Sunday 23 April 2017

Open thread



Gina Miller hasn't blocked this open thread in the courts yet, so - until she does - please add anything that strikes you about the BBC below.

18 comments:

  1. "Marine Le Pen: Is France's Front National leader far-right?"

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/marine_le_pen

    Short answer: Yes, because her main issue is nationalism, which is racism and only far-right. While she's cut public political ties with her father (who has said she is him with breasts - who you gonna believe, eh?), and has tried to have the FN build bridges with the Jewish community, she's mainly distanced herself from her father because his remarks no longer play well to the crowd. Never mind how her economic policies are far-Left. If she's elected, there will be violence. So, far-right it is.

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  2. TWTW at 1pm today - it appeared as if we had returned to the days of Blair Broadcasting Corporation as Our Tone was given best part of half an hour of a softball interview conducted by Mark Mardell to propound his counterintuitive "Brexit Means Staying in the Single Market" theory.

    Such soft easy questions from Mardell...

    I hate the way the BBC Eurofans talk as if the EU is the shining example of democracy and social progress it once could credibly claim to be.

    You would never think for one moment that France is in its second year of a state of emergency, that the far right has been on the rise across the continent, that the EU cannot stop Islamic terrorists organising attacks, that Germany is now paying out 10s of billions of Euros to support the million illegal migrants to that they let in and that figure can only continue to rise, that the EU is failed to patrol its borders, letting in well over half a million illegal migrants each year and that the EU continues to suffer the scourge of youth unemployment. In short the EUBC can find no reason whatsoever to think there might be a downside to continued EU membership.

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  3. Weird convo on Radio 5 LIve around 12.15 pm today Hugh (Sykes?) talking to Adrian Chiles about the French election result. Hugh began with an assertion that we didn't need to be apprehensive or fearful as a consequence of the vote because Le Pen would not win. :) The bias was so blatant that Chiles went into chivvy mode, noting not everyone would be fearful of a Le Pen win...at which point the conversation got surreal, as Hugh agreed with him...they were soon happily tying each other in knots about perceived bias, populism and insider-outerism.

    No relevant questions like "Where the eff did all teh money for Macron's new party and campaign come from?"

    I read that Macron refuses to say.

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    Replies
    1. They said that about Trump as well....until it was all over and then the fear set in.

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    2. True, but so far I've got Brexit and Trump right in terms of prediction, and I am sticking with Macron as my prediction on this one, hoping to make it 3 out 3. :) Barring a very major terrorist attack I don't think she can win.

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    3. I expect Macron will win as well. I didn't expect Trump to win, and almost expected Brexit (I saw the trend growing, but couldn't quite believe it in the end). If there's another Nowt To Do With Islam attack in France, though, all bets are off.

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  4. Reposted from below 'Introductions':

    I see that the BBC are describing Mr Macron as a 'Centrist' politician - pro EU, one of us, likely to be the next French President etc. Surely French voters' rejection of mainstream establishment politicians should be described as a 'populist' move. But, seemingly 'populist' can only apply to 'far-right' in the BBC corporate brain.

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    1. The BBC haven't quite sorted out their policy on that. Some of them appear to want to allow for a good populism (= Macron and similar, much like SNP are sometimes held to be "good" populists) as opposed to bad populists (Trots and "far" right). Others at the BBC seem determined to hold the line and maintain the fake news narrative that populism=far right=fascist, given its propaganda power.

      But is Macron a "centrist" in any case? Is it "centrist" to sign up to an unstable superstate project going you know not where, to allow for a situation where the would be superstate is incapable of controlling its own borders, to accept Islamic terrorism as inevitable, to be part of a system that delivered huge youth unemploymnet and to accept that the pro Sharia element is going to grow and grow...now 10%, soon 20%, then 30%...

      Isn't that all a very extremist position, one that would have been denounced by true centrists in the past like de Gaulle?

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    2. Those are all 'centrist' positions from the Left-wing BBC perspective. They think they're on the middle ground.

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  5. This morning - Nick Robinson in a question to Keith Starmer continued with the fake news assertion that Norway and Switzerland are part of the Single Market. They are not. The EU Commission make clear on their website you have to be a member of the EU to be part of the Single Market. Norway and Switzerland aren't even part of the common agricultural and fisheries policies which are key parts of the Single Market.

    Of course this "confusion" (I don't personally believe these senior BBC journos don't actually understand the distinction) just happens to be very useful to the anti-Brexit cause...ain't that a shocker! :)

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  6. From the outset I distrusted the BBC's motivation in their launch of their "Reality Check" job creation scheme.

    Now we see "Reality Checks" like this one which asks if the UK general election will strengthen May's hand in negotiations...


    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39641230

    So what "reality" does this refer to? It is a "reality" that can only be known in the future (and all manner of things might happen in the future) and even then it will still be subject to debate, being a matter of opinion and assessment: some people will say it did, others will say it didn't.

    It couldn't be clearer that Reality Check is not there to check on "reality" but to push the BBC's naive soggy left agenda on absolutely everything.

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  7. Nicked from Guido's comments.

    BBC Fake News - Adrian Chiles, Radio 5 today

    "But they [Labour] at least offered the potential of reassurance to the many EU citizens living here, which is something that Theresa May hasn't got it in her heart to do. She just wants to leave that in her negotiating hand."

    Fake News. May tried to tie this up back in November, only to be rebuffed by Merkel and Tusk.

    Angela Merkel says 'nein' to Theresa May's calls for early deal on rights of EU migrants and British ex-pats

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/...

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  8. "Challenged" Chiles just follows the herd. I doubt he's ever had an original thought, though he often tries to dress up his attempts at sentence construction as original thought...

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  9. Gina just on R4 The World Tonight ... telling us vote tactically and also telling us what is democracy. Blair was on TWATO on Sunday telling us pretty much the same.

    What an unlovely couple of rootless over-wealthy self important globalists.

    But why so much air time for these self-regarding lobbyists? Neither is standing in the election.

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    1. Lord Mandelson likewise got a lengthy softball interview on Newsnight...and he's not standing but is clearly recommending tactical voting.

      Why no tough questions for them like "Why would we want to be part of a superstate project that can't control its borders, can't deliver jobs for young people, and can't stop major Islamic terrorist attacks?"

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  10. Watch for Rachel Johnson to be all over the BBC airwaves for the next few days. She's joined the Lib Dems, so they will try to promote her as a shining example of conservatives joining the Third (Remain) Way.

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  11. Apropos about nothing I was watching Masterchef last night and wondered who were all the troughers in the restaurant (Roux at Westminster) that was being featured. BBC executives and their girlfriends/boyfriends perchance? They wouldn't have been ordinary punters with the cameras there.

    ChrisTheLeatherman

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    Replies
    1. Yes, probably not so many Leave voters there.

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