Tuesday 12 March 2019

Open Thread


Time for a new Open Thread. Thanks to one and all for your comments and support. Here's to us! And Cheers!

81 comments:

  1. Sweeney in his cups...make that four cups...no eff it, make it 28.

    AND THAT'S WHY WE ALL TRUST THE BBC AS MUCH AS WE DO! :)

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  2. Drinks slide off table as RMS Great Britain (& NI) starts her slow capsize!

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  3. Conversation with Rangoon taxi driver a couple of days ago:

    TD: Why UK want to leave EU? I not understand.

    ME: Why did Burma want to leave British Empire?

    TD: So we can run our country ourself.

    ME: Precisely!

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  4. COCKTAILS - Spotted on the cocktail list of a restaurant in 'downtown' Rangoon, a beverage called 'BBC' - contents: Dark Rum, Bailey's, Coconut Syrup, Cream, Pineapple Juice, Fresh Banana. Ingredients as diverse as one might expect, and sourced from once subject peoples.

    Didn't try one on grounds it would almost certainly have a sickly, cloying taste - anyway, I was slurping a Whiskey Sour!

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    1. Did you have to pay for the BBC cocktail even if you didn't want to drink it?

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  5. While Peter Hitchens was pursuing a complaint about the BBC's one-sided pro-abortion portrayal in a Call the Midwife episode set in 1964, he discovered that the same story caused a spate of complaints and some heavyweight action from the opposite direction. Complaints from Both Sides!

    The storm of protest arose because the BBC was conscientiously trying to be balanced and NOT take a stance on one side or the other of a contentious issue; consequently they made no mention of abortion on their Action Line, which advises people where they can go for advice on issues raised in the programme.
    Alas for the conscientious BBC, a number of national newspapers, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, Equalities Ministers and sundry others erupted in fury, resulting in a letter signed by 100 MPs and the poor old BBC having to cave in and put up a reference to abortion.

    It's not off the hook though, having got itself in a bit of a tangle by arguing against Hitchens's contention that abortion was a contentious issue and therefore subject to BBC rules on that, while maintaining elsewhere that it WAS a contentious issue - thereby providing grist to his mill. Oh dear, this one could run and run.

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  6. Panic at the disco! - Guardian sounds the alarm...Batten strategy working (this wasn't supposed to happen!!! Bolton was supposed to destroy the party!!!!!).

    Expect the BBC to back calls for UKIP to be outlawed and taken off social media. Come on Electoral Commission - what are you waiting for? Time to ban UKIP...

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/03/new-ukip-members-shifting-party-far-right

    ***

    Just hearing Christina Patterson on Sky - you know the one who claims to be a moderate committed to social cohesion and polite discourse - referring to inoffensive Steve Baker MP as "completely ghastly" - not censured by the Sky guy. Why are Remainers allowed to get away with this hate?

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    1. I heard it too and could scarcely believe she'd come out with that. What is so ghastly about him, anyway?
      She brings me out in hives at the best of times. She was the first to speak and I thought she'd never stop and let Michael Heaver get a word in. In the end I went for the mute button.

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    2. He's just an MP with an opinion! That seems to be her beef - as the opinion is diametrically opposed to hers! I think Heaver's playing a good game: seeming to defer to her but never giving an inch on his real, solid opinions. :)

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  7. An intelligent wide-ranging conversation of the sort you will never hear on the BBC:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig81232i8lM

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  8. Nick Bryant is one of the worst Fake News Fake Journos working for the BBC...

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47164909

    He's not even pumping out the usual BBC bilge, he's just writing another bleedin' book by a BBC North American correspondent...

    Bryant says regarding the impact of liar Bill's behaviour: "She was accused of enabling his behaviour and of showing little sympathy towards his female accusers."

    Er no - Hillary Clinton's critics don't accuse her of "lacking sympathy". They accuse her of directly threatening his victims:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0R6KVrjraM

    3:35 (but the whole video condemns her as a liar).


    Then how about this meaningless bollox:

    "It provided a fitting coda to an era of sensationalism that had already brought us the OJ Simpson trial, Tonya Harding, the William Kennedy Smith trial, Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee's sex tapes, the arrest of Pee-Wee Herman, the first accusations against Michael Jackson, the Mike Tyson rape conviction, John Wayne Bobbitt and his penis-severing wife Lorena, and the divorce of Donald and Ivana Trump."

