463 Responses to Midweek Open Thread 31 July 2019

  1. Ed Hitter says:

    I’ve been avoiding the BBC for a week or so in order to get some sanity, equilibrium and general sense of well-being back into my life.
    But I did foolishly dip in a couple of times yesterday and was instantly reminded of its utter drivel and bias.
    One case was the story of a woman who wore a hijab while riding a horse in a charity race. This, the BBC, said, was “making history”.
    Well, if Kenneth Clarke was still around to update his classic series Civilisation, I wonder if he would consider it as part of “history”.
    Then there was the continuing horror show that is Newsnight, when the presenter referred to the “new reality of extreme weather events”.
    No question about it, no if and buts, just a clear statement of BBC fact.
    Oh well, bias confirmed, switch off again, back to the garden….

       35 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Ed
      Being overseas at the moment helps me avoid the worse excesses of the BBC – also – a cheap subscription to amazon prime has helped .

      Now that I ve discovered that ‘ platform ‘ which I consider to be fair value I can understand why the viewing figures for the BBC are declining quickly and dramatically for the under 30s.

      With a bit of luck it will remove the BBC from the ‘ go to ‘ source of news and entertainment.

      Every so often it will come up with decent non tick box drama – but when it does – it flogs it to death out of sheer desperation to hold back the tide .

      No TV licence for me and many others .

         15 likes

  2. andyjsnape says:

    the eu.bc has allowed “Have your says” on the following topics..

    1) Brexit: How have UK councils prepared?
    2) Sajid Javid tells HMRC: Make no-deal Brexit planning top priority
    3) Brexit: £2.1bn extra for no-deal planning
    4) ‘No room’ for excess meat in no-deal Brexit
    5) Post-Brexit plans unveiled for 10 free ports
    etc etc
    and 1 about plastic bag sales lol

    All the above HYS are “live” at the moment
    More divide and conquer tactics maybe?

       19 likes

  3. theisland says:

    A letter from TR
    https://www.tr.news/a-letter-from-tommy-robinson/

    The appeal paperwork should be in next week.

       14 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      I imagine some will put up a video of his long handwritten letter
      Meanwhile here’s the screenshot of the first page
      Transcript image page1
      Transcript image page2
      Transcript image page3
      Transcript image page4

         7 likes

      • Banania says:

        Most helpful, thanks. I was just saying, Wish some one had transcribed that, then came down to your post.

           2 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Impartial Casciani sneers

      There is a point that TR does do a lot of funding
      and there needs to be some kind of accountability.
      TR insiders do need to assure the public that money isn’t being wasted.
      Previously Lucy said when she worked with him it was a complete budget operation..with them sleeping in the car etc.

         15 likes

      • Cooper_Man says:

        “Stage Name?” What an odious piece of work Casciani is. Would he ever refer to Reg Dwight’s stage name as a stage name – of course he wouldn’t.

           21 likes

        • Fedup2 says:

          I find casciani quite useful as an easy example of the BBCs lack of objectivity and infestation with bias .

          It’s personal with him yet he is still on the taxpayers’ dime . The ‘ stage name ‘ term isn’t necessary or objective .

          But on the upside TR is still alive – even if in a maximum security Islamic terrorist prison and in solitary confinement .

          I’m sure the judge who gave such a politically driven sentence will get the promotion soon . Someone to watch for – she might be the “ go to judge” for political trials …

             18 likes

          • StewGreen says:

            I cannot hear any difference between Casciani and someone who works inside the HateyNoHopers office ..And they are not an anti-hate group but rather a Labour Party front group, who end up sewing lots of hate.
            Their stewarding seems ineffective at controlling the violence from their supporters, whereas TR supporters stewards do a very good job on their own side.

               16 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          It might be interesting to discover how the bbc refers to funding drives by those it likes, say Stutchbery, various airplane rescue lawyers, Gina, 38 Degrees, Compass, The Guardian or… TVL.

          I doubt ‘on the beg’ is often used.

             16 likes

          • Oldspeaker says:

            Dominic could reflect upon the method used to source his own funding, a tax of debatable legality. Pay per view might settle him down a bit.

               14 likes

      • Banania says:

        That Casciani is a worm and beneath contempt.

           5 likes

  4. Helen Richardson says:


    ‘The BBC is failing in its obligation to be fair’ Veteran BBC journalist Robin Aitkin on BBC bias.

    “A phobia is an irrational fear or dislike. The classic phobia is a fear of spiders: arachnophobia. If you have well-founded, thought-through and perfectly rational misgivings about, say, the political-religious system which is Islam, you immediately get labelled an ‘Islamophobe’. But it’s got nothing to do with a true phobia, that’s just a made-up word which is designed to shut down discussion of Islam.”

    Quite.

       54 likes

  5. Terminal Moraine says:

    DW news reporting a man killed in the street in broad daylight in Stuttgart a couple of days ago with a samurai sword. (Social media has more gruesome details).

    Almost nothing to be found via MSM… I noted yesterday that the European news high up the BBC home page was a story about whether schools in Italy are allowing packed lunches.

    Also some reports from that the brutal stabbing of a woman and a baby in April by a ‘man’ at Hamburg train station actually included the beheading of his one-year old daughter — but that German media did not report this.

       27 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Same with the ‘refugee’ accused of pushing an 8 year old kid in front of a train and killing him.

