563 Responses to MID WEEK OPEN THREAD….

  1. nogginator says:

    BBC News? …………….. Tumbleweed!
    All together …”How do you solve a problem like Shariaaaaa”
    You d think that going for the Islamic beheading would be news, I mean especially in a mosque, in the “city of culture”

    Shopping centre security guard saved a man from being beheaded at Hull’s Mosque and Islamic Centre.
    Haidar Hamid held a knife to the hostage’s throat and a Stanley knife behind his back. As the hostage bled out from his cuts, Hamid pushed his head to the floor and shouted: “Are you going to pray now?”
    Security guard, Ebrima Touray, had a fellow worshipper distract Hamid while he grabbed the knife from him. When Hamid was interviewed by the police after the incident, he was asked why he had a knife, to which he replied: “To cut his head off.” Hamid was today jailed for life, with a minimum term of five years after the judge concluded he posed a significant risk to the public.
    http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/st-stephen-s-security-guard-saves-hostage-from-beheading-at-hull-mosque/story-30183994-detail/story.

    Jailed for “life” minimum 5 yrs?

       101 likes

    • Grant says:

      Noggie,

      Should be big news on the BBC. Happy to see a muslim Gambian, Ebrima Touray, doing his bit !

         34 likes

    • Deborah says:

      Humberside is my local BBC news. I don’t recall Peter Levy reporting this incident at all. However we do get an almost daily interview with Diana Johnson, the Hull North MP. Labour of course. Where will Mr Hamid live in 5 years time on his release? I don’t think the citizens of Hull will be pleased to have him in the community.

         51 likes

      • RJ says:

        If only he’d committed a serious crime we could deport him.

           34 likes

      • Richard Pinder says:

        BBC Look North from Hull had no news of this beheading attempt or the verdict.

        BBC Hull’s top story was about Social Care and the problem of the elderly, next was about four bikers being used to find missing people in Lincolnshire, the third story was about Women’s Day, how BBC stories about the Land Girls inspire Women to become farmers, and how Boxing is empowering Women.

        Personally, I do not know any men who were empowered by Boxing. I would duck if I did. Anyway, I remember not long ago the BBC was anti-Boxing, inviting doctors on to Look North, to talk about the large number old Brain damaged ex-Boxers, now the BBC supports empowering the Women of today to become the Brain damage Women of the future.

        Other stories were about a cut in the Water supply, a Rail Strike, an NHS boss resigns, a story about the council planning to build on a school playground and a story from Germany about the Dambusters.

        But nothing about an attempt at beheading outside of a mosque in Hull.

        Although the good news was that the Black face of the City of Culture did not appear on Look North today.

           37 likes

        • StewGreen says:

          “Hmm seems BBC Humberside has unconscious pro Muslim bias”
          says someone looking at their very latest Facebook post
          bbchumbssmall.jpg

             17 likes

    • Tony H says:

      Classic BBC report on breakfast this morning. Middle aged people were asked where they would like to increase spending in the budget and where they would like that money to come from. They had their answers written on round cards and spoke them first before turning the card round so you could see it written. Except of course the woman who wanted money taken from the ‘arts’ The camera panned away before we could see the offending word.

         33 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      BTW Peter Levy did cover last night the Conservative Soc being censored by Lincoln University Student Union.
      Their crime was to dare tweet that Spiked survey shows Lincoln Uni SU represses for free speech …for this their free speech was taken away by the SU who seized their social media accounts.

      Danger first offensive tweet /sarc
      second offensive tweet /sarc

      New Spike article explains

         19 likes

  2. Richard Pinder says:

    Because of BBC censorship you won’t find this secret information on the BBC.

    When Donald Trump started his campaign to become Presidency, the Obama administration got the FBI and CIA to examine intercepted email and telephone communications and financial transactions as part of a broad investigation into possible links between Russian officials and Donald Trump and his associates, including his campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Intelligence reports based on some of the wiretapped communications had been provided to the White House, but the investigating  agencies had found no evidence of any outward connections between the Trump circle and the Russians at all.
    But the case was not closed down. Instead, the Obama Justice Department decided to pursue the matter as a national-security investigation under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). In June, it sought the FISA court’s permission to conduct surveillance. It has been reported that Trump was “named” in the application, but the FISA court apparently found the Obama Justice Department’s presentation to be so weak that it refused to authorize the surveillance. Unwilling to take no for an answer, the Obama Justice Department came back to the FISA court in October, this application was much narrower than the earlier one and did not mention Donald Trump. The FISA Court granted this application, and as far as is known, the investigation is still continuing.

       85 likes

    • MartinW says:

      As I recall, immediately President Trump tweeted that ‘Obama’ had been bugging Trump Tower, himself and his personnel, the BBC entered their usual shouty, outraged mode, calling the President’s accusation ‘a lie’, and delusional (mentioning, of course, that the tweet was made in the small hours of the morning, thereby neatly implying that his mind was not functioning properly at that hour). It did not take long, however, for the facts of the FISA applications etc. to become known, and the BBC went silent straightaway on the President’s tweet and, as ( I agree, RP), the BBC have never covered the FISA news at all. It just went quiet. Bias-by-Omission.

         33 likes

      • Richard Pinder says:

        More secrets being leaked by patriots within MI6. It looks like MI6 was and still is being used by the CIA to spy on their own President. And on March 6, Senator Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, sent an email to FBI director James Comey, demanding answers as to why he paid a spy, who was also working for the Clinton campaign, for information on the then candidate Donald Trump. The email reveals the spy in question as the MI6 operative Christopher Steele, but officially described as a former agent of MI6. Steele has only been able to produce fake news, such as the known facts and fake news about Trumps visits to Russia being rehashed as new discoveries.

           5 likes

  3. Richard Pinder says:

    My Supplement to the article “True or Fake?” page 47, Mensa Magazine. March 2017

    (1) White is Black: By trickery of deceitful words the BBC makes us believe that black is white
    (2) Camouflage: The BBC disguising the truth through selective censorship
    (3) Fake news: BBC news that is not genuine and censored such as “best scientific experts” eventually revealed to be “fake scientific experts”. Also, searching for the origins of fake news on the BBC, only produces fake news about fake news
    (4) Lie: BBC use of belief, assumption or wishful thoughts as facts which turn out to be false
    (5) Opinion: BBC opinion which is revealed by the fake statement “some say that”
    (6) Post truth: Post-truth is an adjective describing circumstances in which public opinion is shaped more by the BBC appealing to the personal beliefs and emotions of Remainers, such as Project Fear’s fear of the unknown due to ignorance rather than the objective facts of Brexiteers such as the undemocratic, politically corrupt, financially corrupt accounts and the Euro currency of “European Union Governance” or the fact that people in territories similar to the UK, outside of the EU, are between 10 to 20 percent richer than people in the UK, due to a points based immigration system based on merit and high IQ.

    A study by the Adam Smith Institute shows that the top 5% of intelligence is split along roughly the same political lines as the population at large. The study also found a constant decline in support for the Conservative Party in Universities. From 35 percent in 1965, falling to 29 percent in 1976, to 18 percent in 1989 and to 11 percent in 2015.

    The left-wing bias seems to be affecting scientific papers were according to a survey published in the journal Nature last summer, more than 70% of researchers have tried and failed to reproduce another scientist’s experiments. This implies that the researchers did not “repeat test” their own experiments using the scientific method, but only published the initial results because the results complied with a consensus of what was thought to be the truth, because that was the purpose of the funding of the experiment, and the fact that funding continues if you fail to find answers, while for example, funding would stop if you found a cure for Cancer. As a simple cheap cure for Cancer would be a disaster for the thousands of people involved in the multi-million pound Cancer research and Charity empire.

