Saturday 22 February 2020

Another Stormy Open Thread



Never mind Storm Dennis, is the BBC facing 'a perfect storm' at the moment? 

Anyhow, batten down the hatches again, and here's a new Open Thread that looks very like the old one. 

Thank you for all your comments.

98 comments:

  1. Just heard Julian Knight speaking about media stuff on Radio 4, being interviewed by Anne McElvoy.

    He seems a rather wrong-headed individual. He appears to want to create a huge bureaucracy to police free speech on the internet and is thinking that Ofcom could do the job. He wants to tax us (as if the tech cos would cough up themselves!) to pay for that. Is that going to end well? Or is it going to end up with, for instance, Ofcom responding to complaints from TG activists about alleged "hate sites" targetting TG people as happened with the Police and Mr Miller?

    I think we know the answer.

    It's weird how people like Knight want to control everything on the internet. We hear about horrible sites like those encouraging suicide...but pause a moment and think. In real life, there are real people - e.g. drug addicts - who draw in vulnerable people and encourage them to engage in dangerous behaviour, to join them in drug addiction (Janis Joplin was always encouraging her friends to take heroin). Even in healthier areas of life e.g. sport there are people who encourage others to endanger themselves. We know there are caddish men who "misuse maidens" and cause a lot of misery, lying to young women, making them feel loved when they are not - making them feel very unhappy and sometimes suicidal.

    We don't seek to police every aspect of life. We don't have police officers patrolling pubs asking people if they have had too much to drink. The police don't visit the workplaces of lying lotharios. We don't have police patrolling high performance car showrooms asking people if they really think they have the driving skills to match the performance of the car.

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  2. We should despair of the quality of BBC reporting. Here is an example of a lack of investigation:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-51407137?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics&link_location=live-reporting-story

    ... 'Using Australian coal in Port Talbot 'needs to stop'.' ...

    Here are a couple of extracts:

    ... 'Extinction Rebellion said it was "madness" to ship coal from one side of the world to the other, particularly in the wake of the Australian bushfires.' ...

    and ...'Friends of the Earth Cymru director, Haf Elgar, said: ''We're facing climate breakdown, and the tragic bushfires in Australia are a clear signal that we must keep fossil fuels in the ground.' ...

    and ... 'The Welsh Government has declared a climate emergency and Wales needs to get to net zero emissions as fast as possible.

    "We have a global responsibility and that means not burning coal from Australia, Brazil, Russia or anywhere else, as well as not extracting more coal from Wales.".' ...

    Steelmaking requires high quality coal/coke. Welsh coal was the best. Where will it come from in the future if not from existing suppliers, or from Wales?

    This dilemma will recur as the penny drops with ZR and their pals that industry depends upon raw materials - electric cars, buses and lorries will depend upon expensively acquired supply chains for battery manufacture. Equally, these will be imported. If manufacturing industry is to survive in the UK XR and the BBC as their mouthpiece had better think again.

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    1. The BBC readily spouts out nonsense in support of XR and Greenpeace, as in the above article, and yet they are the first to complain about the loss of jobs in the UK's basic industries. Wales 'getting to net zero emissions' will hasten the demise of their industries and make not a jot of difference to global emissions.

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    2. It could hardly get any wetter in Wales. Rainfall looks pretty steady in fact but if it got sunnier, that could only be to the good!

      https://www.statista.com/statistics/610083/monthly-rainfall-in-wales/

      So what is the climate emergency in Wales exactly?

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    3. BBC favourite Nicola Sturgeon used to put a lot of store on 'Scottish' oil to pay the way for an 'independent' Scotland. It would be nice to hear fan-boy Andrew Marr pick her up on that!

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  3. Impartial, free and fair Jon Sopel squeezes out another anti-Trump tweet:

    "Dear AG Barr,
    How effective would you say your appeal to the President to stop tweeting about judicial decisions has been?"

    https://twitter.com/BBCJonSopel/status/1228692408109584384

    Blind Fran sees nothing.

    The man is supposed to be covering the American election process impartially for a state-funded broadcaster but he can't overcome his Trump Derangement.

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  4. I see from the paper review that Emily Maitlis has interviewed someone who claims to have been "assaulted" by Dominic Cummnings.

    This from an organisation that allowed Mark Thompson to continue in a most senior management role in the BBC despite him having bitten two members of staff on the arm on separate occasions (serious bites - not playful it was alleged).

    Presumably the decision has been made at PC Globalist Central to "Get Cummings" first as a prelude to the "Get Boris" campaign.

    Expect Maitlis to be on good head-nodding, non-interruptive and non-inquisitive form as she drinks it all in.

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    1. I think I'll 'borrow' "Get Cummings" as a blog title! :)

      Delete
  5. David Vance in triumphalist mode, as well he might be:

    https://biasedbbc.org/blog/2020/02/15/the-end-in-sight/#comments

    I think it's more important that we have structural reform of the BBC to deliver impartiality and across-the-board opinions being aired than it is to simply convert the licence fee to a subscription (no doubt supported by some direct funding for the World Service, regional TV, minority language, schools and disabled people broadcasting).

