Ref. multiple knife attacks in Edmonton, mentioned in the previous open thread. An Enfield newspaper gave these details on 2 April: 'Police have said the latest incident has "not yet been formally linked" to a series of knife attacks in the area, but the culprit in all five is a tall, skinny black man wearing a hooded top. ...The suspect is described as a skinny black man who is approximately 6ft 3ins tall and wearing dark clothes.'
The details may have been published even earlier than 2 April for all I know. Probably not on the BBC. https://www.enfieldindependent.co.uk/news/17544208.man-stabbed-in-edmonton-and-its-being-linked-to-multiple-stabbings-at-the-weekend/?ref=mr&lp=8
There was a Great Stink around the Houses of Parliament in 1858 - which thankfully led to some much needed reform.
We can only hope the current Great Stink rising from that place gives impetus to fresh reform. We need a written constitution (to prevent the likes of Oliver Letwin appointing themselves Prime Minister but with no accountability to anyone), complete reform of the House of Lords, a significant element of proportional representation in the House of Commons. I'd go even further and have annual elections to Parliament - an original demand of the Chartists. If it was in place, these brave MPs with their sensitive "consciousnesses" would be far less brave in frustrating the will of the people. However, I'm doubting I'd get much sympathy for that constitutional innovation.
Hugh Sykes wants us (Kaffir men included it seems), to approach disabled Burka'ed Muslim women in the street and try and get them into our car, despite the very good chance they don't speak our language...
Somehow I don't think that's going to end very well in all cases.
And here's Hugh giving Chris Morris a bit of collegiate support, presumably having read about how the Reality Check supremo had been found out spreading untruths about food poisoning in the USA...
Meanwhile Sopel is on twitter querying a Sky Data report that 25% of the public would boycott the Euro elections noting that 66% of voters routinely don't vote in the Euro elections. He's killing two birds with one stone here: having a go at the BBC's unloved commercial rival and promoting the Remain cause by doing the usual thing of overcomplicating the issue. There are any number of survey results that the BBC quotes which one could query on a statistical or methodological basis, but of course it's only this particular issue that Sopel the Remainer wishes to focus on...strange eh?
Meanwhile Mark Easton has gone to bellwether city - Worcester.
What are the chances of a reporter going to Worcester and finding all three of his interviewees don't have a Worcester accent? In professional Anglophobe Mark Easton's case, a near certainty.
The population of Worcester has been hugely swollen (& distorted) by the student population. Worcester is our nearest decent shopping centre & we go there often. I'm afraid the chances of Easton interviewing people who don't have the local accent are high, unless he interviews older people - the lovely Worcestershire accent is fast giving way to East Enders-speak.
Silly me too! And also the previous 20 years of allowing and/or promoting (without a clear mandate from the people) unprecedented levels of mass immigration (including illegal immigration), aggressive multiculturalism and turning the EU into a fully fledged superstate project.
I was gobsmacked when Look North reported that Yorkshire Water will no longer go out to jobs in BD3 (Bradford), even if they are emergency jobs. Not gobsmacked because they won't go (too dangerous) but because they actually reported it.
Yes - no clues as to what it's about. Water engineers aren't normally subject to violent threats...something to do with a particular line of take away trade whose business is being affected?
MB Could some people have been by-passing their meters? Wouldn't have thought it was worthwhile for water. I've suspected for a while, though, that the, apparent, increase in the number of gas explosions may be down to botched meter-fiddling. Did they have mains gas in Grenfell tower?
Good point...bypassing of meters cannot be discounted. Some people have suggested bypassing of the electricity meters have been a factor in some tragedies. Water might be easier to bypass in some ways.
Watters' World - The US media is a curious mix of the shallow and the deep. This is deep. He gets at what free speech and opposition to free speech is all about.
I've nicked a piece from Guido's contributor Guy Forks (sorry!).
Scientists have discovered a new element In the heat of the Brexit debate, Governmentium (symbol=Gv), it has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.
These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called pillocks. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact.
A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete. Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2 to 6 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganisation in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganisation will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.
This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as a critical morass. When catalysed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium (symbol=Ad), an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium, since it has half as many pillocks but twice as many morons!
Many years ago Countryfile used to be an enjoyable farming and rural show on BBC2.
Like much of the BBC TV output it has been hijacked by the PC, liberal - leftie social justice warriors and just about every story is campaigning for something or someone.
It’s a classic example of how to destroy a gentle and harmless programme by smothering it completely with the BBC political and social agenda.
Remember Jon Sopel's claim that the BBC were "impartial"? Seems that Sopel sides with those who don't believe those women who have complained about Biden's physical attentions - he sides with a commentator who thinks they were all innocent hugs.
And here he is, a reporter in a foreign land, directly criticising our Prime Minister. His criticism is not unjust but it is really right for an "impartial" BBC journalist to throw rotten eggs at the Prime Minister via tweet?
Have they all decided to get together and give Fran a giant V's up in response to her warning about partisan tweeting?
I said before I think Rachel Riley is out of her depth politically. This confirms it for me. Whether she knows it or not she is bolstering the Bogus Equivalence Narrative, so that there is a thing called "Islamophobia" which is the equivalent of "anti-semitism". Rachel Riley makes reference to Muslims fleeing persecution to come to the UK. Who is she referring to? Who is persecuting them?
Any attempt by the EU to impose conditions on the extension of the Article 50 period will clearly be illegal. Article 50 states simply:
"The Treaties shall cease to apply to the State in question from the date of entry into force of the withdrawal agreement or, failing that, two years after the notification referred to in paragraph 2, unless the European Council, in agreement with the Member State concerned, unanimously decides to extend this period."
It is clearly a binary choice - to extend or not. No conditions can be applied to Article 50 so I think it follows no conditions can be applied to an extension of the application period, unless explicitly stated that they can.
I know the ECJ will agree anything that helps the cause but I see nothing in the Article that allows for conditions to be placed on the extension. Indeed from reading the Article it's really doubtful you can extend it more than once in any case, and certainly I don't think multiple extension points fits with the wording.
There is no warrant in Article 50 for what the EU is proposing - an extension that the EU/UK can then shorten at will if it accepts the Withdrawal Agreement or which is made conditional (on the UK's "sincere co-operation").
Totally illegal - don't believe the propaganda (even put about by Andrew Neil) that the EU is a law-based community. It isn't. It's a political construct and a political machine.
Is the UK MSM softening us up for a Marxist revolutionary regime?
1. The Durrells - normally pretty escapist TV - had a likeable Communist fugitive who had shot a political enemy and was being ushered to safety by the Durrells and their friends. The Greek Communists were in fact among the most brutal movements ever produced, indulging in wholesale terror during the post war civil conflict in Greece.
2. Evan Davis interviewing a French Marxist today. Was quite an interesting conversation (note - conversation, meaning Evan liked his interviewee).
3. Mark Mardell recommended reading a book promoting Communism.
4. The Archers featuring a militant atheism storyline.
5. Ash Sakar - self-confessed Communist ie Far Left extremist on our screens every two minutes.
Straws in the wind or is the brainwashing going to be racheted up a few points?
I'd like to think I'm joking but who knows these days...
It's the BBC's idea of balance - They represent both sides: Left and Extreme Left! Quite fun counting the anachronisms on "The Durrells" : e.g. on Sunday: "go-kart" (1956) and "groupie" (1965). Wonder how old the script-writers are.
Talking of such anachronisms, I recall a Pat Barker novel set in WW1 (Regeneration) has someone from 1917 using "sexy" to denote something exciting and interesting (but not sexual!). That really jarred. I'd say that only originated in the 1970s.
Jon Sopel said the BBC was "impartial, free and fair". Fran Unsworth tells BBC staff they have to maintain impartiality in tweeting going Jon and that includes with respect to retweeting?
Let's look at his ten most recent tweets/retweets:
1. Sarcastic dig at Trump.
2. Retweeting of a tweet critical of Trump - suggesting he has possibly engaged in illegal behaviour as President.
3. Negative tweet about Trump in the form of a BBC question: "When do management changes become a purge by a frustrated President?"
4. Retweeting that UK will hold EU elections - one step closer to Remaining eh Jon?
5. Negative view of Labour-Conservative negotiations on Brexit retweeted (from let wing Mirror journalist).
6. Attack on something call "Islamophobia" in the Tory party retweeted (from left wing Muslim Labour activist).
7. Pro PC millionaire no borders globalist Gary Lineker tweet retweeted (non political I think...)
8. Tweet re declaration of Iranian Revolutionary Guards as terrorist organisation. Seemed to actually be impartial!
9. As above for 8.
10. Mocking tweet about Trump and his recent sackings.
I make that only 2 truly impartial tweets. One impartial but bigging up a known partial tweeter within the BBC (message to Fran perhaps?). And 7 clearly partisan or tending towards left-liberal positioning.
Another disgrace is they are doing a lot of this politicised tweeting when they are supposed to be working for us, and are certainly getting paid for it!
One of the worst developments occasioned by the Cameron-May era has been false flag politics. We had Sarah Woollaston joining the Leave campaign and pretending to be a leaver, presumably so she could spy on the campaign and then stage a dramatic exit. I find it difficult to believe she really changed her mind on this half way through the campaign.
Then we had Nicky Morgan appearing to soften her Remain politics and seek compromise via the Malthouse amendment. Was it all an elaborate charade? I believe so now, as I heard her on the radio this morning and she was sounding more rabidly Remainiac than ever, insisting that Leavers be censored from using robust language to protest all this dishonest dealing from the Prime Minister.
And then tonight we have Daniel Kawczynski resigning in high dudgeon from the ERG denouncing it in suspiciously Remainer terms (blathering on about unicorns and the like - a dead giveaway). Was he ever serious about severing our ties with the EU or was it all part of some great game of personal advancement? I've no idea but I've never trusted him in his Brexiter pose.
You can always tell whether the BBC are 'for' or 'against' by the way they report.
I find that characteristic very annoying and irritating. It's an easy way to spot their bias and you can witness it every day.
An example this morning is how they are presenting and promoting the divorce laws reform. It is all positive and joyous. The nation must be delighted at this liberal and progressive change - is the message.
Their angle is that it stops the blame game rather than saying that it makes divorce considerably easier. The BBC will be particularly pleased because it undermines the nuclear family which they despise.
"You can always tell whether the BBC are 'for' or 'against' by the way they report."
Yes, this is my belief. As a rule you can say with some certainty that the BBC has a policy on everything from knitting, to Islam, to nursery care, to what sports it approves of, to alcohol, to road signage, to cannabis and so on through the whole of life. I can't offhand think of a single aspect of life they don't have a policy on. How the policy emerges is interesting...my view it is through a combination of group think, Guardian reading, senior management guidance, editorial conferences and herd mentality.
They don't support the institution of marriage (although weirdly they are very keen to celebrate gay marriage - just a tactic). Their view is that it should be replaced eventually by a legal framework that would simply recognise extended cohabitation and production of children as creating legal obligations. They likely view these new divorce laws as an important step towards abolition of marriage or reducing it to a meaningless lifestyle choice.
On the multiculturalist front the BBC hypocritically (despite its fractured families policy) lauds the extended family. The close, tight-knit cross-generational extended family, often occupying the same household, is quite foreign to British culture and stultifies creativity, independent thinking and self-sufficiency.
The BBC is large enough to hold seemingly contradictory ideas. This is one example. What unites them is the overall policy (globalist, no borders PC multiculturalism).
BBC Politics tweets: You will have heard me say on a number of occasions - the withdrawal agreement is not going to be reopened" Chief #Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier repeats EU's position, after senior minister Andrea Leadsom makes new call for a renegotiation
Why have the BBC worded it from Barnier’s view and not like this :
Andrea Leadsom has called for the WA to be renegotiated to support a proper Brexit.
Putting pressure on the EU to renegotiate, the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said: "The withdrawal agreement is not going to be reopened."
I'm keeping a little record of the people I hear or discover presenting non-standard programmes (occasional series or one-offs) on the BBC. I was motivated by Stephen Wall presenting a load of pro-EU guff on Radio 4 under guise of an historical look at the 70s.
So far I've got:
Stephen Wall - Remainer Alan Rusbridger - Remainer Giles Brandreth - Unknown
Disruption and chaos. That was the message from the report about a no-deal Brexit on BBC One news by Lucy Manning. Kent Head-teachers, local businesses and Eurotunnel were united by voicing their concerns. Not one pro-Brexit voice unless I missed it.
Is that representative? Is everyone in Kent very concerned? Is it short term or long term disruption? Are businesses really not prepared?
I really don’t know, I’m none the wiser because I can’t trust the BBC to give a balanced or accurate view anymore. And that’s the really sad thing about the current state of BBC TV reports because I want to know and be properly informed.
According to the Electoral Commission web site, Dover was strongly Leave ... 40410 (62%) vs 24606 (38%). The BBC web page shows that most, if not all, of Kent voted Leave. https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/find-information-by-subject/elections-and-referendums/past-elections-and-referendums/eu-referendum/electorate-and-count-information https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36616028
I keep doing it! I meant Leave of course!! Duh - I will really have to check my posts from now on. I blame all the duplicity about so fake Leavers are actually Remainers, various Remainers are posing as Leavers honouring the vote, people who supported Leave now back May's pretend Leave deal, people who opposed May's deal now back it...Corbyn, the arch Leaver, is now backing Remain and so on. I think we're supposed to be confused...it's clearly working on me!
MB - Confusing Leave & Remain: maybe it's happening because we spent a couple of years being told "Brexit means Brexit," whereas it means, of course, "Remain"!
My updated list of people Radio 4 has on presenting non-standard programmes (talks, occasional series, one-off docs). I was motivated to do this by hearing Stephen Wall presenting a load of pro-EU guff on Radio 4 under guise of an historical look at the 70s.
So far I've got:
Stephen Wall - Remainer Alan Rusbridger - Remainer Giles Brandreth - Unknown Will Hutton - Remainer (a Second Referendumer, Revoker and Returner-if-we-don't revoke)
This story about 38 Degrees, the not-for-profit polling organisation, and the dismissal this month of their Executive Director David Babbs doesn't seem to have reached the BBC News website yet:
In February of this year, 38 Degrees carried out polling on the subject of the over 75s' TV Licence issue. It is never clear at whose behest this type of polling is carried out, but no doubt it was at the very least with the BBC's approval.
BBC Newsnight pushing The Brexit Party strongly, in contrast with UKIP which they were eager to condemn (without any effective opportunity for response) as anti-Muslim, owned by TR, B-N-P-like and extreme. The aim clearly is to split the anti-Brexit vote, and preferably kill off UKIP. Maitlis seemed poorly briefed as usual for the studio discussion (no UKIP or Brexit Party representative allowed) - she seemed unaware that Patrick O'Flynn MEP had changed allegiance from UKIP to SDP.
