’. Bad spelling, tut, tut, never would’ve happened in the old days and a good indication of how standards have slipped.

       14 likes

  29. Doyle says:

    MR James: Ghost Writer and Mark Gatiss presented a programme about the great writer and more predictably ‘his repressed sexuality’. Apparently, at Cambridge’s ‘Chit-Chat’ society there was ‘lively horseplay’ known as ragging ‘and Monty was a dab hand, one participant recalls writhing on the floor during the rag with Monty James’s long fingers grasping at his vitals.’ Canon Adrian Carey remembered his father saying long after his [Montys] death, ‘I suppose he was would nowadays be called a non-practising homosexual.’ And that was it, a bit of grappling, hardly conclusive proof, in fact, wikipedia doesn’t say anything about him being homosexual. Maybe, he really was a ‘confirmed bachelor’, I’ve known men who weren’t gay but weren’t bothered about women either. I like Mark Gatiss because like me he is a horror aficionado but why the need to out long dead people? Do the homosexual mafia want a ghost writer to add to their collection of outed dead celebs?

       17 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Rather reminds me of the ‘Goodness Gracious Me’ skit where all known famous icons are claimed as Indian. Of course, that was a different time. And satire.

         11 likes

    • Milverton says:

      I was very cheesed off by that programme. I was really looking forward to it, being a huge fan of the master’s work, and Gatiss, a player of the pink oboe himself, seemed overly intrigued by James’s interests.

      It’s a strange thing, isn’t it? Homosexuals spend a lot of their time complaining about how others react to their sexuality, but can never shut up about it. Many seem obsessed with their sexuality in a way straight people rarely are.

      It’s almost as if they are trying to persuade themselves…

         30 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      I saw this programme and have to say that I was concerned that it might very well take that currently most fashionable BBC back route. On balance I think Mr Gatiss respect for genre won out over BBC agenda. I’ll wager that the BBC would have been more than happy for him to go much further down with the gay lobby. But he didn’t, so good for him.

         4 likes

      • Milverton says:

        I like Gatiss a lot. He has a marvellously sonorous tone to his voice. His horror series a couple of years back was terrific, and I hoped for something similarly impressive.

        I have never read an M.R. James story and perceive any hint of his sexuality. The lack of women seems to me to be more to do with the rooting of the tales for the most part in academe, rather than the alleged latent homosexuality of the author.

           11 likes

  30. Thoughtful says:

    Following on from the small discussion about Nigellas drug use, and the support of various ‘personalities’ including the PM.

    Today the Mail is running a story about a past BBC journo who presented the ‘Today’ program. In the end drugs killed him, but what he said provides more evidence that people within the BBC are regular drug users.

    ‘Everyone in the media does a little Charlie’

    “forgive me if I get a little angry at Nigella Lawson and her coterie of metropolitan, liberal friends as they blithely excuse her recently exposed cocaine use, nodding along as she insisted that she didn’t have a drug problem, only a life problem. ”

    In this I include leftie Dave the PM who doesn’t seem to be able to see anything wrong with drug use, having been a user once himself, and for all we know perhaps still is.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2530208/The-Nigella-set-condone-snorting-cocaine-I-dont-killed-brother-CLARE-CAMPBELL-drug-destroyed-former-BBC-presenter-sibling.html

       15 likes

    • Milverton says:

      I worked for a major newspaper group halfway up Canary Wharf twenty years ago. There were four based there at the time, so I’m not identifying a particular company.

      You’d get a very nice pile of coke at security if you stopped everyone going in there in the morning. Cocaine was rife, even amongst quite senior management, both editorial and advertising.

      A couple of times a year some dopey celeb would be dragged across the front pages for using a lesser amount of gak than those working on the story.

         17 likes

    • Mark B says:

      The law states that banned substances such as cocaine are prohibited from both sale and use, and as such carries a penalty. That is the LAW.

      For anyone, especially a member of the law making branch to suggest that its use is somehow less naughty than say smoking in a pub, or driving while in intoxicated with alcohol, both products are not banned by the state, but can be just as harmful, is cause for grave concern.

      This is not the first time that those in the media have been caught taking illegal substances and, the allegation of wide spread use is, of course, public concern.