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  6. https://twitter.com/Baddiel/status/1228751397664980992

    Isn't Baddiel a complete hypocrite? I remember him and Frank Skinner mocking Suzanne Charlton (TV weather forecaster) for being too thin - telling her to eat more. I also recall them mocking some Black football player whose hairstyle made it look like he had a pineapple on top his head - and they continued to do so even though the guy's club manager pleaded with them that it was having a bad psychological impact on the player.

    It's one rule for them ("comedians") and another for the rest of the population ("trolls").

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    1. Would I be right in thinking he was made by the BBC? That might explain it.

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    2. I believe he got his start on the BBC's 'The Mary Whitehouse Experience' (a very BBC title for a comedy show).

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    3. Would I be right in thinking he was once quite funny? But he seems to have been sent to the same North Korean Re-education Camp that turned Frankie Boyle PC. Maybe Jerry Sadowitz is due a return as a PC woke comedian?

      Delete
  7. I've now got a link to the Harry Miller judgment but not read it yet. It's only 65 pages!

    Starts with a quote from George Orwell Animal Farm (the one on the BBC building) and ends with one from John Stuart Mill On Liberty about silencing opinion.
    Not bad, eh.
    https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/miller-v-college-of-police-judgment.pdf

    Can't see a specific thread for this so am posting it here in case anyone wants to see it.

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    1. Well the BBC have a quote from George Orwell inscribed - and a statue of him as well - at their HQ. I rest my case, m'lord.

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  8. Earlier this afternoon, I watched on Sky the last of a thrilling three match T20 series between England and South Africa. At one game all, during which both of the previous games went to the wire, this was the decider. A decisive innings by England Captain Morgan in which he hit 7 sixes clinched the game.

    Searching the Home page for a report, I was disappointed. The only cricket story concerned a warm-up game for England women's team. The report was not prominently displayed on the Sports pages. It was there ,buried.

    I don't know why the BBC have a problem with English cricket, but they consistently downplay the team's achievements.

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  9. Not BBC I know, but Robert Peston is ex-BBC and portrays many of the prejudices of your typical metro-liberal. Here is a example of his bias and his dislike of the Boris government. Preston’s personal views are never too far below the surface on any of his writings.

    https://www.itv.com/news/2020-02-17/robert-peston-boris-johnson-s-hedge-fund-government/

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  10. It’s very interesting that Alistair Campbell and Andrew Adonis are tweeting like mad at the moment in support of the BBC.

    You think that they would be in favour of reform when it is so biased against their favourite causes.

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  11. Basically you can tell whether you are on the correct side of an argument by the supporters of the other side. If Campbell, Blair, Adonis and Corbyn want to keep the BBC it just proves how much it should be scrapped!

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    1. Yep. You can add James O'Brien and Damian Green.

      Delete
  12. The relationship between the BBC and Campbell is weird. After Blair's 'dodgy dossier' there appeared to be a real hatred between them. If Carol Thatcher was never to be on the BBC again then Campbell would surely never appear until hell had frozen over, melted and frozen over again!

    Yet, out of government, he crept back in. I expect at heart the BBC is really The Blair Broadcasting Corporation so the upset was seen as just a lover's tiff.

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    1. Things change. For many years the BBC pursued Ken Clarke as an evil capitalist selling death-dealing tobacco to poorer parts of the world (all true, actually). It was only really Brexit that saw his full rehabilitation, when they decided to turn him into Cuddly Uncle Ken. Brexit also saw Blair being rehabilitated, allowed to speak at great uninterrupted length on BBC programmes.

      The BBC is fairly consistent in pursuing a Left-Liberal agenda. There are shifting alliances in pursuit of that agenda. Time was Portillo was the BBC's number one enemy. But after a bit of mea culpa, and signing up to the PC agenda, the BBC decided to promote him as a rail-travelling loveable raconteur (albeit, he somewhat unsaid his conversion when on This Week).

      There was a time David Attenborough was about to consigned to the dustbin of TV history but climate change saved him and sank David Bellamy who was thrown away like something you might find under your shoe.

      Shifting alliances!

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  13. So, in order to Get Boris, you have to Get Cummings and in order to Get Cummings you have to Get Sabisky ...I think that's the plan.

    Some thoughts:

    1. I previously confessed to ambivalent thoughts on Cummings. He may be a great strategist, but maybe not the best tactician. Why endanger yourself and your PM by appointing someone like Sabisky? Were no social media checks run on him? WTF was going on with that appointment?

    2. It's supicious we have been given only out of context quotations by the BBC. I'd like to see the full context of what Sabisky said. It's probably less controversial in context.

    3. It's amazing how the Liberal-Left have rewritten the history of eugenics. Eugenics was in the first half of the 20th century extremely popular among socialists and social progressives. Those who backed eugenicist policies included George Bernard Shaw, HG Wells, Marie Stopes, Sylvia Pankhurst, and Leon Trotsky - in fact nearly everyone on the left was sypmathetic to eugenics. Pre-war Social Democratic Sweden was strongly pro-eugenics. More recently Communist China has pursued eugenicist policies. These links between eugenics and socialism hardly ever get a mention from the BBC. Eugenics is always presented as project emanating from the other side of the political divide. Of course even now people on the Left are those who most strongly support compulsory medication and selective abortions, to eliminate disability. Those are really eugenicist approaches.