Newsnight were careful not to show recent polls that have UKIP on 8% and 9% - more than the Lib Dems, who a significant number of MPs and plenty of free publicity on the UK MSM.
Note: I am not a UKIP member but the bias against them on the BBC and in the UK MSM is blatant, relentless and illegal (for the TV broadcasters).
This is an excellent video where Steve Baker MP, who we perhaps forget was at the heart of the negotiations at the beginning, spells out what went wrong. The sensible way forward, to deliver on the Brexit vote, was a free trade agreement (as offered by the EU). The "governing class" however wanted close alignment. We went off down the wrong path.
Laura Kuenssberg is peddling the classic propaganda trick - a false fallacy - on Twitter this morning.
“Brexiteers who are most cross about delay are those who were most cross about the PM’s deal - if they had supported that, they wouldn’t have delay to be annoyed about today”
These sort of comments make my blood boil, it’s not analysis and deliberately ignores the reasons why they wouldn’t support the deal. That way she can conflate principle with subvert or sabotage and damage those supporting a proper Brexit.
Yes, it's dialysis not analysis - pumping blood into the failed organs of the Remainer arguments.
The BBC reporting is shameless. In the build up to the Council meeting, we've had all that rubbish about France might veto a deal (doing the EU's work for it). Yeah, of course - of course Macron is going to turn round to his fishermen and say "Sorry mes braves, but from Friday, because of my decision, you can't fish in UK waters." It was never going to happen and now even useless BBC journos concede it won't happen.
Virtually all BBC reporters and presenters are Remainers or May deal sympathisers and they report from that perspective because BBC management let them do that rather than provide balanced reporting. A balanced report wouldn't bother to do this cod analysis stuff that LK loves so much.
Laura Kuennsberg being gross on Politics Live today. Ugh. This is but one instance of how degraded BBC broadcasting has become. Is it too much to expect a political reporter on the BBC who doesn't need to come with a health warning?
Just remember boys and girls when they say "Second Referendum" or "People's Vote" or "Confirmatory Referendum" they mean:
- A Rigged Rerun with a - Fiddle Franchise and a - Bogus Ballot.
A Rigged Rerun because now ALL newspapers, bar the Telegraph perhaps,are onside with May's deal or Remain and there will be nothing like even the lopsided Remain-leaning debates of the EU Referendum campaign. It will be pretty much full on Remainist propaganda.
Fiddled franchise will mean 16 year olds and EU citizens allowed to vote.
Bogus Ballot will mean only Remain and May's Abject Surrender Deal on the Ballot Paper.
Glad to see that Bill Cash MP thinks, as I do, that it would be illegal for the EU to place any conditions on an extension (presumably he's taken some legal advice on this). Article 50 is clearly triggered without condition. Article 50 allows for an extension (not even clear if multiple extensions are allowed). There is no authority in the Article for application of conditions to an extension.
From BBC: "Reuters is reporting that EU member states will offer an extension to 31 October with a review in June." Totally illegal. Article 50 lays down it is an extension or not an extension. Extension can only mean to one date.
Clearly Blair has been working with Macron on the date.
Why are our MSM so effing uninterested in Blair's involvement. He has already confessed to interfering in the process - having meetings with various leaders. It's clear now he has been acting against Parliament and the decisions of the PM/Cabinet (the executive) through plotting with foreign potentates. It must be v. close to a definition of treason. I am not an expert on treason law but what Blair has been up to does sound like an attempt by "constraint" to compel the sovereign (=the government) "to change her measures or counsels, or in order to put any force or constraint upon or in order to intimidate or overawe both Houses or either House of Parliament". That seems exactly what Blair has been up to as far as I can follow the somewhat archaic language.
They are pleased with his interference and they still rate him as the best PM hence the adulation. The MSM were New Labour devotees and still hanker for it.
It’s in their interests to suppress his involvement. Anyone who is trying to stop or weaken Brexit will get their protection. He has the best access to the big players and world leaders.
Yes they miss him now he's gone. They didn't like his toadying to the Americans (hence all the bogus outrage over the Iraq war). But now they realise they need him onside to stop Brexit.
They are not uninterested - they are facilitating and promoting it because he is working to stop us leaving and so are they. The media made Blair. Remember that Brown was the leading Labour figure at that time but the media went crazy over Blair and made him the next PM. He still enjoys immediate access should he want it, regardless of what we might want or what is right and proper. And it's not just Blair. Why should I turn on the BBC only to see or hear a clip of Miliband from New York instructing us about democracy? He doesn't even live here and hasn't for several years. Yet the BBC keeps giving him a platform. Of course it helps if a former Cabinet Minister is running Radio 4 and holding some other important roles at the BBC. There really needs to be a public inquiry into the publicly funded BBC.
Yes anon...this happens a lot. The BBC loves to roll on Simon Schama to talk about Brexit. The guy basically lives in the USA in New York state most of the year. And, yet he never mentions it when he discusses Brexit - it's all "we", "in this country", being "passionate" about "our future" and so on. Likewise with Dominic Grieve. He never mentions his French mother, his Legion d'honneur for services to the French state, his media career in France. He makes out he's purely a British politician.
Further to my observations above that we are possibly being softened up to accept a Far Left future...I heard the political correspondent for the Times on Radio 4 saying (in an admiring tone) "To quote Marx..." There was a time when a Times senior correspondent would have been embarrassed to use a quotation from Marx, unless to disparage him. Now it seems the "wisdom of Marx" is almost a given.
Would he quote Mussolini on Radio 4 in such admiring tones? Of course not. Even though looking them up now Mussolini has some great quotes (he was, like Churchill a journalist before he was a politician). I liked "Race? It is a feeling not a reality." and "Inside every anarchist is a failed dictator."
Particularly interesting in that it suggests Katya Adler was completely off the mark, incompetently so, in suggestion there were no "punitive safeguards" applied by the EU.
It's sad when you have to go to independently run websites to get the truth because you can't trust the public broadcaster you are forced to pay for.
On cue, the BBC sprang to the defence of Assange on the main BBC News tonight.
Somewhat surprisingly they managed to use the report to launch an attack on Trump using a tenuous link to Wikileaks. presented by the smirking and gurning Jon Sopel.
What the BBC report didn’t do is fully explain why Ecuador booted him out. But the Guardian did.
Guardian Extract In a presentation before Ecuador’s parliament on Thursday, the foreign minister, José Valencia, set out nine reasons why Assange’s asylum had been withdrawn. The list ranged from meddling in Ecuador’s relations with other countries to having to “put up with his rudeness” for nearly seven years.
Valencia said Ecuador had been left with little choice but to end Assange’s stay in its London embassy following his “innumerable acts of interference in the politics of other states” which put at risk the country’s relations with them.
His second point focused on Assange’s behaviour which wavered between riding a skateboard and playing football inside the small embassy to mistreating and threatening embassy staff and even coming to blows with security workers. Valencia said the whistleblower and his lawyers had made “insulting threats” against the country accusing its officials of being pressured by other countries.
He said Assange “permanently accused [embassy] staff of spying on and filming him” on behalf of the United States and instead of thanking Ecuador for nearly seven years of asylum he and his entourage launched “an avalanche of criticisms” against the Quito government. He referred also to the guest’s “hygienic” problems including one which was “very unpleasant” and “attributed to a digestive problem”. .
I don't think BBC are protecting Assange. They are conflicted but basically they are putting the boot into Assange. A classic on Newnsight was mocking Assange for his "undignified" horizontal departure from the Ecuador Embassy.
Assange passed from hero of the liberal-left to enemy when he released info with negative consequences for Clinton during the 2016 Presidential election campaign. Newsnight are now giving Sydney Blumenthal acres of space to blame Assange for HRC losing the election.
Blumenthal allowed to spread his poison with not a single objection from K Razzall.
I'm not a huge fan of Assange but I despise the way the PC elite turned on him.
This is hilarious! BBC favourite AOC, for whom Anthony Zurcher would gladly lick gravel off the sidewalk, has been indulging in some "jive talk" at an Al Sharpton event! Unbelieveable y'all!! I think even the BBC might go cool on her after this offensive example of verbal "Blackface".
I’ve just donated to the Brexit Party - first time I’ve ever donated to any political party, £750k raised so far, all by small donations. I’ve a feeling the UK EU elections are going to be very interesting....
I will donate to either UKIP or The Brexit Party. I am looking at this purely tactically at the moment. The bigger the blow against the Conservatives at the EU elections, the more likely it is that May will be forced to leave however much Hammond tries to nail her feet to the floor of No 10. Conservatives MPs are not known for their bravery under fire. The MPs with marginal seats will start to see sense.
But I very much doubt that a one-issue party (Farage was denying this - but why give yourself this name then?)is the way forward. It's likely it would drown at a General Election.
The best outcome at this EU election would be UKIP maintains a healthy 10%, The Brexit Party helps destroy the Conservative vote, taking maybe 20%, Change.UK take votes off Lib Dems and Greens. Labour does reasonably well (I say that because then they won't be tempted to sign up to the appalling Abject Surrender Deal offered by May). Then May out, Johnson (and Mogg, Priti Patel) in...full speed ahead for a a renegotiation...when rejected by the EU, then go to the country and get a Conservative landslide for a new deal or no deal.
I saw the BBC's Professor Curtice on Politics Live analysing the results of the Newport bye-election. See him here at 2 30 - 3 30 mins and again at 7 30 - 9 30ish where he seemed unusually animated about the loss of vote share for both Conservative and Labour, seeing this as a break-up of our politics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCg-iJfm7u8
I was rather hoping for signs of Lib Dem losing share but it seems not. Small parties are gaining, which looks promising for Brexit party and UKIP too. Conservatives losing support among Leave and Labour losing from Remain.
My feeling generally is that politics won't change before we change the media. The PC globalist-left-Islamist alliance (remember - a lot of our media is actually owned by Saudis and Qataris) has a strangehold on our media and hence our politics. Information is power. People are basically being denied information through this PC monopoly on the media.
It's encouraging that The Brexit Party has been able to draw so many small donations £750k in 10 days...I think there is a lot of untapped interest in turning our country around. But people won't donate unless they feel the money is being used responsibly and effectively. Farage is trusted - not sure I trust him 100% but he does generate that sort of trust. If we could get people to donate to support an effective alternative media - radio, TV and newspapers - that could make a really big difference.
The BBC hates the Far Right - a movement associated with decades of politial oppression, denial of free speech, state-sanctioned murder, misery and war.
But the BBC loves the Far Left - a movement associated with decades of politial oppression, denial of free speech, state-sanctioned murder, misery and war.
Blink and you won't miss Ash Sarkar on a BBC channel somewhere doing her soft-sell on hard communism...
I was disgusted to see her on again and the propaganda put out on Politics Live today. Couldn't believe they'd do that, actually. Funded by the licence fee. Notice the statement by the presenter that ideas today are coming from the left - the start of a new theme for the BBC agenda that will be pushed relentlessly on different channels, stations and programmes.
I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard the on BBC news today that the BBC itself was saying British comedy is being ruined by social media users with a Victorian moral code.
Shane Allen, controller of BBC comedy, spoke about the threat of excessive political correctness as he announced plans to launch the British Comedy Foundation, an organisation dedicated to finding comedians from “under-represented” backgrounds.
So the BBC and its’ boss of comedy are blaming others for the outbreak of PC whilst being very PC in his statement.
In my view the only under represented group at the BBC are comedians.
Remember, this is the bloke who bemoaned white Oxbridge blokes - Cleese and Monty Python. Are the BBC really that self unaware to miss the irony of his comments?
Comedy just needs to by funny Shane, you complete prat.
"In my view the only under represented group at the BBC are comedians." That's quite funny! Perhaps you should apply, Arne. :)
Studying the BBC is a bit like Kremlinology. I think there's some code here - I think he's saying he wants more African, Caribbean, Arab and South Asian comedians, but he knows that they many will not be as punctiliously PC as the white middle class Guardian-reading tied-up-in-knots comedians the BBC normally favours. So I think he's saying the race card trumps the PC card.
I just saw a report on BBC Midlands Today about the launch of The Brexit Party. It was fine until the end when they finished by showing a number of voice bites from Coventry punters. All of them rubbished Farage and Brexit.
BBC Midlands News - Farage clearly has them worried: they sent their weakest reporter, Trish Adudu, to cover the launch of the Brexit Party in Coventry. The woman trivialises every subject she covers, using the tones one would normally employ for reading fairy stories to slow-learning children. Adudu's one question: why had Farage chosen to launch his new party in the Midlands? was clearly asked in the hope that he would say something about the region having a very large immigrant population - Farage brushed it aside: the Midlands were the heart of the country; where else would he begin?
But the BBC had other tricks up its sleeve: top of the list, trivialisation by camerawork. The camera lingered on Farage looking nervous before going on the platform - a natural reaction, surely, and we were shown only the briefest snatches of his speech. But the pièce de résistance was the most biased collection of vox pops I have ever seen: a couple of staunch supporters, one of whom may yet vote UKIP, and others who were indifferent or merely wanted to snigger about him; I live in the Midlands & I know this is not a fair reflection of how people feel.
To accompany this a vicious campaign has begun on Twitter: "Farage is a Nazi etc". I have a feeling somebody is orchestrating this, let us hope tomorrow's meeting in Birmingham does not end up with violence from rent-a-mob!
Yes, agreed and your summary is far better than mine. I think BBC Midlands has long had a particular agenda because of the ethnic characteristics of Birmingham and the surrounding towns and cities.
Arne- You're dead right re: the agenda. I think things have been much more politicised since they got rid of Suzanne Virdee - presumably for not being sufficiently strident & aggressive. The irony is that her gentle good humour did far more to foster good race relations than the likes of Adudu ever will!
Yes, Suzanne was treated very badly. She was dropped suddenly and without notice by her boss and her contract wasn't renewed. It later emerged that Virdee agreed a substantial out of court settlement from the BBC allegedly regarding a bullying claim. Her boss, the head of regional news had previously survived a vote of no confidence by BBC NUJ journalists over bullying.
It took me 14 tweets to show that just on FRIDAY it was easy for me to come across rather a lot of Climate Activism on BBC It's with pics of the BBC Climate kids staged photo .. and a kids sweary sign full 14 tweets with photos
I would just like to record that it has been bleedin' cold for us soft southerners for several weeks. Only ITV weather forecasters seem prepared to admit that we have been below average for this time of year so far. BBC forecasters seem to be sticking to the global warming ideology - which means if it 1 degree above average you talk about "raised temperatures, above average" but if it's 1 below average you stay schtum.
