Jerry's final thought

There's been so much to say today. It's been rather overwhelming. 

The BBC's been absolutely relentless (from what I've heard and seen of it) in pushing a small number of messages very vigorously. 

What they've been up to only becomes clear when you watch them very closely over a period of time. Some communique must have gone out from on high to push these angles, and those very angles are duly being pushed for all they're worth.

I like blogging, but a big part of me would much prefer to blog nice stuff about the BBC. There's lots of BBC radio (rather less TV) that I really appreciate. I don't hate every BBC programme or fail to find any Radio 4 comedy funny. (Stop/Start's funny for starters). I could fill this blog with posts about things I've enjoyed hearing on Radio 4. I've even tweeted BBC producers (usually of nature programmes) thanking them.

But I really don't appreciate what they've been up to in the wake of the massacres in Paris. I really, really don't.

And I don't appreciate having to pay for it. (And I'm not the sort of person to steal things by not paying for them).

Anyhow, on related matters, and to round things off for the day...

Alan at Biased BBC has highlighted some more Jon Donnison tweets, pushing various angles, including a tweet praising UKIP-bashing James O'Brien of LBC for bullying some some 'ordinary bloke' from Maidenhead (ringing in to his phone-in show) for daring to demand that Muslims speak out without reservation about the stuff done in their name. Anita Anand would be proud of him.

Nabila Ramdani, meanwhile, has, by all accounts, been busy on the BBC today. BBC World (which we UK licence fee payers can't receive) used her for their running commentary during the Paris march. She apparently used the opportunity to denounce Benjamin Netanyahu as a "war criminal". Classy. 

Allah knows what other rubbish she came out with but, as we've said before, she's fully entitled to come out with it. The BBC, however, isn't obliged to invite her onto every programme going. That it does seem to feel it's OK to do so, suggests either bias or an absurdly small address book.

Radio 4's Beyond Belief will be tackling 'Fundamentalism' tomorrow, in the light of recent events. Ernie's guests will be (1) Haras Raffiq, Managing Director of the Quilliam Foundation, (2) Julie Scott Jones, Associate Head of the Sociology Department at Manchester Metropolitan University; and (3) Salman Sayyid, Reader in Islam and Politics at the University of Leeds. 

Here, in advance, is a flavour of where Salman Sayyid is coming from:

The attitude of many of those responsible for publishing the hostile cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed (praise be upon him) can perhaps be best understood by a Marxist analysis. I refer to the quip by (Groucho) Marx: "How dare she get insulted just because I insulted her?"

The supporters of the publication of the cartoons appear to be surprised that many Muslims found the cartoons offensive; at the same they claim these cartoons are part of an effort to throw back the forces of multiculturalism in favour of national (i.e. European) cultural restoration. The conflict between those who see in the publication a noble principle at stake and those who see just another episode of European racism disguised as high moral principle has itself become a metaphor for other conflicts that exceed the xenophobia of a tiny statelet.

And finally (h/t DB), Tim Willcox (of "A lot of these prominent Jewish faces will be very much against the political mansion tax presumably?" fame) "interviewed a French Jewish couple today on the BBC News Channel. The lady was saying that the Jews are the targets now when Tim Willcox interrupted her to say, "Many critics though of Israel's policy would suggest that the Palestinians suffer hugely at Jewish hands as well"...

[UPDATE: This one's going to run. I see BBC Watch and Biased BBC are also on the case now].

...and, frankly, that's the last straw. I'm off to bed. Good night.