    Er - you can go back as far as you like for American scandals...we could start with the Fatty Arbuckle allegations in the 1920s or we could move on to Chaplin's predelictions...

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  9. Good tweet from Gerard - we really do all need to stand together whatever our political opinions:

    https://twitter.com/GerardBattenMEP/status/1101981291447308289

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  10. Will someone please prosecute this guy for Islamophobia!!! I blame Sajid!!!!!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9ZSII3qADI&t=212s

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  11. It's interesting to reflect on the role of the BBC in dragging their feet, tiptoeing around the sensibilities of trans Becky from Stonewall and keeping people off programmes because some trans person won't appear with them, not to mention taking Jenni Murray off discussion of trans for having the temerity to politely point out that a trans person hasn't had the lived experience of growing up and being a girl and woman.
    But I've remembered something else: while the BBC goes to some lengths and underhand tricks to get Tommy Robinson, using their investigative programme and presenter to do it (brilliantly exposed by Tommy), and subjecting him to a barrage of accusation and 'outrage' when interviewed by Andrew Neil, they were happy to give a platform to a racist trans model called Monroe Bergdorf, notorious for posting a racist diatribe on social media. Was this explicit hater visited by Plod or arrested and charged with hate speech? I don't remember. Nor do I remember any outrage when she was interviewed by the BBC. I have a feeling it may have been on the late-night This Week.

    Meanwhile the media criticism of extreme trans activism, facilitated and encouraged by a craven and stupid bandwagon-jumping Conservative government/Penny Mordaunt, and Parliament, has been led by a couple of journalists, notably James Kirkup at The Spectator and Janice Turner of The Times - neither of which I have access to but have heard about.

    Now Kirkup has written a column for the Mail on Sunday, exposing to wider view the nature of this movement and giving credit where credit's due, to the BBC for more recent efforts:
    'Almost as significant as the open debate about the Tavistock’s treatment of children was the fact the BBC covered the story properly last week. Previously, the Corporation helped muffle debate on trans issues by tiptoeing around it.
    But in sharp interviews on the Today programme and a serious, well-researched Panorama documentary about children and gender reassignment, the BBC did its job.' https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6765249/JAMES-KIRKUP-Britain-FINALLY-coming-senses-transgender-madness.html#reader-comments

    In mentioning the need to investigate Mermaids, he doesn't say that BBC website refers young people to them, which it does, or that it gave them money from Children In Need, which I have seen stated elsewhere. Incidentally, I've also read that they give money to the Proud Trust and I noticed there was a woman from there on The Big Questions this week. I don't think that was mentioned on the programme. Mind you, Campbell was so busy advocating for religions to change, that any pretence of impartiality had been jettisoned anyway.

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  12. Guardian reporting that the school teaching LBGT equality has had to back down...

    According to the Guardian: "On Friday about 600 Muslim children, aged between four and 11, were withdrawn from the school for the day, parents said."

    A lesson learned perhaps.

    https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/04/birmingham-school-stops-lgbt-lessons-after-parent-protests?CMP=twt_gu&__twitter_impression=true

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    1. R4Today school said it has no backed down but merely suspended the prog until next term , in ordrr to have discussions with parents.

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    2. The BBC are peddling Fake News. This is what the BBC Website says: "But it has faced criticism from some Muslim parents for teaching children about same-sex couples." Note the "some" - what does some signal to you? 10,20, 30 or 50 maybe.

      And here's the Guardian reporting on this:

      "On Friday about 600 Muslim children, aged between four and 11, were withdrawn from the school for the day, parents said."

      The BBC website makes no mention of the withdrawal of over 600 children 0 instead using the weasel word that opponents of the teaching programme were "claiming" hundreds of children were kept out of school. And, by the way, as far as I know that was an illegal act by the parents.

      Here's the BBC report:

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-47452904

      The difference in treatment is I think due to the Guardian being even more LGBT-focussed than the BBC which sees "social cohesion" as its top priority.

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  13. Just seen (amateurish TV performer) Ben Chu seemingly lying on Newnsight. He claims there are doubts (not "some people say they have doubts") whether we have the air capacity available to bring in vital radioisotopes. Really? We have to assume we have the air capacity currently, so why would it disappear on 29 March? - and the EU has stated explicitly it has no intention of preventing air traffic flowing freely. So where does Chu think the problem lies or is the problem that someone is lying?

