OPEN THREAD

Oops - just realised I had forgotten to post one of these. So the floor is now yours, dear reader, say your piece on matters Beeboid - this thread is OPEN!

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MORE ALARISM!

Meant to ask if anyone else heard Ed Milipede being allowed to waffle on about the doomsday effects of global warming and why it is vital that the UK coughs up loadsamoney to compensate the less developed world to its bit to save the planet. I just LOVED the unspoken assumption from the BBC that "the debate is over" when it comes to AGW and now the only question is how much shall we pay?

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QUESTION TIME LIVEBLOG

Well, we're back this evening with the Student Grant produced Question Time. I will be helped by David Mosque as guest co-moderator and am looking forward to it. Please make sure you turn up, if only for the laughs!

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OPERATION - GET COULSON!

Anyone catch the Toady programme this morning? From 8am onwards, the ENTIRE prime time period was devoted the story concerning whether the News of the World had used private investigators to hack into the mobile phones of celebs and politicos. It was amazing to have this entire 8.10 -8.28am time slot allocated to attacking News International and repeatedly demanding the resignation of David Cameron's Communication's Director, Andy Coulson. Total bias - out of all proportion to the merits of this story.

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"we don't often talk directly about demographics...in the UK"

Evan Davis was being a bit economical with the actualite the other day when he said that 'we don't often talk directly about demographics'. The BBC is quite happy to discuss them - not only that, but to discuss them in a context of conflict or civil disorder - as long as they're a long way away.

Here's Jim Muir's famous 'I saw it coming all along' Iraq piece.

Iraq is a patchwork country, an ethnic and confessional cocktail, of Arabs and Kurds, Turkomans and Chaldaeans, Sunnis and Shiites.

Such countries are usually held together by a strong centralised dictatorship, which could be benign or tyrannical.

I don't understand. Why isn't he celebrating the diversity ?



Same with the troubles in Urumchi - about as far away at the back of Central Asia as one can get.

The violence in Xinjiang has not occurred completely out of the blue.

Its root cause is ethnic tension between the Turkic Muslim Uighurs and the Han Chinese. It can be traced back for decades ...

Uighurs are ethnically Turkic Muslims
They make up about 45% of the region's population. 40% are Han Chinese
China re-established control in 1949 after crushing short-lived state of East Turkestan
Since then, large-scale immigration of Han Chinese
Uighurs fear erosion of traditional culture

Large scale immigration into the capital, ethnic tension, fears of erosion of culture ? These Uighurs sound like terrible racists, ill at ease, failing to come to terms with their new multicultural capital and harking back to some Golden Age that never was. I'm surprised the BBC are publicising their scare-mongering and myths when they should be refuting them. Certainly not the kind of thing you'd find the BBC reporting, about, say, London.



UPDATE - it's also interesting to compare the Chinese state media coverage of the rioting in Urumchi (admittedly far more destructive of human life than anything here) with the British state media coverage of rioting in the UK.

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THE RETURN OF QUESTION TIME...

Hi all! Just to let you know that I have decided to liveblog Question Time tomorrow night. You will be aware I stopped this when my esteemed colleague on the QT liveblog Geoff was taken seriously unwell and I was very concerned for his very survival. His condition continues to show small improvements although he is still hospitalised and the road to recovery will be long and arduous.

However I reckon that Geoff would not want me to stop - so it is for him that I am returning to the fray on this. Plus, it livens up a very dull programme when we get to comment on it! And what a gem tomorrow night brings. It's the "Student Grant" edition and features the return of Universal Shami! Yes, doe-eyed Ms Chakrabrti is back! She is joined by Andy Burham, the human guinea pig Sarah Teather and Jeremy Hunt. So, this is just a heads-up for you and hope you can make an effort to come along.

As a point, if there is someone out there who would like to help me moderate the event - drop me a mail via the contact on A Tangled Web.

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THE BROWN BROADCASTING CORPORATION...

Co-conpirator over on The All Seeing Eye, G.OT. picked up on this little gem from last week's Question Time. Have a look at the interplay between La Harperson and Dimblebore. Then please click here to read G.O.T's take on this instance of BBC bias - well worth your time. The good thing is that there are more than enough of US spotting THEIR bias.

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LOVELY SARAH..