He refers to the attempted "deep state coup" to prevent Trump taking the Presidency.
Isn't that what we've just seen - a "deep state coup" to prevent Brexit? I think we have - we've seen all the deep state operatives in play: ex PMs, MI5, MI6, chief police officers, army and many more all working against Brexit and the popular vote.
I don't think there's anything deep about it. Most Westminster MPs are London-based career politicians with little or no experience of work within industry or the world of work as experienced by the majority of UK voters.
80% or so of these MPs voted to remain. It would represent a personal climb-down for them to have voted in Parliament for a clean Brexit or a no-deal Brexit. It would amount to agreeing a shrinkage of their sphere of influence and self-importance. I agree Blair's New Labour provided a mind-set for them.
When I say deep I wasn't talking about the parliamentary shenanigans. I am thinking of the workings of our state broadcaster, the change of policy at the Mail, the change of policy at the Express, the Electoral Commission's persecution of the Leave campaign, of the Police, Tony Blair working with Macron, Dominic Grieve, Legion d'honneur - his influence (again someone v. close to the French state)...I'm thinking about May's duplicity (connived in by the Civil Service) of allowing parallel negotiations, with her undertaking the real negotiations...I'm thinking about the way UKIP imploded till rescued by Gerard Batten.
Plenty of deep state, Art Trof. Who do you think was behind Miller? Who are the lawyers who were involved in her move or even now - as she is still active monitoring, reading the legislation, taking legal advice - *are* involved in her movement, as it could be called? What about who's backing Blair's movement, Blair's interests? Who are the quangos campaigning and influencing re the referendum result? The Electoral regulators and quangos - who appoints, runs and backs them and what are their interests and what are they up to? Who monitors them and calls them out? The BBC - Who runs it? An ex-Labour Government Cabinet minister? Who keeps it in check and demands that it explain why it is campaigning against Leaving, with its loaded panels, loaded questions and loaded twitterers? Why is Miliband on the BBC interfering and attempting to influence UK matters from New York? What are his interests and whom is he representing? The industry bodies that have their offices and connections in Brussels - who exactly are they and what are their interests in Brussels? The Bank of England? The academic globalists. The shady global billionaires spreading cash around and the ones owning newspapers? The government service, the civil servants in the Treasury, for example? Every one of the most senior ones that have come out of that Department in recent years has been highly political and partisan. I'm sure there're more.
The behaviour of Blair's civil servants in retirement - thinking of people like that spiv Gus O'Donnell - has been outrageous and has brought the whole of the civil service into disrepute.
Yes, Miller posed as a concerned individual but she had backing and was invited to undertake the action at the behest of people in the City.
What is very concerning as well is the constant attempt to close down debate. We see it all the time. Jonathan Dimbleby trying to smear Brexit as a racist enterprise. Nicky Morgan decreeing that no one can use words like betrayal. What is it but betrayal if Parliament legislates for a referendum, the government assures everyone the decision will be implemented (as do ALL UK party leaders, even Lib Dems at the time),the House of Commons votes by 500 to not much to invoke Article 50 and yet, three years later the Referendum result has not been implemented. That is most definitely betrayal of the people. And Blair's dealings in Europe are quite possibly treasonous as the law on treason stands.
Gus O'Donnell (in government known as GOD, for brevity) is typical of the politicised top civil servant. He and Kerslake. Blair's doing, mainly. And not forgetting GOD is now involved in doing work for the BBC re charging the over-75s via an economics outfit and that another ex-Treasury man, Torsten Bell, is involved in the same BBC project through that supposed charity run by Willetts who keeps banging on about how awful old people are to the young. Who has been in government while young people were being priced out of housing, education etc, if not these selfsame governing geniuses? Willetts used to be known as 'Two Brains', which isn't much heard these days.
I take these points, but MB's ..When I say deep I wasn't talking about the parliamentary shenanigans... is key here. I put it down to the spineless failings of the rank and file Westminster MPs that it looks like there will be no Brexit. Nobody other than themselves are responsible for the lily-livered dithering of our MPs.
The self-serving MPs of both parties prefer this so-called stalemate over Brexit. It ensures their self-importance, income and expenses remain intact for the time being, and that is all that concerns them - to be a member of this cosy club. Parliament prefers to harbour a criminal than to rock the boat.
I'd say these MPs aren't free floating individuals. Many of them are plugged into lobby groups, particularly business. They are often professionals who are influenced by views circulating within their professions e.g. the law. Many are focussed on preferment. Frankly, I think many of them are being bribed in effect. We don't really see how always but think holidays on yachts in the Med, invitations to international conferences and so on.
More than that, though, I do think people effectively have to adopt an ideology. The British Conservative elite once had the idea of Empire (which for much of the elite was a nice little earner) to keep them together. A large proportion of them then switched almost overnight to the idea of European union, which has more recently been augmented by the ideology of PC globalism. I'm saying they are ideologically hostile to Brexit. So it's not "dithering" it's ideological opposition, I would say, facilitated by the deep state e.g. Blair in constant contact with Macron plotting how to derail Brexit.
Tories face election wipe out as party on course to lose 60 seats and hand Corbyn keys to No. 10.
The Conservatives would lose 59 seats in the event of a general election, making Labour the largest party in the Commons, according to an exclusive poll of polls for The Sunday Telegraph.
The dramatic fall in support was down to anger among Tory voters “at the Government’s failure to deliver Brexit.
One can only hope that will concentrate Conservative MPs' minds on the need to dislodge May and choose a leader who can relate to the country at large. Presumably at that stage the Remainer rabble will try and "Block Boris" by backing someone like Gove or Leadsom. It would be a mistake. Of the available potential leaders, I think only Boris has the right stuff.
Agreed. Gove's backstabbing makes him fatally tainted as far as I'm concerned. Not that the rest of the party has huge appeal: the Sunday Telegraph's chief political correspondent tells us the teams of the rival leadership contenders, "are drawing up 'war books' about potential rivals, full of historic controversies, sexual allegations and unsavoury claims about their partners." Nice! What a snake-pit the Commons has become!
I was appalled to hear Ken Clarke speaking of Gove in admiring tones as someone who could take on the mantle of leadership. Who knows what dirty deals are being done behind closed doors? Someone like Gove would probably campaign on going back to the EU to ask for a clean break free trade deal...then once in the PM's job, he'd half heartedly go there, get no for an answer and then proceed with May's deal, putting it to the people on a second referendum with Remain option attached.
Boris needs to learn from Trump. Just brazen it out and double up on attacks on your enemies, including within your party. We see how most US Republicans have eventually come round to Trump, even people like Ted Cruz. If Boris can deliver a thumping majority - and I think he can if he goes to the country on a free trade deal or no deal ticket. He should present a bill to parliament that sets it all out and when the Commons vote it down, that's the point to go to teh country and say "We're all sick of this continuing mess...we need to get out of the EU and finish this business. Vote Conservative."
A lot of female journos really don't like Boris. I think in many cases it's a combination of their dislike of philanderers, particularly if they've suffered at the hands of a philanderer, joined to a feeling of resentment that he never made a pass at them.
On Sky News Press Preview tonight, the Corbynite Labour Rachel Shabi said that the Brexit Party iss to the right of UKIP. The opposing speaker, Henry Newman, I think he's called, corrected her but I'm not sure that she accepted it.
She may have been applying the regular left-right economic policy matrix in which case - a very rare occasion - Shabi might have been correct for all her absurd gurning. Gerard Batten is not an economic liberal - he's made clear he thinks there are natural monopolies that ought to be state-owned. I think he said he was a long time supporter of the minimum wage.
Farage is an ex investment banker and certainly started off as an economic libertarian, even calling into question the sacred NHS - though he has tacked with the wind on this since the 2008 recesssion.
It's hard to argue against this poll's findings. My view that the vast majority of Westminster MPs are self-serving Remainers (in this case wishing t remain at Westminster where they can enjoy the kudos of being, as members of this elite club, well paid, comfortable and self-satisfied).
Conservative MPs and also many Labour MPs (the latter group some of of which might face deselection by Corbyn Command) seem to have turned to jelly. Remember the Wisdom Story:
... There was a young man walking down the street and happened to see a old man sitting on his porch. Next to the old man was his dog, who was whining and whimpering. The young man asked the old man “What's wrong with your dog” The old man said “He's laying on a nail”.
My tweet with tombstone memorial pic The Brexit public won't vote for the Traitor parties at the Local elections Thursday 2 May Tory/Labour/Plaid/Green/SNP/LibDem are #ToxicBrands Killed by their own arrogance When they cheated the Public on Brexit
Batten allowed on a mainstream BBC programme. The Marr Show...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOWiyVWAkjI
The usual negative stuff but Batten wasm, surprisingly, allowed to answer at reasonable length.
Batten did well but he should learn, I think to always turn things around to the interviewer. For instance - "Well can you tell me what part of Sharia you would like to see introduced in the UK, Mr Marr?", "Do you defend the Saudi ban on Christian churches and Jews living in their country?", "Why if you are so concerned about political extremism does the BBC provide a platform for far left Communists like Ash Sarkar to preach militant Communism?"
You have to ask why, if Batten is allowed on Marr he's not allowed on Newsnight.
He was on Any Questions? this week. I didn't listen to most of it so I can't say generally how it went but I did catch a snippet at the end where Dimbo threw in a pointed question at Batten. It was a gratuitous taunt and a perfect illustration of what a piece of work Dimbo is.
Sky News is following suit. What a surprise! She was commenting there this lunchtime along with someone from the Telegraph about the Conservatives and Brexit where she referred to 'the hardline headbangers', meaning some unnamed MPs. No query or challenge from the interviewer to this language. Reminds me of her most recent outing on Politics Live where she described someone as having done 'sweet f a '. If that's her level of ability to comment one wonders what is her qualification for being on national broadcast channels.
Yes, I heard the gratuitous taunt - it was basically "But you're a narrow minded racist and wouldn't want to live anywhere there were lots of black and foreign people would you?"
This despite Batten having already made clear he'd lived in Newham (!) for decades. In other words, it was clear it was a prepared assault on the man's integrity by the slow moving Dimbosaurus which he lumbering continued with despite it having no evidential basis whatsoever.
8pm Tonight a repeat of Friday’s Radio4 Feedback prog “Is the BBC doing enough to cover climate change?” A trailer started the prog “Since we have only 12 years left, the BBC should be doing more to save the planet ?” Then at 16 mins the actual item I posted my comments over at BH log of BBC Climate bias And did a Twitter thread
I added points today as I realised that the BBC has just started 3 actual Climate campaign projects and added a link to Alex Cull’s transcript and opened a new thread to discuss the Climate Special on April 18th
Good tweets. The BBC have gone full on Greenpeace-Vegan-WWF-Apocalyptic. It's funny how things have changed. I remember at the back end of 1999 the BBC were lecturing us that we should not fear a millennial apocalypse. Now they seem only too keen for an apocalypse to come!
I know he's not everybody's cup of tea. Mrs Brains doesn't rate him for one. But for me he is probably one of the most impressive politicians this country has produced in the last few decades. He hasn't got Farage's oratorical skills but I think he makes up for that in analytical prowess and political integrity.
All we are (well, I am) asking of our politicians is that they engage with reality. Yes we want vision and direction for the future, but first they have to engage with reality of the present day. So few do.
It seems to me Batten does: addressing those issues that mainstream politicians generally refuse to engage with, namely mass immigration, Sharia creep, and the nature of the EU superstate project.
I've noticed they always avoid debate. What they do is "loop back" to their original question. So if GB says something like "Tommy Robinson is not a racist" they don't say "Well here's the evidence is he is racist" they just simply loop back to "But Farage/an ex UKIP person/the Archbishop of Canterbury says you are not allowed to have him advising you about anything."
This is really where we are...who could have believed 10 years ago that anyone could mute Frankie Boyle. Afua Hirsch can. And all the other nodding donkeys on the panel make sure they are nodding.
Laughable (but not in a good way!).
Free speech is pretty much over if you think Afua Hirsch is the person to decide what it is.
Afua Hirsch is wrong in many ways. For a start if it is wrong to say that all people of a minority group share the same opinions that it is even more wrong to say that of the majority, a group that, horror of horrors is very diverse. She is especially wrong regarding the Jon Snow issue. Yes he was being racist but he was being challenged because he hadn't made the same observation At Glastonbury or about the earlier pro-EU march. 'Hideous whiteness' only became visible to him when he could put the 'racists' label on to the Brexit rally. (How come the white majority can be both pro and anti the EU Afua? Don't dem whiteys all look and tink alike, like?)
You are totally right. I had no problem with Jon Snow making his observation if that was his genuine feeling. But of course it wasn't a genuine expression of surprise - it was an intended smear, meant to imply that the pro-Brexit protest was a whites-only racist affair. It was bias and bile aimed at the Brexit process. (Incidentally, Snow increasingly has that mad gleam in his eye that Heath had in his latter years...)
Moreover, as you rightly observe, he was being hypocritical in not making the same observation about the anti-Brexit marchers. More evidence of bias.
So, that was the criticism (politically motivated bias and hyprocrisy from a public service broadcaster - Channel 4 is actually a public service, by law), not a criticism made on behalf of an imagined racial grouping.
Of course part of the agenda of Hirsch and the BBC-Guardian mob is to racialise everything to the point where people defined as white come to see themselves as a racial block. That will then provide post hoc justification of their dangerous ideology. I think this is a very, very concerning development. The UK's legal and political system has always been based on the idea of legal equality and equal work, not skin-toned group rights.
We should resist racialisation. In any case it's absurd in the British context. An ornothologist presented with three birds (one with orange feathers and covered in brown spots on a very pale background, another with glossy black feathers and a much darker and shorter body, and the third with yellow feathers an a body that turns a rich brown in the height of summer) would conclude he is dealing with three separate species. The way white Brits look depending on their Scottish/Irish, Welsh or Germanic heritage is very different. Lumping us all together makes no more sensing that lumping Tamils and Somalis together because they have similar skin tone.
BBC sounding a bit sad about the continued rise of the right populist Finns Party in Finland's latest elections...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47893264
A very suggestive BBC sub-headline:
"How did we get here?"
We? That's the last thing I would say. I would say "How did the Finns get to where they are now?" or, even more so, I'd just report it without being so histrionic about the whole thing. None of the Finnish parties are currently seeking to overthrow democracy so what's the problem, BBC? It's for the Finns to sort out!! How did we get here?