       54 likes

    • G says:

      Richard,
      I continue to be concerned about the application of the term, ‘Fake News’ and the possibility that the Beauty Broadcasting Corporation decide upon a definition which excludes their particular contrived form of ‘fakery’. Having given this some thought, I suggest one line of reasoning for the best way of describing that BBC news ‘fakery’. I work from the base that the listener/viewer is subject to intentional manipulation, distortion and omission, of major items of national and international news simply to fulfil a political policy aspiration or otherwise the propagandist viewpoint of a leftist/liberal, multicultural mind-set which is subtly concealed from most of the public.
      As I see it, ‘Fake News’ is simply a reference to a fabricated story, a ‘lie’. Clearly there will be shades of grey in any analysis as a blatant 100% lie tapers at one end to some mixture of fact and fiction at the other. Clearly, when Sarah Montague tells the listener two weeks or so before the US election on BBC’s Today programme that the next incumbent of the White House will be “Hillary” that ‘fakery’ is an outright lie i.e. pure ‘fake news’. But the BBC’s fakery is more sophisticated as that simple example as all contributors to this website are only too aware. No, the BBC’s ‘fakery’ needs something else, some other ‘label’. After all, the BBC’s Charter is not complied with in particular, item 6, ‘The Public Purposes’, (1) viz:
      “To provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them: the BBC should provide duly accurate and impartial news, current affairs and factual programming to build people’s understanding of all parts of the United Kingdom and of the wider world. Its content should be provided to the highest editorial standards. It should offer a range and depth of analysis and content not widely available from other United Kingdom news providers, using the highest calibre presenters and journalists, and championing freedom of expression, so that all audiences can engage fully with major local, regional, national, United Kingdom and global issues and participate in the democratic process, at all levels, as active and informed citizens.” Whereas, what we get is massaged partial news and disinformation. The BBC describe their broadcasting as a, “Public Service” – http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/whoweare/ataglance.
      The BBC is a ‘body corporate’ and will almost certainly be subject to the Fraud Act 2006 and in particular, its definition of ‘dishonesty’ – http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/d_to_g/fraud_act/. Look at the definition the CPS apply. Seems to me, notwithstanding application of the expression, ‘fake news’, the BBC is simply ‘dishonest’.

         36 likes

    • Alicia Sinclair says:

      Not just fake news then is it any more? Fake Science and fake Education have long been going under the radar-“camouflaged” as you kindly point out.
      Tried to read the article, but couldn`t see it. But you`re onto something big here Richard.
      From Rachel Carson to Al Gore via Ralph Nader-science has long given up on objectivity a la Popper and Kuhn.

         17 likes

      • gaxvil says:

        Thing is, most people are just too busy with their own lives to really give a monkey’s about what the BBC puts out.
        What I find more concerning is the Government’s softly, softly, stealth moves to steer us in a particular direction.

           22 likes

        • StewGreen says:

          I completely disagree; everyone I meet over 40 who is not a Guardian reader, seems very conscious that the BBC bias slid out from just Climate propaganda and into other fields.

             15 likes

  4. Thoughtful says:

    Very very depressing (especially if you are Jewish).

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10007/france-death-spiral

       22 likes

  5. StewGreen says:

    Coming up @4:30pm R4 Media show
    Debates Jennie Trannie
    Guest1 who published article @EleanorMills Editorial Director of The Sunday Times, Editor Sunday Times Magazine
    Guest2 StewartPurvis
    Ex-ITN CEO ,ex-Ofcom,now Channel 4 board director,

       14 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Celebrate International Women’s Day by pillorying a WOMAN who dares to opine that a man in a dress isn’t a woman

         55 likes

      • Sluff says:

        Isn’t it all so simple?
        If you have a Y chromosome, you are a man.
        No amount of surgery or dressing can alter this, as far as I know.

           15 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Item surreally claimed BBC is impartial.
      But in last min of item @EleanorMills managed to get in the truth’Preposterous for BBC to claim it’s impartial.
      EVERYONE knows it isn’t it’s a Lib hotbe
      Look at Brexit Newsnight…they admitted no one in entire studio voted for Brexit’

         32 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Now talking about Fox’s takeover of Sky

         13 likes

  6. Guest Who says:

    Seems stud muffin Kamal knows what gets the media ladies’ engines revving. Male colleagues… not so much…

    http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/visual-journalism.html?

    Jealousy? Or does ‘lumpen’ become the new BBC?

       15 likes

    • BRISSLES says:

      …..Seems stud muffin Kamal knows what gets the media ladies’ engines revving….

      Not exactly a face most (non-media?) women would want to look at first thing in the morning !!! As we used to say, he has a face for radio and one that only a mother would love !

         18 likes

  7. Guest Who says:

    Speaking of what is unnecessary at the BBC, this was interesting, given their addiction to sticking just about every other word in some form of ‘quote’:

    http://www.dailywritingtips.com/5-categories-of-unnecessary-scare-quotes/

    Actually a BBC version, like its secret ‘Editorial Guidelines’ (see what I did there?) may be valuable:

    Single ‘quotes’ – if the BBC doesn’t like something, they can be used for tonality. They are not actually quoting anything, these can suggest it is silly, not real, etc.

    Double “quotes” – this in theory is what people have actually said or written. However, in the BBC’s edit suite they can often be tuned to fit the narrative any way desired.

       26 likes

    • Grant says:

      Guest,

      You mean the “so-called ” BBC ?

         30 likes

    • Tabs says:

      The BBC never use single or double quotes when referring to stuff they love like trans persons, LBGT community, Labour party or Obama/Clinton. They do indeed only use it to imply its not true or a rumour.

      A quick look at the current Most Popular read news right now. 3 out of 10 have single quotes in the headline these are:
      1. Couple ‘held in UAE over unmarried sex’ – implies this is not true as a Muslim country wouldn’t do this.
      2. Police ‘confident’ airman at landfill site – implies the BBC do not agree with the Police.
      3. ’30 killed’ in IS Kabul hospital attack – implies a lie as IS, BBCs best friends, wouldn’t do such a thing.

         41 likes

  8. StewGreen says:

    Times & Indy on P*ssgate
    “Ex-British spy Christopher Steele breaks silence over Trump Russia dossier ”
    Yeh by going back to work and saying NOTHING about it.
    Speaking outside his firm’s offices in Belgravia, he said: “I’m really pleased to be back here working again at the Orbis’s offices in London today.
    I’m now going to be focusing my efforts on supporting the broader interests of our company here.
    ……

    Just to add, I won’t be making any further statements or comments at this time.”
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/donald-trump-russia-dossier-christopher-steele-ex-spy-british-a7616326.html

       24 likes

    • Grant says:

      Stew,

      An admission that it was fabricated ! I have a feeling that his business will take a nose-dive now . Mind you, Trump may take legal action.

         32 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Good comment
      \\Let’s be clear, western ‘intelligence’ agencies have the ability to access and control pretty much every computer system on the planet. If evidence were available on Russian involvement AND they wanted the population to know, it would be in the public domain.
      However we are fed some stupid unverifiable pap by a spook who at time of release ‘feared for his life’ and ‘went into hiding’ but is ok now…. Give me strength!//

         31 likes

      • Grant says:

        Stew,

        Well we don’t know the full story, but the guy seems a bit of an asshole.

           16 likes

        • gaxvil says:

          Sorry but the CIA stuff is NOT news. The thing with Samsung Smart TV’s (Only Samsung Smart TVs) was out mid 2016. (BBC WS Radio)
          The thing with i-phones has been around since I-phones. (BBC R4) Maybe people just don’t pay attention?

             11 likes

  9. SupportOurLefty says:

    Friends! I’m pleased to announce that my good friend Saveed Miliband has written a very balanced piece in the Far-Right Guardian this afternoon, in which he summarises the career of the former Far-Right militaristic Fascist Heseltine, now Our Michael, due to his unswerving support of Our EU.

    It can be found here, along with a link to the Guardian story, the piece itself, and any replies to the piece:

    https://supportourjeremy.wordpress.com/2017/03/08/my-piece-in-the-far-right-guardian-about-why-those-of-us-on-the-progressive-left-must-support-our-michael-heseltine-who-despite-a-few-minor-mistakes-in-the-distant-past-is-literally-completely-c/

       27 likes

    • Grant says:

      SOL,

      Are you not confusing two different kinds of mace ?

         5 likes

      • SupportOurLefty says:

        Indeed I was, Grant. Deliberately, which was one reason why J.C. queried it [in square brackets]!

           9 likes

        • Grant says:

          SOL,

          Literally ?

             5 likes

          • SupportOurLefty says:

            Literally literally, Friend Grant.

               5 likes

            • Alicia Sinclair says:

              Great to have you back here Support Our Lefty. Missed you.
              Literally joyful that you choose International Womens day to address your devoted followers. What are we to do…in a literal sense?

                 15 likes

              • Grant says:

                Alicia,

                Here, in sunny Perthshire, I left my mum at the hairdressers and went to a men’s barber. No poncy stuff for me . When I went back to collect mum, I said to the hairdressers ” Happy International Womens Day “. They all gave me a strange look and one said ” What is that all about ? ” . The BBC will have to try harder if they want to penetrate rural Perthshire.

                   36 likes

                • Alicia Sinclair says:

                  Did wonder if all the trans lobby would have prebooked the hairdryers at all provincial hairdressers up and down the land, all asking for a Bet Lynch or a Danny La Rue.
                  All quiet so far-maybe there`s an International Trans Day coming up-or maybe a month of compulsory school classes and night schools for the parents.
                  Saw no cards for either in Clintons today-but next year will surely see the end of ignoring these momentous days.

                     18 likes

                  • Grant says:

                    Alicia,

                    LOL ! I always wondered what Bill Clinton did after he was President.