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    1. Ah Ben Chu was the reporter
      \\ "Of course, now there will inevitably be delays to treatment as a result of the Brexit process"
      - Dr Richard Graham of the Royal College of Radiologists exclusively tells Newsnight //
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47462762

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    2. Yep he was also the reporter who went through about 20 possible reasons for knife crime and then came to "malign cultural influences or family background" and dismissed them as highly implausible! As if I need to tell anyone - he was "stolen" from The Guardian like most Newsnight reporters. They get taken on despite their lack of television presenting skills.

      The media should be asking some hard questions of the Royal College. Despite the strongest government assurances that the radioisotopes will be available, the Royal College is advising cancellation of appointments because of the preceived "risk" of delay, so as to allow some "wriggle room" (for what? you might ask if the radioisotopes aren't available). I think this is an example of upper middle class Eurofanaticism masquerading as "concern". They are causing the problem simply so they will be able to say on Brexit Day "Patients' lives have been put at risk by Brexit." It's playing with cancer patients' lives to advance a fanatical political cause (Eurostatism).

      I am also concerned that Macron and Blair are cooking up something at Calais. Just heard a report that French customs officials are working to rule, to slow everything down...No doubt this action will be stepped up if (unlikely!) we get to Brexit.

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  14. The conclusion of the case involving an Islamic Jihadi preparing to kill 100 people in Oxford Street gets a cursory 500 or so words on the BBC News website. There have been nearly 20 stories about Shamima Begum since the start of the year, with a word count of probably 25,000 I would guess.

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  15. Craig/Sue - Not sure if you're aware that there is a return to the rather off-putting security photo-quiz thing before you can comment...where you have to identify tiny virtually invisible objects (as defined by American English) in what are now (presumably purposively) very grainy images - with repeat demands if you fail to agree with the majority verdict (when is a traffic light not a traffic light? - when it's the post of a traffic light? - who knows?).

    Might explain why there seems to be have been a drop-off in commenting in recent weeks if other people are experiencing the same barriers to commenting as I am...

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    1. Yes, this is an annoying process. I detect a note of glee from the inanimate robot as a fresh set of images appear with the message 'try again'. However, I don't think this is the reason for the number of comments and contributors declining.

      In my mind there is a deepening gloom brought about by watching an inept Government led by an inept PM sitting on their hands frozen in time unable to act not only on Brexit, but also unable to deal with the outcome of decades of uncontrolled borders and the resultant fallout of crime, overcrowding etc.

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    2. Drop off in my comments has been related to my drop off in listening to the BBC. It's just such pure propaganda poison now that I really can't abide it and use other stations far more frequently.

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    3. Yes, I suffer from these repeated requests to try again, not being able to discern some of the fuzzier images and the dilemma of deciding whether the support post is part of the traffic light. There was a time where they seemed to let me go through without such frequent checking.

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    4. Thanks for alerting us. I'll try and work out how to get rid of it. I once spent about an hour at work failing the photo quiz (to try and get a voucher). I gave up in the end (and never got my voucher).

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    5. Alas, both Sue and myself have found the same thing. We have Word Verification 'off' and everything set to be as open as possible. So we're nonplussed as to my things have got worse again. I'm following various leads but the easiest advise tells us nothing we don't already know and haven't already done and the less easy advice sounds like a counsel of despair - it's something Google's done and there's nothing to be done about it.

      ANYONE FOR TRYING DISQUS AGAIN?

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    6. Disqus is not for me!

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    7. Yes, Disqus is good and troublefree. They have it on Guido. Spiked used to have it but went over to Facebook, following which the comments fell away to almost nothing.

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  16. This might be the final scale dropping from mine eyes! -

    https://www.altnewsmedia.net/topical-news-general/the-bruges-group-article-they-dont-want-you-to-read/

    I freely admit I was taken in by May's "Brexit means Brexit" Big Lie. But if this article is to be believed the betrayal runs much deeper and has the feel of a plan that was co-ordinated with Merkel and that it is May's longe term aim (no doubt shared by most senior civil servants like Olly Robbins to return us to the EU asap). This article certainly has the ring of truth about it and does explain why May concluded a deal that clearly was never going to command a Commons majority.

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    1. I'm not being smug MB, but the "Brexit means Brexit" line from May was the sure proof to me that she wasn't going to try to deliver anything resembling the Brexit we voted for.

      The surest sign that Brexit was to be stopped has been the State Broadcasters 24/7 anti-Brexit propaganda from June 24th 2016.

