Sunday 3 February 2019

Free Speech

It’s all very well arguing about free speech, no-platforming, diversity, safe spaces, being/not being triggered, positive discrimination and having the chance to see and hear others’ points of view before making up your own mind about controversial issues. I get all that, and I do realise that you can’t have everything your own way. (Bit like Brexit)

However, the BBC’s over-exposure of Ash Sarkar is verging on ‘diversity of opinion too far’.



First there was saturation-point Paul Mason, a subversive hard-left pundit whom the Beeb couldn’t seem to get enough of - but his appearances have thankfully subsided, (although he was on this morning’s Broadcasting House) but even he seems more moderate these days, perhaps in comparison to the likes of Sarkar, assorted Asian women and that weirdo from Squawkbox. 
I feel triggered by Ash Sarkar, with those terrifying talons that she keeps waving in the air, although I suppose I must defend her right to wave them. 


Talking of Broadcasting House, they too touched on the aforementioned Rod Liddle, namely his recent, controversial article about missing dads. Absent dads, I mean - and to be more specific, absent black dads.

So they brought along that internet sensation of a black dad who made a video that went viral, in which he stated what could be described as the bleedin’ obvious, which is that if someone threatens you with a knife, if possible, scarper! Do as the Satnav says, and turn around where possible.

However, to most victims of the stabbing epidemic, not losing face seems to have taken priority over not losing your life. (Which would you rather save?) 

That inability to lose face reminds me of the continuing conflict in the Middle East - peace or intractability, that’s the choice. I digress.

Anyway, the wise dad, whose video stating the bleedin’ obvious went viral, has plans. He wants to set up youth projects to give kids something to do. Excellent! But not new.


Remember Camila Batmanghelidjh? I think I’m her one remaining supporter. Yes, she messed up, but her original approach to feral youth was promising.

See the way the BBC’s Chris Cook completely vilifies her. His article drips with rancour.  He states that the service she provided was unnecessary. 
“As its end approached, local charities, councils, child psychiatrists and officials all steeled themselves for the end of a £20m-a-year enterprise that had said it was in the same business as them. 
But the flood of need never came.”

“We can also now definitively say that local youth crime statistics have given the lie to a prediction from the charity that its collapse would lead to a descent into "savagery". None of the ups and downs coincide with the charity's collapse. Changes in city-wide crime, policing approaches and gangland economics matter much more than Kids Company did. 
I would suggest that this is a matter of opinion. The spate of knife crime, gangs, drugs and absent dads is hardly consistent with “The flood of need never came”.

I do know this viewpoint won’t go down well with many of you but there it is. I claim it in the name of free speech.

7 comments:

  1. There is no doubt about the correlation between single parent (or indeed step) families and social problems like crime, poor educational attainment, self harming and so on. It is so strong that it is reasonable to conclude there is a causal link.

    I think Camila Batmanghelidjh was on an ego trip. I never saw any convincing evidence that she helped the children she claimed she was helping. She got a load of families financially dependent on her organisation. That's one of the worse ways of undertaking social work.

    We do need decisive action to address the problem.

    1. We need to create a firmer link between good behaviour and a reward system. I would institute a system of young people who keep out of trouble and attend schools getting regular rewards - vouchers for trainers, free football match tickets, free football shirts etc. These should peak in value around age 16-18.

    2. Detention for young people should be in controlled confinement - not solitary but there should be absolutely no mixing with other detainees.


    3. Young criminals should be guaranteed paid work by the state.

    4. Repeat offenders should be offered a place in a Marine Corps - where young people would travel the world under command of ex Navy personnel. This would get them off our streets. They would be in a disciplined environment and would be able to get an education, learn traders while having a good time seeing the world. Drug use could be contained much more effectively on board such a ship as opposed to a detention centre or prison.

    Ash Sarkar defines herself as a Communist, I believe. Does the BBC think Communists are extremists? It seems not. They are happy to have them on their panels, despite them being members of a political cult that has killed tens of millions if not hundreds, and which has blighted the lives of billions of people through ethnic cleansing, cultural genocide, and political oppression.

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    1. On that late night programme This Week they had a black female on, a singer as far as I can make out, who quite casually came out with a completely unwarranted slur against Nigel Farage. As you'd expect, Andrew Neil pulled her up pretty sharpish and corrected her in no uncertain terms but it started me thinking about how, if at all, the BBC vets such lefty doctrinaire people before having them on programmes. We hear a lot about who they won't have on, or only in limited circumstances, but are they ever lefties, of the leanings of such as the mad-eyed one who flung out wild allegations on Question Time at Melanie Phillips? Well, any screening didn't work in his case, obviously.

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  2. That link is to an article of October 2017 in which he rebuts certain allegations she made against the BBC and challenges figures, with chapter and verse:
    'When it closed, Kids Company claimed to help 36,000 children and young adults. That is the number that Ms Batmanghelidjh still uses. As its end approached, local charities, councils, child psychiatrists and officials all steeled themselves for the end of a £20m-a-year enterprise that had said it was in the same business as them.

    But the flood of need never came. When Kids Company closed, the charity could only find records relating to 1,692 London clients - both adults and children. Officials in Bristol were given details of a further 175 clients. A lot of the London records were uselessly incomplete or duplicates. And while there were people with severe needs in that group, they were known to the local authorities.

    Local youth-work charities tell a story that is consistent with this impression. The typical experience was that, immediately after the closure, they got up to a few dozen young people approach them and ask for money. ...'

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  3. The last time I saw Ash Sarkar on"Politics Live" she was quoting Lenin. No one on the panel picked up her on it. Imagine if someone had quoted Mussolini or Franco?

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  4. Do you see how often Ayesha Hazarika is on air ?

    * Sunday on LBC presenting for 3 hours after Maajid Nawaz
    * and she was on R5 Live Piennaar’s Politics this morning
    * And she was on R4 News Quiz on Friday/Saturday
    * Dec 28th Woma's Hour did a special item about her family
    \\ Not Ayesha Hazarika on TV again. Can’t turn TV on without her not being on. The bloody Labour bore was special adviser to Ed Miliband. That went well not.
    All she does nonstop crying 😒😒😒😒😒 about Brexit & Donald Trump. Yawn, Yawn,Yawn,Yawn, Yawn,Yawn,Yawn,Yawn. //
    It's almost like our metroLiberal media want people with her agenda

    Her Twitter profile says it all
    "CNN, SKY, BBC, Evening Standard
    + Fawcett Trustee "

    Good job she's not privileged like white people are, otherwise she'd be on even more networks more of the time.

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    1. She's one of those 'never off the telly' people who cycles around from Sky News Press Preview to The Marr Show paper review to the BBC News Channel The Papers...on and on and on she goes. And now she's on LBC. She also has a column in Osborne's Evening Standard where she witters on about 'brown people' and racism and her family wonderfulness as immigrants. I didn't even know she was 'brown' until she started going on about it.

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  5. I got tears.

    https://order-order.com/2019/02/04/literally-misty-eyed-corbynistas/?

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