      And another non reporting – the 117? Private jets landing in Sicily for a bash about ‘climate change ‘ – sponsored by google –

         26 likes

      • Deborah says:

        The BBC on Radio 4 did report the ‘incident ‘ at Frankfurt because I said to Mr D at the time ‘there is more to this story than the BBC are telling us’. All they said was a child had been pushed off a platform at Frankfurt railway station. I thought of all the things that happen in the U.K. and wondered why it was newsworthy. Now I just wonder why the bbc reported it at all.

           17 likes

        • Fedup2 says:

          Deb
          The suspect was apparently a third worlder a government held up as a ‘ model of integration’.

             15 likes

  6. Fedup2 says:

    Helen,
    Thanks for the article – I think mr Aitkin s comment about the need for ‘diversity of opinion ‘ and not just ‘diversity of skin ‘ colour is true .

    And it mirrors – a bit – what I said earlier on today about the bi election result – for all the anti brexit propaganda – the leave vote remains strong – but sadly divided allowing anti democratic traitors like the liberals into seats.

       16 likes

    • Helen Richardson says:

      “allowing anti democratic traitors like the liberals into seats”

      Yes, apparently the (so-called) Liberals had a pact with that Welsh party and the Groans who agreed not to contest, so at a glance the result is a little misleading.

         15 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Helen – I did rough sums earlier about the actual numbers result – I know the numbers game can be a distraction used by remainers – and this election seems ‘fair ‘ in that labour did not bring in election fraudsters to use postal votes by various third worlders using various spellings of the ‘mo’ as in tower hamlets and Peterborough ….

           15 likes

      • The General says:

        Shows danger of Conservatives and Brexit Party contesting same seats. The Brexit vote would have gone to Conservatives which would have given them just over 50% and a win.
        That said, should the Loony Party vote had gone to Labour, as one would expect, they would still have been very close to losing their deposit.

           9 likes

  7. JamesArthur says:

    I know others have mentioned it but BBC interview with Carney – he was actually ok..negative about Brexit but explained he had no explicit forecast for No deal…and actually said the forecats were stuill good in the long term..he was asked leading questions by Jon ‘kill Tories’ Snow like – so food and fuel prices could (not would as they say) rise, the car industry will suffer etc..
    However come the news headlines what did they say Marc Carney says food prices will rise, companies will go out of business etc..no context and only the negative…This is not a news broadcaster it is in the entirety a propaganda machine for the EU.

    Have you noticed that the BBC keep saying the Libs won in Wales which proves remain won.. but they keep forgetting that the combined Brexit and Tories would have won and the combined greens, clyde cum and Libs still only got 1400 more votes than a disgraced Toy MP…..in fact they don’t mention the Brexit party at all…why is that I wonder?

       26 likes

  8. fakenewswatcher says:

    I notice a Sky news headline claiming that the LimpDumb victory in the by-election “changes everything, including Brexit”.
    No it doesn’t.
    In your dreams, remainer propagandists.
    LimpDumbs are as far from implementing their policies (ie gaining power) as ever. Light years away. And they only won because of Tory blunders. Leave votes were there for a victory.
    However, if conservatives, who -in the main- want to leave the socialist Merkel club, can’t get their act together…well, who knows what follies lie ahead?
    History will show the appointment of May, and her foolish, self-centred GE, to have been THE major blunder, post referendum.
    In fact, one of the big blunders in the political history of this island. How was it allowed to happen? Another very interesting question. How was she subsequently allowed to lead us on a merry time-wasting dance for years, unimpeded? Yet another interesting question.
    The questions mount up, so I -for one- am now extremely suspicious of anything I am told by our dishonest politicians and lying media. And will be until I see the goods delivered.

       39 likes

    • JamesArthur says:

      Fake
      I think everyone here would agree that May was and should go down in history as the worst Prime Minister and the worst leader of the Tory party that ever existed…
      and if she were a man the BBC would be going to town with her..but no, she is a woman and unfortunately commenting on her failures go against their “wimmin is great narrative”

      Like you I too do not trust any of the buggers…I will believe when any of them do what they said they would – Trump style

         26 likes

    • Pat..original says:

      @ fakenewswatcher. We watched ‘Portillo – The Trouble with the Tories’ on Channel 5 last night. It had been postponed from last week. He interviewed Michael Gove and asked him if he thought that he may have been the cause of Boris not getting elected by standing in opposition. The response was interesting. He did not deny it, mumbled something about history being the judge. They seem to have no idea, Brecon being the latest.

         15 likes

      • fakenewswatcher says:

        Pat – Gove has a lot to answer for.
        He has shown himself to be among those who can’t be trusted.
        He is very fortunate to still have a political life.

           15 likes

        • Beltane says:

          Can’t agree fnw, Gove has far more than a lot to answer for. He was the prime cause of the last three wasted years, by causing uncertainty and division at the precise point when firm resolve and political honesty was needed – for the sake of democracy if nothing else. And he gave the remainers a massive boost at a time when they were fundamentally unbalanced.
          That, together with the engineered loss of the Tory majority by May’s fake election created the impasse we have suffered ever since.
          At heart he has the same level of probity as Soubry, Grieve, Duncan, Clarke and all the rest.

             13 likes

        • Banania says:

          I think Gove is a bit like Sir Keith Joseph or Oliver Letwin, living in another world. I don’t think he is evil.