    4. Complusory eugenics is a social policy dead end and should be completely avoided as being unethical.
    But there is something you could describe as "voluntary eugenics" (but if you were a politician you would be mad to do so): this means crafting policies to discourage close cousin marriage, encourage small families, promote pre-pregnancy testing of potential genetic problems, encourage healthy behaviour during pregnancy, discourage teenage pregnancies, and so on. Some of that is already being done, but not systematically and not very effectively.

    Eugenics only means "good birth" - we shouldn't really be afraid of the word (wanting babies to be healthy is not a crime), but of course it has become "one of those words" that cannot be used in the political lexicon. Probably better for politicians to just talk about healthy baby policies. Sorted.

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  14. Latest Daily Mail story about steps towards reforming the licence fee suggests that Dominic Cummings wants a subscription service but Boris Johnson does not and favours more minor tinkering. Meanwhile it's also reported today that this so-called Conservative government is planning middle class tax rises. Vote Boris, get Corbyn? John Whittingdale, remember, was the useless culture secretary who in the latest BBC Charter put complaints appeals under Ofcom, thereby entrenching bias rather than providing a mechanism to attack it.

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    1. Yes, The Times is leading with the same story and has more on John Whittingdale.

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    2. Boris's view may be "If it ain't broke don't fix it" as in "I got an 80- seat majority despite the gross bias of the BBC against me, Brexit and the Conservative Party."

      This would be a mistake. Democracy is living on borrowed time in the UK. Thirtysomethings with no prospect of ever living in a decent home are perfect political fodder for the Left. The continuing stream of some 5 million migrants per decade coming into the UK are a source of huge vote replenishment for Labour. We have yet to feel the full effect of brainwashing by Leftist academics in higher edcuation which has a significant effect on people's general outlook on life. Also, Labour is now the party of Islam, and followers of that religion are doubling in mumber every 20 years, so again a huge source of new votes.

      With an ultraleftist Leader and a Shadow Cabinet shot through with incompetence and extremism, Labour still managed to garner 30% of the vote in 2020. The idea they can never harvest another 10% is silly. They might not reclaim the Northern seats of old, but they will be marching through the suburbs of our great conurbations.

      Taking all this into account, Cummings is right and Johnson is wrong. The BBC has to be neutralised because it is providing a vital support for PC Leftism in the UK. Once the PC Left have control, they will never give it up. They will find ways to keep themselves in power (lowering the voting age for instance).

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    3. I see the problem at the BBC as one of governance. BBC News above all is undisciplined - both so far as a command structure is concerned, but also from the viewpoint of self-discipline. A contract tied to a code of practice should be signed by all reporters and journalists. A PLC-type Board should oversee management and salaries and provide strong management of unauthorised Tweets etc. Board members should be elected by Licence holders - one vote per Licence, and their tenure would require reelection every three years. Above all, commercial revenues should be returned to control of Board members, specifically to offset increases in the Licence fee. Board members should carry responsibility for quality of output and the provision of unbiased reporting - failure to ensure such would make their re-election unlikely. By having responsibility to Licence holders, the BBC through the Board would be accountable to their audience - something that has been sadly lacking of late. I don't find a subscription service any more attractive than a Licence fee, it is the delivery of value that is important.

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  15. This story is tucked away from the BBC News website Home page. It's there on the Cambridgeshire page - for how long remains to be seen:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-51548337

    'Arrest as Extinction Rebellion ruins Trinity College lawn'

    Here is the bones of the story:

    ...'A woman has been arrested after climate activists dug up a lawn outside a Cambridge University college.

    Extinction Rebellion members destroyed part of the lawn at Trinity College on Monday in a protest over its role in a major development in the Suffolk countryside.

    A 19-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage and remains in custody.

    Police said Trinity College was assisting with the investigation.

    Activists involved in digging up the lawn said the action was taken against "the destruction of nature".

    Trinity owns Innocence Farm in Trimley St Martin, Suffolk, where plans were submitted for a lorry park. The scheme was rejected.' ...

    'The scheme was rejected.' What we aren't told by the BBC is when the scheme for a lorry park was rejected. Poor reporting leads me to guess that the destructive protest in Cambridge had little or no effect on the outcome of PP, that it was totally unnecessary and the BBC don't know how to report the story when consistently they have shown sympathy for XR and its anarchic actions.

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    1. There's more to this story than meets the eye. See the press report from the Ipswich Star:

      https://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/katcag-innocence-farm-kirton-felixstowe-port-development-success-1-6518291

      This makes it clear that there has been a long battle to persuade The Inspector by the Kirton and Trimley Community Action Group (KATCAG) onto which XR have latched themselves. An extract from KATCAG's website:

      ... '
      A number of media sources appear to have suggested that the Kirton and Trimley Community Action Group (KATCAG) is linked to the defamation of lawns within Trinity College, Cambridge.
      We want to make it absolutely clear that this is not the case.

      We have spent many months campaigning against actions by Trinity College, Cambridge, which we view as eco-vandalism and an abuse of our community.
      It would be inconsistent for us to take these actions.

      So far, we have run an effective and organised campaign. The Innocence Farm lorry park proposals have been rejected by the Inspector, following the Hearing.

      Unlike the College, we would never involve ourselves with damage to our environment, wildlife and heritage, whatever the cause.' ...