      Perhaps random drug tests for ‘all’ those in paid state/taxpayer funded jobs should be made mandatory. I, like many here I am sure, have had simple but legal pleasures made criminalized in certain environments. I think it right that those making and publicizing such laws are of good moral character and they themselves are on the ‘right’ side of the law.

         11 likes

  31. AsISeeIt says:

    Not the News Review of the Year – stories you won’t see on the BBC
    Number One : ‘It’s the stupid economic reporting, stupid’
    Here’s a difficult question : How was the BBC going to react to public spending constraints?
    Inevitably as an over-manned make-work organisation over-stuffed with bolshie self-righteous fringe-of-celebrity hacks who came to regard public expenditure as their own divine right bread and butter, the BBC…. well, it was always going to be a tad put out when the chocolate wagon wheels fell off the giant hot custard and spicy gravy train.
    I say again, how would the BBC react to public spending constraints?
    A veritable horde of Leftist economic gurus formed an orderly queue outside BBC studios. Ed Balls had his gonads electronically attached to electrodes so that his tone of voice could be scientifically checked by the guys and gals in the BBC technical gantry – just one cough to find our levels please Mr Balls – and lo and behold…. his voice was judged to be perfectly in synch with the aspirations of all the no-PAYE big hitters on Newsnight : Wark and Paxo. And the science is settled folks. That was good enough for the BBC. So Plan ‘B’ from outer space and its cast of killer-Labour-rotten-tomatoes-from-the-past was to be our daily diet.
    George Osborne? How would the BBC treat his Plan ‘A’ ?
    Imagine a youthful Jenny Agutter whipping off her crimson bloomers, tying them to a stick and waving them about… only to find she’s no longer facing slow puffing Gordon the Big Tanked-the-Economy Engine…. but now she is poor Gideon suddenly knicker-less and all exposed in front of the rapidly oncoming…. Barcelona Bovine Choo-choo (BBC – get it? I know, I know I spoiled it for you when I gave her Osborne’s face. Seriously you should stop imagining Jenny Agutter now)
    I said Red Rag to a Bull.
    So while the Labour leadership all-in wrestling tag-team catch-weight pitted the Miliband brothers against Diane Haystacks (It’s choreographed – no one gets hurt. It’s all just theatre, it’s all fixed viewers – the Unions decide beforehand) the BBC suddenly remembered that hoary old ‘speak truth to power… except to EU… or something’ mantra and became our unofficial opposition.
    Now fast forward and the economic engine starts. The BBC stands back and says ‘I told you it wouldn’t!’
    No of course not. Labour spinners are back on their game and well embedded with the BBC by now. Goodness – who knew – Ed Miliband looks quite statesman-like to the BBC.
    So here is the economic discovery of the century…. you know when you have a major economic slump – people become worse off. Until a year or two after the economy has properly picked up again. Yeah it’s not fair. Yes sir, right now it’s all about the Standard of Living Crisis. So show of hands… suspension of disbelief as we say in drama… hands up who wants to be better off and truly believes that they should be….? There’s your majority in 2015 Mr Miliband. Brought to you by the BBC. Contributions gratefully received – terms and conditions apply, always read the small print : Licence renewal 2016.

       18 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Superb…multifaceted cultural mashup that`s great to read…and stretches the brain at this time of year!
      Chocolate waggon wheels, hot custard and spicy gravy?
      Barcelona Bovine Choo(choo!)…great start to the day aisi!

         7 likes

  32. John Anderson says:

    Test Match Special on the radio has been brilliant – I support Australia ! But I am amazed at the number of commentators they are using. During the Melbourne Test I must have heard a dozen people commentating. Two at a time, and they change every few minutes. So – a lack of continuity, a lot of repetitive comments, and huge overmanning. (It sounds as they have each rented a house for the match)

    Time was, 2 commentators at a time and a statistician/scorer was plenty. (Of often just one commentator at a time).With a third commentator so they could have a break every once in a while.

    Jonathan Agnew and Geoffrey Boycott have earned their salt. Plus maybe Henry Blofeld. The rest sound like free-loaders to me.

       9 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Always liked Geoff-even though I don`t bother with cricket, and come from Lancashire.
      Bit like Harvey Smith-once the BBC dislike you (as they did Freddie Trueman)-you`re my friend.
      Boycott for EU president or BBC boss…maybe even both!