Youtuber 2016 'I think Jess Philps wants to close down free speech .. she might claim not, but I think that is not true ... Jess says she gets rape threats and I think that is terrible .. I say I wouldn't rape her .. but she will still close my free speech down' 3 years later Andrew Marr reaches back to that Youtubers video as a gotcha .. ah you have a candidate who said to Jess Philips "He wouldn't even rape you" ..that is a "RAPE tweet" Batten I think you'll find it was satire in an old video" Marr 'Gotcha !, gotcha ! rape tweet ! rape tweet ! ..he should be banned cos he said that' context explanation video
"Ilhan Omar: The 9/11 row embroiling the US congresswoman"
One would think the BBC knew how to use the verb "embroil". The odd sentence construction (it would be much more natural to say "Illhan Omar embroiled in a 9/11 scandal") serves to distance her from the scandal.
"Embroil" often relates to affairs that didn't initially appear to involve the person in question. So, for instance, it was only after some time that President Nixon became embroiled in the Watergate scandal. Sometimes people become embroiled in scandal even though they are innocent of any misdoing. Again, the inappropriate use of the verb serves to distance Omar, hinting that she was never at the heart of the scandal.
But of course she is and has always been at the centre of this scandal which relates to her anti-semitism (which she "apologised" for and so can't be dismissed as imagined by her political opponents) and anti-Americanism.
The article is incredibly biased to the Muslim Brotherhood supporting Congresswoman. After some initial prevarication, the article goes full on Radical Dem and defends her to the hilt for the last half. Couldn't be more biased!
We native speakers break grammar rules all the time but we do it in a natural way. Non-native speakers do it in a different way. A month ago a BBC webstory had such weird English in both its real title and the hidden one used for Twitter links The grammar here could be similar. So I wonder if the source of the text is a non-native speaker.
BTW Note the tricks Trump/Farage = badman ..so pics chosen to be bad and phrasing puts him on the backfoot "Trum defends" Friend = Good .. so flattering "presidential" pics chosen "Representative Ilhan Omar says she won't be silenced" ..she gets full title and name and victimhood
It's what happens when you don't tell the truth. There is a whole forensic science built on analysis of witness statements - unnatural constructions and non-colloquial usages often offer clues to the truth that is being hidden. Over-emphasis in denials is another trait and we see this in the numerous defensive comments recorded in the final half of the article.
Not sure what to make of this Twitter thread, full of angst by former Beeboids, including a certain Patrick Howse! https://twitter.com/Baghdaddi/status/1117657936740925440
I really struggle with the line of attack that the BBC is the mouthpiece of the right wing. It’s part of the establishment, yes. But the establishment is clearly left-liberal. Or is that just my bias?
If the utterances of BBC journalists on Twitter has shown us anything, it is just how far to the left most of them are and how far they would go to shut down any opposition to their views.
It began I think with th Great Adonis Illusion trick. Not sure if he really thought of it or whether it was Alistair Campbell but the infamouse Lord started making a series of complaints about the BBC being biased in favour of Brexit! Lol Beyond absurd (as we all know from the Beeboids' tweets and Craig's analyses of interviews and numerous other sources). Absolutely ridiculous, but it enables (a) the BBC to pose as impartial and balanced because it is getting "complaints from both sides" and (b) gives the BBC reason to redouble its efforts to support Remain in an even more biased manner claiming it is only "fact checking".
I think the Adonis Illusion has had great effect. It's like something out of a David Copperfield act - making the Empire State building disappear or similar...You know it's an illusion but somehow he's made all that BBC bias for Remain disappear...at least that's what the gullible might think.
Anyway,using the Adonis template they are all at it now: climate change fanatics "BBC is helping destroy the planet"), Far Left conspiracy theorists ("BBC opposes perfectly reasonable demands for Communism to be implemented tomorrow") and people with issues like this Howse guy who seem to be living on a different planet!
But why has it had so few complaints from Brexiteer MPs? I suspect that, naively, they feel they may one day need the Beeb to help them obtain/retain office. Forget it folks! - with one or two honourable exceptions, Beeboids are programmed to hate you.
Yes, it's a puzzle. They are more vociferous in their complaints during interviews now - led by Lilley, others like Rees-Mogg have become invovled. Others like Boris seem to be pursuing a policy of creative disengagement. But they still cling to this idea that the BBC is a noble beast harnessed to the cause of free speech and democracy, when nothing could be further from the truth.
What a weird thread i wonder if they organised it beforehand or are mostly sitting in the same room acting out a play
Note this tweet We mustn’t give up on the BBC. It’s ours and it must be rescued from this desperate government who have more stooges there than ministers plotting against the PM. #ReclaimOurBBC
See how the guy gives the game away They the left/libs know the BBC is theirs
That is a very long thread but I notice an unusual thing In normal Twitter threads you get to the bottom and it says "show more replies) this doesn't happen then normally you get a second bottom (show replies with offensive comments) You often find rightie comments have been hidden there ..there is no such section in that thread either
Spot the difference A prominent Guardian story today vs. The BBC website story buried far down the page.
Guardian headline today UK pay grows at fastest rate since financial crisis – ONS Almost 180,000 workers hired, while unemployment remains at lowest level since mid-70s
BBC website headline today Unemployment across UK shows slight fall
Does the BBC smile kindly on the Extinction Rebellion? You bet!! Compare and contrast with other protests that they don't favour.
I really don't accept that a protest designed to close down a city and stop ambulances moving about is "non-violent" as the BBC describe it. It's a non-peaceful protest.
Many of these uberclimatists are on salaries in the hundreds of thousands of pounds. What do they think all that money represents? Production, that's what (unless they are burying their pound notes in the garden). If these people are actively investing 99% of their salary in carbon sequestration they are simply adding to the problem they claim exists.
Came across this - think it is a rather well produced pro-Brexit vid...high production values. My only doubt is the Brexit Vision channel itself seems a bit "religiose" so am not endorsing all that:
The Guardian and Sky News are both reporting prominently today that Nigel Farage is polling very strongly and will run away with EU elections if poll results are accurate. Margaret Beckett is labelling him as extreme right -wing.
Meanwhile the BBC are completely silent. Bias by omission will backfire on them in this case methinks.
From Guido - and again a deafening silence from the BBC. It’s clearly not their sort of story.
“The German Government has released an updated growth forecast for 2019, and it’s pretty damning. Forecast growth for 2019 has been slashed to 0.5%, less than a quarter of the 2.1% predicted a year ago and a level not seen since the height of the Eurozone crisis. It’s also less than half of the UK’s expected growth this year.”
Extinction Rebellion: Enjoyed one item on 6pm news today: did anyone spot the planet-hugger ostentatiously blowing clouds of smoke from both nostrils? Doesn't she know this stuff is carcinogenic?
Yeh I'd do Green Festivals and I couldn't believe they insisted on big bonfires Then they'd sit around it with a big joint and say "man we have to do something, these big companies are polluting the air" #ironic
The Mayor of London spends the 364 days of the year lecturing us about air quality and particulates and then come New Year's Eve puts out about 5% of the annual particulate pollution in about 30 mins!
He is a virtue signaller of the first order. Not a conviction politician, he always follows the leftie illiberal crowd. A progressive populist if you like.
The BBC and the rest of the MSM may have overshot the runway with their promotion of The Brexit Party (to crush UKIP and their bete noire or is that blanc, TR). They may find (a) the UKIP core vote survives at somewhere between 5 and 10% while (b) The Brexit Party becomes a vehicle for general dissatisfaction with our politics and gets out of control.
Farage is not really the man to do the capitalising on that but sometimes the people decide they've had enough and elect whoever serves their purpose.
It would be wonderful if The Brexit Party translated its EU election support across to the General Election polling and started eating into Labour support as well.
If Parliament has to decide on withdrawal on a specific date via Act of Parliament (giving the PM authority ot act) in accord with the Miller judgement, then it is logical that any extension also has to be agreed by Act of Parliament and not under any other procedure. The Act has got to be superior. Obviously it can be argued in other ways but this is certainly a strong case. Don't expect any of our Guardian-reading PC judges to think that way - they'd rather sell their mothers into prostitution than aid Brexit in any way. But it will be nice to see how they tie themselves up in knots over this one.
Sopel and Zurcher pumping out tweets following publication of Mueller report. Every one has a halftime hidden accusation or loaded question. Hardly impartial.
The Lamentable Wark on Newsnight repeatedly referring to Trump's obstruction of justice as an established fact* despite no such obstruction having been found or even having been the subject of formal charges.
* Reminds me of that old Private Eye piece purporting to be a Daily Mail article which began: "a shocking event took place yesterday in the mind of a Daily Mail journalist...".
A programme about one of the BBCs favourite causes is on BBC One tonight. Climate Change - The Facts. I wonder if these are BBC ‘reality check’ type facts to fit the narrative or the real facts. I wait with baited breath. I suspect it will just be a propaganda piece.
ITV News tonight edited out the words "laughing about male suicide" in their news report. There was no other reason to edit this short part of a sentence except to distort. You can't trust the MSM. Benjamin's tweet was ill advised especially when you are up against someone like JP who is happy to stoop as low as necessary and who openly talks about stabbing political opponents (in the front). Carl is perhaps not as clever as he think he is. But really - we can't trust our MSM if they are prepared to decontexualise his original comment.
Absolutely. Narrative first, truth second, professional ethics third and credibility an also ran.
I never really rated Carl Benjamin because he used to swear a lot in his videos which is always a bad move, suggesting you don't have a very strong argument. But I think one has to say he is being treated unfairly.
Why aren't the media relentlessly asking Jess Phillips to justify her comment about stabbing someone in the front? Well obviously because (a) the media like her (b) no one seriously thinks she intended to stab Jeremy Corbyn in reality and (c) they don't want to harm the Labour Party.
But in the case of CB,(a) the media hate him (b) they are going to carry on pretending he meant JP harm even though they know that's ridiculous and (c) they want to damage UKIP.
What sort of stitch up is being planned to prevent UKIP getting a decent share of EU Parliamentary election broadcasts, I wonder?
ReplyDeleteRef. multiple knife attacks in Edmonton, mentioned in the previous open thread. An Enfield newspaper gave these details on 2 April:
ReplyDelete'Police have said the latest incident has "not yet been formally linked" to a series of knife attacks in the area, but the culprit in all five is a tall, skinny black man wearing a hooded top. ...The suspect is described as a skinny black man who is approximately 6ft 3ins tall and wearing dark clothes.'
The details may have been published even earlier than 2 April for all I know. Probably not on the BBC.
https://www.enfieldindependent.co.uk/news/17544208.man-stabbed-in-edmonton-and-its-being-linked-to-multiple-stabbings-at-the-weekend/?ref=mr&lp=8
The surname of the man charged is Kakaire - a common name in Uganda, apparently.
DeleteDaily Mail quotes the prosecutor as stating 'The victims were both male and female and of varying ages and ethnicities and none had been robbed.'
ReplyDeleteIt also reports that the last victim to be stabbed has been paralysed.
New Open Thread: Loonies far up the Thames without a paddle?
ReplyDeleteNot all they are up.
ReplyDeleteThere was a Great Stink around the Houses of Parliament in 1858 - which thankfully led to some much needed reform.
ReplyDeleteWe can only hope the current Great Stink rising from that place gives impetus to fresh reform. We need a written constitution (to prevent the likes of Oliver Letwin appointing themselves Prime Minister but with no accountability to anyone), complete reform of the House of Lords, a significant element of proportional representation in the House of Commons. I'd go even further and have annual elections to Parliament - an original demand of the Chartists. If it was in place, these brave MPs with their sensitive "consciousnesses" would be far less brave in frustrating the will of the people. However, I'm doubting I'd get much sympathy for that constitutional innovation.
Hugh Sykes wants us (Kaffir men included it seems), to approach disabled Burka'ed Muslim women in the street and try and get them into our car, despite the very good chance they don't speak our language...
ReplyDeleteSomehow I don't think that's going to end very well in all cases.
https://twitter.com/HughSykes/status/1113870468958904320
Sometimes you do have to wonder what planet BBC journalists live on...
Perhaps he should go to Bradford & show us how it's done! :)
DeleteAnd here's Hugh giving Chris Morris a bit of collegiate support, presumably having read about how the Reality Check supremo had been found out spreading untruths about food poisoning in the USA...
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/HughSykes/status/1113755433544691712
What a pair of biased chancers. Is this really the best the BBC can offer?
DeleteMeanwhile Sopel is on twitter querying a Sky Data report that 25% of the public would boycott the Euro elections noting that 66% of voters routinely don't vote in the Euro elections. He's killing two birds with one stone here: having a go at the BBC's unloved commercial rival and promoting the Remain cause by doing the usual thing of overcomplicating the issue. There are any number of survey results that the BBC quotes which one could query on a statistical or methodological basis, but of course it's only this particular issue that Sopel the Remainer wishes to focus on...strange eh?
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/BBCJonSopel/status/1114261925800685569
They're not taking any notice of Pope Frances's encyclical are they?
Meanwhile Mark Easton has gone to bellwether city - Worcester.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the chances of a reporter going to Worcester and finding all three of his interviewees don't have a Worcester accent? In professional Anglophobe Mark Easton's case, a near certainty.
https://twitter.com/BBCMarkEaston/status/1110621412476284928
The population of Worcester has been hugely swollen (& distorted) by the student population. Worcester is our nearest decent shopping centre & we go there often. I'm afraid the chances of Easton interviewing people who don't have the local accent are high, unless he interviews older people - the lovely Worcestershire accent is fast giving way to East Enders-speak.
DeleteI've only been there once, not so long ago...but I bow to your local knowledge. :) Maybe Mr Easton was right to get down with the (Remain) kids.
DeleteNot just Sopel who can kill two birds with one stone...his N American colleague Nik Bryant can do the same thing:
ReplyDelete1. Throwing some abuse the way of Murdoch and by implication Sky.
2. Suggesting that the election of Trump and Brexit show our democracies have been "destabilised".
https://twitter.com/NickBryantNY/status/1113520937687769094
Silly me - there was I thinking it was robbing 17.4 million people of their hard-won Brexit that was doing the destabilising!
DeleteSilly me too! And also the previous 20 years of allowing and/or promoting (without a clear mandate from the people) unprecedented levels of mass immigration (including illegal immigration), aggressive multiculturalism and turning the EU into a fully fledged superstate project.
DeleteBBC doing their sneaky headline routine again. The actual homepage headline for the story below is:
ReplyDelete"IRA call contributed to pub bomb deaths"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-47829118
Contributed? IRA call?? Deaths???
How about "IRA pub bomb murders - bungled terrorist warning caused huge death toll".
The BBC headline makes it sound like someone other than the IRA were responsible for the pub bombs but somehow an IRA "call" didn't help.
Surprised they're not trying to lay the blame at the door of the security services.
