Do you remember the days, not so many summers past, when the BBC News website was the place to go for all the latest juicy stories about UKIP councillors and election candidates (however obscure) saying or tweeting something silly or objectionable?
Back then, in the good old days, if an unknown UKIP candidate in a local council election said something disobliging about Lenny Henry or Muslims then BBC News would swiftly post reports about it - and videos about it too.
And if another unknown UKIP candidate in a local council election posted something on Facebook that could have been a Nazi salute or just him reaching his hand out to a friend's phone then the BBC would have a news report about that too.
Sitting UKIP councillors (such as those who blame floods on on gay marriage) or parliamentary candidates would also be prime targets for the BBC's unhelping hand.
Even Nigel Farage got the full BBC treatment for some antics he got up to decades earlier at school.
And if another unknown UKIP candidate in a local council election posted something on Facebook that could have been a Nazi salute or just him reaching his hand out to a friend's phone then the BBC would have a news report about that too.
Sitting UKIP councillors (such as those who blame floods on on gay marriage) or parliamentary candidates would also be prime targets for the BBC's unhelping hand.
Even Nigel Farage got the full BBC treatment for some antics he got up to decades earlier at school.
Like many others then I'm still waiting for the BBC to get cracking on reporting the astonishing case of Nasreen Khan, which re-broke a couple of days ago.
(I say 're-broke' because Lucy Lips at Harry's Place actually broke it years ago - see here and here).
Yes there's still some confusion about whether Labour has actually selected her to be a councillor in Bradford or whether the selection (from a two-woman shortlist) takes place at the end of next week, but what isn't in doubt is exactly what she posted a few years back under the title The Palestine you need to know. It is out-and-out antisemitic (and, yes, she's a Muslim):
Is she already a Labour candidate? Will she be selected as one next week? And will the BBC ever get round to reporting it either way, given that she got shortlisted anyhow and hasn't been dropped yet?
Yes, she's apologised, but someone who (just a very few years ago) thought that British schools are "brainwashing us and our children into thinking the bad guy was Hitler" wouldn't usually fail to catch the BBC's attention (and not just in days gone by either).
This should surely be a huge story.
(I say 're-broke' because Lucy Lips at Harry's Place actually broke it years ago - see here and here).
Yes there's still some confusion about whether Labour has actually selected her to be a councillor in Bradford or whether the selection (from a two-woman shortlist) takes place at the end of next week, but what isn't in doubt is exactly what she posted a few years back under the title The Palestine you need to know. It is out-and-out antisemitic (and, yes, she's a Muslim):
“It’s such a shame that the history teachers in our school never taught us this but they are the first to start brainwashing us and our children into thinking the bad guy was Hitler. What have the Jews done good in this world?”
“The Jews have reaped the rewards of playing victims. Enough is enough!”and, after being challenged:
“No, I’m not a Nazi, I’m an ordinary British Muslim that had an opinion and put it across. We have worse people than Hitler in this world now.”So there you go. Within the lifetime of this very blog a Muslim prospective Labour candidate in Bradford has basically opined that the Jews are worse than Hitler.
Is she already a Labour candidate? Will she be selected as one next week? And will the BBC ever get round to reporting it either way, given that she got shortlisted anyhow and hasn't been dropped yet?
Yes, she's apologised, but someone who (just a very few years ago) thought that British schools are "brainwashing us and our children into thinking the bad guy was Hitler" wouldn't usually fail to catch the BBC's attention (and not just in days gone by either).
This should surely be a huge story.
I was going to make a prediction and this post provides an excuse to make it. My prediction is that we are not going to hear from the BBC any more nasty stories about UKIP or UKIP candidates. For one thing, a recent Lib Dem Henry Bolton is in charge of UKIP. For another, UKIP can do useful work in draining support from May's Tories and so ensure their defeat (especially important if May has to go to the nation again seeking a Brexit mandate). And for a third, the BBC will want to ensure Anne Marie Waters' For Britain Party is strangled at birth.
ReplyDeleteUKIP were only a prime target whilst they posed a threat to the 'oneness' BBC portrays as indents on its flagship TV channel.
DeleteShe now says the remarks she made four years ago were "unacceptable". Well, that’s nice. That makes it all right. She was an anti-Semitic bigot, with a staggering lack of historical knowledge and cultural awareness. But now she isn’t.
ReplyDeleteI’m sure this will offend some people here, but I didn’t much care for Enoch Powell. In my view, despite his undoubted erudition and talents, he was a dinosaur. After his “Rivers of blood” speech he was hounded out of government and ended his career in the obscurity of the Ulster Unionist Party. He was also crucified by the whole of the media, particularly the BBC. But for Nasreen Khan, a free pass. Moral compass anyone?