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  17. A good Article. The last two paragraphs sum it up other than the BBC promotes a position counter to much of the electorate.

    "The Spanish Inquisition was a public body which sought to define how people thought, in what it genuinely believed was their interest. It was accountable to neither state nor Pope, largely because it had its own source of income. It was prepared to promote a political position counter to that of the government.

    The Inquisition had to be abolished because it had become corrupt, not in terms of money, but in terms of power. This is probably the ultimate outcome of all such bodies, making it essential to reform or eliminate them when they develop an independent sense of mission and accept leadership only from within themselves."

    BBC and The Spanish Inquisition

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  18. For the first time, I just heard on BBC News the newsreader say ‘the so-called Northern Ireland backstop’.

    It’s ridiculous - why on earth is it now ‘so-called’?

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    1. Because it's going to be rebranded any moment now? I notice they seem to have stopped that "helpful" bit of disinformation about it being the insurance policy to ensure no hard border.

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  19. Tommy asks: "What sort of country is this?"

    A very good question.

    He is being charged and tried again. Case to be heard on 22nd March at Royal Courts of Justice.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0nO9V1m1Cw

    That booming idiot Cox now working on our Brexit Betrayal took 5 months to decide to charge him. TR is right to be concerned about the threat to his life.

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  20. I was listening to the programme that Amber Rudd used the word ‘coloured’.

    My ears pricked up when Rudd was telling Vine that she had always been a Conservative and Vine interrupted by exclaiming
    “what, even when Blair was in power? He was seen by some as conservative.“

    It tells you a lot about Vine and the BBC.

    The middle class, Oxbridge types that inhabit the BBC were able to justify their inflated salaries and Camden townhouses by showing faux allegiance to Blair and liberal socialism and still get filthy rich without feeling guilty about their privilege and status. Because Blair and Mandelson said so.

    And that’s still their justification now, 10 years on.

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    1. Here's the transcript for that:

      Amber Rudd: I've always been a Conservative.
      Jeremy Vine: Even when Blair was leading Labour?
      Amber Rudd: I always had Conservative values and directions...
      Jeremy Vine: (interrupting) Because some people say he was a Conservative as well, so...

      Delete
  21. Frenchman guilty of Jewish museum murders
    says the headline on the front page of the BBC website.

    Click on it and you get a completely different headline and an article about the murderer who is of Algerian descent, Mehdi Nemmouche.

    I think the headline, whilst accurate - is deliberately misleading. It’s true purpose is to mask, hide and obscure the true story lurking within of a radicalised jihadi terrorist returning from Syria.

    Why not use those more pertinent facts as a headline? I think we know why.

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  22. Apparently not featured on BBC...

    https://twitter.com/tomhfh/status/1103718078980997121

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  23. I've just realised, thanks to seeing another video, the significance of the 22nd March court date for Tommy Robinson. Bit thick of me not to see it straight away. They've had five months to take him to court. They have delayed it until one week before Brexit Betrayal Day -29th March - knowing that even if convicted he is unlikely to get more than a few months in jail as the original 13 month sentence was absurd. This does look like a purely political persecutory decision, intimately connected to May's Brexit policy. It has nothing to do with justice and everything to do with PC politics. Cox can now be counted with May, Bercow and Corbyn as a very serious threat to our democracy and our constitution. But where are the MPs defending liberty and speaking up? Nowhere. No even Mogg or Francois will cry foul. Very, very sad to see how our country has fallen.

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    1. Cox and Bercow both give second-rate performances in what has become a metro-elitist pantomime - bringing vital offices of state into disrepute and ridicule. That Bercow has been allowed to express his opinion of TR in parliament, and now that Cox what will stage what will probably become a show trial is a disgraceful aberration of our democratic processes.

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    2. ... now that Cox will stage what will probably become a show trial is a disgraceful aberration of our democratic processes...

      TR has been cast by the Elite as the villain - against whom everyone can lend their voice. Erm - not everyone!

      Delete
  24. The BBC Editorial Guidelines state explicitly that, in relation to contempt and current cases:

    "A serious prejudice might include, for example, the publication of previous convictions."

    That appears to have been what Sandford did - and moreover Sandford's comments seem also to suggest that he thinks TR is guilty of the alleged offence.

    Seems pretty serious to me.

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  25. Sandford gets a pasting on this thread following his tweet deletion gambit.

    https://twitter.com/BBCDanielS/status/1103674556030636033

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  26. Latest from Brian from London...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCSo3clil94

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  27. On the main BBC news tonight, there was a report about social media political campaigning on Brexit.