                       12 likes

                    • BRISSLES says:

                      Oooooer, I think we can go back further, to the Kennedy days, when J Edgar Hoover like to put his Mum’s frocks on !

                      (and if you start ‘whoooooting’ like an owl again …….)

                         2 likes

              • SupportOurLefty says:

                Thank you, Friend Alicia! And for your continued support of the blog [nudge nudge, wink wink] and ongoing defence of Yours Truly against the Hard-Right Singer Beneath Bridges. Must admit, I find the banter BTL most entertaining, even if I don’t always understand all of it!

                   6 likes

  10. StewGreen says:

    This true re budget coverage?

    “@BBCR4Feedback @Emmabarnett @bbc5live yes id like to know why a journalist @afneil has been replaced by a newsreader”

       13 likes

  11. Thoughtful says:

    Almost unbelievably the Socialist government of Theresa May has decided to give White people more harsh sentences than ethnics:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4288278/Youths-ethnic-minorities-softer-sentences.html

    Youths from ethnic minorities could get softer sentences after judges are told to consider ‘discrimination’ they may have suffered 

    This new idiocy shows that Treezer pre supposes that all Efniks have suffered at the hands of the nasty White people and that as a result of their ‘white privilege’ White kids are never discriminated against, presumably on the grounds that you can’t discriminate against whites!

       70 likes

    • Grant says:

      Thoughtful,

      Treezer is a racist and thick as 2 short planks.

         29 likes

      • Grant says:

        PS The next step follows as night follows day. Muslims will be given lighter sentences than non-muslims.

           42 likes

        • Thoughtful says:

          That is already happening, and has done for quite some time I’m afraid

             40 likes

        • G.W.F. says:

          Obviously Grant, as Moslems are ethnic minority when it suits them.
          Already the courts are accepting cultural defence. Soon they will have no duty to obey the racist white man’s law.

             22 likes

    • Iain Muir says:

      “judges are told to consider ‘discrimination’ they may have suffered”

      So not even “have suffered”, just “may have suffered”?

      If you want to encourage real discrimination against Efniks, this is the way to go about it – create a massive feeling of injustice among whites. I have to admit, it’s getting to the stage where I feel there is an imbalance that needs to be corrected. I’m going to favour whites whenever I can – what’s good for the goose etc.

         55 likes

    • G says:

      Thoughtful,
      An incentive to actually commit crime if ever there was one. Just goes to show how dimwitted and pro multiculiti biased those in power are. Elected Lords? expect more of the same………..

         10 likes

  12. taffman says:

    Now that Brexit has been ‘kicked into touch’ for a while by the H.o.L. – a move which will create business uncertainty and effect the economy more than Brexit ever will.
    The H.o.L. has made the so called democracy of our Parliament the laughing stock of the World.
    Standby for an Al Beeb propaganda drive to get the people of this country to ‘change their minds’ .
    Now its time to get your own back and vote these out ……………
    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/170686/signatures/new

       35 likes

    • Grant says:

      taffy,

      Signed.

         11 likes

    • RJ says:

      120,437 signatures as of 7.10pm. Mind you; looking at the quality of the people the political parties put up for election to the House of Commons I’m doubtful that an elected House of Lords would be any improvement on the present shower. Although we would get more UKIP people in there.

         22 likes

  13. Beltane says:

    BBC headline ‘SELF-EMPLOYED HIT BY BUDGET TAX RISE’ designed to raise blood pressure among plumbers, taxi-drivers and even free-lance Guardian writers – who then find it means another 60p a week, so they still pay less NI than PAYE workers, and wind up thoroughly pissed off with the Beeb.
    The BBC, so desperate to denigrate and diminish the Tory government, they don’t even recognise pathos when they create it for themselves.

       42 likes

    • RJ says:

      They wouldn’t recognise Aramis and Athos either.

         16 likes

    • Alicia Sinclair says:

      Funny when the BBC go all dewy eyed over white van retards as Emily Thornberry might think isn`t it?
      Like the bankers who wanted us to stay in the EU, or Ken Clarke and Heseltine-time seems to restore these bad hombres to the pantheon of “experts” that the BBC seem to always ask for that echo chamber of theirs.
      Who knew that the BBC cared about the self employed out here?…their own Birt/Paxman arrangements and creative accounting for themselves would obviously be the thing we need to care about.

         27 likes

  14. Jump says:

    Strange goings-on over at the BBC’s in-house journal. Labour MP, sometime BBC contributor and professional racist Dianne Abbott has written an article in the Guardian, Has the UK used budget day to bury news of deportations?, wondering whether a busy news day has successfully covered the forced removal of ‘Failed asylum seekers, visa overstayers and “illegal entrants”’ (in her words) to Jamaica. The article was open for comments.

    Beneath her by-line is a clickable link, which reads: ‘Wednesday 8 March 2017 17.12 GMT Last modified on Wednesday 8 March 2017 17.54 GMT’. This seems to refer to the time the article was posted, and the time that below-the-line comments were pulled. There were fifty-seven in all, presumably in those forty-two minutes, the overwhelming majority giving her absolute pelters—much like the one I’d composed and was about to post:

    As ‘The British invented racism’ (apparently), and things haven’t improved in the thirty-odd years since Ms Abbott made that comment, if her more recent pronouncements are anything to go by, I’d’ve thought that the vast majority of those being returned to Jamaica would be absolutely delighted.

    But the opportunity escapes me, since on two separate browsers all the BTL comments have been disappeared. Not that the comments are no longer open—they’ve gone. Disappeared. Verschwunden. If you went to the article now, you’d not know that it had been open in the first place. It’s almost as if the BBC-Guardian continuum is consistently misreading the mood of the public. (Some of the posters were recognisable names who on most issues are comfortably to the left of centre.)

    You’d have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.

       57 likes

    • Grant says:

      Jump,

      Is that moron Rabbit, really suggesting that the Treasury and Home Office are so integrated that they could co-ordinate that ? She is even thicker than I thought.

         16 likes

    • Loobyloo says:

      What a load of horseshit that article is!!
      Jamaica – not a dangerous country – unless you go in the wrong area, do drugs or are a tourist
      ‘a wide array of issues relating to religious, ethnic, gender and sexual identity can make deportation a high-risk outcome. Increasingly, this type of deportation is splitting up families and depriving children of their parents.’ ie we’ve thought of so many aspects of life which can be used to claim asylum, they’ll never be refused. And tag on the boo hoo families will be split, for good measure.
      ‘But there must be concern that, in the process of mass deportation, men and women who have committed no crime are being rushed out of the country.’Why? here illegally: get out. And I’m pretty sure it is not a rush process when appeals are involved.
      ‘The nature of the process means people can be bundled out of the country when they have not yet exhausted all their avenues of appeal and without due process.’Get out, and apply from outwith the country! Canada used to be strict about that, but I think even they can’t do that with asylum seekers.
      And to boot, she has a disclaimer that the Labour party doesn’t condone illegal immigration. Just her! Makes you think – why write the article then?

         23 likes

    • Cranmer says:

      Jump, I’ve got a feeling that somewhere in a little cubicle in BBC television centre, a man looking like a younger version of the late John Hurt wearing blue overalls pressed a bakelite button next to a little black and white screen, and the comments disappeared into a flaming incinerator.

         7 likes

  15. StewGreen says:

    8pm R4 Virtue Signalling is topic of The Moral Maze
    “h expressions of moral outrage are as likely to be dismissed as “virtue signalling” as they are to be applauded. It’s a neat and pithy phrase and like all the best neologism seems to capture and distil something in our cultural discourse. It’s only been in use for a couple of years. You know the sort of thing – ice bucket challenges, male actors and politicians wearing t-shirts with the slogan “this is what a feminist looks like”. Virtue signalling – the practice of publicly expressing opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate our good character or the moral correctness of our beliefs

    To some the phrase deftly skewers an age where politics is driven by narcissism and the echo chamber of social media where being moralistic is more important than being moral? But has what started off as a clever way to win arguments become a lazy put down or mental shortcut to dogmatism? Does accusing others of virtue signalling encourage you not to interrogate your own beliefs?
    James Bartholomew,
    Maya Goodfellow – Lefty Nutter Writer at @writersofcolour, @guardian etc. Researching race and racism, development and empire at @SOAS.
    Dr Jonathan Rowson – Lefty Nutter
    Wrote In Defence of Virtue Signalling
    Professor Frank Furedi – Good bloke founded Spiked, monstered by Monbiot

       15 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      James Bartholomew, Author, journalist. My new book is ‘The Welfare of Nations’. (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRfw4r1P_Ig
      … Coined the phrase ‘virtue signalling’.