             7 likes

  9. andyjsnape says:

    BBC BS, apparently stands for BBC BiteSize

    I thought it stood for something else 🙂

       21 likes

  10. StewGreen says:

    If this story is true then the “backstop” is illegal under international law and supersedes the ECJ if we choose to envoke it.

    https://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/frederick-forsyth/1160867/brexit-irish-backstop-eu-boris-johnson-leo-varadkar

       10 likes

  11. Dystopian says:

    Mathew Wright show on Talk Radio talking about a survey in which 48% of British people think that Islam is incompatible with British values. Mathew is asking what are these British values we speak of and pointing out that there are violent passages in the Christian bible. Apparently, Islam is not the problem.

       31 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      No team Mathew Wright are “libtards” you don’t hear much sense listening to them.
      I’d put on a Ezra, or Delingpole podcast or something

         17 likes

    • Doobster78 says:

      It should be 100% of British people think that Islam is incompatible with British values …… who in their right mind thinks it is compatible. (oops forgot about the Abbotts, Lammys, Jones, and the 35,000 BBC employees)

         24 likes

      • tamimisledus says:

        Didn’t you include the ones you forgot in the group of people who are not in their right mind?

           0 likes

    • PeterT says:

      Wright is a fool. Christianity is about the birth of Christ, His life and His teachings and His death. There is no violence in any of that from Jesus or His followers except when Peter cut of the ear of one of the Roman soldiers who came to arrest Jesus – and Jesus healed him. Any violence was against Jesus and His followers. Christianity is a religion of peace though it’s followers have not always practiced the teachings of Jesus. Commandments 5 to 10 are good rules for us all to live by; the others refer to a person’s relationship with God which wouldn’t apply to a non-Christian.

      I was brought up as a Christian though I no longer follow any religion – but what I was taught as a child has coloured my attitude to others and the way I conduct myself in life much for the better.

         37 likes

      • Helen Richardson says:

        I’m a long-standing atheist but I see nothing to object to in the New Testament and quite a lot to like. It also seems to me that Christianity’s bad bits (Inquisition etc) were clearly contrary to the teachings of Jesus, as reported.

        I’ve never fully understood why any importance is attached to the Old Testament which seems to muddy the waters and be open to abuse by those that way inclined. Historical importance maybe, but little else.

        I’m certainly not a scholar so please forgive me (in the non religious sense) if I’m missing something.

           13 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          Helen, one traditional explanation would be that the Old Testament is the foundation of the New while the New Testament is the fulfilment of the Old.

          Another one might be that the Old Testament presents the Law and the Prophets who predict Messiah while showing up the shortcomings of the Law – it is unable to deal with fully with sin in really bringing about a new life in Christ in God’s chosen people. The New Testament then presents Messiah and God’s grace being available to all of mankind and records the setting free of God’s Holy Spirit to do that which the Law could not do – in really bringing a new life and inward change to all individuals (irrespective of race) and who accept Messiah’s sacrifice on the cross as being for them.

          Yet another explanation might be that despite God’s grace and mercy in the Old Testament the world and the individual could not be fully changed but because of God’s grace and mercy in the New Testament the world and the individual can be fully changed.

          The Book of Hebrews is a very worthwhile read. In the New Testament, nine from the end, in the middle of the epistles. Sort of explains everything from the beginning to the end.

          This – https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Genesis-Chapter-1 provides the whole thing on-line with the added advantage of a parallel view facility in the Options box that includes reading in a couple of Hebrew versions but sadly no Greek Septuagint or New Testament plus other translations right alongside the King James version. The New American Standard version is, I think, well thought of by theologians and is a good contemporary English version to read without the ‘thees’ and ‘thous’.

             10 likes

          • vesnadog says:

            Up,

            Forgive the long list in fact it could be 4 times as long.

            Good post.

            “The New American Standard version is, I think, well thought of by theologians and is a good contemporary English version to read without the ‘thees’ and ‘thous’.”

            With the greatest of respect I must disagree with you on this last point as the Modern Bibles are no better translations than the Old Translations as you can see in the following list where the Ancient translations are in fact easier to understand than the ones you prefer.

            NIV BIBLE VERSE AV

            abasement—— Ezra 9:5————— heaviness
            abashed ———Is 24:23—————- confounded
            abutted ———–Ezek 40:18———– over against
            acclamation —-2 Chr 15:14———– voice
            aghast———— Is 13:8—————– amazed
            alcove———— Ezek 40:13———– little chamber
            annotations —–2 Chr 13:22———- story
            armless———- Nurn 31:50———– chains
            bewilderment —Acts 2:6————– confounded
            blunted———— Ps 58:7————– cut in pieces
            blustering——– Job 8:2————— strong
            breakers———- Ps 93:4————– waves
            brooches——— Ex 35:22————- bracelets
            brood————– Is 57:4—————- children
            burnished——— Dan 10:6———— polished
            carnelian———- Rev 4:3————– sardine
            charioteers——- I Sam 13:5———- horsemen
            citron————— Rev 18:12———– thyine
            colonnade——– I Ki 7:6—————- porch
            commemorate— Ex 13:3————– remember
            cooing————– Song 2:12———- voice
            cors—————— I Ki 4:22———— measures
            curds—————- Gen 18:8———– butter
            dappled————- Zec 6:6———— gristled
            debauchery——– Gal 5:19———— lasciviousness
            decimated———- 2 Sam 21:5—— destroyed
            dejected————- Gen 40:6———- sad Hab 3:11———– light
            glistening————— Job 41:32———- shine
            gloat———————- Ps 30:1————- rejoice
            gloom——————– Job 10:21———- darkness
            glutted——————– Ezek 39:19——– full
            goblet——————— Is 51:17———— cup
            goum——————— Gen 14:1———– nations
            grapevine————— James 3:12——- vine
            Hades——————– Rev 20:14——— hell
            harrowing—————- Is 28:24———— break the clods
            haunt———————- Ps 44:19———– place
            headwaters————- Gen 2:10 ———–heads
            hoopoe——————- Lev 11:19———- lapwing
            horde———————- Ezek 17:17——- army
            Is 1:31—————– tow
            torrent——————- Rev 12:15———— flood
            tranquillity————– Ecc 4:6————— quietness
            transcends———— Phil 4:7—————- passeth
            transplanted———- Ezek 17:10———– planted
            tresses—————– Song 7:5————– galleries
            tumult——————- I Sam 14:19———- noise
            turbulent————— Gen 49:4————– unstable
            tyrannical————– Pro 28:16———— oppressor
            tyranny—————– Is 54:14————— oppression
            underlings———— 2 Ki 19:6————– servants
            vassal—————– 2 Ki 24:1————– servant
            vaunts—————– Job 15:25————- strengtheneth