DeleteI was gobsmacked when Look North reported that Yorkshire Water will no longer go out to jobs in BD3 (Bradford), even if they are emergency jobs. Not gobsmacked because they won't go (too dangerous) but because they actually reported it.
ReplyDeleteYes - no clues as to what it's about. Water engineers aren't normally subject to violent threats...something to do with a particular line of take away trade whose business is being affected?
DeleteThere are plenty of no go areas, my local courier has told me some in Birmingham. There is a common thread.
DeleteMB Could some people have been by-passing their meters? Wouldn't have thought it was worthwhile for water. I've suspected for a while, though, that the, apparent, increase in the number of gas explosions may be down to botched meter-fiddling.
DeleteDid they have mains gas in Grenfell tower?
Good point...bypassing of meters cannot be discounted. Some people have suggested bypassing of the electricity meters have been a factor in some tragedies. Water might be easier to bypass in some ways.
DeleteAn interesting vid - worth watching all the way through...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i8y82cDH0g
Watters' World - The US media is a curious mix of the shallow and the deep. This is deep. He gets at what free speech and opposition to free speech is all about.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqQYxvqcn60
I've nicked a piece from Guido's contributor Guy Forks (sorry!).
ReplyDeleteScientists have discovered a new element In the heat of the Brexit debate, Governmentium (symbol=Gv), it has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.
These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called pillocks. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact.
A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete. Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2 to 6 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganisation in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganisation will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.
This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as a critical morass. When catalysed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium (symbol=Ad), an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium, since it has half as many pillocks but twice as many morons!
Many years ago Countryfile used to be an enjoyable farming and rural show on BBC2.
ReplyDeleteLike much of the BBC TV output it has been hijacked by the PC, liberal - leftie social justice warriors and just about every story is campaigning for something or someone.
It’s a classic example of how to destroy a gentle and harmless programme by smothering it completely with the BBC political and social agenda.
Them and The Archers - latest storyline: militant atheism.
DeleteRemember Jon Sopel's claim that the BBC were "impartial"? Seems that Sopel sides with those who don't believe those women who have complained about Biden's physical attentions - he sides with a commentator who thinks they were all innocent hugs.
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/BBCJonSopel/status/1114962984315625472
And here he is, a reporter in a foreign land, directly criticising our Prime Minister. His criticism is not unjust but it is really right for an "impartial" BBC journalist to throw rotten eggs at the Prime Minister via tweet?
Have they all decided to get together and give Fran a giant V's up in response to her warning about partisan tweeting?
missed off the link...
Deletehttps://twitter.com/BBCJonSopel/status/1114927353979920384
I said before I think Rachel Riley is out of her depth politically. This confirms it for me. Whether she knows it or not she is bolstering the Bogus Equivalence Narrative, so that there is a thing called "Islamophobia" which is the equivalent of "anti-semitism". Rachel Riley makes reference to Muslims fleeing persecution to come to the UK. Who is she referring to? Who is persecuting them?
ReplyDeleteAnother link missed off!...here it is:
Deletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-47845171/rachel-riley-on-anti-semitism-islamophobia-and-online-abuse
Any attempt by the EU to impose conditions on the extension of the Article 50 period will clearly be illegal. Article 50 states simply:
ReplyDelete"The Treaties shall cease to apply to the State in question from the date of entry into force of the withdrawal agreement or, failing that, two years after the notification referred to in paragraph 2, unless the European Council, in agreement with the Member State concerned, unanimously decides to extend this period."
It is clearly a binary choice - to extend or not. No conditions can be applied to Article 50 so I think it follows no conditions can be applied to an extension of the application period, unless explicitly stated that they can.
I know the ECJ will agree anything that helps the cause but I see nothing in the Article that allows for conditions to be placed on the extension. Indeed from reading the Article it's really doubtful you can extend it more than once in any case, and certainly I don't think multiple extension points fits with the wording.
I don’t suppose the BBC will ever report this...
Deletehttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/04/08/german-elite-call-radical-rethink-eus-brexit-strategy/
If they do report it (unlikely) they'll use a confuse-a-cat headline like "German think tanks' Brexit concerns".
DeleteThere is no warrant in Article 50 for what the EU is proposing - an extension that the EU/UK can then shorten at will if it accepts the Withdrawal Agreement or which is made conditional (on the UK's "sincere co-operation").
DeleteTotally illegal - don't believe the propaganda (even put about by Andrew Neil) that the EU is a law-based community. It isn't. It's a political construct and a political machine.
Is the UK MSM softening us up for a Marxist revolutionary regime?
ReplyDelete1. The Durrells - normally pretty escapist TV - had a likeable Communist fugitive who had shot a political enemy and was being ushered to safety by the Durrells and their friends. The Greek Communists were in fact among the most brutal movements ever produced, indulging in wholesale terror during the post war civil conflict in Greece.
2. Evan Davis interviewing a French Marxist today. Was quite an interesting conversation (note - conversation, meaning Evan liked his interviewee).
3. Mark Mardell recommended reading a book promoting Communism.
4. The Archers featuring a militant atheism storyline.
5. Ash Sakar - self-confessed Communist ie Far Left extremist on our screens every two minutes.
Straws in the wind or is the brainwashing going to be racheted up a few points?
I'd like to think I'm joking but who knows these days...
It's the BBC's idea of balance - They represent both sides: Left and Extreme Left!
DeleteQuite fun counting the anachronisms on "The Durrells" : e.g. on Sunday: "go-kart" (1956) and "groupie" (1965). Wonder how old the script-writers are.
Talking of such anachronisms, I recall a Pat Barker novel set in WW1 (Regeneration) has someone from 1917 using "sexy" to denote something exciting and interesting (but not sexual!). That really jarred. I'd say that only originated in the 1970s.
DeleteJon Sopel said the BBC was "impartial, free and fair". Fran Unsworth tells BBC staff they have to maintain impartiality in tweeting going Jon and that includes with respect to retweeting?
ReplyDeleteLet's look at his ten most recent tweets/retweets:
1. Sarcastic dig at Trump.
2. Retweeting of a tweet critical of Trump - suggesting he has possibly engaged in illegal behaviour as President.
3. Negative tweet about Trump in the form of a BBC question: "When do management changes become a purge by a frustrated President?"
4. Retweeting that UK will hold EU elections - one step closer to Remaining eh Jon?
5. Negative view of Labour-Conservative negotiations on Brexit retweeted (from let wing Mirror journalist).
6. Attack on something call "Islamophobia" in the Tory party retweeted (from left wing Muslim Labour activist).
7. Pro PC millionaire no borders globalist Gary Lineker tweet retweeted (non political I think...)
8. Tweet re declaration of Iranian Revolutionary Guards as terrorist organisation. Seemed to actually be impartial!
9. As above for 8.
10. Mocking tweet about Trump and his recent sackings.
I make that only 2 truly impartial tweets. One impartial but bigging up a known partial tweeter within the BBC (message to Fran perhaps?). And 7 clearly partisan or tending towards left-liberal positioning.
Another disgrace is they are doing a lot of this politicised tweeting when they are supposed to be working for us, and are certainly getting paid for it!
One of the worst developments occasioned by the Cameron-May era has been false flag politics. We had Sarah Woollaston joining the Leave campaign and pretending to be a leaver, presumably so she could spy on the campaign and then stage a dramatic exit.
ReplyDeleteI find it difficult to believe she really changed her mind on this half way through the campaign.
Then we had Nicky Morgan appearing to soften her Remain politics and seek compromise via the Malthouse amendment. Was it all an elaborate charade? I believe so now, as I heard her on the radio this morning and she was sounding more rabidly Remainiac than ever, insisting that Leavers be censored from using robust language to protest all this dishonest dealing from the Prime Minister.
And then tonight we have Daniel Kawczynski resigning in high dudgeon from the ERG denouncing it in suspiciously Remainer terms (blathering on about unicorns and the like - a dead giveaway). Was he ever serious about severing our ties with the EU or was it all part of some great game of personal advancement? I've no idea but I've never trusted him in his Brexiter pose.
You can always tell whether the BBC are 'for' or 'against' by the way they report.
ReplyDeleteI find that characteristic very annoying and irritating. It's an easy way to spot their bias and you can witness it every day.
An example this morning is how they are presenting and promoting the divorce laws reform. It is all positive and joyous. The nation must be delighted at this liberal and progressive change - is the message.
Their angle is that it stops the blame game rather than saying that it makes divorce considerably easier. The BBC will be particularly pleased because it undermines the nuclear family which they despise.
"You can always tell whether the BBC are 'for' or 'against' by the way they report."
DeleteYes, this is my belief. As a rule you can say with some certainty that the BBC has a policy on everything from knitting, to Islam, to nursery care, to what sports it approves of, to alcohol, to road signage, to cannabis and so on through the whole of life. I can't offhand think of a single aspect of life they don't have a policy on. How the policy emerges is interesting...my view it is through a combination of group think, Guardian reading, senior management guidance, editorial conferences and herd mentality.
They don't support the institution of marriage (although weirdly they are very keen to celebrate gay marriage - just a tactic). Their view is that it should be replaced eventually by a legal framework that would simply recognise extended cohabitation and production of children as creating legal obligations. They likely view these new divorce laws as an important step towards abolition of marriage or reducing it to a meaningless lifestyle choice.
On the multiculturalist front the BBC hypocritically (despite its fractured families policy) lauds the extended family. The close, tight-knit cross-generational extended family, often occupying the same household, is quite foreign to British culture and stultifies creativity, independent thinking and self-sufficiency.
The BBC is large enough to hold seemingly contradictory ideas. This is one example. What unites them is the overall policy (globalist, no borders PC multiculturalism).
BBC Politics tweets:
ReplyDeleteYou will have heard me say on a number of occasions - the withdrawal agreement is not going to be reopened"
Chief #Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier repeats EU's position, after senior minister Andrea Leadsom makes new call for a renegotiation
Why have the BBC worded it from Barnier’s view and not like this :
Andrea Leadsom has called for the WA to be renegotiated to support a proper Brexit.
Putting pressure on the EU to renegotiate, the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said: "The withdrawal agreement is not going to be reopened."
Or "EU rejects suggested compromise". :)
Delete👍🏼
DeleteI'm keeping a little record of the people I hear or discover presenting non-standard programmes (occasional series or one-offs) on the BBC. I was motivated by Stephen Wall presenting a load of pro-EU guff on Radio 4 under guise of an historical look at the 70s.
ReplyDeleteSo far I've got:
Stephen Wall - Remainer
Alan Rusbridger - Remainer
Giles Brandreth - Unknown
Disruption and chaos. That was the message from the report about a no-deal Brexit on BBC One news by Lucy Manning. Kent Head-teachers, local businesses and Eurotunnel were united by voicing their concerns. Not one pro-Brexit voice unless I missed it.
ReplyDeleteIs that representative? Is everyone in Kent very concerned? Is it short term or long term disruption? Are businesses really not prepared?
I really don’t know, I’m none the wiser because I can’t trust the BBC to give a balanced or accurate view anymore. And that’s the really sad thing about the current state of BBC TV reports because I want to know and be properly informed.
Dover was strongly Remain. Kent was part of the South Region which voted Remain. I'm sure Kent fishermen would be keen on Leaving with No Deal.
DeleteAccording to the Electoral Commission web site, Dover was strongly Leave ... 40410 (62%) vs 24606 (38%).
DeleteThe BBC web page shows that most, if not all, of Kent voted Leave.
https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/find-information-by-subject/elections-and-referendums/past-elections-and-referendums/eu-referendum/electorate-and-count-information
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36616028
I keep doing it! I meant Leave of course!! Duh - I will really have to check my posts from now on. I blame all the duplicity about so fake Leavers are actually Remainers, various Remainers are posing as Leavers honouring the vote, people who supported Leave now back May's pretend Leave deal, people who opposed May's deal now back it...Corbyn, the arch Leaver, is now backing Remain and so on. I think we're supposed to be confused...it's clearly working on me!
DeleteJust remember, cos you'll never hear on BBC, that all regions of England and Wales were Leave. Only London was Remain.
DeleteMB - Confusing Leave & Remain: maybe it's happening because we spent a couple of years being told "Brexit means Brexit," whereas it means, of course, "Remain"!
DeleteAh... MB your post makes sense now! ;-)
DeleteSis, Indubitably. And then we were told the Prime Minister's abject surrender deal represented "Brexit" when clearly it doesn't.
DeleteTR's new video coming soon - could be interesting...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgChtUHTo3U
My updated list of people Radio 4 has on presenting non-standard programmes (talks, occasional series, one-off docs). I was motivated to do this by hearing Stephen Wall presenting a load of pro-EU guff on Radio 4 under guise of an historical look at the 70s.
ReplyDeleteSo far I've got:
Stephen Wall - Remainer
Alan Rusbridger - Remainer
Giles Brandreth - Unknown
Will Hutton - Remainer (a Second Referendumer, Revoker and Returner-if-we-don't revoke)
This story about 38 Degrees, the not-for-profit polling organisation, and the dismissal this month of their Executive Director David Babbs doesn't seem to have reached the BBC News website yet:
ReplyDeletehttps://home.38degrees.org.uk/2019/04/03/an-update-about-38-degrees-executive-director/
In February of this year, 38 Degrees carried out polling on the subject of the over 75s' TV Licence issue. It is never clear at whose behest this type of polling is carried out, but no doubt it was at the very least with the BBC's approval.
Nelsonian blindness!
DeleteBBC Newsnight pushing The Brexit Party strongly, in contrast with UKIP which they were eager to condemn (without any effective opportunity for response) as anti-Muslim, owned by TR, B-N-P-like and extreme. The aim clearly is to split the anti-Brexit vote, and preferably kill off UKIP. Maitlis seemed poorly briefed as usual for the studio discussion (no UKIP or Brexit Party representative allowed) - she seemed unaware that Patrick O'Flynn MEP had changed allegiance from UKIP to SDP.
ReplyDeleteNewsnight were careful not to show recent polls that have UKIP on 8% and 9% - more than the Lib Dems, who a significant number of MPs and plenty of free publicity on the UK MSM.
Note: I am not a UKIP member but the bias against them on the BBC and in the UK MSM is blatant, relentless and illegal (for the TV broadcasters).
I've posted a transcript of the report. Katie Razzall did a little mini-interruption display against Neil Hamilton.
DeleteThis is an excellent video where Steve Baker MP, who we perhaps forget was at the heart of the negotiations at the beginning, spells out what went wrong. The sensible way forward, to deliver on the Brexit vote, was a free trade agreement (as offered by the EU). The "governing class" however wanted close alignment. We went off down the wrong path.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSbudBWZi7E
Laura Kuenssberg is peddling the classic propaganda trick - a false fallacy - on Twitter this morning.