No, I'm not talking about Sarah Palin - though she is lovely! I'm talking about the generosity the BBC extends here to McDoom's wife, Sarah and her new blog on the risible G8 conference. I recall the BBC desperately spinning the tall tale that 'twas the intrepid Sarah that came to save her husband at the last Labour conference, as she added humanity to her husband's profile. Looks like Sarah is back on the BBC narrative...

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NOT ANOTHER WEDDING PARTY?

Oh no - looks like those bad Americans have "killed dozens" in north-west Pakistan. Any bets it is another wedding party? Love the way the BBC leaves the nature of the "dozens" allegedly killed vague in the headline. I suppose "killed dozens of our enemies" would be too judgemental?
God forbid the US has taken out dozens of Jihadi vermin before they could try and kill our soldiers...

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Amnesty Report Debunked

The BBC got more than they bargained for when they interviewed Colonel Richard Kemp on BBC News 24 during Operation Cast Lead, so nobody should hold their breath waiting for them to report this.

If the BBC gave half as much publicity to this speech as they did to the Amnesty report even the flying pigs might suffer an apoplectic fit.

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THE RECESSION IS OVER!

One of the reasons I like to tune into the BBC is to hear the mad delusions from leftworld as it tries to spin for McDoom when we ALL know that it's over bar the shouting until he is prised out of Number 10 next June with a crowbar. This morning on Today the BBC was pushing the idea that the recession is over. Or so says the Chamber of Commerce. No room for dissent, alas. Mind you, unemployment may rise to 3.2m so not all exactly green shoots but at least they are trying to give poor Gordon some hope.

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7/7 - FOUR YEARS ON

So, on this day four years ago, around this time, four Islamic Jihadists travelled from the north of England and then detonated themselves on the London transport system, killing 52 people and injuring hundreds of others. This was an act of war by militant Islam against the British people and since that time our security forces have averted many other attempted acts by other Islamic killers.

And yet, when I review the coverage of the event on the BBC today, I note that the word "Islam" is missing from the story. These were just "bombings", apparently. And the reason for this coyness is that the REALITY of Islam in Britain is wildly divergent from the narrative put forward by Al Beeb. If you want an insight into that, why not read Konnie Huq's drivel here. Financed by the government, (natch) lovely Konnie wants you to know that Muslims are just like us. Well, some are. But then there are some - like those who struck on 7/7 - who are not in any way like us and yet they are protected and given succour from their own community. Maybe there are harder questions that need asked? Rather than going to Bangladesh, perhaps Konnie should try Leeds?

The BBC, just like the government and the rest of the political hard left, are trying to erase the Islamic component to what happened in London those years ago. Reading the Guardian this morning I see a Police Commander - addressing a group of Muslims, naturally - suggests that the main terror threat comes from the "extreme right". In this way, the focus of the war against militant Islam becomes diffused and we are no longer clear on who the enemy actually is. Like it or not - and the BBC does not - this date marks a fundamental challenge to our way of life by a dark ages pathology and cotton-wool obfuscation from the State Broadcaster is a poor substitute for facing into the issue. In my view.

Hat-tip to Philip and George R.

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"we don't often talk directly about demographics..."

... says Evan Davies on the Today programme, treading delicately on eggshells as he interviews Richard Ehrman, author of 'The Power of Numbers' . Funny that.

"Partly, perhaps, because it all tends to change rather slowly, and partly perhaps because we have an aversion to any kind of population control"

I wonder who the 'we' is ? And aversion to population control ? You wouldn't get that impression from the BBC. Evan's back on the eggshells again ...

"We very much .. um .. (unintelligible) relied, either explicitly, you know, deliberately, or by default - on rising immigration, if you like, to keep the labour force growing, haven't we"

We may well have done - but the BBC certainly didn't tell us that. You'd be better off reading Charles Moore if you want to know what the problem is. He doesn't agree that the changes are slow, either :

Each day, a small number of people walk up from the station and past our house on their way to work. It is quite a long walk – perhaps a mile and a half – but I imagine they walk because they do not earn enough to own cars. They are virtually all foreign. They are on their way to serve as carers and nurses in an old people's home, whose inmates are virtually all British...

...the change is not marginal, but drastic. In 1960, OECD countries had a fertility rate of 3.2 children. Today, they have one of 1.6, well below the "replacement rate" of 2.1. So the rate has halved in my lifetime, moving from fast increase to steady decline. We in the West are collectively deciding not to bestow on others the gift which we most value for ourselves – life.