      Prog
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08gy87z

         13 likes

      • Alicia Sinclair says:

        Ta Stew-thanks you you, I have piled up all the washing up so I get peace in the kitchen to listen to James and to Frank.
        I`m quite adept now at cutting out tracts of crappy programmes to get to Melanie,Nigel, Sebastian, Ted, Kellyanne, Douglas and Ann.
        And of course when the Commander in Chief of the Free World deigns to talk to we his people.

           14 likes

  16. Lock13 says:

    Is the BBC (Worlds leading broadcaster) interesting in finding out who the people were who actually shot the Rhino in Paris and chainsawed it’s horn off?
    Does anybody think this is in any way linked to immigrants?
    Le Pen could have a field day with this if it is indeed

       33 likes

    • Al Shubtill says:

      It could be the work of “enrichers” but, due to the sums involved for rhino horn, it could just be particularly unpleasant; indigenous; French criminals.
      If such a thing were to happen here, I would expect it to be “caravaners” who were found to be responsible.

         29 likes

      • Alicia Sinclair says:

        #We are all Vince#. What- no picture of poor Vince on the Eiffel Tower? No white suited cretin at a piano playing “Imagine”?
        Not a nation of animal lovers are they?

           16 likes

  17. TruthSeeker says:

    Reported on Islamic AlBeeb just now but all day from the, facts are sacred, while you’re here, any chance of a few pounds for the gravy train, trough snuffling, bolly drinking, leftie advertiser.

    “Rochdale council plans to ban swearing Council leader defends proposal to fine people £80 for using abusive language after Liberty says it would breach human rights”

    The Labour controlled council. One of those suffering from cuts, austerity and all the other evils of toryism.

    I am surprised they have the resources, perhaps it is supposed to be a revenue generating exercise.
    Not that any of the councillors ever mentions how few of these fines are ever collected.

    What does not surprise me is that MASS RAPES OF WHITE ROCHDALE CHILDREN BY MUSLIM PAKI PAEDOPHILES is not, never has been, probably never will be considered a priority by the Muzzie loving lefties.

       42 likes

    • RJ says:

      “Rochdale council plans to ban swearing Council leader defends proposal to fine people £80 for using abusive language after Liberty says it would breach human rights”.

      That reminds me of Sylvester Stallone’s solution of how to get toilet paper in “Demolition Man” – a film that was a wonderful send up of Political Correctness, although with gratuitous violence.

      Everything’s on Youtube. It’s at 1.46 in this clip.

         12 likes

      • JimS says:

        I wish they had this system at BBC HQ, except each violation would multiplied by the audience figure!

           4 likes

      • Cranmer says:

        ‘Demolition Man’ is a great film. The society of the future has become so PC that it doesn’t know how to react when faced with the threat of extremely violent criminals – sounds like certain European countries today.

           11 likes

      • Grant says:

        RJ,

        Great clip. LOL ! I had never heard of this film. Must watch it sometime.

           5 likes

    • Restroom Mole says:

      How does one know that someone speaking another, unknown language is not swearing or using hate speech against one?
      Yet another divisive feature of diversity.

         22 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Hosted by their own petard ?
      Soon a tape will arise of some councillors shouting about Kuffirs ..and that is offensive language

         13 likes

    • Helena Hand-Basket says:

      A swear-box? I haven’t heard of this idea since ‘Steptoe and Son’ in the 60s/70s! Wasn’t there an episode where Harold and Albert emptied their swearing penalty box to see whether they’d uttered enough filthy words during the year to afford a holiday?

      Oops, sorry – I slipped into a time-warp there. I was thinking of an era when most of us thought the BBC’s license fee was worth it for the comedy output alone:

      Steptoe; Dad’s Army; Yes, Minister; Fawlty Towers; Blackadder; It ain’t half hot, Mum; Porridge; The Two Ronnies; ‘allo, ‘allo; Reggie Perrin; Monty Python; The Likely Lads; Not the nine O’Clock New; Up Pompeii; The Good Life; Red Dwarf; Only fools and horses…

      Mind you, I’ve just discovered three of my all-time favourite sitcoms – Father Ted, Brass and Drop the dead donkey – were NOT BBC productions. Perhaps by the 80s/90s (when those were made) they BBC were already losing their lead?

         22 likes

  18. Sir_Arthur_Strebe-Grebling says:

    I successfully avoided the bBBC today but accidentally heard the beginning of the 10 o’clock ‘news’ on the ‘controversial’ budget.
    Click.

       12 likes

  19. chrisH says:

    So sick of the liberal media that I now spend time looking at the very bywords of lefty hatred when I was an idiot lefty in the 80s. One bloke whose name cropped up was Spiro Agnew-Nixons chief of staff or something. Well he HATED the media and their games-and I must say that I`m warming to the bloke. Havinf heard Sean Spicer fending off the whelps and toothpicks of the predictable stupid and slithery MSM earlier…might be worth a listen to some REAL Press hatred.

    “National masochists – an effete core of impudent snobs who presume themselves to be intellectual”
    So much to enjoy here-if not the maddening music behind it.

       21 likes

  20. Sluff says:

    At the very end of the BBC London budget special news at about 6.55pm.
    Asian disabled presenter Asaad Ahmed (tick tick tick) asks the Political Editor “is this an anti-London budget”
    Now at no stage had any commentator or even Labour spokesperson during or after the speech labelled the budget in those terms. So this comment came totally out of the blue.
    But clearly a deliberate attempt by the biased BBC to leave a nasty smell with the viewers at the end of the programme. Absolutely pathetic.
    They are just the absolute pits.

       40 likes

    • Nasty barsteward says:

      In many ways it will probably be hitting the BBC staff. How many times have we been told that many of the front of house personnel are “consultants” and not employed by the BBC? Loopholes for paying yourself with dividends as a private or service company sub-contracting to the BBC, or Tax and NI benefits from being self-employed are being slowly erased. IR35 changes and now this. No wonder they are not happy 🙂

         22 likes

  21. StewGreen says:

    Sorry to bore you all with posts about the BBC distorting science on Air Pollution
    Paul Homewood has picked up my comments and done a report
    BBC’s Air Pollution Bandwagon

    And then he’s revealed that similar stunt is going on the US
    and Delingpole has done a debunk
    DELINGPOLE: The EPA’s Air Pollution Scare Is Just Another Fake News Myth

       14 likes

  22. Loobyloo says:

    Another example of the bBBC happy to do a lengthy article regarding a white male sex offender, but nothing on hundreds of muslim ones ..

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39202215

       19 likes

  23. taffman says:

    Use the proceeds from this in lieu Foreign Aid ……..
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5zMqDJtY1XQmF2dTZPYBwkh/bbc-one-comic-relief-2017
    Spend the Foreign Aid on Great Britain .

       13 likes

  24. Edward says:

    Hope you don’t mind me posting something that highlights BBC double-standards. Back in the glory days, the BBC hated swearing. But, fuck me! They love it now!

    This is Blancmange – Living on the Ceiling.

    Rather than just broadcast the original video, the BBC actually took time (and money) to reinsert “up the bloody tree” into the soundtrack. The original soundtrack was “up the cuckoo tree”.

    Watch carefully to the lead singer’s lips! He says “cuckoo” not bloody.

       17 likes

    • embolden says:

      This is the BBC re writing its own history, not content with slagging off recent history…the 70s for example… they wish to portray themselves as always having been the lefty liberal squits that they are now….of course those of us who have memories remember the BBC as always having been the voice of the establishment no matter who that establishment was, hence all the politically suspect comedies hidden away or shown in clip compilations for modern liberals to frown over and “reinterpret” for us.

      Ever wondered why we hear and read so much about “false memories” and the “unreliability of the human memory” these days? yep… they are actually implementing Orwells 1984 satire of memory holes and the totalitarian re writing of history and memory to show us that the world we live in now “was ever thus” but better!…..doubleplusgood and wonderful in every way.

         15 likes

    • Jerry Owen says:

      Edward
      How on earth did you come across that?
      I ask as this is one of my favourite tracks of all time and I never noticed. So that being the case I looked into it. If you look at the video of it in Cairo ( the vid also on TOTP’s )he does indeed mouth ‘cuckoo’ but watch their stuff in concert/live non BBC he does actually say ‘bloody’. That’s why at the same time on TOTP’s Toyah Wilcox was singing ‘it’s a mystery’.. it sure is. Any ideas?