      So, come on BBC let's have less sloppy reporting and give us the full story. I'll keep an eye out to see how long their biased report stays on the Cambridgeshire page.

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    2. XR...can do no wrong. IPCC...can do no wrong. Greta...can do no wrong. Jess Phillips...can do no wrong. Lisa Nandy...can do no wrong. David Lammy...can do no wrong. Lilly Allen...can do no wrong. Stormzy...can do no wrong.

      It's a very long list of people and organisations who can do no wrong as far as the BBC are concerned.

      Delete
  16. The BBC has said news presenter Geeta Guru-Murthy was correct to describe the crowd at a Brexit rally as “very white”, on the basis that it was an accurate description of those in attendance. - The Guardian website tonight.

    What a surprise that they got it about right.

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    1. One thing you'll never hear on the BBC: the crowd is very black.

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    2. But they had no interest in the fact that the big Remainer rallies in London were also "very white", not to say 99.5% white. Also that the BBC's own management board is "very white". Or that the EU leadership is also "very white".

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  17. Anyone else notice that all 3 episodes of the "Universal Credit" thing on BBC2 over-ran by four minutes ? This has to be deliberate, to catch viewers switching over or recording the lightweight but amusing American made comedy scheduled to start at 10....

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  18. BBC having fun art Brits. Apart from worshipping Stormzy, this>
    https://twitter.com/patricktingz/status/1229915440274714624?s=20

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  19. BBC Radio 1 Xtra - which has done so much to glamourise violent drill music and thus encourage gang murders in our major cities - just love Dave the rapper's anti-Boris political tirade disguised as something approximating to "music".

    https://twitter.com/1Xtra/status/1229871729897623552

    "The power of this performance."

    From Wikipedia:

    "David Orobosa Omoregie was born on 5 June 1998 in Brixton, South London, as the youngest of three brothers to Nigerian parents. He was raised nearby in Streatham by a single mother as his father was absent during his childhood. Omoregie initially began composing music at an early age, regularly writing lyrics in his early teens, prior to engaging in production after being gifted a piano by his mother in 2012, at age 14. As of April 2019, one of Omoregie's older brothers, Christopher, is currently incarcerated, having been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 18 years for his involvement in the 25 March 2010 gang murder of fifteen year old Sofyen Belamouadden at London Victoria station and his eldest brother, Benjamin was jailed for four years for conspiracy to defraud."

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    1. Oh yeah...Baroness Warsi, the well known rap afficionado (or maybe just sh*t stirrer) loved it as well!!

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  20. Surprisingly it appears Boris Corbinson isn't that bothered about the licence-fee. He will get rid of Cummings eventually though
    , affording him the opportunity to go for a one hundred percent woke agenda. Oh dear, many have been fooled again!

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  21. This is amazing.

    The BBC's attempts to sow division by race, gender and any other kind of baiting truly know no bounds.

    It's young men that are in the firing line today.

    HEADLINE: "How overseas stag parties are hurting the environment"

    Accompanying text to a video: "About half of the flights taken last year by 20-45 year-old men were for stag dos, and that generates a lot of emissions. So what can be done?"

    The video actually includes Hen Parties as well, but the Headline on the story and on the News/Business Pages that link to it don't bother - and as a 20-something pal of mine said recently, 'I only read the headlines.'

    Indeed. So job done for the BBC, and we're paying for this divisive junk.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/business-51546085/how-overseas-stag-parties-are-hurting-the-environment

    An adult may come along later to address the bare faced sexism, so captured an image for posterity:

    https://i.imgur.com/2lZDczI.jpg

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    1. Standard operating procedure 'some' might say. They leave out sexism and other isms altogether if there is something they can shout about as racism, as with the Downing Street superforecaster. Here where there is no competing, though lesser (to them), other ism, they've created a nice little internal hierarchy within the same ism, so they can drop the lesser (as above) element of it. Great intellects at work in the BBC.

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    2. About half of the flights taken last year by BBC journalists were unnecessary and that generates a lot of emissions. So what can be done?

      Delete
  22. Educashun Educashun Educashun, the cry of New Labour, still echoes through the halls of Labour and in the BBC, as we heard recently from a BBC news reader but Tony Blair wasn't applying it to anyone who doesn't believe a man is a woman. One of his successor MPs does, though:
    'This is a very good article by @shack69owo.
    Education should be used before expulsion to combat any prejudice' Nadia Whittome MP added
    'Christie @shack69owo
    Labour should combat transphobia through education, not expulsions - my article for LabourList' https://labourlist.org/2020/02/labour-should-combat-transphobia-through-education-not-expulsions/

    And there you have it: First catch your rabbit, wrap it up, label it Phobe and go to work on it.






    'Yes, as I’ve said above, unrepentant transphobes/racists/misogynists etc. should be expelled.
    The Labour Party should educate those who are ignorant rather than ideological. And if they don’t respond to education, they should also be expelled'

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    1. Is phobophobia a recognised condition?...I wonder because every time I see the tag "phobe" used I come out in a sweat and experience a deep desire to shout "BULLSHIT!". :)

      Delete
  23. BBC's wooliest report about the XR protests in Cambridge:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-51561427

    ... 'Cambridge Extinction Rebellion protests: Six charged with criminal damage' ...