         12 likes

      • Milverton says:

        I do love Sir Geoffrey.

        I always used to enjoy his pieces for Five Live Breakfast when England were on tour in the days Fogerty was there. He’d regularly, and deliberately I always thought, greet her with a hearty “Mornin’ darlin’!”, and you could hear her hackles rise immediately.

           15 likes

    • Geoff says:

      In fairness they seem to rotate between 5Live, Sky and Channel 9 Australia. Only Aggers and Boycs seem unique to the bBc.

         2 likes

  33. chrisH says:

    Managed only to hear a bit of some story about the unfolding tragedy in Syria-some charity poppet and assorted “NHS saints” were rather hoping that we`d do more to “help the rebels”…as indeed does the BBC.
    Following the suicide of that “Syrian humanitarian” recently-need I ask re his jihadi leanings?..it seems that whitey really needs to don the pith helmet and sort it all out , there in Assads patch. That simple to the BBC.
    No case here for the EU, the UN…no need to reflect and use sanctions…much more the case is for Abu Gharib, soldiers convicted for murdering Taliban wounded, Robertson/Mansfield etc taking cases out against soldiers…in fact ANY excuse to get shot by both Islam fundis on their different sides.
    And should we ever be thick enough to get involved-you can count the days until the BBC will be giving us the atrocities, the voice of Al Queda and blaming the Tories until they end up like Benghazi..Lee Rigby.
    Only rule when it comes to Islam?…let the Green Crescent, UN Islamic States “organisation” do everything…and for us to fund whichever side is losing out there in hells kitchen.
    F Off BBC…send YOUR staff and their kids over there if you must-hands off ours though…we saw what you paid Savile to do…and it`ll not be happening again,..

       16 likes

  34. Umbongo says:

    There must be some doubt generally concerning the nationality of Abbas Khan, the doctor imprisoned and killed in Syria. Doubt? Certainly , since the BBC always refers to him on air and in print as the “British doctor”. Is the BBC trying to tell us something? Furthermore, in featuring the dedication of British medical workers in Syria (as opposed to British jihadis there?) what could be more fascinating to the majority population of the UK than having two Britons, Rola Hallam and Saleyha Ahsan – “doctors who have also worked in Syria” – interviewed by a third Briton, Mishal Hussein on Today.
    OTOH I’ve yet to hear on the BBC a discussion or opinion piece or even an aside where the interests of the UK in the outcome of the Syrian conflict are considered. You know, utter sh*t that he is, it might be in the interests of the UK for Assad to win – and quickly. After all, what’s in it for the UK for a power vacuum – or worse, an Islamist pseudo-state – to be created in Syria? More to the point, what’s in it for the Syrians for the conflict to continue?
    But don’t expect the BBC – in its popular viewing and listening services (there might be some verbiage in a little visited part of its website) – to examine the conflict in the round. No, all we get is constant repetition of the (admitted) horrors of civil war and its effects on innocent civilians especially, of course, the children. In other words the BBC sacrifices informed commentary for its signature trademark “cry me a river” journalism a la Fergal Keane.

       28 likes

    • GCooper says:

      I, too, find myself baffled by the BBC’s apparently random choices of which imperialistic adventures are to be encouraged.

      So, it’s Kosovo – good, Iraq – bad. Afghanistan – bad, Syria – good, is it?

      Why?

         19 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        ‘the BBC’s apparently random choices of which imperialistic adventures’
        A bit of shameless piggy-backing on my part to bring you their odd ongoing attraction to the right kind of empire building on the line in complement too:
        http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/me-too.html
        “..the new building urge is upon them, too. BBC Northern Ireland has apparently made it onto a “pan-BBC priority list for capital and development….[and, quote] one of the most efficient ways to fix everything would be to move”
        Yes, that policy certainly has resolved all sorts of issues, fiscal and licence fee broadcast-offering value, here in England.
        Everyone here is simply pleased as punch that p*ssing away billions moving up to Salford and funding staff going up and down, or not, resulted in the superb Xmas programming enjoyed this holiday season.