               2 likes

            • Up2snuff says:

              ves, you are welcome to disagree and that’s an interesting ** list. On reading it, I reckon the NIV comes out quite well.* See below.

              I know some firm folk who are on the Reform wing of things theological and who knock anything that comes after the KJV(AV). They accept the ASB and NASB as ‘acceptable’ while decrying the NIV and other new, newish and relative recent translations. Some years ago, I discovered the pages that no-one ever reads in the Bible (vi, vii and viii of the Preface), especially the welter of modern translations, in a brand new original NIV that I received as a gift. The scholarship that went into and still goes into, for example, the New International Version is impressive. Then came the quincentenary of the KJV and it was interesting that that translation is still checked – five hundred years on (!) – by a team of scholars against newer versions as well as any recently discovered manuscripts to ensure its continuing accuracy and sense in (modern) reading.

              I would not actually disagree that modern versions are no better than the older ones. I cannot read Hebrew or Greek, so have to rely on the KJV*(AV) onwards. I was brought up on the KJV and can remember when the Good News Bible (New Testament only) was new and met Annie Vallotton who did the line illustrations. The NEB was still ‘new’ at that point and is one version I never felt at home with. Same for the latest revision of the NIV although maybe I just need time to adjust to it. I’m very comfortable with the KJV (AV) but recognise some people find the older English hard to get along with. I wish KJV On-line had the NIV as a parallel view, then I would recommend clicking that option.

              I used the AV for decades until that particular Bible fell apart on me. I also used the GNB at which point the NIV had been around a while and had attracted scorn and praise in equal measure. One was gifted to me and I tend to use that. I value a KJV that I have that contains a small Concordance and helpful notes by CI Scofield.

              [**Think there may be a tiny error in there – carnelian is actually sardine stone (+ jasper) in the KJV]

              The second most important thing is that people avoid the American Reversed Vision Bible because through that one version many are led astray. 😉 🙂

              The most important thing is that people, everyone, reads the Bible in one hand and their newspaper in the other (or listen to radio news) because our times are interesting. Don’t quote me as originating that. Billy Graham said it first, if I recall correctly.

                 1 likes

              • vesnadog says:

                Up,

                Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not a Authorised Version (AV) only fan. I also have the ESV which I use on a daily basis. And of course many other versions just to compare scripture-with-scripture.

                I also own William Tindale’s “The Newe Testament” (1526) copy.

                “Geneva’s Gem” New Testament, Printed in Geneva in 1557 AD. Edited by John Wesley Sawyer.

                And “Tindale’s Triumph” New Testament. of the Matthew’s Bible 1537 AD, (John Roger’ Monument)

                Each version was written with a sense of respect for the integrity of ancient texts – both sacred and secular.

                Its quite an education comparing the comments by the Reformers and Martyrs today on the ancient texts compared with comments by living translators on todays translations. Mainly on the N.T.

                   0 likes

    • Banania says:

      Ooh, the Bible! Just imagine how terrible life would be if we tried to follow its teachings in our daily life.

         6 likes

      • tamimisledus says:

        Yes, it would be really terrible if we tried to follow the commandment teaching “Thou shalt not kill”.
        I don’t think you, like many atheists, realise how many of the teachings of the New Testament we do follow (and maybe ought to) in our daily life.

           0 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          tami, and how many sayings that we use day to day are found in Scripture. I have a feeling that buried in an on-line archive of the BBC somewhere, there is a quiz that dates back to 2011, ie. 1611 + 500.

          It was a binary choice one around popular sayings: Did it originate in the Bible or in Shakespeare? or something like that.

          Seem to recall there were errors in it because the BBC forgot that Shakespeare (and all children until recently) were schooled using the Bible.

             0 likes

    • Zelazek says:

      So, there are “violent passages” in the Bible, says the ignorant Matthew Wright, implying that Christianity is even more mindlessly violent than Islam. The stories of the Old Testament that Wright may be thinking of (the extermination of the Canaanites, perhaps) are not a series of commandments to murder but a dramatisation of why the Israelites should put their trust in God. God has promised the land of Canaan to His people and wants the present inhabitants – the exceptionally wicked Canaanites – destroyed. When His people are obedient to the laws of God, gifts like the collapse of the walls of Jericho will follow. This is the point of these stories. Body counts are presented without exultation as cold facts, despite the occasionally extraordinary numbers. Nor is there any glorification of violence in the Old Testament despite what people like Wright and Richard Dawkins and millions of glib, half-educated atheists believe. And there is no Jewish or Christian tradition that takes these episodes as a reason for violent principles being adopted and everlastingly applied. Instead, the stories have throughout Jewish and Christian history been spiritualised and taken as examples of why a community should put its trust in the faithfulness of God. Anyway, the Christian religion is not about the Israelites’ conquest of Canaan. Its focus is on the New Testament and the life of Christ, as PeterT and others have explained. If Wright is attacking Christianity by citing Old Testament battles, he is missing the target. But I hope I have shown that even when he is missing the target, he is missing the point.