... the welfare state as we know it is essentially the creation of the post-war baby boom, and cannot survive a baby bust. In 1950, there were 5.5 million people in Britain aged over 65. There are 10.5 million today. If I am still alive in 2035, I shall be one of 15.25 million pensioners, while the number of those working, and therefore paying for me and the other 15,249,999, will have fallen steeply.

The problem for the BBC is that the factors which have caused the demographic collapse - the Pill, the sexual revolution, easily available abortion (one baby in four - six million plus since 1967) , women putting career before children, the glorification of extended adolescence - are part of the cultural revolution in which the BBC played a supporting role and which the BBC celebrate to this day. Alas, in those days of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll no one mentioned pensions or the care of the elderly. No one told us ideas had unintended consequences. The writer Lionel Shriver describes the mindset with great insight and honesty in this Guardian piece.

The timebomb is serious, and makes the Government's current credit crunch deficit look like small change. You can see a 'population pyramid' here - note the immediate post-war 'blip' of babies, then the great bulge born in the 50s and 60s. As that bulge moves into retirement over the next 25 years, the ratio of taxpayers to tax consumers (elderly people need more care and particularly more medical care) will fall. Where will the money come from to pay for their care ?

There's another issue too. Public sector pensions - which are funded, not by investments squirreled away, but by current tax receipts. A larger number of pensioners plus a smaller number of taxpayers is not a sustainable situation - unless the government either raises taxes significantly, cuts public spending significantly, or prints money.

A private pension provider who paid existing pensioners out of current receipts, and who therefore needed a continual inflow of new clients to pay the existing ones, would be guilty of a criminal offence.

There's a word for financial schemes which take in money, promising a good return in the future, and use the new money coming in to pay existing investors. They're called Ponzi schemes. A characteristic is that they need to recruit more and more new investors to pay the outgoings to the current investors. When the supply of new investors dries up, the scheme cannot continue to pay out and collapses.

For 'new investors' in the Ponzi scheme, read 'new taxpayers' paying for some old chap's pension and NHS treatment, or for some quangocrat's inflation-proofed pension - maybe even a BBC one. You can see why they haven't given the subject much coverage.

(A nasty thought occurs to me. I hope the BBC's continual plugging of euthanasia isn't softening us up for the inevitable tax-saving cull of the aged and infirm. We wouldn't want to be a burden on the state, would we now ?)

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OPEN THREAD

Here you go, an open thread for Saturday Night and Sunday Morning... for all matters BBC!

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A devotion to education

Over at Old Holborn Paul Weston has a blog about the BBC and their GCSE "religious studies" materials. Recommended reading:

Although the BBC has a reputation for bias, dishonesty and the promotion of cretinous infantile ideologies designed to destroy civilised society, they appear to have surpassed themselves...

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Burial of Respect

Melanie Phillips has an article about the Tories’ new policy on marriage and the family. Towards the end she writes:

“A two-part programme for the BBC by the respected journalist John Ware about ‘The Death Of Respect’, which identifies family breakdown as an important reason for the rise of aggression, incivility and crime, has been moved by channel controllers from a prime 9pm slot to the ‘graveyard’ 11.20pm time because it is considered to be ‘too dark’.”

I couldn’t find any more about this cowardly decision by the ‘channel controllers,’ but if this is true it’s pathetic.
I did find:

“What a pity, therefore, that the BBC have chosen to schedule this show in a graveyard slot instead of putting it on earlier opposite Big Brother, for instance.”

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Unhinder us!

Former top anti-terror police officer Peter Clarke says the anti-terror police are constrained by the Contempt of Court Act. Because of it, the police are unable to explain why they do what they do, and this discourages ‘the community’ from cooperating with them.
Citing the controversial 2003 police raid of the Finsbury Park Mosque, he said restrictions had actually forced the police to skew the conduct of operations.

The BBC has its own Restraining Act, and it implements this mysterious act when describing certain individuals.
Q. When is a Muslim not a Muslim? A. When he’s a terror suspect.
On such occasions he’s religiously de -religionised by the BBC, and ‘the community’ is just any old community. So as not to jeopardise community cohesion.