ReplyDelete“Brexiteers who are most cross about delay are those who were most cross about the PM’s deal - if they had supported that, they wouldn’t have delay to be annoyed about today”
These sort of comments make my blood boil, it’s not analysis and deliberately ignores the reasons why they wouldn’t support the deal. That way she can conflate principle with subvert or sabotage and damage those supporting a proper Brexit.
Yes, it's dialysis not analysis - pumping blood into the failed organs of the Remainer arguments.
DeleteThe BBC reporting is shameless. In the build up to the Council meeting, we've had all that rubbish about France might veto a deal (doing the EU's work for it). Yeah, of course - of course Macron is going to turn round to his fishermen and say "Sorry mes braves, but from Friday, because of my decision, you can't fish in UK waters." It was never going to happen and now even useless BBC journos concede it won't happen.
Virtually all BBC reporters and presenters are Remainers or May deal sympathisers and they report from that perspective because BBC management let them do that rather than provide balanced reporting. A balanced report wouldn't bother to do this cod analysis stuff that LK loves so much.
Laura Kuennsberg being gross on Politics Live today. Ugh. This is but one instance of how degraded BBC broadcasting has become. Is it too much to expect a political reporter on the BBC who doesn't need to come with a health warning?
ReplyDeleteJust remember boys and girls when they say "Second Referendum" or "People's Vote" or "Confirmatory Referendum" they mean:
ReplyDelete- A Rigged Rerun with a
- Fiddle Franchise and a
- Bogus Ballot.
A Rigged Rerun because now ALL newspapers, bar the Telegraph perhaps,are onside with May's deal or Remain and there will be nothing like even the lopsided Remain-leaning debates of the EU Referendum campaign. It will be pretty much full on Remainist propaganda.
Fiddled franchise will mean 16 year olds and EU citizens allowed to vote.
Bogus Ballot will mean only Remain and May's Abject Surrender Deal on the Ballot Paper.
Glad to see that Bill Cash MP thinks, as I do, that it would be illegal for the EU to place any conditions on an extension (presumably he's taken some legal advice on this). Article 50 is clearly triggered without condition. Article 50 allows for an extension (not even clear if multiple extensions are allowed). There is no authority in the Article for application of conditions to an extension.
ReplyDeleteFrom BBC: "Reuters is reporting that EU member states will offer an extension to 31 October with a review in June." Totally illegal. Article 50 lays down it is an extension or not an extension. Extension can only mean to one date.
ReplyDeleteClearly Blair has been working with Macron on the date.
Why are our MSM so effing uninterested in Blair's involvement. He has already confessed to interfering in the process - having meetings with various leaders. It's clear now he has been acting against Parliament and the decisions of the PM/Cabinet (the executive) through plotting with foreign potentates. It must be v. close to a definition of treason. I am not an expert on treason law but what Blair has been up to does sound like an attempt by "constraint" to compel the sovereign (=the government) "to change her measures or counsels, or in order to put any force or constraint upon or in order to intimidate or overawe both Houses or either House of Parliament". That seems exactly what Blair has been up to as far as I can follow the somewhat archaic language.
They are pleased with his interference and they still rate him as the best PM hence the adulation. The MSM were New Labour devotees and still hanker for it.
DeleteIt’s in their interests to suppress his involvement. Anyone who is trying to stop or weaken Brexit will get their protection. He has the best access to the big players and world leaders.
Yes they miss him now he's gone. They didn't like his toadying to the Americans (hence all the bogus outrage over the Iraq war). But now they realise they need him onside to stop Brexit.
DeleteThey are not uninterested - they are facilitating and promoting it because he is working to stop us leaving and so are they. The media made Blair. Remember that Brown was the leading Labour figure at that time but the media went crazy over Blair and made him the next PM. He still enjoys immediate access should he want it, regardless of what we might want or what is right and proper. And it's not just Blair. Why should I turn on the BBC only to see or hear a clip of Miliband from New York instructing us about democracy? He doesn't even live here and hasn't for several years. Yet the BBC keeps giving him a platform. Of course it helps if a former Cabinet Minister is running Radio 4 and holding some other important roles at the BBC. There really needs to be a public inquiry into the publicly funded BBC.
DeleteYes anon...this happens a lot. The BBC loves to roll on Simon Schama to talk about Brexit. The guy basically lives in the USA in New York state most of the year. And, yet he never mentions it when he discusses Brexit - it's all "we", "in this country", being "passionate" about "our future" and so on. Likewise with Dominic Grieve. He never mentions his French mother, his Legion d'honneur for services to the French state, his media career in France. He makes out he's purely a British politician.
DeleteAnd the BBC facilitates all this.
Further to my observations above that we are possibly being softened up to accept a Far Left future...I heard the political correspondent for the Times on Radio 4 saying (in an admiring tone) "To quote Marx..." There was a time when a Times senior correspondent would have been embarrassed to use a quotation from Marx, unless to disparage him. Now it seems the "wisdom of Marx" is almost a given.
ReplyDeleteWould he quote Mussolini on Radio 4 in such admiring tones? Of course not. Even though looking them up now Mussolini has some great quotes (he was, like Churchill a journalist before he was a politician). I liked "Race? It is a feeling not a reality." and "Inside every anarchist is a failed dictator."
Very interesting read:
ReplyDeletehttps://facts4eu.org/news/2019_apr_straitjacket#
Particularly interesting in that it suggests Katya Adler was completely off the mark, incompetently so, in suggestion there were no "punitive safeguards" applied by the EU.
It's sad when you have to go to independently run websites to get the truth because you can't trust the public broadcaster you are forced to pay for.
Assuming they're right, this is dynamite - just as MPs all disappear on holiday. How convenient!
DeleteIt would explain why May was so smug in dealing with Cash yesterday.
DeleteOn cue, the BBC sprang to the defence of Assange on the main BBC News tonight.
ReplyDeleteSomewhat surprisingly they managed to use the report to launch an attack on Trump using a tenuous link to Wikileaks. presented by the smirking and gurning Jon Sopel.
What the BBC report didn’t do is fully explain why Ecuador booted him out. But the Guardian did.
Guardian Extract
In a presentation before Ecuador’s parliament on Thursday, the foreign minister, José Valencia, set out nine reasons why Assange’s asylum had been withdrawn. The list ranged from meddling in Ecuador’s relations with other countries to having to “put up with his rudeness” for nearly seven years.
Valencia said Ecuador had been left with little choice but to end Assange’s stay in its London embassy following his “innumerable acts of interference in the politics of other states” which put at risk the country’s relations with them.
His second point focused on Assange’s behaviour which wavered between riding a skateboard and playing football inside the small embassy to mistreating and threatening embassy staff and even coming to blows with security workers. Valencia said the whistleblower and his lawyers had made “insulting threats” against the country accusing its officials of being pressured by other countries.
He said Assange “permanently accused [embassy] staff of spying on and filming him” on behalf of the United States and instead of thanking Ecuador for nearly seven years of asylum he and his entourage launched “an avalanche of criticisms” against the Quito government. He referred also to the guest’s “hygienic” problems including one which was “very unpleasant” and “attributed to a digestive problem”.
.
I don't think BBC are protecting Assange. They are conflicted but basically they are putting the boot into Assange. A classic on Newnsight was mocking Assange for his "undignified" horizontal departure from the Ecuador Embassy.
DeleteAssange passed from hero of the liberal-left to enemy when he released info with negative consequences for Clinton during the 2016 Presidential election campaign. Newsnight are now giving Sydney Blumenthal acres of space to blame Assange for HRC losing the election.
Blumenthal allowed to spread his poison with not a single objection from K Razzall.
I'm not a huge fan of Assange but I despise the way the PC elite turned on him.
This is hilarious! BBC favourite AOC, for whom Anthony Zurcher would gladly lick gravel off the sidewalk, has been indulging in some "jive talk" at an Al Sharpton event! Unbelieveable y'all!! I think even the BBC might go cool on her after this offensive example of verbal "Blackface".
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Timgb2BVxs
I’ve just donated to the Brexit Party - first time I’ve ever donated to any political party, £750k raised so far, all by small donations. I’ve a feeling the UK EU elections are going to be very interesting....
ReplyDeleteI'm the same - never donated before. Haven't yet done it but I intend to. I hope it can get the numbers of small contributors to make it fly.
DeleteI will donate to either UKIP or The Brexit Party. I am looking at this purely tactically at the moment. The bigger the blow against the Conservatives at the EU elections, the more likely it is that May will be forced to leave however much Hammond tries to nail her feet to the floor of No 10. Conservatives MPs are not known for their bravery under fire. The MPs with marginal seats will start to see sense.
DeleteBut I very much doubt that a one-issue party (Farage was denying this - but why give yourself this name then?)is the way forward. It's likely it would drown at a General Election.
The best outcome at this EU election would be UKIP maintains a healthy 10%, The Brexit Party helps destroy the Conservative vote, taking maybe 20%, Change.UK take votes off Lib Dems and Greens. Labour does reasonably well (I say that because then they won't be tempted to sign up to the appalling Abject Surrender Deal offered by May). Then May out, Johnson (and Mogg, Priti Patel) in...full speed ahead for a a renegotiation...when rejected by the EU, then go to the country and get a Conservative landslide for a new deal or no deal.
I saw the BBC's Professor Curtice on Politics Live analysing the results of the Newport bye-election. See him here at 2 30 - 3 30 mins and again at 7 30 - 9 30ish where he seemed unusually animated about the loss of vote share for both Conservative and Labour, seeing this as a break-up of our politics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCg-iJfm7u8
DeleteI was rather hoping for signs of Lib Dem losing share but it seems not. Small parties are gaining, which looks promising for Brexit party and UKIP too. Conservatives losing support among Leave and Labour losing from Remain.
Yes Curtice was getting quite excited!
DeleteMy feeling generally is that politics won't change before we change the media. The PC globalist-left-Islamist alliance (remember - a lot of our media is actually owned by Saudis and Qataris) has a strangehold on our media and hence our politics. Information is power. People are basically being denied information through this PC monopoly on the media.
It's encouraging that The Brexit Party has been able to draw so many small donations £750k in 10 days...I think there is a lot of untapped interest in turning our country around. But people won't donate unless they feel the money is being used responsibly and effectively. Farage is trusted - not sure I trust him 100% but he does generate that sort of trust. If we could get people to donate to support an effective alternative media - radio, TV and newspapers - that could make a really big difference.
The BBC hates the Far Right - a movement associated with decades of politial oppression, denial of free speech, state-sanctioned murder, misery and war.
ReplyDeleteBut the BBC loves the Far Left - a movement associated with decades of politial oppression, denial of free speech, state-sanctioned murder, misery and war.
Blink and you won't miss Ash Sarkar on a BBC channel somewhere doing her soft-sell on hard communism...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0762x19
Isn't this really outrageous?
I was disgusted to see her on again and the propaganda put out on Politics Live today. Couldn't believe they'd do that, actually. Funded by the licence fee. Notice the statement by the presenter that ideas today are coming from the left - the start of a new theme for the BBC agenda that will be pushed relentlessly on different channels, stations and programmes.
DeleteThey tried a hit piece on The Brexit Party as well, I gather (compare and contrast with the fair wind given to the Tiggers).
DeleteI couldn’t believe my ears when I heard the on BBC news today that the BBC itself was saying British comedy is being ruined by social media users with a Victorian moral code.
ReplyDeleteShane Allen, controller of BBC comedy, spoke about the threat of excessive political correctness as he announced plans to launch the British Comedy Foundation, an organisation dedicated to finding comedians from “under-represented” backgrounds.
So the BBC and its’ boss of comedy are blaming others for the outbreak of PC whilst being very PC in his statement.
In my view the only under represented group at the BBC are comedians.
Remember, this is the bloke who bemoaned white Oxbridge blokes - Cleese and Monty Python. Are the BBC really that self unaware to miss the irony of his comments?
Comedy just needs to by funny Shane, you complete prat.
"In my view the only under represented group at the BBC are comedians." That's quite funny! Perhaps you should apply, Arne. :)
DeleteStudying the BBC is a bit like Kremlinology. I think there's some code here - I think he's saying he wants more African, Caribbean, Arab and South Asian comedians, but he knows that they many will not be as punctiliously PC as the white middle class Guardian-reading tied-up-in-knots comedians the BBC normally favours. So I think he's saying the race card trumps the PC card.
Your are probably right MB. But being actually funny trumps PC and race. I don’t care who says it.
DeleteI just saw a report on BBC Midlands Today about the launch of The Brexit Party. It was fine until the end when they finished by showing a number of voice bites from Coventry punters. All of them rubbished Farage and Brexit.
ReplyDeleteBBC Midlands News - Farage clearly has them worried:
ReplyDeletethey sent their weakest reporter, Trish Adudu, to cover the launch of the Brexit Party in Coventry. The woman trivialises every subject she covers, using the tones one would normally employ for reading fairy stories to slow-learning children. Adudu's one question: why had Farage chosen to launch his new party in the Midlands? was clearly asked in the hope that he would say something about the region having a very large immigrant population - Farage brushed it aside: the Midlands were the heart of the country; where else would he begin?
But the BBC had other tricks up its sleeve: top of the list, trivialisation by camerawork. The camera lingered on Farage looking nervous before going on the platform - a natural reaction, surely, and we were shown only the briefest snatches of his speech. But the pièce de résistance was the most biased collection of vox pops I have ever seen: a couple of staunch supporters, one of whom may yet vote UKIP, and others who were indifferent or merely wanted to snigger about him; I live in the Midlands & I know this is not a fair reflection of how people feel.
To accompany this a vicious campaign has begun on Twitter: "Farage is a Nazi etc". I have a feeling somebody is orchestrating this, let us hope tomorrow's meeting in Birmingham does not end up with violence from rent-a-mob!
Arne: Glad you saw it - they clearly think Farage is the one to beat, well, discredit, anyway!
ReplyDeleteYes, agreed and your summary is far better than mine. I think BBC Midlands has long had a particular agenda because of the ethnic characteristics of Birmingham and the surrounding towns and cities.
DeleteArne- You're dead right re: the agenda. I think things have been much more politicised since they got rid of Suzanne Virdee - presumably for not being sufficiently strident & aggressive. The irony is that her gentle good humour did far more to foster good race relations than the likes of Adudu ever will!
DeleteYes, Suzanne was treated very badly. She was dropped suddenly and without notice by her boss and her contract wasn't renewed. It later emerged that Virdee agreed a substantial out of court settlement from the BBC allegedly regarding a bullying claim. Her boss, the head of regional news had previously survived a vote of no confidence by BBC NUJ journalists over bullying.