           6 likes

  35. John Anderson says:

    I was wondering why the BBC news kept reporting on the ship trapped in the Antarctic ice – and why they had someone on board. It turns out that much of the purpose of the voyage is a BBC, Guardian and Australian Broadcasting Complany jolly – no doubt designed to prove to us that Antarctic ice is declining :

    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/26/so-much-ice-in-antarctica-that-a-research-vessel-gets-stuck-in-summer/

    So how much is the BBC paying for all this ? Presumably they are the main funders for the Guardian film-making as well.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01n1dtv

    Expand the description of the first World Service programme listed here – yes, it is grinding the climate-change axe

       23 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      and how much is the rescue operation costing ? And what is the carbon footprint of all that ?

         16 likes

      • John Anderson says:

        The delicious irony is that the trip was designed to repeat the Mawson expedition of 1911-14. That expedition got to moor near the shore. The current crowd of climate loonies is trapped ijn sea ice 100 miles off land. Everyone who has been following REAL SCIENCE knows that the greenie propaganda about the ice caps me;lting is a load of bollox. Trust the BBC to ignore the real science, and squander our money on a high-risk expedition.

        And while I type, Radio 4 is grinding on about ice research – with the presenter asking endless doom-laden questions. Not OPEN questions about what is happening – just biased questions aimed at showing alarmism.

           29 likes

        • John Anderson says:

          here’s a good comment from WattsUpWithThat :

          “So let’s get this right. This expedition was looking at what climate change has occurred since Mawson’s expedition 100 years ago?

          Mawson managed to moor 500 yards off Cape Denizon in a 19th Century ship, with no modern navigation aids or ice breaking capability, but the current taxpayer funded alarmists and paid merchants of propaganda are stuck in ice 100 miles offshore?

          Well I don’t deny the climate has changed. Just don’t think it’s changed in the direction these alarmists were expecting! I also think it didn’t require 1million plus in taxpayer funding and rescue resources (not to mention the risk to rescuers).

          They should have stayed home for Christma. Sceptics could have told them the answer in an email for free. ; > )

             29 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      http://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/chinese-icebreaker-turns-back-ice-too-thick/
      Chinese Icebreaker Turns Back – Ice Too Thick
      The ice up there would appear to be in good company

         17 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        ‘the feeling today on board the ship is like a summer holiday when the weather is bad’
        And a bunch of people with no choice are uniquely funding the kumbaya session?

           15 likes

    • Leha says:

      Oh the irony is fckn delightful to behold.

         10 likes

  36. Alex says:

    I’m sure this stupid, sanctimonious lefty will be getting plenty of airtime on the BBC-Guardian-Independent PC merry-go-round.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25529744

       18 likes

  37. George R says:

    BBC-NUJ gives ‘Mandela treatment’ to its high-cost greenie occupying political chums:-

    “Freed Greenpeace Arctic detainees home from Russia”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25524589

       12 likes

    • Mark B says:

      “He said prison conditions in Murmansk had been difficult, describing being held in a cell for 23 hours a day and sharing a toilet without a cubicle with three others.”

      So, I think he won’t be going back then ?

      Good ! Can’t afford the embarrassment they cause us.

         9 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        ‘sharing a toilet without a cubicle with three others’
        This may not be quite as much a deterrent to some as others, of course.
        Can’t say I’d fancy it much, though.
        Recall arriving in the toilet block of a US summer camp to find four pos side by side sans barrier. Fellow local councillors seemed unfazed, and amused by my subsequent deployment of the biggest broadsheet I could get to spare my blushes;)

           4 likes

  38. George R says:

    Islamising EGYPT: historical perspective for INBBC’s Cairo Bureau-

    Cairo University in photos:

    1978, 2004:-

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

    And December, 2013:-

    “Egypt protesters set fire to Cairo campus”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25534791

       4 likes

  39. Llareggub says:

    BBC is rooting for the Muslim Bro, warning against authoritarian clampdown.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25433094

    If the Brothers are settling here in London Cameron and the BBC will be delighted. And Bowen won’t have to travel to sit at their feet.

    http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/muslim-brotherhood-has-set-home-london-britain-should-beware-1429382

       16 likes

  40. dave1east says:

    children’ commissioner wants to outlaw smacking the children’s commissioner

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25529744

    oddly enough I can’t find anything on the bbc about the refusal of a parliamentary committee to ratify her appointment by ed balls or the same committee’s criticism of balls

    can you adam & eve it?