On the other hand, when it applies to something admirable, or something English, they go to ridiculous lengths to include the ROP.
A programme entitled ‘Morris and the Muslims’ is being trailed relentlessly on the radio.
William Morris, renowned 19th C. English designer of wallpaper and fabric, pioneer of the Arts and Crafts movement and Commie, was, according to the BBC, influenced by “The Muslim World.” This is the first I’ve heard of it. I thought stained glass, medieval history, the classics, French cathedrals, and visiting Iceland were the things that influenced him. His patterns emanated from natural forms, fruit, foliage etc.

Islamic art consists of repetitive patterning. Does this mean anything repetitive stems from Islamic Art? Patterned fabric is necessarily repetitive because of the manufacturing process. Manufactured and fabricated, as, I suspect, is this strange link. But what do I know?

Was the BBC’s reluctance to call terror suspects ‘Muslim’ merely because of the Contempt of Court Act all along? In which case a change in the law might liberate the BBC and they could unleash even more ‘Influenced-by-the-Muslim-World’ broadcasting, and like wallpaper; the pattern could be repeated over and over and applied wall-to-wall.

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PROSTITUTING ACADEMIA

There is only one thing worse than BBC bias and that is seeing BBC bias rewarded. As a graduate of Queen's University Belfast I am sickened (though not surprised at this most politically calculating institution) to see that it is awarding Orla Guerin a doctorate for services to broadcasting journalism.

Guerin is one of the most BIASED journalists working for the BBC - no small feat. Her love-in with the enemies of Israel has been well documented in these pages and elsewhere and yet she is now given academic endorsement for her bias. I hope she wears here keffiyeh when she calls to collect it!

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PERSECUTION TIME

Did you read that the BBC is prosecuting a viewer who has refused on principle to pay his television licence for seven years, amid claims the Corporation is fearful of a growing backlash against the fee?

Retired engineer John Kelly was one of several thousand people who have refused to pay since 2002 in protest at what they regard as bias in the BBC's news coverage of issues such as the European Union. He and nearly all the other 'refuseniks', including former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, have so far escaped court – despite tens of thousands of prosecutions each year. But now he has received a summons which he believes has been prompted by a flurry of publicity about high-profile figures, including former BBC presenter Noel Edmonds and journalist Charles Moore, who are also threatening to rebel.

BBC shows true colours wasting OUR money persecuting Mr Kelly. What a disgrace.

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THE BIG QUESTION!

Hope you're all tuned in and watching Nicky Campbell's "Big Question". Coming up on the programme "Can Gays be cured?" - Peter Tatchell is on the panel so there should be loads of balance. Then "Is there life after death?" - Church of England synod member on to cover that one of and then finally "Is Prison a waste of time?" - I see Yasmin Alibi Brown from the Guardian on to cover that! So balanced.

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SUPERTROUGHERS

Did you see that two BBC bosses have racked up the biggest pensions in the public sector, together worth more than £14m?

Mark Byford, 51, the deputy director general, is to receive a pension of at least £229,500 a year from a pot valued at almost £8m. This could rise to more than £10m if he works at the BBC until the age of 60. Alan Yentob, 62, the arts presenter and creative director of the BBC, has accumulated a pension worth £6.3m, giving an annual retirement income of £216,667 for the rest of his life, according to new research. Until now it was thought that Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, had Britain’s largest public sector pension. His pension pot is valued at £5.7m, paying a retirement income of £198,613 a year.

And you thought that Fred Goodwin was a supertrougher?

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CONNIVING WITH GORDON

I commend that you visit this post over at The All Seeing Eye. Picked up fellow ASE co-conspirator G.O.T. via the excellent Gigits. As is pointed out, The Brown Broadcasting Corporation are so far up the Gorgon's backside that only their feet are visible.

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What do you make of the BBC’s director general concession that the licence fee could be scrapped and replaced with funding via council or income taxes – or even a levy on electricity bills?

Mark Thompson’s comments have been taken as an admission-that the growing use of new technology to watch programmes will make the licence fee obsolete.

Rubbish. It's not new technology that invalidates the license tax- it is the very concept of forcing us to fund a biased and insidious State broadcaster. And as for the notion of transferring this cost to an income tax or council tax - NO WAY. Thoughts?

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To Beeb or not to Beeb

Iain Dale, Oliver Kamm and Nick Ferrari all belatedly decided to stop appearing on the Iranian-backed Press T.V.
They no longer wish to lend whatever credibility their participation bestows upon this alleged propaganda machine.