    This is a follow-up to the story about damage to the lawn outside Trinity College on Monday. There is an interesting change in the detail, with the Innocence Farm Planning Inquiry omitted from the report. The new information is:

    ... 'The lawn outside the 16th Century college was dug up by activists citing the institution's "ties with fossil fuel companies".' ...

    Therefore, the BBC report seeks to put XR protests to the fore without any justifiable explanation as to the exact reason for protest. Earlier reports about PP at Innocence Farm are simply airbrushed out and another reason for the protest introduced.

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    1. Surely this protest has added to the carbon total in the atmosphere because the grass was a carbon sink. Doesn't that make them climate criminals who should be put on trial, as XR would wish?

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    2. Disturbing ancient ground formation actually releases CO2. Moss and peat are good reservoirs.

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  24. The newsreader on Radio 4 this morning informed us that Boris Johnson had been called a racist by "Dave the Rapper" at the Brits in a tone of voice that can only be described as gleeful and celebratory.

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    1. If that's what Dave the Rapper says it must be true. Who is Dave the Rapper, by the way?

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    2. Never head of Dave but the BBC like what he says because it supports their narrative about Boris. Apparently Dave won an award and sang a song and so he is high profile enough to broadcast his views.

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    3. There is a history of the BBC hiding behind singers and songs to attack Conservative PMs. 'The Witch is Dead' Thatcher, 'Liar Liar' May, and now Dave calling Boris a racist. It has former a pattern that is one directional. I've never heard the like directed towards Corbyn Milliband etc.

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    4. Yes it's similar to the bias shown by the BBC when covering Left Wing protests (zeroing in and lingering on offensive placards) while for Right Wing protests, the placards are generally obscured, unless it is felt they might be helpful to the "cause".

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  25. The BBC have found into overdrive today on immigration following the Government's announcement.

    They have produced a 183 page (yes, 183 pages!) briefing document on their website.

    It’s sole aim is to prove that immigration is good. Look at the language, construction and narrative. I’m not convinced that this is how BBC News should be spending our money because in my opinion, it’s carefully crafted propaganda.

    You can download it here.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50132840

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    1. They got their retaliation in first - that doc has been up there for a few weeks. This "briefing" malarkey seems the latest attempt after the complete, dismal failure of their Reality Check propaganda unit to swing the election, to influence public opinion and tell us what to believe.

      The immigration "briefing" is stuffed full of lies, misdirection, omissions and shifting definitions. Sometimes migrant mean non-UK national person residing in UK, sometimes it means naturalised British people, sometimes it means ethnic minorities...they use whatever suits the pro-migration case for any angle.

      For instance, talking about the tax-benefit impact of migration without looking at non work related benefits - e.g. when migrants start having families here - is to provide a completely false account. A family with four children in central London will require something like £400,000 in state support just to educate their children (that's before we look at health costs, housing benefit, subsidised social housing, disability allowances, income support and so on). If the family had not migrated to the UK, those costs would not not be borne by the UK state.

      The briefing is wish-fulfilment propaganda and has no grounding in fact. It is an outrage that the BBC dare to publish it but of course there isn't a single MP brave enough to condemn it.

      Delete
    2. Yes, I remember it being discussed here. They're supposed to be doing one on housing - will that mention immigration?

      Incidentally, does anyone of long memory recall David Miliband years ago came up with the idea of a series of briefs for handy reference telling us what to think on a variety of subjects? Not your 183 tome but more like an aide memoire short form.

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    3. I'm sure one of their mates in academia - Jonathan Portes perhaps - will oblige by declaring there is no proven link between mass immigration and the housing crisis in the UK.

      No, I don't recall the short form aide memoires proposed by Ed - were they going to be chiselled into stone?

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    4. No I think they were more like cards so you could carry them around. That was David, not Ed of the Torsten Bell Edstone.

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    5. Sorry I got me Millibands mixed up. David's the one always invited on to Radio 4 to pontificate at length and Ed's the one who can't eat a bacon sandwich.

      Delete
  26. In case anybody missed the great Labour Pledge, Moral Maze is on tonight:
    'Transgender Rights
    Two of the final three Labour leadership candidates have signed pledges to defend trans rights, expel party members who express "transphobic" views and fight against Woman’s Place UK, LGB Alliance and “other trans-exclusionist hate groups”. Both those groups cited insist they are merely campaigning for the rights of women as they exist under UK Equality law, as well as those of gay, lesbian and bisexual people. This bitter quarrel could be seen as symptomatic of a wider culture war which calls into question the very notions of gender, sex, sexuality, social justice and inclusivity. For many trans activists, a failure to recognise trans women as women or trans men as men is itself hateful, because they believe it denies the most fundamental fact of their identity. Their critics, however, accuse them of denying a biological reality that sex is determined at birth. It is, they say, unreasonable to refuse even to discuss the subject. For those prepared to debate, there’s a lot to think about. What constitutes “transphobia”? What are the moral implications of gender self-identification? What rights and protections should be afforded to ‘biological’ females in women's changing rooms, refuges and prisons? What does gender self-identification mean for women’s sport? More fundamentally, where does ‘masculinity’ end and ‘femininity’ begin? How should we respond to the increasing numbers of children and teenagers, particularly girls, being diagnosed with gender dysphoria? And what ethical considerations should apply in deciding whether and how to treat them? With Jane Fae, Graham Linehan, Torr Robinson and Kiri Tunks '

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  27. It's interesting that it tends to be rappers of Nigerian heritage (Stormzy and Dave) who are currently throwing out the racist charge against our Prime Ministers and society in general.