         1 likes

  25. PaulWilliam says:

    Did anyone see BBC Newsnights piece a couple of nights ago, discussing why the Netherlands has become ‘racist’ and less liberal and accepting of migrants. It’s riddled with regressive leftist laments about how people there are ‘hardening’ FOR NO REASON AT ALL according to the story, against immigrants, when they have always been so accepting. Hmm I wonder why on earth the Dutch have become so ‘racist’. It was infuriating that all their evidence supported that the Dutch haven’t become less liberal, they just feel that the immigrants are not very liberal towards the Dutch! Yet the BBC totally ignored this entirely!!! Infuriating

       52 likes

    • embolden says:

      The false history of Holland was told for many years…part of the EU and cold war narrative that bound Western Europe together to face the Soviet threat. The same history that portrays countries occupied by Germany in the Second World War as having been reliably resistant and “just like us”.

      Actually the picture was more complicated than that….but Holland had very many collaborators, a homegrown National Socialist Party and its own leader Anton Mussert. When the Nazis arrived the Dutch were highly efficient at handing over their Jewish population for “resettlement in the East” and extermination.

      After the war extreme “anti-Nazism” was imposed and like other formerly occupied West Europeans the Dutch complied and opponents dared not raise their heads for fear of being tarred as “Nazis”…..until now, the imposition of Islamisation and its relationship with the Dutch colonial experience of running Indonesia is provoking a backlash….Geert Wilders is of mixed Dutch-Indonesian origin…and cannot be labeled as a “Nazi”, he has also developed a close affinity for Israel, the Dutch establishments inability to silence him with the “Nazi” label has proved a game changer in Dutch politics.

      The BBC is constitutionally (due to its biases) unable to see that Britain, having successfully repelled German occupation and the questions raised by collaboration with Nazism and the need to later remove that stain….had a fundamentally different historical experience and has a different worldview as a result.

      At root though, the truth is that if a globalising elite tries to impose acceptance of an alien culture on its people….its people are likely to react in defence…It is a natural human response, driven by biology and collective survival instincts.

      Biology…another concept denied and under attack from the social engineers of the far left.

         21 likes

    • Cranmer says:

      Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that outside of large cities such as Amsterdam (which are probably the only parts visited by Beeboids) the Dutch are not dope smoking laid back hippies but quite a conservative, hard working, austere, Calvinistic lot. It was after all people of that stock that built much of South Africa and its apartheid system.

         21 likes

      • Flawedlogic says:

        Yes, your quite correct. I lived in the Netherlands for 10+ years in Maastricht and I can assure you that the majority of Nederlanders are as fed up with the awful immigration crisis they are facing as people from the UK.

        Anyone who wishes to see what a failed state looks like has only to travel across the border to Belgium and witness the end product of uncontrolled Muslim migration.

        It’s always ironic that Brussels the home of the EU is also the capital of what is in reality two countries (Wallonia & Flanders) with Muslims the majority of the population in one area and various forms of Catholicism in the other.

        Poor Belgium, it breaks my heart every-time I visit Charleroi, Liege, Verviers and Brussels and see how dirty, unsafe and poverty stricken these town / cities have become. Yet, travel to Antwerp, Brugge and Hasselt and you will find that they are clean, safe and prosperous…I wonder why.

        You should all be scared as this is a vision of what will happen in France, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK in the near future if people like Wilders, Le-Pen etc fail to win the popular vote.

           14 likes

  26. Moodswing6 says:

    I’ve yet again subjected myself to more BBC Trash. It’s stupidity on my part but I didn’t realise I was in for such puerile reporting. The programme was Assigment on World Service with the title searching for Henk and Ingrid.
    It’s sole purpose was to try and discredit, dislodge and make fun of Geert Wilders. At no time was there any acknowledgment that there are real social issues from the mass influx of mainly Muslims into Holland and the rest of Europe. Instead we get the incredibly dumb sounding reporter (I think he must have been on his lead) telling us that grandma was very proud that her 10 year old grandson was getting on well from people of other cultures. However listen to Grandma carefully and you can tell in her voice and brief comments that she is concerned about the changes happening in her country. The Henk and Ingrid couple are this mythical made up representation of the type of people that vote for Geert. There is even mention at the beginning of Mr Wilders needing constant protection which should at least cause the dippy producer to question why he has to be so protected and acknowledge that this is not right in a democratic country. No such luck. That was never going to happen but there was a trump card (oops) after talking to some people who will be voting for Geert and even going up to some women putting out the garbage asking ‘do you know Henk and Ingrid’ they end with the most vile vomit inducing propaganda. Reporter still attached to his lead finds a house where there is supposed to be a real Henk and Ingrid. NO. Guess who lives there? It’s Mohammed and in the reporters words ‘He’s Charming’. A recent arrival from Iraq and and he’s a musician.

       35 likes

  27. Dave666 says:

    BBc Breakfast and just as the sun will rise in the sky the the BBc are still bitching about “breaking the manifesto pledge”. Sofa sloth in repetition mode to the chancellor.

       18 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      Sorry Dave, but whichever way you look it IS breaking a manifesto pledge. If Labour had done that we’d be all over them. For once I can’t blame the BBC – the Tories have shot themselves in the foot.

         17 likes

      • Dave666 says:

        It’s the level of repetition I object to.
        http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7628796/General-Election-2010-Labours-broken-manifesto-pledges.html
        Oh and I think they all broke pledges about a referendum on the EU. I remember in the time of the Lisbon treaty my Liebour MP telling me there wouldn’t be a referendum as the Lisbon treaty wasn’t a treaty. I don’t recall a hoo haa over that one.

           21 likes

      • Grant says:

        The stupidity of it is that the self-employed are probably more likely to vote Tory. Unbelievable incompetence. We need to know if Treezer knew about this in advance. If she did not, she should sack Hammond. If she did, the Tories should sack her. Mind you there are much bigger reasons for getting rid of her.

           13 likes

  28. Grant says:

    Moodswing,

    “Musician” makes a change from doctors and engineers. In my adopted country of Gambia, 90% of unmarried women are hairdressers.

       5 likes

  29. AsISeeIt says:

    You can hardly have missed the fact that BBC news and current affairs editors have grasped the so-called International Women’s Day/Week/Month (?) and have embraced feminists and their feminist agenda close to the BBC heart.

    In fact the BBC plugs feminist issues on a regular basis and this newfangled calendarisation simply gives an excuse and justification for more of the same.

    As left of centre political parties have increasingly run on divisive identity political issues the BBC’s unquestioning adoption of indentity agendas becomes ever more problematic in terms of the broadcaster’s supposed balance and impartiality.

       18 likes

  30. Foscari says:

    Please somebody tell me that I am being paranoid, but I have for quite awhile now thought that the BBC believes that if it show too many white faces on their websites or for that matter TV that that they are being racist.
    The “Lifetime” section on the main page of the BBC website is a fair example. There are three pictures. One of a black lady calculating how the budget will affect her. The one on the right is of an ethnic lady doing something. However the one in the middle I found interesting. Here we can see the BACK of UK University graduates in their robes. I just wonder if the diversity department at the BBC did not show the faces of the graduates because there were more than a few white faces? Or am I being paranoid?

       37 likes

    • Cranmer says:

      Foscari, you’re not being paranoid. I’m a magazine editor and one of my younger colleagues (snowflake generation) questioned why I had published a stock image of a group of white people. He said he thought it was a legal requirement to show black people in any group image! I asked him what law stated that and he said ‘I dunno, I just thought it was the law’. I was also speaking to a TV producer (can’t remember if it was BBC or Sky) who wanted to interview someone from our organisation. I gave him the name of the man who was our duty press officer for TV interviews and he said ‘If you could find a woman to do it instead, that would be good.’

         22 likes

      • BRISSLES says:

        … I’m a magazine editor and one of my younger colleagues (snowflake generation) questioned why I had published a stock image of a group of white people…..

        Blimey ! times have changed haven’t they. When I was ‘young’ and in the workplace, I would no more question what my boss did than fly ! But then, I suppose being in work and being ‘young’ back then, the boss was almost always that much older (like your parents), so being well brought up we never questioned anything of teachers or bosses for fear of being ‘disrespectful’ !! Clearly an antiquated thought in today’s jobs market.

           7 likes

    • Lucy Pevensey says:

      Foscari

      Yes, you are totally paranoid 😉

      k9fevb.jpg

         20 likes

  31. ThomasR says:

    Whilst the manifesto pledge point is undeniable, one can’t help noticing that there seems to be have been more howls from certain parts of the media than those actually “affected” themselves. As an employer of PAYE staff in an industry where Self Employment is still rife I am aware that there has been little protest, as Class 4 payments are only made on “profit” these are easily avoided and most of the SE chaps pay less NI per month than I pay for each of my staff per day (notwithstanding their own contributions !)

    Last night on sky news a lefty “journo” was freely describing SE NIC’s as the jobs tax ? No, the jobs tax is the Employers national insurance paid by PAYE employers.

    Oh, and by the way, pushing a supermarket trolley around the streets stealing scrap and taking it to the scrapyard where “accommodation” is provided is not self employment.