      Contrast that with Islam’s doctrine of violence – applicable at all times and in all places – towards blasphemers, infidels and apostates.

      Sorry to go on a bit, but the facile arguments of public figures like Matthew Wright really annoy me.

         6 likes

      • Helen Richardson says:

        “and millions of glib, half-educated atheists believe”

        Now THAT is where you lose support and alienate people. It would be wise to stay well away from any examination of correlations between education and religious beliefs.

           6 likes

        • Zelazek says:

          Alienating people is a risk that anyone who is interested in the pursuit of truth always takes. And, far from being wisdom, staying away from potentially interesting correlations is not the path to enlightenment either. So I regret to say that I will be declining your unsolicited advice on this matter.

          Of course there are atheists like Dawkins who are well-educated and experts in their own fields but when it comes to the Old Testament, it is clear from their simplistic statements that they don’t understand it at all and I feel justified in describing him and most of the other atheists I have ever met as “half-educated” on this issue.

             1 likes

          • Helen Richardson says:

            “unsolicited advice”

            That’s a bit rich from someone who, in his own mind at least, clearly believes he has much to teach everyone else.

            Like it or not, here at least your archaic belief system is dying. A pity some others are not doing likewise.

               4 likes

            • Zelazek says:

              “That’s a bit rich from someone who, in his own mind at least, clearly believes he has much to teach everyone else.”

              Helen Richardson, are you STILL sniping at me from the sidelines?

              Are you a sociopath? You seem to like to accuse others of that you are guilty of yourself.

              On the topic that was under discussion – Matthew Wright’s swipes at religion – I believe what I posted was relevant and informative to those who were interested. Your contribution to the debate was merely to state that you “never fully understood why any importance is attached to the Old Testament”. To post such a worthless thing, devoid of content or value, you, in your own mind at least, clearly believe that you have an avid readership who are thrilled even by your lack of knowledge and your confessions of ignorance.

              It’s a pity you can’t understand why any importance is attached to the Old Testament. But as it says in Proverbs 16:22 “Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it; but the instruction of fools is folly”.

                 0 likes

              • Up2snuff says:

                Z, I think Helen has a point. It takes a lot of faith to be an atheist but we all start off that way. The most important thing is to be an honest atheist. God loves them, probably most of all.

                I know some Christians of long-standing, well educated, who struggle with the Old Testament to this day. There is much in Scripture that is hard to understand. Our culture is Gentile Greek/Roman based, so there is the first barrier.

                Then we expect God to be a Mr Fixit and at our command. Where there are harsh Laws given to Israel (to get a people group through 40 years of desert wanderings with enemies popping up here and there) we bridle at their toughness. Where clearing out of peoples is Divinely ordered, we do not examine why and what those people groups were like, we look at the slaughter and measure it by our post-WW1/WW2 sensibilities and hold God responsible for war crimes. We expect God to adopt our standards, whatever they may be. We then put Him on trial.

                It doesn’t work like that. We are the ones who are on trial, who stand in the dock.

                   1 likes

              • Helen Richardson says:

                Sociopath now?

                I have been living with “ignorance” of the Old Testament quite happily now for some time. Sorry about that but medical research has been a better use of my time.

                As for you, on reflection I think you need a little bit more Jesus, not less.

                   0 likes

  12. theisland says:

    A few days old but Starmer is threatening the civil service, with whom he thinks he has ‘clout’ based on his past interactions.

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/your-daily-brexit-betrayal-tuesday-30-july-2019/
    Starts about halfway down the page.

    “Britain’s top civil servant has been warned by Labour that Whitehall faces a public inquiry under a Corbyn government over a no-deal Brexit. Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, has threatened to hold the civil service to account if it does not sound the alarm over Boris Johnson’s proposals. He has written to Sir Mark Sedwill, the cabinet secretary, demanding that all permanent secretaries obtain written letters of instruction from ministers for no-deal plans that do not “represent value for money”. “(Times link, paywalled)


    He demands that, Johnson Brexit policy notwithstanding, Whitehall has to adhere to the various Project Fear forecasts with which they have bombarded us during the last three years as if they’ve been cast in stone.

       19 likes

  13. StewGreen says:

    AFAIK IPCC reports have never pinned “”weir Weather” as down to Global Warming
    Yet activists jump to that conclusion
    \\ BBC 1pm News. David Shukman saying that the Whaley Bridge Dam damage due to Global Warming, which doesn’t quite tally with the history of repairs copied from Wikipedia
    .. The dam was built on old mine tunnels so has a history of problems
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toddbrook_Reservoir

    @EdiieHitter wrote at the first comment on this page
    \\ Then there was the continuing horror show that is Newsnight,
    when the presenter referred to the “new reality of extreme weather events”.
    No question about it, no if and buts, just a clear statement of BBC fact
    .//

       19 likes

  14. Doobster78 says:

    Steve knows the score …… CCBGB also, seems alot of folk are as sick to death as us with the Climate Change propaganda !!!