    Nigeria is one of the most racist places on Earth. They fought a genocidal civil war based on ethnicity. Virtually every week in the country there is an atrocity involving the massacre of one ethnic or religious group by another. Moreover, from my discussions with West Africans they aren't much loved by their neighbours - e.g. Ghanaians who view them (as maybe Canadians view Americans) as arrogant and overly assertive.

    Ever heard Stormzy or Dave criticise the bloodshed in their families' homelands?

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    1. I'd never heard of Dave till reading of him here. And I don't know about Stormzy either, although the name seems to be everywhere these last couple of months. Not sure why he's of interest.

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  28. Suddenly the BBC don't think it's funny to throw things in people's faces because of their alleged political views...

    https://twitter.com/LaurenM0ss/status/1230144313851629568

    Whereas, before, it was a cause for merriment from assorted BBC "comedians" and pundits.

    Here's a suggestion for the BBC: how about one law for everybody?

    ReplyDelete
  29. Heard a bit of The Evan Davis Ego Show today on Radio 4 - it made me feel the sort of justified wrath one felt during the Brexit Wars.

    A BBC reporter was out and about in a Derbyshire town seeking views on the Government's migration proposals. Was this vox pop undertaken impartially? Are you effing kidding? It was biased to the point of being a slander on those being approached in the street. Everything was couched in terms of migration being a positive so why would you favour the Government's proposals? And then, the icing on the cake: would you accept that many people would characterise your views [backing controls on migration] as racist?

    If the BBC really want to hasten the day when the licence fee is abolished, they are going about it the right way.

    It is disgusting that they attack ordinary concerned members of the public who have suffered personally as a result of migration (one guy explained how the migrant influx had eroded payments for unsocial overtime hours in his sphere of work) as "racist".

    Would they like it if we started calling them racist for not wanting to allow viewers to migrate away from the BBC to Netflix, an overseas non-UK firm?


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If only we could threaten to replace Evan with a Polish radio host on a quarter of his wages, then we might get a different slant.

      Delete
    2. "I'm sorry Evan but Father Tadeusz Rydzyk has offered to do your job for 20 grand a year. Now they're abolishing the licence fee, we have no option but to accept his tender. I'm sure you'll understand and won't want to deny him this opportunity to advance his career...here, you can box up your things in this..."

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadeusz_Rydzyk

      Delete
  30. :::NEWSNIGHT WATCH:::

    Congratulations are due to Emily Maitlis. She interviewed an Iranian chess official, a woman who had to seek political asylum in the UK after being accused of deliberately not wearing the Hijab at a chess event.

    It was a very affecting interview (thanks to the emotion expressed by the interviewee - no thanks to Maitlis whose questions were crass and confusing).

    But still Maitlis is deserving of congratulations from the BBC hierarchy because she managed to get through an interview focussed on the oppressive requirement for women in Iran to wear the Hijab without once, not even once, mentioning Islam, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Sharia law, the Koran, the Hadith or Old Mo.

    Well done Ems!

    ReplyDelete
  31. Who knew that our PC Globalist Government under Cameron-Osborne arranged things so that: "On October 6, 2014, Queen Elizabeth II awarded Bloomberg as Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his "prodigious entrepreneurial and philanthropic endeavors, and the many ways in which they have benefited the United Kingdom and the U.K.-U.S. special relationship."

    Here's hoping we have a lot less of that sort of globalist grooming going on under Boris and Cummings.

    ReplyDelete
  32. With the Germany shisha murders, the BBC have been very quick to blame the far right, reporting the likely motive prominently this morning. . It’s In stark contrast to the complete refusal to name Islamist links for days on end and sometimes never. Why?

    ReplyDelete
  33. Or the bombings in Sweden.
    Or the French firefighters beaten up by French police officers.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Very loaded language being used by the BBC on their reports about Priti Patel. They smell blood and think they can help bring down a Conservative minister. I've seen this modus operandi before.

    If I can, I'll do a transcript later to highlight how the careful use of words by the BBC politicises the report.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Craig's favourite chappie, Mr Lewis Goodall, gets a little pasting from Kate Hooey. So well deserved.
    https://twitter.com/CatharineHoey/status/1230256373637754887?s=20

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kate is always great with her Twitter responses and always spots suspect tweets. I wish more were like her.

      Delete
    2. i do love the reply to that tweet which sympathises with the EU for having spent 24 hours with Mr Goodall!

      when god was handing out charisma, Mr Goodall was at the dentists.

      Delete
  36. The BBC have remained silent over the outcome of the Irish election. The Guardian carries this story:

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/20/irish-parliament-set-for-stalemate-in-attempt-to-form-new-government

    'Varadkar set to resign as Irish government enters stalemate'. I always thought that LV was 'one of us' to the BBC. This appears to be another outcome the BBC worked against - and failed. You wouldn't want the BBC's support, it's toxic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, very true.

      Leo was supposed to have been returned with a thumping majority and a laurel leaf crown.