       26 likes

    • Grant says:

      ThomasR

      As a former Tax Consultant, I can assure you that journalists do not do tax. Mind you , neither do Chancellors. In another guise, I have dealt with many immigation cases from the finance point of view. The Immigration “Service” do not even know the difference between an employment, self-employment and a company.

         17 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        Grant, that last sentence of yours, a good point.

        I noticed Hammond’s first blooper yesterday, about 25 minutes in, not understanding the difference between start-up and incorporated company. The former do not pay Corporation Tax. Am sure it was merely an unintended slip-up but to those in the know, it made him look a little incompetent as well as being on the side of powerful, big corporations and the high paid and wealthy.

        However, his jokes at Labour’s expense made up for it. Hammond’s scriptwriters did well with those.

        They did not get a credit at the end.

           11 likes

        • Grant says:

          Up,

          Having watched so many budgets professionally, I can’t face them now. The only Chancellors I remember who had a clue about tax were Nigel Lawson and Norman Lamont. I mean the system, not policy.

             12 likes

          • Up2snuff says:

            Grant, did you spot Norman Smith’s blooper tonight at 6pm on R4 News? He appears to not know or have forgotten that Finance Bills (the working bit of the Budget) may have a little bit of scrappy token debate when brought before the House of Commons but are almost always approved on the nod.

            I can understand your feelings. I was in two minds whether to listen on the radio but did in the end. Hammond did an OK job. Nowhere near as sure-footed and dynamic as Osborne was in his first Budget but faintly reassuring in a steady sort of way.

            Am hopeful that all is not lost – yet – under the new leadership.

            Not sure I rated Lamont when in the job. He was largely responsible for Black Wednesday and the Fuel Duty Escalator and Hammond got a joke in at his expense yesterday.

            Agree on Lawson. Never really put a foot wrong with the sole exception of not standing up to the First Lord when she overruled him and insisted on making disastrous spending decisions at the end of the 1980s. He has publicly repented of that – more than once – for which he deserves a lot of credit. I wish more Ministers and MPs were like that.

               6 likes

            • Grant says:

              Up2,

              Didn’t hear it , but then I little contact with the BBC, although I am going to watch “Would I lie to you ” as it is about the only thing left on the BBC without a political agenda.

              I would not expect a journalist, especially a BBC journalist, to understand Parliamentary procedure involving Finance Bills. And almost all MPs will not understand the content, so they mostly get nodded through.

                 4 likes

              • Grant says:

                PS Still follow BBC cricket coverage though. Beautiful Windies score now 44-4. Bet the BBC wish they could get rid of the cricket.

                   6 likes

                • Up2snuff says:

                  How old is Norman Smith? I remember as a lad a crisis in Parliament because there was a chance that a Finance Bill would not pass through the House in time for the new Tax Year on April 6. Think it may have been one of Denis Healey’s.

                  They wouldn’t have much sport left if they did get rid of cricket! I turn TMS off at times, now, when Boycott is being a total toad.

                  The Beeb do seem to be going a bit overboard on Formula One at present despite the fact they can only show part of it. Its only the teams doing testing of the new cars! This at a time when the whole world and his dog have lost interest in Formula Fake – er, sorry, I mean Formula Ecclestone. No, that’s not quite right either. Formula (no) Fun, I should have written.

                  44-4. Phew! I wonder if a much loved, late Umpire is standing on one leg up on his cloud? 🙂

                     6 likes

                  • Grant says:

                    Up2,

                    Denis Healey, now there was a beauty. Did not know the first thing about tax.

                    Windies 45-6. They actually started with a collapse. So sad what has happened to what was the greatest test team ever.

                    I notice on BBC 4 , 8 pm tonight. Wildlife documentary about Thailand. I started watching the first episode . Lasted 5 minutes, switched off , mindless thumping music. Funny, when I am watching real wildlife , there is no music. What is the BBC’s purpose in this ?

                       4 likes

  32. Peter Grimes says:

    Smarmy Toady git Toenails Robinson just knocked on his arse, 8.10ish, by Philip Hammond regarding self-employed NIC’s. Hammond puts Labour’s hypocrisy on the subject in clear focus too! Win-win!

       19 likes

  33. gb123 says:

    This is how the BBC works. Now we know….
    1. The methods used to obtain licence revenue
    2. The hold they have on the UK Government
    3. Why they go after Trump as a side-line.
    It is a joke but as I was watching I thought this nearer the truth than it should be.

       18 likes

    • Grant says:

      gb123

      Is this a Crapita training video ?

         9 likes

      • gb123 says:

        Absolutely.
        Also it will be used by the Beeb on their next phase of media conquest. Once they have set up their “Netflix” this will be used to model their version of Cortana, Siri and Alexa.

           4 likes

  34. Guest Who says:

    Nice to see a bit of luvvie on luvvie fragging on the One Show that really matters. Bet the green room was more tense than when Carole Thatcher brutally offended the Chiles/Brand offence nexus.

       9 likes

  35. Guest Who says:

    With his level of expertise, this sounds like a must avoid…

       9 likes

  36. StewGreen says:

    Speaking of Harrabin : 92% is the new 97%
    PaulHomewood has Delingpole’s new piece about the EPA doing bunk on clean air
    confirming what we think ..Clean Air Alarmism is the new Climate Alarmism
    The Official WHO account tweeted this
    C6Td_X3XEAEeLOX.jpg
    WHO‏Verified account @WHO Mar 7
    #AirPollution Only 1 in 10 people live in an area where the air quality meets WHO air quality standards http://goo.gl/dQZEDy #BreatheLife

    The graphic says this

    92% of people living in cities do not breathe safe air
    Join us breathing life back into our cities at BreathLife2030.com

    So 92% is the new 97%
    AFAIK the longest lived part of the UK is the poshest borough in “POLLUTED” London

    Em people some/many cities are dirty in some /many parts, but seems to me that WHO has probably adjusted the criteria downwards.
    1995 I knew London smog also protected me from sunburn and probably skin cancer.

       7 likes

    • gaxvil says:

      Have Beijing and Delhi seen this – they’ll be impressed!

         4 likes

    • nogginator says:

      Air quality in cities is bad, that s just par for the course, looks like its just the “next big thing” for climate fear central, its what comes next after “save the planet” … add it to the list.
      Al Gore Inconvenient Truth was Crap
      Global Warming was Crap
      Climate Change scam was Crap
      So man made Co2 scam … that was Crap
      No or very, very little indication of any “Change” attributed to “man made Co2
      In the “climate change” debate, it should be agreed by everyone that any excess CO2 will a have the direct benefit of increasing photosynthesis, and subsequently growth rate and yield, in virtually any plant species
      So now its, erm “Save the Planet” with the most ambiguous, the most nondescript, slopping commode of falsified garbage yet
      … You want evidence, not slogans … clear evidence is what matters
      Real scientific evidence, not reports from a cartoonist that piddles around with psychology … and gets … 97% by totally misrepresenting report s, that just won t do.

         14 likes

  37. Grant says:

    Re. House of Lords,

    Many countries in the World have only one parliament, including the appallingly governed Denmark, Iceland, Finland, New Zealand, Israel etc. Why not abolish the Lords and replace it with nothing ?

       18 likes

    • gaxvil says:

      A second chamber as a back stop isn’t a bad idea – they have brought about a few useful amendments over the years. The cost and the selection appals me – when do we see more than a handful in attendance?
      It’s a very nice golden handshake for ex MPs and the otherwise wealthy.

      A second chamber made up of a cross section of the populous not the ancient, insulated elites we have now.

         9 likes

      • Grant says:

        gax,

        The countries I mentioned seem to do ok without a second chamber.

           4 likes

        • gaxvil says:

          Well, maybe and the money saved could replace TV License funding?

             6 likes

          • Grant says:

            gax,

            And the empty chamber could be used to house refugees.

               8 likes

            • BRISSLES says:

              Grant

              Noooooooo, it would be a lovely Care Home for the Elderly (like it is now). In fact, instead of the luvvies saying we should open our homes to refugees, why don’t THEY open their homes to an elderly person for a home cooked dinner a couple of times a week ?

              Its often been stated that living permanently on a cruise ship is the same price per week as a bog standard Care Home, – I know where I’d prefer to spend my final days !!!

                 4 likes

              • Grant says:

                Brissles,

                Nooooo Who ?

                I just thought that it would be interesting to see how the MPs who are so keen that we open our country and doors to “refugees” enjoy being in close proximity to them.

                As for luvvies, they are notoriously selfish and mean. Don’t expect much from them except hot air.