What prompted these ‘principled’ resignations? For Iain Dale it was because “I have been appalled at the way their website has portrayed what's happened in the Iranian elections” and for Nick Ferrari it was “in protest at the regime crushing dissent after the Iranian elections,” Oliver Kamm said his was because of “the station's promotion of the work of a Holocaust denier”

But surely the clamp-down on protesters and Press T.V.s support for the Ahmadinejad regime - not to mention Holocaust denial - were not the first or the only signs that Press T.V. was something one wouldn’t want to be associated with?

This particular dilemma must have pre-dated the Iranian election fiasco. Why did the moral objections come to a head only after these terrible events?
The publicity engendered by these resignations wouldn’t have been quite the same if they had simply declined invitations to appear in the first place as I understand others have done.
There are calls for Press T.V. to be banned altogether, but where does that leave freedom of speech?
A station that features George Galloway, Yvonne Ridley and Lauren Booth, and has the ridiculous Matthew Richardson for an MD can’t have much credibility going for it, and too many bans make Jack a very dull boy..

Anyway, the dilemma applies to BBC as well, and the argument goes like this:
Does one participate in a set-up with which one profoundly disagrees in order to put the case for the other side? Or, does one have nothing to do with it in the first place?

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Hitchens fans at the Beeb

The BBC have acquired a sudden enthusiasm for the pronouncements of Peter Hitchens. Not all of them, naturally. Just this one.

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THOSE PESKY "MILITANTS"

I see that the BBC is suggesting that "at least 10 militants have died after missiles were fired by a suspected US drone aircraft at a Taliban target in Pakistan, intelligence officials say. " Finally, a strike that doesn't involve a "wedding party." Go USA. Of course the thing that gets me is the use of politically correct language at play here. Those killed weren't "militants" - they were Islamic Jihadists. Why not SAY it? Why imply that the Taliban and Al Queda are some sort of professional army when in fact they are merely opportunistic and cowardly killers driven by the mad pathology of Islam? I wish we could speak a little more truth but then again the BBC has contorted and bent so many words out of all recognition.

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OPEN THREAD

Ok - so another Thursday night no liveblog. My colleague and co-host Geoff is improved a little and the serious perils reduced a little. He is aware of all your good wishes and I wanted to thank you for your understanding re my slight reduction on posts here as I am now keeping three blogs going! That said, still as incensed with Al Beeb as ever. Glad Sue picked up the Shamnesty report on Israel which the BBC just lurved and regurgitated in the usual manner - haven't had time to cover it myself.

Anyway, this is now an OPEN THREAD - the floor is yours...

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Out of Proportion

Amnesty International, the so-called Independent Human Rights organisation, has released a report about war crimes committed during the Cast Lead episode. To help, the BBC web page shows injured babies.
Israel’s crimes, many, varied and wide-ranging, (as well as wanton, deliberate and unjustified,) largely amount to not being accurate enough with their retaliatory responses. So when Hamas sends rockets from densely populated areas, Israel must restrain itself until it is absolutely certain that the guilty party can be targeted precisely, (provided that he is a militant, and not a civilian or a ‘child’) Then he's permitted to be neatly zapped like in a computer game.

Well, we knew all this already.

The BBC doesn’t say that Donatella Rovera’s report is emotive and unprofessional, or that it criticises Israel “disproportionately “ and “Indiscriminately.”
On ‘Ask Amnesty’ for example, she seems to think Israel occupies Gaza. However hard she tries, her attempts to appear even-handed fall flat.

Neither Amnesty nor the BBC sees fit to mention that Hamas provoked the war in the first place, and that there could be peace tomorrow if the Palestinians recognised Israel and renounced violence. (I meant peace with Israel, - not peace amongst themselves, a different thing altogether.)

On this occasion I don’t think the BBC is as biased as usual. There are scare quotes around ‘war crimes’ in the headline. Almost as though they weren’t unreservedly supporting Amnesty’s report. Or is that wishful thinking?

Amnesty’s method of ‘evidence gathering’ is merely to question Palestinian eyewitnesses. Even the BBC might think that a little unscrupulous and unprofessional. But then again...