      It's a tricky one for the BBC. While they liked Varadkar (gay, non-European and anti-Brexit) they have also been attracted by the armalite-enabled Sinn Fein. The BBC of course has to be careful not to address the issue of what it means for a modern European democracy to be taken over by an ethnic-nationalist, gangster-friendly, Far Left party shot through with corruption.

      Delete
    2. Varadkar paid the price for spending too much time in the capital's of Europe trying to frustrate the UK on Brexit rather than focusing on what people wanted at home in terms of housing and health.

      He reminds me of Barack Obama. Both have a large chip on their shoulder arising from their perceived view that the British treated their forefathers in India and Kenya appallingly. Obama wanted Britain to be at the back of the queue on any future trade deal and Varadkar was prepared to bankrupt Ireland to ensure that the Brits would be 'punished' for Brexit. His ridiculous posturing showed he had no interest in the people in the North of Ireland, peace or even Irish unification. He only wanted to pay back the British for what they did to his ancestors in India. Obama felt the same way about the British and Kenya.

      Delete
    3. I had thought that Varadkar had studied the Merkel model of government whereby without a majority, he might form coalitions and keep his grip on the levers of power. It's clear that SF will prevent this outcome. Ireland might now be heading for the Italian style of government by having years of inconclusive general elections.

      Delete
    4. Needless to say, the BBC aren't reporting Varadkar's comments re the EU budget proposal:

      https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1245439/eu-news-eu-budget-2020-brexit-news-brussels-leo-varadkar-ireland-trade

      .. 'Leo Varadkar unleashes fury at EU crunch summit as he slams 'unacceptable' budget demands'. ...

      Some extracts:

      .... 'LEO VARADKAR hit out at the European Council's "unacceptable terms" during a crunch EU budget summit on Friday as the former Irish Prime Minister confirmed the bloc won't make an agreement today'. ...

      ... '“Essentially it means Ireland will contribute much more to the EU budget but will actually receive less back in terms of payments to Irish farmers and also funds for regional development and social development.

      “We accept that as a country, as a growing economy will full employments we will have to pay more into the EU budget over the next seven years.

      “But we can’t accept in return for paying more in we would see very significant cuts to cap and to cohesion funds.

      “That’s not something we can accept and I made that very clear to President von der Leyen and President Michel last night.' ...

      ... 'Britain’s departure from the EU has caused tension in the bloc as remaining member states are "reluctant" to cover the €70 billion (£58 billion) void in the budget.

      EU Budget and Admin Commissioner, Johannes Hahn, told CNBC that a breakthrough was desperately needed on the common budget as European leaders discuss their future spending at the crunch summit.

      He explained a “significant delay” to a budget agreement would impact future European Union policy plans.' ...

      Delete
  37. Spiked has an item about an advert/ invitation for a BBC Two programme:

    'DO YOU IDENTIFY AS BEING WHITE?'

    And it gets worse.
    It's like one of those adverts for people to take part in experimental research into some condition or disease.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/02/20/why-is-the-bbc-promoting-white-identity-politics/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good article. This is horrific and exemplifies why we need to reform, abolish or replace the BBC.

      As the article says, the BBC is actually encouraging people to think in regressive ways about race. No good can come of this racialising, this harping back to empire and slavery, or this absurd nonsense about non-white people being held back by this "racist" country. Often you find a Black or South Asian presenter on the BBC earnestly discussing with a Black or South Asian reporter or editor how terrible racism is in the UK, before handing over to another Black or South Asian reporter for the next item.

      I don't want everything filtered through race. I want us and the BBC, as our national broadcaster to focus on individuals, their interests, their talents, their experiences, their accomplishments.

      Delete
  38. Didn't all go the way of the BBC today. Heard a representative of the German Kurdish community today being interviewed by Mishal Husain. She was setting things up nicely for a climactic bit of Muslim victimhood but rather than play his allotted role, he said the attack should be seen as an attack on German democracy. I let out a little cheer. Here seemed to be a guy who was giving the best response possible - a genuinely unifying response that did not seek to treat different identities as political entities (exactly what the BBC is doing with programmes like that one by Afua Hirsch).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The London Mosque stabbing must also have been a disappointment to the BBC, when the suspected attacker turned out to be an Albanian or Bosnian Muslim - presumably that is why they have failed to report the fact.

      Delete
    2. Agreed and it’s good to see you posting here again Sisyphus. I hope you didn’t get hit by the floods. At lunchtime today on Radio 2, it didn’t stop Amol Rajan doing a phone in about the stabbing and how to protect Muslims from attack at Mosques. The whole premise falsely portrayed was that the Muslim minority are victims and under attack by non-Muslims when the BBC knew the true facts by then.

      Delete
    3. Thanks Charlie - been ill but getting better slowly. Re: the floods, neighbouring towns & villages badly hit, but we're higher up,fortunately.
      I missed the Amol Rajan prog. but agree that the the Beeb's intention appears to be to stoke the fires of victimhood (while giving non-muslims an attack of undeserved guilt!).

      Delete
    4. This story has been buried away from the News website Home page. It's still there on the England page, but I suspect that's the last we'll hear. There is no further information about the identity of the assailant - a 29 year old man.

      Delete
    5. Amol has a phone in on Radio 2? Are there no limits to the talents of this man? He's already run a national broadsheet (The Independent) into the ground...maybe he will do the same with Radio 2.