                   3 likes

        • Yasser Dasmibehbi says:

          Granty, The countries that you list as having unicameral legislatures are all very small in population. The population of the UK must be about seventy million and rising fast. If you want to improve your system I suggest you could learn from New Zealand when it comes to the voting system. Get rid of that FPTP system! Consign it to the dustbin of history. Get the proportional system that you need, and with it you’ll get a better second chamber. The system NZ uses is the same one that Germany uses so it can serve small and large populations.
          Look how well the Afd have done so far and compare it with how Ukip have had to struggle over many years to see the advantages.

          I know my post concerning PR aren’t very popular on this site. But I have to state the obvious now and again.

          I’m only trying to be helpful and friendly, yer pommie bastards.

             2 likes

  38. StewGreen says:

    9pm BBC2 Laura Kuenssberg : Brexit show
    another completely unbiased prog of course

    Brexit: Britain’s Biggest Deal
    It’s easier for newspapers to make the Brexit saga accessible to the rest of us: they can be polemical one way or the other. But television coverage is obliged to be – or appear – even-handed. A BBC doc, in particular, has to show Solomon-like fairness to both sides of the argument (enough to blunt any journalistic edge) – though it will almost certainly end up slated by both sides for #bbcbias anyway.*

    Political editor Laura Kuenssberg is used to such constraints and here does her best to walk the tightrope as she surveys the issues facing Britain and Europe in the coming years. With Article 50 – the starting gun for Brexit negotiations – about to be triggered, Kuenssberg talks to leading players on both sides and maps out the political minefield Theresa’s May’s government needs to navigate – and why it matters to us all.

    * (Yes Radio Times printed that)
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08hrf7w

       18 likes

    • Grant says:

      Stew,

      The giveaway is “or appear” and the bias “political minefield “. Many of believe that it is quite simple. Just do it !

         7 likes

    • imaynotalwaysloveyou says:

      Kuennsberg’s crass questioning of Trump has arguably damaged Britain’s relationship with the White House, and probably a lot of ordinary American citizens. Theresa May seemed happy to let her do it.

      Another socialist budget yesterday – no sign of any reduction in ‘foreign aid’ at least. Should we just not worry about the future and vote Labour just for a laugh?

         27 likes

    • gaxvil says:

      A news organization where everyone has just the one view on so very many topics – what are the chances?

         15 likes

    • Tom_Kenny says:

      BBC News at 10 last night. Footage of Hammond emerging from number 11, holding up briefcase for cameras then getting into waiting car.

      Just before Hammond gets into the car – when it is clear that he is not going to give an interview on the pavement – we hear Kuennsberg’s voice screech: “Mr Hammond did you break your manifesto promise not to raise taxes?” (I paraphrase – but it was a very leading / loaded / insulting question shouted across the road).

      Job done: land the message that the Conservative Chancellor is not to be trusted, nor even worthy of basic courtesy.

      Cut back to studio.

      Per her performance in THAT press conference with Trump, Kuennsberg seems to think that she is there to participate in the political process rather than merely report on it.

         16 likes

  39. JimS says:

    All of the not so secret ‘remainer’ politicians make a lot of remaining in the ‘single market’.

    It strikes me that this is part of the really big lie that has been there all along, unlike the false ‘£350M NHS’ lie that the BBC just loves to recycle.

    When we joined the Common Market, whoops, stop right there! When we joined, to give it its proper name, the European Economic Community, it was all about economics, as it is now for the public comments of the remainers. Yet the preamble of the founding treaty was all about ‘union’, as in ‘community’, and later explicit, as in European Union. This is the big lie, still not exposed by the BBC.

       30 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      You are so right, Jim. All those Tories who stood up at the time and pointed that out were slapped down by John Major just to enable him to hold on to power. Where were the BBC ‘opposition’ and investigators then and now?

      And what a dismal period that turned into. Just Black Wednesday is sufficient to underline how what Major saw as EU gold being turned, not even into straw, but eaten straw. Into dung!

      Black Wednesday – Bust Treasury/Bank of England – Interest rate rises – Tax rises on road fuels – Inflation – Property market collapse – Economic downturn – Unemployment – Hidden & stealth taxes – Negative equity – Property repossessions – Increase in homeless & rough sleeping – the founding of Christians Against Poverty – Labour in government and mostly more of the same, with a few exceptions, and some other new indicators – Wars on three continents – Working Tax Credits – Food Banks – People with two or three jobs to survive.

      What if?

      What if John Major had had the integrity to offer the nation a choice of whether to join in the creation of the EU or to leave at that point? What if we had democratically chosen to leave then? What would that have done to the political landscape of the UK? To the economy of the UK in those 25 years past? Would we have avoided the disaster of 2007-2009? Would we have been ideally placed to take massive advantage of globalisation, the ‘i revolution’, the post-2010 recovery and the oil price decline?

      What do you think?

         17 likes

  40. Up2snuff says:

    Nick Robinson was obviously extremely unhappy with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, this morning (BBC Radio 4, 8.10am) and really tore into him for ‘reneging’ on ‘Manifesto Commitments’ [ well, if the BBC can ‘ or “, so can I! 😉 ] from 2015. This despite the Conservative pro-Remain campaigners (both those accepting and those still fighting to overturn democracy) being endlessly quoted by the same Nick Robinson, even later in the same interview!

    When they are quoted by Nick & others at the BBC (the BBC is also still fighting to overturn democracy – nasty stuff, democracy!) they mention that the vote to Leave was ‘tumultuous’ and we now live in ‘turbulent’ times. Thus, in the tumult of turbulence, you would expect the person with their hands on the controls of the ‘UK economy airship’ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-39213100) to make some finely judged adjustments to the controls, that is via taxation. I should declare an interest here, in that I am possibly disadvantaged by the change to National Insurance rates announced yesterday.

    Nick may have been doing the now-standard BBC ‘Labour are a busted flush, we the BBC are now the official Opposition to the Conservative Government’ thing, it is true. Or was there some thing else behind it all? I wonder.

    Got it.

    Could it be that Nick was so upset with Philip Hammond because he, Nick Robinson, is going to be paying more tax on the dividends from his service company through which he is paid by the BBC?

    Oh, ho ho!

    Do tell me that that is true. What a laugh! That would cheer me no end. All the Beeboid ‘aggressive’ tax avoiders having to pay more tax. Maybe the Conservative Government is listening to the small people, those in a ‘JAM’, as well as us here – on B-BBC – after all?

    Almost worth 60p a week just for ‘that’. 🙂

       27 likes

    • ObiWan says:

      The only problem with your theory is that BBC proles, even if self-employed, should be happy to pay more tax, being the good comrades they are. Which means, if true, that their ‘outrage’ is simply faux outrage (i.e. another form of virtue signalling), designed to ride on the back of what it perceives (if today’s front pages are anything to go by) as a ‘populist’ (a word so beloved by the BBC these days) revolt against the NI tax rises.

      Just more fake news from the BBC.

         9 likes

  41. Beltane says:

    Another feast of constructive, balanced criticism from tonight’s QT team.
    Karen Bradley MP: Predictable low key female Tory. She’s there to demonstrate that, as the successor to John Whittingdale, the BBC have nothing to fear from parliament.
    SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheik: Self explanatory. Keep volume control to hand.
    John McDonald MP: Calm reasoned argument illustrating admirable self-restraint. Bubbling just beneath the surface, thoughts of riots, lamp-posts, firing squads and a deep inward spiritual quiver every time Dimby opens his mouth.
    Polly Toynbee: Boring quasi-intellectual relying on past family connections to provide what passes for status among the Guardian’s ‘intelligentsia’.
    Fraser Nelson: Just to prove that the BBC know what balance is all about. May be allowed to make rational observations although with regular interruptions from chair.
    As usual, the texts will provide some of the most accurate assessments of the debate – do not expect the same from the audience.

       38 likes

    • Grant says:

      Beltane,

      Fair summary. Tasmina, my MP. I won’t be watching.

         9 likes

      • Beltane says:

        No idea the SNP had a Gambian constituency Grant, what a cosmopolitan party they are to be sure.

           10 likes

        • Grant says:

          Beltane,

          LOL ! Thank God they are not in Gambia, but I still a vote in UK. My residency status is very fluid depending which laws you are looking at. All works to my advantage , of course .

             5 likes

      • gb123 says:

        Ah Tasmina. Late of (in reverse order) the Labour Party, the Conservative Party, The Young Conservatives. An MP who’s allegiance changes with the shifting sands.

           17 likes

        • Grant says:

          gb,

          Educated at George Heriot’s , one of the most expensive schools in Scotland. But her main qualification is to be a muslim.

             23 likes

    • Ian Rushlow says:

      Is this a trick? I’ve studied both pictures in detail and I cannot see any difference.