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FORCED STATISTICS

I happened to catch this interview on Today with Foreign Office minister Chris Bryant on the topic of government trying to prevent forced marriages. He was quick to make it clear that this was not directed towards Islam since Islam did not approve of such brutality. Then Sarah Montague pointed out that 70% of all (known) forced marriage cases involve people of Pakistani origin - a detail which Bryant shrugged off and which Montague promptly let drop. Anyone know what the predominant religion in Pakistan is? If do, give the Today show a call and update them.

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KING ARTHUR "NOT ENGLISH"

I read that the BBC is to film a historical documentary likely to rob England of King Arthur, one of the nation's most treasured legends.

Film-makers are due to arrive in Croatia next month (july) to begin filming the programme with British historian John Matthews, who believes Arthur was really Roman general Lucius Artorius Castus

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THE DRUGS DON'T WORK ANYMORE....

Did you catch Mark Easton's glowing report on Portugal's policy of not prosecuting anyone caught in possession of hard drugs? Here is the content of it. What struck me was the subtle but all too evident admiration Easton exhibits for a government that has given up on the war on illegal narcotics. As Easton concludes.....

Some question aspects of the system but what Portugal's controversial experiment has demonstrated is that, if you take the crime out of drug use, the sky doesn't fall in.

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OPEN THREAD

This is an open thread for you to discuss all things BBC!

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Left, Left, Left

Listening to this BBC Today segment concerning the positon of Trident, I was reminded how much the BBC wallow in debates among their ideological confreres (they are enjoying it while they still can). In this segment, the BBC presented the views of George Robertson and various leftist thinkers (the presenter calls it a "phenomenal list"), Robert Peston (the left-oriented BBC commentator), and the Labour Government minister Bill Rammell. Rammell defends the Gvt's position in persisting with Trident by saying that Britain is at the forefront of nuclear disarmament- pointing to cutbacks in the arsenal. He does this because his critics are coming from the CND legacy left. The BBC offers no counterbalancing voice, and indeed the presenter barbs caustically "can we afford it?"- something I don't recall hearing concerning any other item of public expenditure ever from the BBC. Biased.

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A LOAD OF BALLS...

Sarah Montague "interviews" Ed Balls here. What a laugh. It was in essence a forum for Balls to constantly repeat that the Conservatives are out to cut back "investment" in the public sector. I love the fantastical claims that Balls makes, which Sarah gaily lets pass. "Tough Discipline in every class-room" - was this a comedy routine? The BBC pimps for Labour day in day out and it is as simple as that. Note that the arrogant and devious tone throughout from Balls and the way in which he throws around "Billions" as if it were HIS money. (PFI is "a great success" was another great throwaway line. )

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ANOTHER THOUGHT FOR THE DAY...

I posted here yesterday on what I see as the BBC's shameful participation in the sanitising of the appeasement of terrorism here in Northern Ireland aka "peace process". Today, on Thought for the Day, we had a follow-on item from the fragrant Rev Rosemary Lain-Priestly, of the Women's Ministry in London. Rosemary celebrated the decision by the UVF thugs to stop murdering people and wrapped it up in soft theological cotton. She went on to suggest that whilst justice for the victims was not possible perhaps we could set up a Truth Enquiry so they could "share their stories". How conveniently on narrative! Heaven forbid that those who have lost loved ones to the UVF, UDA and IRA might demand that justice be done. It's just so passe these days. WHY is justice not an option? Because it would de-rail the peace!!! Thank God ..or perhaps his rival, that we have Thought for the day to further immunise us from morality.

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HARLEQUIN ALERT!

You couldn't have listened to the BBC this morning without hearing the dire warnings concerning the predatory monster that is.....the Harlequin ladybird. The BBC had this in their head-lines and they then ran the above item on it. Wonder could they just chill out a little or is the heat and the tennis getting to them?

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EVERYBODY LOVES KEN...

Did you catch this love-in between omnipresent BBC "analyst" Red Ken Livingstone and Mr Naughty? The topic was "social housing" (Gotta love the euphemism for State control of the housing stock!) and the point was that "working-class" people are "ANGRY because they can't get a house so Government must seize control of this area of our lives. Thatcher gets bashed, BNP gets bashed and the creed of socialism gets a free outing. The BBC present the alternative to left wing Labour as even more left wing Livingstone. Pathetic.

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SURRENDER TO THE RHYTHM.....