    It’s message was that it wasn’t clear who is paying for the campaigns and concern about how they are targeted.

    I’m amazed the BBC have the brass neck to broadcast this because they are by far the biggest political campaigner on Brexit.

    The £300k they banged on about pales into insignificance when the entire output of a £5 billion funded organisation is aimed at disrupting Brexit and being so blatantly biased.

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    1. Plus they don't add up the amount of money funding all those "independent" and "respected" think tanks daily spewing out anti-Brexit propaganda. Many are of course Soros-funded - but you'd have a devil of a job to prove so serpentine are the funding channels.

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  28. Just a comment on the Guido Fawkes site. It seems to have become a pathetic remnant of what it once was. This is the biggest Brexit week ever and it has just one item up...bigging up the Brexit Party which now has more MEPs than what it calls "fringe" UKIP.

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  29. Hi Craig and sue!

    I belatedly acknowledge linking to your useful 'Onwards' post of March 7th showing John Sweeney in the company of Mike Shmuckbe... er sorry I meant Stuchbery in a post I put up on Biased BBC yesterday on Sweeney and the BBC.

    I'm interested in the idea of Sweeney blithely moving onwards with Panorama as if Panodrama never happened. Why would Sweeney meet with Shmuck Berry if not to try to dig up dirt on Tommy? Well, perhaps he just wanted to commiserate with him over having his door banged on at night by Tommy for so long that, poor thing, he had to call the cops rather than confront Tommy man to man.

    I had a look at the BBC Panorama page but there is no info there on any upcoming 'takedown' of Tommy Robinson.

    Here's a multiple-chice question on the BBC's options:

    a)Ignore or gloss over Panodrama and continue with a biased Panorama. (One of the difficulties here is to devise an appropriate title: 'Post-Panodrama butt-covering exercise' would suit, but it's a bit long.)

    b)Try, if at all possible, to produce an honest Tommy Panorama unmarred by far-left PeeCee spite and lies.

    c)Scrap 'Tommy Takedown' altogether and apologise to him and the public for the savage hatchet job and lies they were preparing, especially the allegation that he was a sexual predator.

    d)Fire John Sweeney.

    e) c and d.

    Yeah, right!

    Anyway, all the best and keep up the good work, guys!

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  30. We do know they had to postpone the Tommy Takedown programme - which is why I say that the Panorama flagship was definitely holed below the line.

    They are somehow trying to limp on and find some new material. But the Stuchbery stuff won't work very well unless they show further editorial bias by removing mention of Stuchbery's involvement in/cheering on of the disruption to the privacy of TR's family.

    However if they do intend to broadcast something and it's still Sweeney's prog, I think they have a problem, as TR will surely have something on to which to hang legal action.

    Or maybe TR did serve legal papers as threatened and Panorama feel obliged to pretend to carry on as abandoning the programme would be an admission of guilt.

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  31. Tommy Robinson is taking the police to court over their treatment of him and his family...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tno2so2nfU8

    This will be a good test case of whether we are now living in a new Dark Age if the UK MSM refuses to cover it or covers it in a misleading way.

    He is fighting back the right way...He says more cases are in the pipeline.

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  32. If he were some other kind of person who'd been imprisoned unfairly or unlawfully, mistreated in prison and denied due process etc etc, he would have the government paying out a substantial sum, possibly not below a million.

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    1. According to TR, the Cambridgeshire Police have twice offered him an out-of-court settlement...He has courageously (and correctly in my view)decided to reject those and see this settled in court.

      Delete
  33. Dominic Grieve on the Today programme yet again, being given - yet again - a very soft interview (no mention of the manifesto he stood on or the fact he supported the EU Referendum Act and the Government leaflet sent to all households, making it clear it was the people's one time only decision).

    I conducted an interesting Thought Experiment in my head...imagine an alternative (very alternative) universe in which (a) the BBC favours us leaving the EU with all due despatch (b) they were interviewing a certain Boris Johnson who occupies the Grieve position of wanting to refer things to a second referendum (c) it was Boris Johnson who was the holder of the Legion d'Honneur and (d)they still, as now, did not wish to see Boris as leader of the Conservative Party.

    Can you imagine in a million years that every time Boris came on they would not find an excuse to mention his Legion d'Honneur and his close contacts with Macron and the French establishment more generally?