         9 likes

      • Grant says:

        Ian,

        The first one is a female gnome. The second one is the First Minister of Scotland.

           7 likes

        • G says:

          Technically the first prize goes to Ian: there is no difference; The second prize goes to Grant for spotting a difference and identifying which is which!
          Fraid’ gb, the second one is the fine upstanding stable member of society (every garden should have one).

             5 likes

          • Grant says:

            G,

            Ha ! What is my prize ? A date with Krankie ? Presumebly the second prize would be two dates with Krankie.

               4 likes

    • gb123 says:

      G, One is a fine upstanding stable member of society and the first one is a psychotic gargoyle with an acute superiority complex.

         6 likes

  42. Ian Rushlow says:

    The BBC reports that former MP, Mr George Galloway, is to write a series of children’s books featuring an ‘ethical pirate’ (no, not a modern day Somali pirate). It is interesting to speculate as to whether this is just news or there is more to it, such as the BBC being interested in, say, the TV rights. Given Mr Galloway’s and the BBC’s interest in things Islamic, perhaps we could have a series on the Barbary pirates who raided British, Irish and European shipping and settlements, taking perhaps more than a million Christian slaves to North Africa. No, I know the kids don’t learn about this at school. But here is an article published, astonishing as it might seem, on the BBC website. Anyone interested in a campaign for reparations?
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/white_slaves_01.shtml

       18 likes

  43. StewGreen says:

    R4 Switch on Bingo
    “Raising a child of mixed heritage”
    … “The white privileges that some of us take for granted”
    Hmm that’s #80 “whites are hatey”

    ….. Virtue signal issues should be some of time not all of the time.

    Prog seems a repeat cos I’ve heard this story before.

       10 likes

  44. Chilleden says:

    A woman married to a black man is discussing ‘white privilege’ on Radio 4. Apparently when they go to retaurants in Devon sometimes it takes longer for them to get served which she attributes to racism. Sounds horrific. White privilege certainly helped in Rotherham. And why do so many kids emulate black culture because they think it is so much cooler if white privilege is a thing?

       31 likes

    • Grant says:

      Chilliden,

      She may not realise that the yokels in Devon are a bit slow anyway.

         8 likes

      • ObiWan says:

        Oi! Watch it – I’m a Devon lad, born and bred!

        Seriously, though – the time it takes to get served in a restaurant now qualifies as valid grounds for claims of racism? Barrel. Scraped.

        I wish I had some white privilege, TBH. These days, being a middle-aged white man (despite being partnered with an Asian) seems to elicit only belligerent sneers and derogatory slander from regressives.

           19 likes

        • Grant says:

          Obi,

          I just made the comment to flush out a Yokel and it worked ! Actually, I have been to Devon several times, but only for the cider . I did like Devon.

          I had a discussion with an American black racist once, sorry Afro-American, and he accused me of being racist. I said that my wife is Black African. He replied “Well that proves it “. I still can’t work that one out.

          My parting shot was ” Well, at least she is a real African and not a fake one like you. I bet you have never even been to Africa. “

             8 likes

    • Mrs Kitty says:

      She wants to try Paris , even with people of non – colour if the waiters know you’re not Parisian you have two hopes and one of them is Bob.

         8 likes

  45. scribblingscribe says:

    http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/paris-school-race-riots-hand-an-election-boost-to-le-pen-08t9kc3d6

    Oddly the BBC have missed the escalation of rioting in Paris, taking the violence from ethnic groups into schools.

    The times reports:

    “Protests … turned violent and the pupils brought chaos to the lycées, the equivalent of sixth-form colleges”. “A dam seems to have burst with the introduction of violence inside schools,” said Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, the education minister. “These are very serious acts.”

    Philippe Tournier, general-secretary of the head teachers’ union, said that it was the first time that French schools had come under attack in that way. The incident illustrated the mounting tensions in the ethnic tinderboxes that are suburban council estates across the country, he added. “We have reached a new level of violence,” he said. “If things carry on this way it will end up [with someone dying].”

    “ … the Lycée Suger in Saint-Denis was ransacked by about a hundred pupils.”
    “ … teenagers had set fire to bins and furniture and had lit smoke bombs and explosive devices. One doused a stairway in petrol before setting it ablaze. The fire was put out by a teacher using an extinguisher.”
    “At one point a paving stone was thrown through a staff room window as several teachers cowered inside.”
    “We were really scared. I have never seen such a level of aggression,” a teacher who declined to be named said. “There were small groups moving around the school and trying to set fire to different places. It was quite difficult to contain them.”

    When the police arrived to help evacuate the teachers to safety they were attacked by the rioters who were between the ages of 15 and 17.

    Would the BBC have been so quiet about this had the rioting been by white working class youths from Manchester?

       42 likes

    • Grant says:

      Scribbling,

      If something is not reported by the BBC it must be Fake News.

         14 likes

    • Sir_Arthur_Strebe-Grebling says:

      It’s the usual bBBC bias by omission, for the usual reasons, not wanting to let us know about the continuing Muslim invasion.

         13 likes

    • G says:

      BBC? – we do not do anything critical of race or racial issues involving conflict. We here at the BBC take the greatest of care to ‘adjust’ to its betterment, any news on race we are forced to broadcast when it becomes obvious we are withholding the news to further our multicultural agenda. Our predominantly Muslim editors see to that.

         9 likes

  46. nogginator says:

    BBC R4 – Women s hour went big on anti Trump “pussy hats” this morning
    …. no words!.

       14 likes

    • Grant says:

      noggie,

      So clever and so funny.

         4 likes

    • Cranmer says:

      Is there a version of the ‘pussy hat’ available that has been subjected to FGM, for the sake of inclusivity?

         6 likes

      • Alicia Sinclair says:

        Think there is.
        But Muslims keep cutting them up when you dare to wear one in East London.
        Better they go for the hat and not the throat though eh?

           5 likes

  47. AsISeeIt says:

    A breathtaking puff peice from BBC London News today for our supposed clean air hero Little Man Khan. The BBC present an admiring broadcast on the trustworthiness and good intentions of the Mayor. He says he is doing all he can and that any complaints about air quality must be the fault of central government.

    Not mentioned are the fact that he has backtracked on tree planting promises made during his election campaign and the fact that his first act in office was to green-light City Arirport expansion against the wishes of local green campaigners.

    The BBC’s report shows Khan in the best possible light and offers no balancing narrative – in fact the BBC goes out of its way to endorse and to embellish Khan’s PR messages today.

    I knew this would happen. Last time London had a Labour Mayor (Ken Livingstone) BBC London became his mouthpeice and PR machine. This was in sharp contrast to BBC London’s often rather personalised criticism of Boris Johnson, sniggering attitude to his personal life and their holding him to account on his every policy.

    Different BBC rules would seem to apply for Labour.

       30 likes

    • Grant says:

      As,

      Anyone might think that you are implying that the BBC are biased. Heaven forbid.

         20 likes

    • GCooper says:

      How ironic when London’s pollution problems are largely due to Labour’s decision to fix the tax system in favour of diesel vehicles!

      And how even more ironic that the very same Ken Livingstone (who, I agree, was given an unbelievably easy ride by the BBC)added to the problem by encouraging the Marxists at TFL to deliberately slow down and obstruct traffic flows in London as part of its plan to drive the plebs onto Labour’s beloved public transport – and enormously increasing pollution as a direct result!

         22 likes

  48. Sluff says:

    There is a EU summit and the Polish PM does not want Polish Donald Tusk to carry on.
    The bBBC is running a HYS on this and as usual it is not going well for them.
    But here’s the bias. At the top of the story are two photos of the protagonists.
    Notice how the bBBC have selected a nice, smiley picture of UNELECTED Eurocrat Tusk and a grim, dour picture of the ELECTED Polish PM?
    The insidious bias rolls on 24/7/365

       25 likes

    • Grant says:

      Sluff,

      The pathetic thing about the BBC’s balatant, relentless bias is that it does not appear to change people’s opinions. I suspect it has the opposite effect. They are truly idiots.

         15 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39222442

      Sluff – you are correct.

         4 likes

      • Sluff says:

        Thanks GW.
        But for the record, these pictures on your URL as of 0840 on 10 March 2017 were NOT the pictures to which I referred. They have amended them ! Though they do still support my point.

           1 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          It may be there was another story? Or the BBC has ‘evolved’ it in that special way they have.

          I see the HYS is still active, and going ‘well’ (BBC ‘quotes).

          Noting the most recent:

          527.
          Hey BBC, as well as the axe attack in Dusseldorf, there has been a fatal shooting in Switzerland. The rest of the MSM has been reporting this for the last 8 hours. Why nothing from the national treasure? £4Bn in licence fee doesn’t seem to buy much journalism, does it?

             8 likes