Nothing like starting the day with the proposition that the United Kingdom cannot afford to defend itself. Looks like losing an effective nuclear deterrent is the way forward in these turbulent times- or so the left wing IPPR and BBC shills would have us believe. To pick up on the title of this post, what's so funny 'bout peace love and understanding?

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"a serious suggestion for the BBC"

The Magistrate on BBC expenses :

Of course there is a proportion of people who just don't like paying any bill, but let's put this into perspective.

The licence fee is more than two weeks of Jobseeker's Allowance, and about a day-and-a-half's worth of the average wage. The £2000 spent on flying the boss's family back because Sir had to sort out the Ross/Brand fiasco represents more than 33 weeks' worth of JSA for the poorest licence payers. So come and have a look at JPs fining the unlicensed in - note - a criminal court.

Then, next time you want to charge up a £200 lunch at the Ivy for two people who are already well-off you will have a better idea of where the money comes from. I'll be happy to arrange it, and I might even come along myself.

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WORTH IT?

I see that our dear friends at the BBC have been giving much prominence to the news that our Monarchy costs us £41.5m in the 2008/9 financial year. OK - and the BBC costs £3bn+ per annum. Which is best value for Britain?

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WEEPING FOR GAZA..

BBC start the new week shilling for Gaza. (I guess they are recovering from the loss of MJ) Just after 6.30am on Today there was an item about the terrible plight of those poor innocent Gazans who have had their property destroyed by those bad Israelis - for no good reason, apparently. We were treated to what was essentially a five minute pro Gaza lament - full of those usual anti-Israel clap-trap that has become the BBC default mode on this issue. They interviewed one Gazan who disliked the Israelis but also who blamed Hamas for bringing the violence on butthen balanced this with an interview with another who had become even more supportive of Hamas since the "invasion." Either way, Israel loses. The BBC specialises in producing this one-sided pro-Pali guff. Their bias is visceral.

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SHLLING FOR KILLERS

Right then - Monday morning on Today and the BBC's Mark Simpson provides us with the news that the terror group the UVF has "put beyond use" its illegal arsenal. Later on we are to be treated to the wife of convicted UVF bomber and canonised (since his death) PUP politician David Ervine along with Indie journo David McKittrick on the same topic. Reality alert! The UVF remains a bloodthirsty criminal cabal, and the UVF killers remain at large, untainted with justice. These vermin are playing along with government policy with faux decommissioning at the heart of it. The public will not see what has been handed over, nor will we know how it was "put beyond use", nor where the weaponry is stored, nor what the inventory was. Instead all we get is reassuring official noises and UVF apologists on to tell us how wonderful this is. IF the BBC had any measure of balance, they would allow those who remain profoundly cynical of terrorist posturing on their programme to "debate" this topic but of course that NEVER happens. In my view, at times like this, the BBC demonstrates how evil is is by playing along with the depraved appeasement of the UVF and their fellow psychopaths in the UDA. Why are the BBC so afraid if giving air-time to those who distrust the terror gangs? What's the big problem? How much money will be showered on these scum now? What happens to those UVF killers who remain at large but with blood on their hands? Who knows? - the BBC will not allow these questions to be asked....

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THE GLASTONBURY JUNKET

Wonder how you feel about the BBC's coverage of the Glastonbury-fest?

The BBC has admitted that 125 staff and 150 freelancers are at Glastonbury, either as presenters, producers, directors or technical crew in order to broadcast across BBC2, BBC3, BBC4 and an interactive channel, as well as on Radio 1, 6 Music, 5 Live and a dedicated website. Hosts include Jo Whiley, Zane Lowe and Steve Lamacq.

Alongside them are about 130 short-term contractors hired by the BBC to offer ‘support’ at the 1,100-acre Somerset site. It says these include people who provide ‘some specialist technical services, rigging at the start and end of the project, and security

Nice to know that even in this time of ....economic "down turn"..... the BBC feels obliged to pull out all the stops when it comes to this event.

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A QUESTION OF PRIORITY

So, which is the more important news story. Michael Jackson - still dead. Or, employees of the British Embassy in Tehran being detained care of the mad Mullahs? The BBC leads with the former, I just wonder why it is not the latter?

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NO PROFIT IN DHIMMITUDE

Watching Nicky Campbell's Big Question debate whether we should ban the burqa. (Short answer; Yes!) Campbell keeps referring to "The Prophet". Which prophet is that? Does he refer to Christ as "The Saviour." Naturally there is a Burqa clad babe in the front row. Yvonne Ridley on to help defend Burqa.