    The silence of the BBC and the rest of the UK MSM on this very salient facts about Dominic Grieve's "French Connection" (French mother, French residence, active in French media, confidante of Macron, leader of Anglo-French Society and recipient of Legion d'Honneur) seems damning to me.

    I've nothing against the French by the way - I think their culture is in many ways very admirable. I like their newspapers, their films, their music, their art and so on. But for a UK politician to be so closely connected to France is a matter of import.

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  34. Live feed on the TR case against Cambridgeshire Police...Either the person who's writing it doesn't have English as a first language, or they are useless at short hand or they can't type into a laptop! However, you do get a flavour of the proceedings...

    https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/local-news/live-updates-tommy-robinson-edl-15959422

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  35. Brexit bias 1 - Chris Morris

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-47538451

    ‘Some demands of the Brexiteers have not been met’ says Chris Morris in reality check. His article only mentions the pro -Brexit tests, no mention of what the anti-Brexit faction think of it - so not balanced and not a reality check. Just Chris Morris’s blatant bias shining through again.

    Brexit bias 2 - Laura Kuenssberg
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-47533500

    Laura’s article, like that of Chris Morris is totally focussed on Brexiteers. ‘Will May's changes to her deal satisfy the Brexiteers?’ she asks.
    No mention of DUP or Corbyn, Starmer and Labour. No real criticism of the deal or new legal undertakings.

    Because the BBC narrative is to suggest nothing with satisfy those troublesome Brexiteers.

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    1. Will satisfy...
      Craig/Sue - is it possible for the author/poster to have an edit function for previously published comments to correct typo’s?

      Delete
    2. I've thought about that one myself. Trouble is the facility could be misused.

      Delete
  36. UK MSM refuse to cover TR civil case against Police = Fake News from all of them: BBC, ITV, Sky and all the rest (Guido included).

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA_NrPza4yY

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  37. Andrew Neil summed up the Brexit debate when he said that out of the 650 MPs in Westminster 500 plus voted Remain in the 2016 referendum. Therefore, we shouldn't be surprised that the Withdrawal Agreement was voted down. Try as the BBC might to pin the blame for May's defeat upon the ERG - the rebel hardliners - a vote to leave was never going to pass through parliament.

    This state of affairs might be described as anarchic. From Westminster, the MSM, through the Civil Service, through academia, through charities and publicly funded organisations, there is a general reluctance to enact the result of the 2016 referendum.

    If the vote tomorrow rules out parliamentary approval of no-deal (the true outcome of Leave), and on Thursday the vote for an extension is approved, then there will be anarchy - caused not by the populist vote, though undoubtedly that will be identified by the MSM as the cause, but ultimately by the Prime minister, the Cabinet, the self-serving MPs, the BBC and the MSM, and so on downwards throughout the establishment.

    Where do we go from here?

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    1. Agreed.
      Where do we go from here ...

      Well, things will never be the same again, that’s for sure.

      Parliament and democracy have been damaged and trust destroyed. Our two main parties are broken with clueless leaders. The voting public will not be forgiving for generations.

      The EU has been seen in its true colours.

      A new party or leader might appear and mop up. Brexit sentiments will not just fade away over time. The Genie is out of the bottle.

      Uncertain and dangerous times for our country.

      Delete
    2. Seems like Liar Boles - who stood on a manifesto commitment to take us out of the single market and the customs union - is plotting with Labour Eurofanatics to prevent No Deal. Will the DUP act to remove May then? They can in effect remove her without collapsing the Conservative Government. There could be a caretaker PM while the Conservative Party elect a new leader who would undoubtedly be someone who campaigned to Leave. Or would May perpetrate yet another lie (that she was not going to fight another General Election) and go to the country in those circumstances - using Labour and Remainer Conservative MPs to get the necessary 2/3 majority?

      Delete
    3. I’m in Spain at the moment, as in the UK everyone I’ve spoken to here here thinks May is beyond useless and an embarrassment.

      They are watching events incredulously. So are the Irish expats in the restaurant last night who said their fate is tied to what happens in the UK.

      No one can quite believe the UK has got itself in such a mess.

      Surely May can’t solider on and lead the Conservatives into the next election. The party has to do something otherwise oblivion awaits (although it still might with or without May).

      Delete
  38. BBC Newsnight...

    Why is Jonathan Freedland introduced with a graphic saying "Jonathan Freedland - The Guardian" as opposed to "Jonathan Freedland - The BBC" - since he regularly presents BBC radio and TV programmes?