DeleteIt took me 14 tweets to show that just on FRIDAY
ReplyDeleteit was easy for me to come across rather a lot of Climate Activism on BBC
It's with pics of the BBC Climate kids staged photo
.. and a kids sweary sign
full 14 tweets with photos
Good work! :)
DeleteI would just like to record that it has been bleedin' cold for us soft southerners for several weeks. Only ITV weather forecasters seem prepared to admit that we have been below average for this time of year so far. BBC forecasters seem to be sticking to the global warming ideology - which means if it 1 degree above average you talk about "raised temperatures, above average" but if it's 1 below average you stay schtum.
Hannity v good here -
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRN4MXdeiYs
He refers to the attempted "deep state coup" to prevent Trump taking the Presidency.
Isn't that what we've just seen - a "deep state coup" to prevent Brexit? I think we have - we've seen all the deep state operatives in play: ex PMs, MI5, MI6, chief police officers, army and many more all working against Brexit and the popular vote.
I don't think there's anything deep about it. Most Westminster MPs are London-based career politicians with little or no experience of work within industry or the world of work as experienced by the majority of UK voters.
Delete80% or so of these MPs voted to remain. It would represent a personal climb-down for them to have voted in Parliament for a clean Brexit or a no-deal Brexit. It would amount to agreeing a shrinkage of their sphere of influence and self-importance. I agree Blair's New Labour provided a mind-set for them.
It was the Gina Miller case that provided the pivotal moment - calling for the Meaningful Vote'.
DeleteArthur, re: your first post - But a WTO Brexit would have vastly increased the power of our MPs!
DeleteWhen I say deep I wasn't talking about the parliamentary shenanigans. I am thinking of the workings of our state broadcaster, the change of policy at the Mail, the change of policy at the Express, the Electoral Commission's persecution of the Leave campaign, of the Police, Tony Blair working with Macron, Dominic Grieve, Legion d'honneur - his influence (again someone v. close to the French state)...I'm thinking about May's duplicity (connived in by the Civil Service) of allowing parallel negotiations, with her undertaking the real negotiations...I'm thinking about the way UKIP imploded till rescued by Gerard Batten.
DeletePlenty of deep state, Art Trof. Who do you think was behind Miller? Who are the lawyers who were involved in her move or even now - as she is still active monitoring, reading the legislation, taking legal advice - *are* involved in her movement, as it could be called? What about who's backing Blair's movement, Blair's interests? Who are the quangos campaigning and influencing re the referendum result? The Electoral regulators and quangos - who appoints, runs and backs them and what are their interests and what are they up to? Who monitors them and calls them out? The BBC - Who runs it? An ex-Labour Government Cabinet minister? Who keeps it in check and demands that it explain why it is campaigning against Leaving, with its loaded panels, loaded questions and loaded twitterers? Why is Miliband on the BBC interfering and attempting to influence UK matters from New York? What are his interests and whom is he representing? The industry bodies that have their offices and connections in Brussels - who exactly are they and what are their interests in Brussels? The Bank of England? The academic globalists. The shady global billionaires spreading cash around and the ones owning newspapers? The government service, the civil servants in the Treasury, for example? Every one of the most senior ones that have come out of that Department in recent years has been highly political and partisan. I'm sure there're more.
ReplyDeleteVery much my view!
DeleteThe behaviour of Blair's civil servants in retirement - thinking of people like that spiv Gus O'Donnell - has been outrageous and has brought the whole of the civil service into disrepute.
Yes, Miller posed as a concerned individual but she had backing and was invited to undertake the action at the behest of people in the City.
What is very concerning as well is the constant attempt to close down debate. We see it all the time. Jonathan Dimbleby trying to smear Brexit as a racist enterprise. Nicky Morgan decreeing that no one can use words like betrayal. What is it but betrayal if Parliament legislates for a referendum, the government assures everyone the decision will be implemented (as do ALL UK party leaders, even Lib Dems at the time),the House of Commons votes by 500 to not much to invoke Article 50 and yet, three years later the Referendum result has not been implemented. That is most definitely betrayal of the people. And Blair's dealings in Europe are quite possibly treasonous as the law on treason stands.
Gus O'Donnell (in government known as GOD, for brevity) is typical of the politicised top civil servant. He and Kerslake. Blair's doing, mainly. And not forgetting GOD is now involved in doing work for the BBC re charging the over-75s via an economics outfit and that another ex-Treasury man, Torsten Bell, is involved in the same BBC project through that supposed charity run by Willetts who keeps banging on about how awful old people are to the young. Who has been in government while young people were being priced out of housing, education etc, if not these selfsame governing geniuses? Willetts used to be known as 'Two Brains', which isn't much heard these days.
DeleteI think it was Torsten Bell who predicted only 16,000 East Europeans would migrate to the UK. :) The man's a genius!!
DeleteI take these points, but MB's ..When I say deep I wasn't talking about the parliamentary shenanigans... is key here. I put it down to the spineless failings of the rank and file Westminster MPs that it looks like there will be no Brexit. Nobody other than themselves are responsible for the lily-livered dithering of our MPs.
DeleteThe self-serving MPs of both parties prefer this so-called stalemate over Brexit. It ensures their self-importance, income and expenses remain intact for the time being, and that is all that concerns them - to be a member of this cosy club. Parliament prefers to harbour a criminal than to rock the boat.
Tory Remainers - No Brexit = No seat! I look forward immensely to the aggrieved whining - even if it means the catastrophe of a Labour government.
DeleteArthur,
DeleteI'd say these MPs aren't free floating individuals. Many of them are plugged into lobby groups, particularly business. They are often professionals who are influenced by views circulating within their professions e.g. the law. Many are focussed on preferment. Frankly, I think many of them are being bribed in effect. We don't really see how always but think holidays on yachts in the Med, invitations to international conferences and so on.
More than that, though, I do think people effectively have to adopt an ideology. The British Conservative elite once had the idea of Empire (which for much of the elite was a nice little earner) to keep them together. A large proportion of them then switched almost overnight to the idea of European union, which has more recently been augmented by the ideology of PC globalism. I'm saying they are ideologically hostile to Brexit. So it's not "dithering" it's ideological opposition, I would say, facilitated by the deep state e.g. Blair in constant contact with Macron plotting how to derail Brexit.
@JamesDelingpole : I Would Never Vote Conservative Again, Except…
ReplyDelete(for the very few still honourable MPs)
www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/04/13/meet-the-conservative-mps-keeping-the-brexit-faith
Tories face election wipe out as party on course to lose 60 seats and hand Corbyn keys to No. 10.
DeleteThe Conservatives would lose 59 seats in the event of a general election, making Labour the largest party in the Commons, according to an exclusive poll of polls for The Sunday Telegraph.
The dramatic fall in support was down to anger among Tory voters “at the Government’s failure to deliver Brexit.
One can only hope that will concentrate Conservative MPs' minds on the need to dislodge May and choose a leader who can relate to the country at large. Presumably at that stage the Remainer rabble will try and "Block Boris" by backing someone like Gove or Leadsom. It would be a mistake. Of the available potential leaders, I think only Boris has the right stuff.
DeleteAgreed. Gove's backstabbing makes him fatally tainted as far as I'm concerned. Not that the rest of the party has huge appeal: the Sunday Telegraph's chief political correspondent tells us the teams of the rival leadership contenders, "are drawing up 'war books' about potential rivals, full of historic controversies, sexual allegations and unsavoury claims about their partners." Nice! What a snake-pit the Commons has become!
DeleteI was appalled to hear Ken Clarke speaking of Gove in admiring tones as someone who could take on the mantle of leadership. Who knows what dirty deals are being done behind closed doors? Someone like Gove would probably campaign on going back to the EU to ask for a clean break free trade deal...then once in the PM's job, he'd half heartedly go there, get no for an answer and then proceed with May's deal, putting it to the people on a second referendum with Remain option attached.
DeleteBoris needs to learn from Trump. Just brazen it out and double up on attacks on your enemies, including within your party. We see how most US Republicans have eventually come round to Trump, even people like Ted Cruz. If Boris can deliver a thumping majority - and I think he can if he goes to the country on a free trade deal or no deal ticket. He should present a bill to parliament that sets it all out and when the Commons vote it down, that's the point to go to teh country and say "We're all sick of this continuing mess...we need to get out of the EU and finish this business. Vote Conservative."
A lot of female journos really don't like Boris. I think in many cases it's a combination of their dislike of philanderers, particularly if they've suffered at the hands of a philanderer, joined to a feeling of resentment that he never made a pass at them.
Your last para: spot-on, I think!
DeleteOn Sky News Press Preview tonight, the Corbynite Labour Rachel Shabi said that the Brexit Party iss to the right of UKIP. The opposing speaker, Henry Newman, I think he's called, corrected her but I'm not sure that she accepted it.
ReplyDeleteShe may have been applying the regular left-right economic policy matrix in which case - a very rare occasion - Shabi might have been correct for all her absurd gurning. Gerard Batten is not an economic liberal - he's made clear he thinks there are natural monopolies that ought to be state-owned. I think he said he was a long time supporter of the minimum wage.
DeleteFarage is an ex investment banker and certainly started off as an economic libertarian, even calling into question the sacred NHS - though he has tacked with the wind on this since the 2008 recesssion.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/04/13/tories-face-election-wipe-party-course-lose-60-seats-hand-corbyn/
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to argue against this poll's findings. My view that the vast majority of Westminster MPs are self-serving Remainers (in this case wishing t remain at Westminster where they can enjoy the kudos of being, as members of this elite club, well paid, comfortable and self-satisfied).
Conservative MPs and also many Labour MPs (the latter group some of of which might face deselection by Corbyn Command) seem to have turned to jelly. Remember the Wisdom Story:
... There was a young man walking down the street and happened to see a old man sitting on his porch. Next to the old man was his dog, who was whining and whimpering. The young man asked the old man “What's wrong with your dog” The old man said “He's laying on a nail”.
My tweet with tombstone memorial pic
DeleteThe Brexit public won't vote for the Traitor parties
at the Local elections Thursday 2 May
Tory/Labour/Plaid/Green/SNP/LibDem are #ToxicBrands
Killed by their own arrogance
When they cheated the Public on Brexit
Batten allowed on a mainstream BBC programme. The Marr Show...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOWiyVWAkjI
The usual negative stuff but Batten wasm, surprisingly, allowed to answer at reasonable length.
Batten did well but he should learn, I think to always turn things around to the interviewer. For instance - "Well can you tell me what part of Sharia you would like to see introduced in the UK, Mr Marr?", "Do you defend the Saudi ban on Christian churches and Jews living in their country?", "Why if you are so concerned about political extremism does the BBC provide a platform for far left Communists like Ash Sarkar to preach militant Communism?"
You have to ask why, if Batten is allowed on Marr he's not allowed on Newsnight.
He was on Any Questions? this week. I didn't listen to most of it so I can't say generally how it went but I did catch a snippet at the end where Dimbo threw in a pointed question at Batten. It was a gratuitous taunt and a perfect illustration of what a piece of work Dimbo is.
DeleteSky News is following suit. What a surprise! She was commenting there this lunchtime along with someone from the Telegraph about the Conservatives and Brexit where she referred to 'the hardline headbangers', meaning some unnamed MPs. No query or challenge from the interviewer to this language. Reminds me of her most recent outing on Politics Live where she described someone as having done 'sweet f a '. If that's her level of ability to comment one wonders what is her qualification for being on national broadcast channels.
DeleteYes, I heard the gratuitous taunt - it was basically "But you're a narrow minded racist and wouldn't want to live anywhere there were lots of black and foreign people would you?"
DeleteThis despite Batten having already made clear he'd lived in Newham (!) for decades. In other words, it was clear it was a prepared assault on the man's integrity by the slow moving Dimbosaurus which he lumbering continued with despite it having no evidential basis whatsoever.
8pm Tonight a repeat of Friday’s Radio4 Feedback prog
ReplyDelete“Is the BBC doing enough to cover climate change?”
A trailer started the prog
“Since we have only 12 years left, the BBC should be doing more to save the planet ?”
Then at 16 mins the actual item
I posted my comments over at BH log of BBC Climate bias
And did a Twitter thread
I added points today as I realised that the BBC has just started 3 actual Climate campaign projects
and added a link to Alex Cull’s transcript
and opened a new thread to discuss the Climate Special on April 18th
Good tweets. The BBC have gone full on Greenpeace-Vegan-WWF-Apocalyptic. It's funny how things have changed. I remember at the back end of 1999 the BBC were lecturing us that we should not fear a millennial apocalypse. Now they seem only too keen for an apocalypse to come!
DeleteAll of our very justified criticisms of Jon Sopel have done little to push him off his perch but this might:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/health-charities-fume-at-jon-sopels-cigarette-firm-gig-mmrdc37gp
He's been doing a Ken Clarke - profiting from tobacco.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9gYMlCqpDM
ReplyDeleteGreat to see a real interview with Gerard Batten! :)
I know he's not everybody's cup of tea. Mrs Brains doesn't rate him for one. But for me he is probably one of the most impressive politicians this country has produced in the last few decades. He hasn't got Farage's oratorical skills but I think he makes up for that in analytical prowess and political integrity.
DeleteAll we are (well, I am) asking of our politicians is that they engage with reality. Yes we want vision and direction for the future, but first they have to engage with reality of the present day. So few do.
It seems to me Batten does: addressing those issues that mainstream politicians generally refuse to engage with, namely mass immigration, Sharia creep, and the nature of the EU superstate project.
Re how the MSM interview the UKIP leader...
DeleteI've noticed they always avoid debate. What they do is "loop back" to their original question. So if GB says something like "Tommy Robinson is not a racist" they don't say "Well here's the evidence is he is racist" they just simply loop back to "But Farage/an ex UKIP person/the Archbishop of Canterbury says you are not allowed to have him advising you about anything."
This is really where we are...who could have believed 10 years ago that anyone could mute Frankie Boyle. Afua Hirsch can. And all the other nodding donkeys on the panel make sure they are nodding.
ReplyDeleteLaughable (but not in a good way!).
Free speech is pretty much over if you think Afua Hirsch is the person to decide what it is.
https://www.facebook.com/BBCRadio4/videos/540592013131759/
(As featured on BBBC - link doesn't work that well for me maybe because I don't do Facebook).
Afua Hirsch is wrong in many ways. For a start if it is wrong to say that all people of a minority group share the same opinions that it is even more wrong to say that of the majority, a group that, horror of horrors is very diverse.
DeleteShe is especially wrong regarding the Jon Snow issue. Yes he was being racist but he was being challenged because he hadn't made the same observation At Glastonbury or about the earlier pro-EU march. 'Hideous whiteness' only became visible to him when he could put the 'racists' label on to the Brexit rally. (How come the white majority can be both pro and anti the EU Afua? Don't dem whiteys all look and tink alike, like?)