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/geraldwarner/100029883/ed-balls-defied-parliament-to-appoint-maggie-atkinson-now-they-must-both-resign/

       13 likes

    • Wild says:

      Information management (and omission) by the BBC in the service of the Labour Party. Surely not.

         10 likes

    • Albaman says:

      You obviously did not look in the right place. There again we are talking about something that happened a few years ago!!
      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8313572.stm
      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8318030.stm

         3 likes

      • chrisH says:

        So what`s your point Albie?
        That it`s OK to smash James Bulgers gravestone with a do-gooders well-aimed sinecure c/o Balls?

           13 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          There can be occasion to deploy the ‘it was a different time’ machine, especially to correct inaccuracy, but that this has seen the archives fired up rather highlights the paucity of fruit dangling within reach of even the most desperate.
          When the idiocy of this woman and her patron are highlighted in analysis from Today to Newsnight, with a side order of snide on HIGNFY, then it may appear the BBC is addressing topical issues in a balanced manner.

             7 likes

      • dave1east says:

        you are right to say this happened several years ago. what you overlook is that this issue; like the miners’ strike, `thatcher`, apartheid, etc, etc, etc; remains unresolved: but unlike the miners’ strike etc, the bbc can’t keep quit enough about it.

           11 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Thanks for the background on this hideous woman…just the sort who steps on the bodies of dead children by way of a career path.Atkinson, Aynsley-Greene, Shoesmith, Teather?
      To be honest, children would be safer with Jimmy Savile than this cadre of evil do-gooders…all of who do very well off the taxpayer, especially if a few Venables, Thompsons can be persuaded to go to Strasbourg.
      Evil.

         11 likes

    • Deborah says:

      Many thanks Dave1east, when I heard the story on banning smacking I had assumed the Children’s Commisioner must have been a Labour Luvvie but her ‘controversial’ appointment was not highlighted in the Radio 4’s news reports.

         9 likes

  41. chrisH says:

    We really need to put out a small paper or equivalent, if only to collate these mad stories.
    Like Atkinson, like Creasey saying that the lack of lady engines in Thomas the Tank Engine makes for underrepresentation on Britains railways…or what have you…let Albie pick the bones out of it for us?
    Parking all these stories in one publication/website could provide clarity and avoid unnecessary ulcers.

       10 likes

  42. David Preiser (USA) says:

    In France, they see these things for what they are:

    France may ban black comedian for anti-Semitic jibes

    France is considering banning performances by a black comedian whose shows have repeatedly insulted the memory of Holocaust victims and could threaten public order, Interior Minister Manuel Valls said on Friday.

    He said his ministry is studying legal ways to ban shows by Dieudonne M’bala M’bala, a comedian repeatedly fined for hate speech who ran in the 2009 European Parliament elections at the head of an “Anti-Zionist List” including far-right activists.

    Valls announced the move after Jewish groups complained to President Francois Hollande about Dieudonne’s trademark straight-arm gesture, which they call a “Nazi salute in reverse” and link to a growing frequency of anti-Semitic remarks and acts in France.

    “Dieudonne M’bala M’bala doesn’t seem to recognize any limits any more,” Valls said in a statement announcing the legal review aimed at banning his public appearances.

    “From one comment to the next, as he has shown in several television shows, he attacks the memory of Holocaust victims in an obvious and unbearable way,” he said.

    France has Europe’s largest Jewish minority, estimated at about 600,000, but also sees a steady emigration to Israel of Jews who say they no longer feel safe here.

    Of course, France has been trying for years to deal with this guy. He’s been on trial for inciting violence before, but it looks like they couldn’t nail him any better than the British Government has been able to nail Anjem Choudray.

    But look at the stuff he says. It’s not much different from what Frankie Boyle or the Revolution Will Be Televised or Roger Waters say. Yet the BBC remains steadfast in its refusal to seriously address the issue of extreme anti-Israel sentiment inciting anti-Semitism to the point where it’s becoming dangerous. That would just engender complaints that they’re influenced by the Jewish Lobby, so the shy away from it. One has to wonder how many BBC employees are frustrated at their management’s refusal to allow people to speak out about the “truth” of Israel and the Jews.

    They can do two reports about the worries of Mohammedans in Salmo, Sweden, but refuse to report that the anti-Semitism inspired by anti-Israel sentiment is so bad that Jews feel forced to leave and the mayor blames them for their trouble.