       34 likes

    • Lobster says:

      The BBC love quoting these “scientists” and “researchers” don’t they, but they never seem to name them. Funny, that ……

         18 likes

      • Richard Pinder says:

        At the BBC “scientists” turn out to be environmental activists with degrees in the philosophy of Marx, and “researchers” turn out to be Journalists with English language degrees. Both without any scientific qualifications.

        That’s why they never tell you that isotopic evidence proves that only four percent of the CO2 in the Earths Atmosphere could be man made. That’s a maximum of 16 parts per million of CO2 in the Earths atmosphere for man made emissions, not the 100 parts per million that the IPCC says. So 84 parts per million comes out of the deep Ocean, caused by both an 800 year thermal lag and the fact that the Medieval warm period peaked 800 years ago. Which ever way that you look at it, the hypothesis is always easy to prove as a hoax. For instance, Global warming alarmism always peaks at the end of July and the beginning of August because of what scientists call, Summer.

           14 likes

        • Mustapha Sheikup al-Beebi says:

          If, as the BBC and its non-scientists such as Harrabin and Humphrys assure us, “the science is settled”, they should be able to explain CO2-related global warming in simple terms to reasonably intelligent laymen and women.

          Why don’t they do this? Instead of resorting to loaded language, such as the term “deniers” about CO2 warming sceptics, the BBC should explain why previous predictions such as the “hockey stick” (steep upward J-curve in global temperatures) did not come to pass. The model was wrong then and may still be wrong now. If there was warming from 1975-1998 and CO2 emissions have increased since then, how do we explain ‘the Pause’ (their expression) or at least deceleration in temperature rises in the last 20 years? There MUST logically be other things at work, such as solar variability, since nobody disputes that CO2 levels have risen.

          Most of all, why doesn’t the biased BBC explain how it can be that CO2, which is only 0.04% of the Earth’s atmosphere, might have such drastic effects, when the background / benchmark level that they refer to from the late 1800s was itself only a little below 0.03%? Do they really expect people to believe that this increase from 0.03% to 0.04% (much of which, as Richard Pinder points out above, didn’t come from fossil fuel burning anyway) can be having the effects claimed?

             8 likes

        • tamimisledus says:

          ….. “racist” summer …..

             0 likes

  15. Doobster78 says:

    LOL

       44 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Elegant.

         6 likes

    • Richard Pinder says:

      It tells us that this poor result for Remain is 5 percent down from the 48.14 percent who voted Remain in Brecon and Radnorshire in 2016. But its worse for Remain as the number of registered electors in Brecon and Radnorshire is 53,272. The number who voted for the Remain alliance was 13,826. So only 26 percent of the registered electors voted Remain as lots of Brexiteers have given up on democracy. It also tells us that the Loony Libdems & Labour got less votes that the Brexit Tory & UKIP voters, but lost because of a failure of democracy in not having a single transferable vote system for political parties. This also tells us that the Libdems are a failure in both liberalism and democracy, and those who vote for them are voting for the abolition of democracy and authoritarian rule from Brussels. It also tells us that three out of four people in Brecon and Radnorshire are decent people.

         16 likes

  16. StewGreen says:

    LBC now Shelagh is talking about Brexit doom with the SkyNews correspondent
    Apparently they’ll be no medicines and to a leaked document prepared for the government all the British in the EU will flood back to the UK.
    ..Government comment , cos it’s a leaked report not one approved by ministers.

    R4 Now : Police Drama about “the far right”
    ..a guys dad vandalises a Pak family garden, cos they won first prize and he didn’t .
    His father is quoted as being a party leader who said
    : “The only problem this country has is the rise of Islamic Extremism”
    The boy then says “It’s Muslims that are the enemy, not blacks ”
    .. Which is quite different from what TR saying he is opposed to Islam and its dogma, not ethnic Muslims.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00076ty

       21 likes

    • tamimisledus says:

      muslims (of all shades) are the only means by which the poisonous doctrine of islam is spread.
      All muslims are the enemy of progress.

         0 likes

  17. Dover Sentry says:

    Now listening to BBC R5 Test Match Special live.

    Woman commentator blathering away on pre-prepared garbage.

    England 122

       16 likes

  18. MarkyMark says:

    MP ​Annual salary
    https://www.theipsa.org.uk/mp-costs/mps-pay-and-pensions/
    2008 *FINANCIAL CRASH *
    April 2010 ​£65,738
    April 2011 £65,738
    April 2012 £65,738
    ​April 2013 ​£66,396
    ​April 2014 ​£67,060
    ​May 2015 ​£74,000
    2015: Cameron wins re-election on Brexit referendum promise.
    ​April 2016 ​£74,962
    2016 *BREXIT VOTE*
    April 2017 £76,011
    April 2018 £77,379
    April 2019 £79,468

       15 likes

  19. Old Goat says:

    Greenland is melting! Bollox:

       17 likes

    • davylars says:

      I wonder if the BBC know about this. How can this possibly be before man made climate change?
      Apparently this was the worst heatwave in 14 years.
      According to Deputy Dawg. Last one must’ve been in 1949 . If this was filmed in 1963.

         12 likes

  20. BRISSLES says:

    Well Prince Harry is making a right arse of himself again – which seems to be his occupation of choice lately. Delivering a climate change speech to those with fame and money in Sicily at a Google highly secret meeting, in……….. barefoot.

    Seems all the attendees from Di Caprio to merchant wankers all arrived by super yacht, private jet and helicopters !!!! and they have the cheek to want us peasants to travel by bike or electric car. Two words, f…… o…….