You are totally right. I had no problem with Jon Snow making his observation if that was his genuine feeling. But of course it wasn't a genuine expression of surprise - it was an intended smear, meant to imply that the pro-Brexit protest was a whites-only racist affair. It was bias and bile aimed at the Brexit process. (Incidentally, Snow increasingly has that mad gleam in his eye that Heath had in his latter years...)
DeleteMoreover, as you rightly observe, he was being hypocritical in not making the same observation about the anti-Brexit marchers. More evidence of bias.
So, that was the criticism (politically motivated bias and hyprocrisy from a public service broadcaster - Channel 4 is actually a public service, by law), not a criticism made on behalf of an imagined racial grouping.
Of course part of the agenda of Hirsch and the BBC-Guardian mob is to racialise everything to the point where people defined as white come to see themselves as a racial block. That will then provide post hoc justification of their dangerous ideology. I think this is a very, very concerning development. The UK's legal and political system has always been based on the idea of legal equality and equal work, not skin-toned group rights.
We should resist racialisation. In any case it's absurd in the British context. An ornothologist presented with three birds (one with orange feathers and covered in brown spots on a very pale background, another with glossy black feathers and a much darker and shorter body, and the third with yellow feathers an a body that turns a rich brown in the height of summer) would conclude he is dealing with three separate species. The way white Brits look depending on their Scottish/Irish, Welsh or Germanic heritage is very different. Lumping us all together makes no more sensing that lumping Tamils and Somalis together because they have similar skin tone.
equal worth not equal work!
DeleteBBC sounding a bit sad about the continued rise of the right populist Finns Party in Finland's latest elections...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47893264
A very suggestive BBC sub-headline:
"How did we get here?"
We? That's the last thing I would say. I would say "How did the Finns get to where they are now?" or, even more so, I'd just report it without being so histrionic about the whole thing. None of the Finnish parties are currently seeking to overthrow democracy so what's the problem, BBC? It's for the Finns to sort out!!
How did we get here?
That's a kind of line the press material written by Hatey No Hopers uses.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteYoutuber 2016
ReplyDelete'I think Jess Philps wants to close down free speech
.. she might claim not, but I think that is not true
... Jess says she gets rape threats and I think that is terrible
.. I say I wouldn't rape her
.. but she will still close my free speech down'
3 years later Andrew Marr reaches back to that Youtubers video as a gotcha
.. ah you have a candidate who said to Jess Philips "He wouldn't even rape you"
..that is a "RAPE tweet"
Batten I think you'll find it was satire in an old video"
Marr 'Gotcha !, gotcha ! rape tweet ! rape tweet !
..he should be banned cos he said that'
context explanation video
This is a v odd article on the BBC News website...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47923753
Take the illiteracy of the headline:
"Ilhan Omar: The 9/11 row embroiling the US congresswoman"
One would think the BBC knew how to use the verb "embroil". The odd sentence construction (it would be much more natural to say "Illhan Omar embroiled in a 9/11 scandal") serves to distance her from the scandal.
"Embroil" often relates to affairs that didn't initially appear to involve the person in question. So, for instance, it was only after some time that President Nixon became embroiled in the Watergate scandal. Sometimes people become embroiled in scandal even though they are innocent of any misdoing. Again, the inappropriate use of the verb serves to distance Omar, hinting that she was never at the heart of the scandal.
But of course she is and has always been at the centre of this scandal which relates to her anti-semitism (which she "apologised" for and so can't be dismissed as imagined by her political opponents) and anti-Americanism.
The article is incredibly biased to the Muslim Brotherhood supporting Congresswoman. After some initial prevarication, the article goes full on Radical Dem and defends her to the hilt for the last half. Couldn't be more biased!
We native speakers break grammar rules all the time
Deletebut we do it in a natural way.
Non-native speakers do it in a different way.
A month ago a BBC webstory had such weird English in both its real title and the hidden one used for Twitter links
The grammar here could be similar.
So I wonder if the source of the text is a non-native speaker.
BTW Note the tricks
Trump/Farage = badman ..so pics chosen to be bad
and phrasing puts him on the backfoot "Trum defends"
Friend = Good .. so flattering "presidential" pics chosen
"Representative Ilhan Omar says she won't be silenced" ..she gets full title and name and victimhood
The English is pretty good, but still seems slightly unnatural to me.
Deletehttps://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/1766682/diff/0/1
It's what happens when you don't tell the truth. There is a whole forensic science built on analysis of witness statements - unnatural constructions and non-colloquial usages often offer clues to the truth that is being hidden. Over-emphasis in denials is another trait and we see this in the numerous defensive comments recorded in the final half of the article.
DeleteNot sure what to make of this Twitter thread, full of angst by former Beeboids, including a certain Patrick Howse! https://twitter.com/Baghdaddi/status/1117657936740925440
ReplyDeleteI really struggle with the line of attack that the BBC is the mouthpiece of the right wing.
DeleteIt’s part of the establishment, yes. But the establishment is clearly left-liberal. Or is that just my bias?
If the utterances of BBC journalists on Twitter has shown us anything, it is just how far to the left most of them are and how far they would go to shut down any opposition to their views.
DeleteIt began I think with th Great Adonis Illusion trick. Not sure if he really thought of it or whether it was Alistair Campbell but the infamouse Lord started making a series of complaints about the BBC being biased in favour of Brexit! Lol Beyond absurd (as we all know from the Beeboids' tweets and Craig's analyses of interviews and numerous other sources). Absolutely ridiculous, but it enables (a) the BBC to pose as impartial and balanced because it is getting "complaints from both sides" and (b) gives the BBC reason to redouble its efforts to support Remain in an even more biased manner claiming it is only "fact checking".
DeleteI think the Adonis Illusion has had great effect. It's like something out of a David Copperfield act - making the Empire State building disappear or similar...You know it's an illusion but somehow he's made all that BBC bias for Remain disappear...at least that's what the gullible might think.
Anyway,using the Adonis template they are all at it now: climate change fanatics "BBC is helping destroy the planet"), Far Left conspiracy theorists ("BBC opposes perfectly reasonable demands for Communism to be implemented tomorrow") and people with issues like this Howse guy who seem to be living on a different planet!
But why has it had so few complaints from Brexiteer MPs? I suspect that, naively, they feel they may one day need the Beeb to help them obtain/retain office. Forget it folks! - with one or two honourable exceptions, Beeboids are programmed to hate you.
DeleteYes, it's a puzzle. They are more vociferous in their complaints during interviews now - led by Lilley, others like Rees-Mogg have become invovled. Others like Boris seem to be pursuing a policy of creative disengagement. But they still cling to this idea that the BBC is a noble beast harnessed to the cause of free speech and democracy, when nothing could be further from the truth.
DeleteWhat a weird thread
Deletei wonder if they organised it beforehand or are mostly sitting in the same room acting out a play
Note this tweet
We mustn’t give up on the BBC.
It’s ours and it must be rescued from this desperate government who have more stooges there than ministers plotting against the PM. #ReclaimOurBBC
See how the guy gives the game away
They the left/libs know the BBC is theirs
That is a very long thread
Deletebut I notice an unusual thing
In normal Twitter threads
you get to the bottom and it says "show more replies)
this doesn't happen
then normally you get a second bottom
(show replies with offensive comments)
You often find rightie comments have been hidden there
..there is no such section in that thread either
Andrew Neil - Is there no limit to the BBC’s duplicity?
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/afneil/status/1118068220806746112
It took her 4 hours to realise the show she was complaining about was not on BBC, but on Sky
Delete..after that 4 hours she added a correction note
Spot the difference
ReplyDeleteA prominent Guardian story today vs. The BBC website story buried far down the page.
Guardian headline today
UK pay grows at fastest rate since financial crisis – ONS
Almost 180,000 workers hired, while unemployment remains at lowest level since mid-70s
BBC website headline today
Unemployment across UK shows slight fall
Does the BBC smile kindly on the Extinction Rebellion? You bet!! Compare and contrast with other protests that they don't favour.
ReplyDeleteI really don't accept that a protest designed to close down a city and stop ambulances moving about is "non-violent" as the BBC describe it. It's a non-peaceful protest.
BBC climate stirrers, Roger Harrabin and Chris Packham are tweeting in support. No surprise there.
DeleteMany of these uberclimatists are on salaries in the hundreds of thousands of pounds. What do they think all that money represents? Production, that's what (unless they are burying their pound notes in the garden). If these people are actively investing 99% of their salary in carbon sequestration they are simply adding to the problem they claim exists.
DeleteSorry - last sentence garbled. Meant "Unless these people are..." etc
DeleteThey are also blocking cycle lanes as part of their demo to block the roads. You couldn’t make it up.
DeleteNext they'll be blocking fresh water supplies because water usage is "killing the planet".
DeleteFile under "They never give up..."
ReplyDeleteThey're back on the "Is Donald Trump mentally ill?" track, now impeachment has been ruled out.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47671986
Came across this - think it is a rather well produced pro-Brexit vid...high production values. My only doubt is the Brexit Vision channel itself seems a bit "religiose" so am not endorsing all that:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrEBqe1AsvY
"I am Nick Szkiler a Christian businessman from West Yorkshire i felt impassined by Brexit"
DeleteClassic and Sportscar Centre, Malton
Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3X0935U704
How long before someone from the Guardian can't restrain themselves any more and sounds off about Notre Dame?
ReplyDeleteThe London centric BBC shows it’s true colours again.
ReplyDelete‘House price growth at six-year low‘ is a bigger headline and story than yesterday’s good news about employment and wages.
Why? Because London house prices dropped 3.8% and that’s the economic news that really concerns the Broadcasting House champagne. socialists.
The Guardian and Sky News are both reporting prominently today that Nigel Farage is polling very strongly and will run away with EU elections if poll results are accurate. Margaret Beckett is labelling him as extreme right -wing.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile the BBC are completely silent. Bias by omission will backfire on them in this case methinks.
I'll return the compliment and label her extreme left wing.
DeleteThe polling seems to show a remarkable 34% in favour of what the BBC calls Far Right parties and what I would call centre-right populist parties.
DeleteWell she nominated Far Left Corbyn for Labour leader...case closed!
DeleteFrom Guido - and again a deafening silence from the BBC. It’s clearly not their sort of story.
ReplyDelete“The German Government has released an updated growth forecast for 2019, and it’s pretty damning. Forecast growth for 2019 has been slashed to 0.5%, less than a quarter of the 2.1% predicted a year ago and a level not seen since the height of the Eurozone crisis. It’s also less than half of the UK’s expected growth this year.”
Extinction Rebellion: Enjoyed one item on 6pm news today: did anyone spot the planet-hugger ostentatiously blowing clouds of smoke from both nostrils? Doesn't she know this stuff is carcinogenic?
ReplyDeleteYeh I'd do Green Festivals
Deleteand I couldn't believe they insisted on big bonfires
Then they'd sit around it with a big joint
and say "man we have to do something, these big companies are polluting the air"
#ironic
The Mayor of London spends the 364 days of the year lecturing us about air quality and particulates and then come New Year's Eve puts out about 5% of the annual particulate pollution in about 30 mins!
DeleteHe is a virtue signaller of the first order. Not a conviction politician, he always follows the leftie illiberal crowd. A progressive populist if you like.
DeleteFake progressive. His true loyalty lies elsewhere.
DeleteThe BBC and the rest of the MSM may have overshot the runway with their promotion of The Brexit Party (to crush UKIP and their bete noire or is that blanc, TR). They may find (a) the UKIP core vote survives at somewhere between 5 and 10% while (b) The Brexit Party becomes a vehicle for general dissatisfaction with our politics and gets out of control.
ReplyDeleteFarage is not really the man to do the capitalising on that but sometimes the people decide they've had enough and elect whoever serves their purpose.
It would be wonderful if The Brexit Party translated its EU election support across to the General Election polling and started eating into Labour support as well.
I think Tilbrook's case is pretty strong:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/why-mlud-we-left-the-eu-on-march-29/
If Parliament has to decide on withdrawal on a specific date via Act of Parliament (giving the PM authority ot act) in accord with the Miller judgement, then it is logical that any extension also has to be agreed by Act of Parliament and not under any other procedure. The Act has got to be superior. Obviously it can be argued in other ways but this is certainly a strong case. Don't expect any of our Guardian-reading PC judges to think that way - they'd rather sell their mothers into prostitution than aid Brexit in any way. But it will be nice to see how they tie themselves up in knots over this one.
Sopel and Zurcher pumping out tweets following publication of Mueller report.
ReplyDeleteEvery one has a halftime hidden accusation or loaded question. Hardly impartial.
I'd noticed Zurcher had been quiet for a couple of days before this...wasn't sure if he was lying in a darkened room, sedated.
DeleteThe Lamentable Wark on Newsnight repeatedly referring to Trump's obstruction of justice as an established fact* despite no such obstruction having been found or even having been the subject of formal charges.
Delete* Reminds me of that old Private Eye piece purporting to be a Daily Mail article which began: "a shocking event took place yesterday in the mind of a Daily Mail journalist...".
Half hidden.
ReplyDeleteA programme about one of the BBCs favourite causes is on BBC One tonight. Climate Change - The Facts.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if these are BBC ‘reality check’ type facts to fit the narrative or the real facts. I wait with baited breath. I suspect it will just be a propaganda piece.
The facts? It's not as warm as it has been several times in the past 1000 years.
DeleteITV News tonight edited out the words "laughing about male suicide" in their news report. There was no other reason to edit this short part of a sentence except to distort. You can't trust the MSM. Benjamin's tweet was ill advised especially when you are up against someone like JP who is happy to stoop as low as necessary and who openly talks about stabbing political opponents (in the front). Carl is perhaps not as clever as he think he is. But really - we can't trust our MSM if they are prepared to decontexualise his original comment.
ReplyDeleteI would guess that when the objective is to damage UKIP, they don’t care about context or omissions. The means justifies the end.
DeleteAbsolutely. Narrative first, truth second, professional ethics third and credibility an also ran.
DeleteI never really rated Carl Benjamin because he used to swear a lot in his videos which is always a bad move, suggesting you don't have a very strong argument. But I think one has to say he is being treated unfairly.
Why aren't the media relentlessly asking Jess Phillips to justify her comment about stabbing someone in the front? Well obviously because (a) the media like her (b) no one seriously thinks she intended to stab Jeremy Corbyn in reality and (c) they don't want to harm the Labour Party.
But in the case of CB,(a) the media hate him (b) they are going to carry on pretending he meant JP harm even though they know that's ridiculous and (c) they want to damage UKIP.