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  39. I trust Ezra more than our Police...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peFdI81YHSY

    That's a v. sad commentary on our contemporary society...

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  40. According to the ever-reliable Carole Cadwalladr of the strictly accurate Guardian, Aaron Banks has persuaded the "fascists" (the League actually) in the Italian government to block a further extension of Article 50. That really would be the funniest thing ever if it were to happen. Sadly one has to ask if Carol has taken one too many drags on a spliff...we can but hope though, and I for one would like to see her awarded Journalist of the Year if - on this one occasion at least - she has got a real scoop.

    https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/1105797205712093184

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  41. The BBC's Anthony Zurcher is VERY (I mean VEEEERRRY) excited about potential Trump-beating Democratic presidential candidates.

    https://twitter.com/awzurcher?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

    Not really persuasive as an "impartial, free and fair" journalist. :)

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  42. Today, Radio 4: Funny Fake News item from Martha Kearney on Svalbard...(from memory,not verbatim)

    Martha: And there are barriers up at the airport to prevent landslides because of this climate change...

    Interviewee: Er, no...they are there to prevent avalanches and are to do with the weather.

    No apology from Kearney for misleading the listener.


    By the way how did she steal this gig from Harrabin or Shuker. Bet they're livid.

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  43. Why on the BBC website news page is there nothing about Lisa Page's evidence to Congress suggestive of extreme anti-Trump bias within the FBI and DOJ, given how much energy they have spent on the whole Trump-Russia collusion thesis? Because they are embarrassed by it?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se6pQMZFntw

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  44. Tried "Today" this morning until at about 8.40 am, Justin Webb blamed Trump for the shootings in NZ.
    Foolish and dangerous at the same time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I heard a BBC reporter on Today link this appalling act of terrorism to a legitimate political party (opposed to the mass immigration scam) - New Zealand First. This is a party working in coalition with the Labour Party in New Zealand. Outrageous biased linkage.

      Delete
  45. The BBC, especially registered (with me) Democrat Anthony Zurcher, want to tell us all about one of their favoured children - Beto O'Rourke.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47564276

    I say "all" but they don't actually mention this bit (driving drunk, causing an accident and trying to flee the scene - not when a teenager but aged 26):

    "State and local police reports obtained by the Chronicle and Express-News show that O’Rourke was driving drunk at what a witness called “a high rate of speed” in a 75 mph zone on Interstate 10 about a mile from the New Mexico border. He lost control and hit a truck, sending his car careening across the center median into oncoming lanes. The witness, who stopped at the scene, later told police that O’Rourke had tried to drive away from the scene."

    http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/08/beto-orourke-drunk-driving-crash.html

    Will the BBC ever tell us about this appalling behaviour? I doubt it. Their saints, like Hillary and Barrack must be untarnished.

    (Latest: he was also arrested for attempted burglary in his twenties).

    Given his arrest criminal record and his fake name - will the BBC constantly remind us of true legal name and his arrests?

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  46. I wonder how the BBC will manage today's "celebrity virtue-signalling" event (comedy relief). Might the sight of guffawing liberals joking about brexit and Trump look a bit off-color following the NZ events ?

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  47. "Don't tell them Ed... Beto".

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  48. THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

    In the 20th century we saw:

    Communists and fascists united against democrats. (Hitler-Stalin Pact)

    Democrats and communists united against fascism. (WW2 Allies v Axis)

    Democrats and fascists united against communists. (Height of cold war when USA allied with fascists in Spain, Portugal, Argentina and elsewhere against the Soviet Union).

    None of that matters. I still think democracy, free speech and free thought are the best recipe for society. Whatever anyone else decides to do, I have a right to believe what I believe.

    A shame the BBC doesn't think that anymore and believes in guilt by association...If guilt by association were truly valid then Churchill and Roosevelt were communists, Stalin was a democrat and Eisenhower and Truman were fascists...and of course Jeremy Corbyn would be an IRA terrorist.

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  49. Craig/Sue on holiday ?
    Or did they get rounded up.
    There've been no new posts since Tuesday.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We're still at liberty, but things have been busy and I am going on holiday tomorrow. So things may be a little quiet. I'll put up a new open thread, given that there's plenty going on at the moment, news-wise.

      Delete
    2. aha You would say that, wouldn't you ?..if you were the new government Craig, after the real Craig got rounded up .

      Delete

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