       53 likes

    • Doublethinker says:

      Yes indeed. Harry has gone from one of the most popular Royals to one of the least in less than two years as a result of his increasingly wokist statements. He may not realise it but many folks don’t share such views. The role of the royals is to be apolitical and not to campaign for anything other than uncontroversial ‘good cause’ which the overwhelming majority of the country supports. I simply don’t think it is right that someone paid for by the public purse and given a platform due only to his position , should go public with his views.
      Leaving that aside the hypocrisy of the elite turning up to Sicily in private jets and yachts and then lecturing about saving the planet is laughable and sickening at the same time. They are full of their own importance but seemingly without any self awareness . Perhaps they don’t care how they appear to ordinary folks but they should realise that it is ordinary little people who keep them in the style to which they are accustomed, at least for now.

         28 likes

  21. fakenewswatcher says:

    BBC Racism.
    (Disguised as an anti-racist tale)
    R4: “The interrogation”. “Billy” -“Drama”, allegedly.
    Ingredients: Two cops (good, except for the white one who sounds dodgy at the end, in a racist sort of way)
    Two baddies: They are both white and racist. They are also very stupid, aggressive, dishonest and offensive. Arsonists, bullies and criminals, as well. And they complain of anti-white racism (nice touch: shows how those who complain about anti-white racism are really and truly rotten). Plus, they are overtly self-confessed anti-Muslim.
    Recipe: Mix thoroughly. Keep stirring. Keep stirring. Keep stirring. Make sure the baddies are dizzy and confused.
    Bake for 45 minutes, until there is only one goody left.
    Observe the end product:
    It is now almost impossible to switch on to R4 for entertainment. There is almost always some PC message, mostly transparent re-education.
    Perhaps one in ten of the 2.15 pm drama slot still has quality. Like much of the news and comment, the contents have descended into preachy, patronising garbage. Like today.

       23 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      @FNW yes I already referenced it at 2:20pm above
      The script was a bit weird it ended inconclusively yet there isn’t a part two.
      The black officer came across badly cos he clearly stated that isn’t doesn’t matter who’s guilty, cos “they are far-right so lock-em up”
      It portrayed a Far-Right anti-Muslim party, that only pretended to be not white-supremacist.
      – First the son came into the police station to say that he had firebombed a mosque badly injuring 17.
      They put it to him his father had more likely done it.
      He stated he’d disowned his father cos hed taken up with a Hindu woman called Aysha.
      The cops say : see you are skin colour racist.
      – The father comes in and confirms he has fallen in love with this “Hindu” Aysha
      .. and then makes a pretence of claiming he is an out and out racist..and eventually keeps shouting “white power” until the black police officer gets angry roughs him up and arrests him.

      The jeopardy is that the white officer believes him innocent of the new fire-bombong and that he’s covering for the son.
      ( Despite the fact that you can’t prosecute anything on just a confession, you need proper evidence)

      How the heck can the prog not make reference to the fact that Aysha is not a Hindu name, but famously the name of Mo’s child bride ?
      I double checked and there are some Indian actresses named that, cos in some parts of the country people have copied Muslim names, and now some people have copied the name from the actress, but it’s still not very common.

         10 likes

      • fakenewswatcher says:

        Stew – only just read your comment; interesting, there is so much in it, although it seems only an attempt to discredit the ‘far right’. Really, the whole thing is a poorly-constructed mish-mash, largely obsessing about ‘racism’.
        Anyway, something dawned on me, and I searched the net to find out whether there was anything about the author.
        Yes indeed, there is!

           7 likes

        • StewGreen says:

          He a black playwright
          he has only once tweeted about the “far right”
          he’s only ever tweeted about Mulsims once
          \\ How many dramas over the years has there been showing muslims as terrorists? I’ve lost couny //

             3 likes

        • StewGreen says:

          @FNW yep agree \\poorly-constructed mish-mash.. an attempt to discredit the ‘far right’ //
          I picture a playwright who is an alcoholic, so he plagiarises his old play where the 2 main characters are a black father and son, and the police are racist ..and changes the characters to mytical “far right”
          and since he is rushing in ..he uses a Muslim-name for a Hindu character.

             1 likes

  22. StewGreen says:

    Enrichment : Scunthorpe a huge warehouse full of dope found
    .. who were the 3 guys arrested ?

    … 3 Vietnamese

       16 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Local ITV news comes on : and there was the shortest ever item
      “..arrested in Organised crime operation in Scunthorpe”
      ..and then this image flashed up
      That stash of weapons looks exactly like what a Vietamese drug gang would use.


      BBC just did almost exact same , but added ..”raids at 10 properties”

         8 likes

      • vesnadog says:

        “these weapons are now safely off the streets”

        I can see 5 items in the photo that a decent hammer would do the job as good – the gun? Its clearly a fake.

        real guns with “real” barrels that kick like a “mule” when fired are never held up with “Sellotape”

           7 likes

  23. StewGreen says:

    Next ITV news went into a 3 min item about Britain’s biggest Muslim festival
    We were led to believe it’s in our area .. It isn’t
    “organised by the Ahmadiyya Muslim community .. with visitors from all over the world”
    The video was almost the same as in this ITV Meridian clip


    – “Islam is under siege right now , that is partially the fault of the Islamic community abroad… blah blah
    and then we are onto “Islamophobia”, “Islamophobia”, “Islamophobia”
    shots of lots and lots of men
    -There is a women’s festival on the same site” (it looks alot lot smaller
    ..vox pop with hijabbed women telling us how feminist Islam is

       16 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      18:35pm “A Lincolnshire teenager has spoken out
      about the abuse she gets for wearing the Hijab”*
      “I get called the N-word and a terrorist”
      Live report from Lincoln.. quotes

      Ghada Mohammad saying there should be a National Hijab Day
      .. interviewing white teenagers who approve of the idea

      * Is this News or PR ?
      cos they ran almost the same story ONE year ago
      .. note the 2018 date on this tweet

         14 likes

    • BRISSLES says:

      I guarantee my Dad and others of his generation certainly didn’t fight to defend this country in WW2 so that this lot and their ilk could enjoy the freedoms of a civilised society. 35,000 eh ? without them we’d have 35,000 more GP appointments, 35,000 more hospital appointments, 35,000 less births, 35,000 more homes, and 35,000 less taxi drivers.