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SNEERING COMEDIANS....

Don't know if you ever listen to The Now Show on Radio 4. I caught it earlier and whilst I don't really mind Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis (Typical BBC types but they can be funny and do poke fun at quite a few targets) I do find Marcus Brigstocke and his contributions truly revolting.

Posh boy Marcus likes to play the class warrior - Ben Elton with a bigger sneer - and his little rant on this programme came down to a feral attack on the UKIP and BNP voters. He also produced nasty personal attacks on Nigel Farage and Nick Griffin. I suspect the reason that Marcus is so omnipresent on the BBC schedule is that in his own childish but arrogant fashion, his imbecilic comments reflect that narrative of the BBC. So, we were told by Marcus that ONLY the Green Party had performed well in the recent elections - a complete lie. Don't get me wrong, I think comedy should be challenging. But where on the BBC is there a right of liberal comic who mocks Islam, who damns socialism, who attacks the State? Brigstocke is your ten a penny sneering lefty hypocrite- and the BBC can't get enough of him. Worth your license tax?

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JACKO WHACKED.

Alright then, I have refrained from comment on the death of Michael Jackson on this blog as it initially did not seem appropriate as bias was not immediately obvious. HOWEVER, two days on, the amount of coverage being given as the Dianafication of Jacko continues is surely an issue for an organisation that pretends it is a serious broadcaster. The questions in my mind are as follows.

1. If it "makes no difference if you're black or white" why has the BBC wheeled one black artiste on after another to tell us how important MJ was?
2. Why is Emily Maitlis getting down with the breakdancers on the pavements of LA?
3. Why is the paedophilia being downplayed and the conversion to the ROP ignored?

I am sorry for Jackson's family, friends and fans but it is important that the FULL picture of his odd and increasingly pathetic life be provided. With the BBC, we are getting half the picture, sanitised and dianafied.

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SHILLING FOR DEVOLUTION

It strikes me that the BBC has been a powerful advocate for devolution. I have come across this phenomena personally here in Northern Ireland - getting perplexed looks from BBC interviewers when I insist on the importance of shrinking all forms of big government and retaining full sovereignty at Westminster. But have you read this BBC report in which David Cameron is presented offering a mea culpa for the Conservatives daring to oppose Scottish devolution?

I think the BBC is being disingenuous with what Cameron actually said - he merely points out that Conservative opposition to the principle of devolving power was "wrong." The broader issue is how such devolution works in practise and, of course, who pays for Salmond and his pals playing at being a government? There are other issues left untouched such as why Scottish politicians get to vote on issues affecting England whilst the converse does not hold? Devolution as it is currently constituted has de-stabilised the essential integrity of the Union yet the BBC presents it as if it were the most wonderful thing imaginable. How about the BBC running an item on the costs to the English taxpayer of the celtic finge having their devolution experiment or is it the case that he who pays the Piper must not call the tune? Just wondering....

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BECAUSE HE'S WORTH IT?

So, who feels sorry for BBC D-G Mark Thompson who moans he is paid but a third of someone doing the same job in the private sector? Isn't it awful? I wonder that instead of Children In Need we should have a "DG in Need" - a chance for the nation to put their hand in their pocker and see if we can bridge the wage gap for poor Mark? Then AGAIN there is the pesky reality that Thompson and the rest of the BBC fatcats have the security of tenure of the State sector with salaries out of all proportion to others in this sector. I was invited onto the Nolan Show to discuss this earlier today but had no spare time. My issue is not so much the expenses, nor even the wages - it is that State funded broadcasting is anachronistic, massively expensive, biased and dangerous to liberty.

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OPEN THREAD

Here is an open thread for you to post any BBC related comment. Use it wisely!

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Changing the subject

Douglas Carswell MP was listening to the BBC talk about their expenses today...

"Listening to Radio 4 news item on BBC executives' expenses.

They spivishly turn it into a feature on social attitudes to money. They've even got some moocher "expert" attacking Thatcherism. That's right; when in doubt over how you're spending the license fee, blame Maggie.

I imagine there a few MPs who'd like the BBC to have turned news of their expenses into a feature on attitudes to money and Thatcherism."

Ah, to be the watchman, eh? But who will watch him?

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