    The BBC mentioned this M’Bala character a couple times in 2009 when he was running for MEP, describing him, naturally, as “controversial”. The trouble is, his views wouldn’t be considered controversial at all inside the BBC: they would be mainstream and normal. So if the BBC mentions him again this time around, it will be worth noting if they mention the fear Jews in France feel, and why.

       10 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      This sorry tale rather encapsulates the free vs. hate speech dilemma faced from little niche blogs down to corporations or governments who would seek to regulate them.
      I remain intrigued how it is that a daft explosive joke on twitter or errant meat product deployment can get one months in chokie pdq at the behest of Auntytelltale.gov but this character, rather clearly pushing to provoke, appears to enjoy a pass. It seems some communities can be more fearful than others to get a quango created and Newsnight round as soon as they’re back from the slip… slopes when Hortense & Damien return to school.
      As a parent, I have noticed multiple standards seldom end well for anyone in the family.

         6 likes

    • Milverton says:

      Would he be one of the Dordogne M’bala M’bala’s?

      I remember many years ago – ten, perhaps fifteen – reading about an Islamic cleric who went on French TV and said women can be beaten by their husbands as long as the stick is no thicker than your thumb.

      He was arrested first thing the following morning and sent back to Cairo as an undesirable by lunchtime. No human rights lawyers were troubled.

         17 likes

    • Deborah says:

      Radio 4’s Chain Reaction (think it is called, on new device and finding switching tabs to check name) included Frankie Boyle. Are there really so few comedians that the producers had to chose this one. Or is Frankie just like Angus Deighton, Jonathan Ross and Richard Bacon, they just have to be squeezed into every possible programme until their rehabilitation is complete?

         9 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        I bet the BBC doesn’t think Boyle’s reputation needs any rehabilitation. They’d hate to see his career harmed by the awful Israel (Jewish) Lobby and so keep giving him air time. Since he holds all the approved thoughts, he can probably even get away with saying “golliwog” without fear of losing any BBC money.

           9 likes

    • Buggy says:

      And lo and behold ! Nicolas Anelka, French footballer, all round egomaniac, Muslim convert and friend of Dieudonné has today made this same innocent little gesture whilst playing for West Brom.

      Our comedic menace has been at this, and (surprisingly) at large, for a while. From 2006: http://galliawatch.blogspot.co.uk/2006/05/dieudonn-gods-gift.html

      No doubt he’s being booked by The News Quiz even as we speak.

         11 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        The BBC has provided the defense. They mention that M’Alba is being targeted by the French authorities in response to Jewish claims. But it’s only that: Jewish claims.

        Jewish groups had complained to President Francois Hollande about Dieudonne’s trademark gesture, which they described as a “Nazi salute in reverse”. They linked it to increasing anti-Semitic remarks and acts in France.

        “They described”…”They linked”. The BBC knows it’s more than just opinion, but they won’t tell their readers, and leave it all as Jewish whining. They do not emphasize the real troubles Jews face in France, or mention the reality of them leaving the country.

        The BBC will support his contention that it’s Anti-Zionism (and anti-establishment, whatever that actually means to him) because most BBC staff share his views. Is this being splashed all over the News Channel sports segments or is it a topic of discussion all day on 5 Live or any sports shows? If not, then we’ll know how seriously the BBC takes this.

           8 likes

        • dave1east says:

          to be fair, this morning’s 9 o’clock news headlines report was quite factual.

          however a similar story based on racial abuse who have been given the full hysterical ott treatment. it would have been subject to a long report in the rest of the programme. we would have been treated to a range of uninterrupted condemnatory interviews with Britain’s race-hustle industry `balanced` by a perfunctory alternative view, rudely and frequently interrupted.

             0 likes

        • Lynette says:

          There seems to be no understanding at the BBC that hateful language and gestures leads to physical violence against the hated targets. I tried to spell it out in complaints to the BBC that nasty anti Israel/Jewish false images and lies against them would have a direct effect on the lives of Jews in the UK .