         32 likes

    • JimS says:

      These are the Muslims that most Muslims believe aren’t Muslims.

      Is the 35,000 attending more than the 140,000 at Birmingham’s Small Heath park?

         7 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        @JimS there is a bit of word play there withe 2 different meanings of festival
        Its like comparing Glastonbury with the festival of Christmas
        – In Brum 140K joined for a couple of hours to celebrate the Religious Festival of Eid
        – The 35K in Wiltshire are there for the weekend Islamic festival

           1 likes

  24. StewGreen says:

    Both local news chose chose to make live features about Hull Music Festival
    ..but unlike the radio the BBC chose not to bang on about the eco-credentials
    ITV did though .. “oh look it’s plastic free, look st the recycling bins, ..it’s got a solar powered stage”

       8 likes

  25. Guest Who says:

    Katty is strategising with the Demgirls, and here’s Anthony.

    Jon likely still trying to park his car. Or wangle a ride on with Barry to Sicily.

       10 likes

  26. Guest Who says:

    Y’all be careful in there.

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mind-the-staph-london-is-crawling-with-antibiotic-resistant-microbes/?

    Was chatting with a doc out East who was amazed I knew antibiotics were useless for viral infections. He told me every patient from every race… Chinese, Malay, India… demand them for a sniffle.

       10 likes

  27. chancygardner says:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-49210937

    The flood-risk residents refusing to move out. We scoured the length and breadth of the flood zone until we could find the weirdest looking resident to quote. Here ‘she’ is – Hannah Sillitoe. Well my male and female fellow members, you’re much younger and you’re at a disco. Hannah Sillitoe is waiting to dance. Whats stopping you? Come on!

       10 likes

  28. Guest Who says:

    Sounds like Gillette need unique funding.

    https://pjmedia.com/trending/gillette-loses-billions-by-shaming-men/?

    Maybe they can swing Harry as a spokesembarrassment

       13 likes

    • Ian Rushlow says:

      The Gilette brand is owned by Procter & Gamble. Here are some of their other brands: Head & Shoulders; Olay; Herbal Essences; Pantene; Aussie; Always; Tampax; Pampers; Ariel; Bold; Daz; Fairy; Lenor; Ambi Pur; Oral-B; Fixodent; Vicks; Braun; Old Spice.

      Plenty of other companies looking to ‘Go Woke, Get Broke’, too.
      Here’s Marks and Spencer – it’s their UK website BTW, not one for South Africa:
      https://www.marksandspencer.com/c/men
      Looking for a job? Don’t bother with ‘Savers’ unless you fit into a certain category. The recruitment posters in their high street stores are even more explicit and avoid white faces altogether:
      http://www.savers.jobs/
      You wouldn’t finance the BBC by buying a TV license. Decide for yourself the ethics of spending money with a company or organisation that has the same mindset.

         15 likes

  29. Guest Who says:

    And lo, a new BBC Editor slot is created.

       12 likes

  30. Guest Who says:

    BBC fave girl seems to have got her up to date news from the BBC up until now.

    Luckily she has managed to identify the real problem.

       12 likes

  31. Chalkywhite says:

    I could well be wrong, but it’s August 2019 now and there seem to be lots of punnets of soft British fruit available in the supermarkets. What has happened to all the scare stories that were circulating last year about crops rotting in the fields due to a lack of EU labour to pick them? The good ol’ BBC were hot on the topic at the time:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-44884882

    Of course, then it was all the fault of Brexit. No mention ever that fruit was picked by foreign workers pre 2013/14. Come on BBC why have you suddenly forgotten this? No follow up reporting? No ‘Reality Check’ articles? I wonder why?? Maybe because you were wrong then and you’ve moved onto something else that you think ‘proves’ the bias you’re trying to propogate? This year it’s all about the weak pound and the recent lack of investment by ‘industry’ (The same industry, by the way. that has been under investing for years and employing cheap labour instead!).

    Was it anything to do with Brexit that Honda is closing its Swindon factory, or was it due to the EU signing a trade deal with Japan? Oh no, a bit of journalist dementia! (Again).

    If I was important/famous and had a twitter account, farted and blamed it on Brexit, you’d be after it like a dog on heat!

    YAWN…….

       16 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      And on Chalkywhites’ Yawn – I think it’s time for a weekend Thread

      ( I thought we might be in the summer doldrums but the bias goes on ) ….

         6 likes

  32. popeye says:

    Just found an unbiased BBC News Report

    “Large clouds of painted lady butterflies are being spotted across the UK and Ireland – and experts believe we are seeing a mass emergence that happens every 10 years.
    Weather conditions and food sources are providing ideal conditions for the species to thrive.” – Apparently despite Climate Change or Brexit!

       4 likes