             0 likes

  43. Guest Who says:

    In the spirit of one degree of separation sharing…
    http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/ecce-homo.html
    “.. does, perhaps, Nietzsche offer ideas that might help with BBC Charter renewal ?”
    Maybe he does, as the assembled market rate talent across the BBC top floor have clearly no idea at all, save hiring another one in case they do. Speaking of clueless to the point of delusion:
    http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/two-of-them.html
    Missed the linked Indy piece before. Modest, ain’t he? Odd such a resource didn’t leap to the fore of Lord Hall Hall’s mind as he made his plea.
    And finally, a turn of phrase I did appreciate:
    http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/mysterious.html
    “Female interest is supplied by Susan Boyle”
    Of course.

       3 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      That second post about Lord Hall’s appeal for help is stunning. All those great BBC lifers sitting right in front of him and he’s apparently looking elsewhere? Or is this going to be yet another new top mandarin position distancing himself from various tasks, a position he’ll create while simultaneously claiming to streamline the management structure? Which he will then fill by bringing in somebody he knows without an open application procedure and once more angering the natives?

      Alternatively, if he does elevate a BBC lifer, it will show that he has no intention of fixing the real problems at the BBC.

         4 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        I too wondered where this going, and if yet another role was in process of creation to expand the size to a point where failure is not an option.
        Tone certainly seems to be packing out the top floor to the point they may soon need another city to accommodate them all, and their deputies, to then outsource deniable management decisions externally.
        Meanwhile, the cubicle gardens also seem to be spreading like Japanese knotweed.
        I reckon they know the jig’s up, and are gunning for the ‘Hunt the Queen of Spades’ defence.
        Cunning Naugthtiemarrs that they are.

           4 likes

    • Stewart says:

      loved this
      ‘We presume he means every teenager’s favourite philosopher, Freidrich Nietzsche, the man who declared “God is dead”‘
      looked at it that way you can understand how the average, juvenile, BBC type might think the like Nietzsche
      I understand that deconstructionist, Martin Heidegger is also very popular with the bourgeois intelligentsia, despite his being an actual Nazi.

         6 likes

  44. George R says:

    In 2014, will Beeboids change their habits and be globally alert to, and report on the escalating Islamic persecution and murder of Christians and all others?

    Pamela Geller:-

    “MUSLIMS V. CHRISTIANS IN ‘NEW’ WORLDWIDE JIHAD”

    “The Wall Stret Journal, The New York Times and now The New York Post are finally reporting on the war on non-Muslims in Muslim countries. The very thing they have attacked my colleagues and me for reporting on for years. I am sure they are penning their apologies as we speak. Not.

    “The headline is wrong. It’s not a new war, it’s 1,400 years old. And ‘islamist’ is a silly word for people afraid to say jihad or Islam.

    “Of course, it’s not just Christians but all non-believers and secular Muslims.”

    http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2013/12/muslims-v-christians-in-new-worldwide-jihad.html

       18 likes

  45. George R says:

    “Muslim Brotherhood signs pact with al-Qaeda”

    -And isn’t INBBC right in there, with Obama and Kerry?

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/12/muslim-brotherhood-signs-pact-with-al-qaeda.html

       9 likes

  46. AsISeeIt says:

    Speaking of Tony’s supposedly neutral cronies happily inherited by our all innocent Dave….

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25528966

    ‘Former chief prosecutor Keir Starmer is to advise Labour on the best way to protect rape victims and abused children from harrowing questioning during court cases.’

    Or in other words… all hands to the Labour decks till 2015

    And not a word of non-partizan caution from the BBC that this might just be an election stunt…

    ‘Mr Starmer, who stood down as director of public prosecutions earlier this year, said he would advise Labour on introducing legislation – if the party won power at the 2015 general election – to give greater protection to vulnerable witnesses in court.’

    ‘If the party won power’ Fingers crossed at the BBC eh!

    Seems Mr Starmer has been a shit Director of Public Prosecutions …”The more vulnerable you are as a victim or witness, the less able our criminal justice system is to protect you.”

    Your watch – your fault mate.

       12 likes

  47. David Preiser (USA) says:

    The BBC will not be happy. A&E has caved in to evil profits and restored Phil Robertson to their Duck Dynasty series. Alternatively, one could say that A&E responded to its audience instead of to people who don’t watch the show and is going to give them what they want, and has stood up to the thought police and religious oppression.

    Either way, nobody is going to agree on anything or learn from this, as each side of the ideological barrier believes the other side is evil. A&E is still going to have to scramble and spend a lot of money to appease GLAAD and media activists, hence their announcement of starting some dialogue initiative (ain’t it always the way?). Fortunately, they’ll probably be able to afford it now. The fact that Robertson never said anything about persecuting or demonizing a lifestyle he doesn’t approve of is irrelevant to those who hate his thoughts, hate him for expressing them, and hate those who support his right to express them off air.

    A&E’s public statement on the matter includes something which should be shoved in the face of every BBC journalist, editor, producer, manager, presenter, correspondent, controller, and edgy comedian:

    As a global media content company, A+E Networks’ core values are centered around creativity, inclusion and mutual respect. We believe it is a privilege for our brands to be invited into people’s homes, and we operate with a strong sense of integrity and deep commitment to these principles.

    The exact opposite of how the BBC defends itself. The BBC doesn’t know the meaning of “inclusion” or “mutual respect”. Or they define them in a completely different way.

    Key bit:

    But Duck Dynasty is not a show about one man’s views. It resonates with a large audience because it is a show about family … a family that America has come to love. As you might have seen in many episodes, they come together to reflect and pray for unity, tolerance and forgiveness. These are three values that we at A+E Networks also feel strongly about.

    Unity, tolerance, and forgiveness? Again, terms the BBC doesn’t understand. Or, really, defines in a completely different way.

    Note to BBC staff: tolerance isn’t just for other people.

       9 likes

  48. George R says:

    1.) Glenn Beck’s ‘The Blaze’-

    “IT’S IRONIC THAT SOME REALLY THICK ICE HAS STONEWALLED THIS SHIP — HERE’S WHY”

    http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/12/28/snow-dragon-rescue-ship-designed-to-break-through-iceis-stonewalled-by-ice/

    2.) BBC-NUJ-

    “Antarctic ship rescue hampered by ice”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25537299

    -And, of course, this is summer in Antarctica.

       16 likes

    • chrisH says:

      And I remember the Copenhagen chicken-lickers back in 2009, being stranded at the airport there due to deep snow.
      And all of them there to bemoan the “global warming” that they said was going on….in spite of getting rumbled over cooking the books( solar powered of course) there at UEA.
      I also well remember not a joke, not a note of irony or any ludicrous point that God might be making…not a bit of it!
      Po-faced, “zees eez not funny”.
      4 years on-same humour bypass and funnybone excised!

         13 likes

    • DownBoy says:

      This is sweet and hilarious justice for these sanctimonious climate loons. Here is expedition leader Chris Turney introducing himself on his website;

      I am an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and Professor of Climate Change at the University of University of New South Wales where my team and I are focussing our efforts on using the past to better understand the changes we are seeing today. To do something positive about climate change, I helped set up a carbon refining company called Carbonscape which has developed technology to fix carbon from the atmosphere and make a host of green bi-products, helping reduce greenhouse gas levels.

         17 likes

  49. Dave s says:

    I did not realise Woman’s Hour was on Saturday afternoon as well. I was surprised to hear it. But far from surprised at the show. The usual.
    The top women of influence. Not all but some. One thing they all had in common. Correct liberal thoughts. Even Theresa May an archetypal CINO.
    These women and their male equivalents dominate public life. The liberals think they have this country by the balls., All sewn up and happy to be ruled by our caring betters.
    Another thing they are all as middle class as they come.
    So peasants vote away .It will make no difference . We will always rule. This is what they really think. And the BBC is their mouthpiece along with the liberal media.
    It is going to be hard to break their stranglehold but it will come. Reality is on our side not theirs.
    How did a great nation and a fine people come to this?
    I really do not know. This worst of generations is still there corrupting and trying to destroy old England.
    In 2014 resolve never to give them an inch and never to argue with them.

       19 likes

  50. George R says:

    At last, pro-E.U. Beeboids have to mention the importance of:-
    NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.

    1.) ‘Daily Mail’:-

    “Former Lord Chief Justice warns European Human Rights court has too much power and is not answerable to anyone”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2530355/Former-Lord-Chief-Justice-warns-European-Human-Rights-court-power-not-answerable-anyone.html#ixzz2onika26G

    2.) BBC-NUJ:-

    “European Court of Human Rights ‘risk to UK sovereignty'”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25535327

       10 likes