      So the Regents Park Mosque incident was just another "man" attack, Arthur? Definitely nothing to see there.

      Delete
  39. I note with interest that the BBC have sacked Micky Clarke and Louise Cooper from Five Live's Wake Up to Money. These two journalists provide useful comment on the markets and consumer financial advice; useful to most listeners and viewers. I would have thought there is a long list of correspondents and commentators, like Amol Rajan, who should be first to go in the planned cull of newsroom staff. Maybe it is because both of these individuals do not fit to the wet liberal profile common in most BBC news personnel.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Louise Cooper also works on the Money Box programme on Radio 4. I wonder if she is being sacked from the BBC or just from the 5 Live.

      Delete
  40. Dimbleby D bares his fangs:
    "In an interview broadcast by Germany's ARD state TV channel, Dimbleby said: 'The BBC is under threat in a way it has never been before. The pernicious route they [the Government] are using is to say the licence fee is wrong or unfair. I don't believe it is wrong or unfair.

    'It is a way of damaging and undermining the BBC that is dangerous and should be resisted forcefully if public broadcasting is to survive. Anything that chips away at what we believe to be a good democratic process is dangerous and has to be fought against.

    'It has to be explained why not speaking to people is dangerous, why not appearing on television is dangerous.'"

    More educashun and more explaining is needed!

    Well well who'd have thought it?

    Dimbo Dumbo.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8030411/BBC-legend-rips-apart-Boris-Johnson-David-Dimbleby-blasts-Prime-Minister-amid-TV-licence-row.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "I don't believe it is wrong or unfair." Big deal Dimbo - you are one of 65 million. Your view counts for no more than your fellow citizens. Make your case for why it is right for over 100,000 cases of non payment to clog up our courts every year if you dare.

      And while you are at it, you can tell us where all those pro-Brexit programmes are that you claimed the BBC were making.

      Going back to a point made by Portillo on QT - the BBC's arts output on a budget of
      £4 billion plus is absolutely shameful. They make no effort at all. Yes, there are a few good programmes consigned to the BBC 4 ghetto and there is Radio 3, a gem of sorts. But there is no sense of real commitment.

      Arts programming doesn't have to be expensive. You can get 4 people intelligently discussing paintings, without visiting Venice or Paris or New York. If you can have a Sports Quiz, why can't you have an Arts Quiz? Or why not get talented artists to bring in their paintings for showing and discussion..."Show and Tell"...

      As for music, it's like the BBC think "They've got their Radio 3 ghetto, we aren't going to make any more effort, unless it's the Last Night of the Proms". Again, classical music on TV doesn't have to be expensive. There's loads of great stuff on You Tube. A lot of that could simply be transferred to TV, put into a suitable package.

      I haven't seen a Shakespeare play performed on BBC TV for years. There might have been one, but if so it wasn't well publicised.

      Again book discussions, with extracts performed by actors. can be put on TV very cheaply.

      I used to have Sky Arts as part of a Sky package - originally it had two channels - and found it far superior to what was on offer on BBC TV.

      Delete
  41. The Times newspaper, tomorrow, leads with story about Michael O' Leary CEO of Ryanair, commenting that the security agencies should do more to profile and stop Muslim men at UK airports. He says that in the 1970s and 1980s Irish men were similarly stopped at UK Airports during the IRA bombing campaign.
    Well, surprise surprise, with all the papers in, TheTimes is nowhere to be seen in the BBC review of the papers on the website;

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-51594137 (23.25)

    David Dimbleby also making news, attacking Boris for undermining the BBC.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lib Dem pro-EU Dimbo did more to undermine the BBC with his biased chairing of Question Time in the period of the EU Referendum and Brexit vote than Boris ever did.

      And we don't forget his claims that the BBC was producing pro-Brexit programmes (we're still waiting, Dimbo!) or his nasty insuation that a member of the QT audience was lying about the leaflet he had been handed at a Mosque open day.

      Dimbo was very much the personification of the BBC we had come to know and loathe: pompous, entitled, overpaid, snide, snobbishly anti-Conservative, disdainful of working class sentiment, always quick to defend Islam, assuming they know our history better than we do, and engaging in a pretence of admiring Britain while seeking to destroy our national identity.

      Delete
    2. Agreed- MB. Dimbleby has done us a favour with his attack on Johnson because it’s another good example of what BBC staffers really think. Their loathing for Boris knows no bounds.

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8030411/BBC-legend-rips-apart-Boris-Johnson-David-Dimbleby-blasts-Prime-Minister-amid-TV-licence-row.html

      Delete
    3. The BBC still managing this morning to ignore The Times and it's lead story about Michael O'Leary's comments on security at UK Airports; no pretence there that The Times arrived too late to review. I note also that this story was not covered on the Paper review on the Today programme at 7.40 and 8.45 this morning. Just who at the BBC makes this type of editorial decision; does it come down from on high or do the apprachicks know how to re act to such a story intuitively?

      By contrast, the story is picked up online today in the negative, 'Michael O'Leary : Ryanair boss criticised for Muslim profiling '

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51596125

      What kind of organisation could be so twisted in it's approach to news management? How do the journalists at thr Times feel that their paper is totally ignored by the 'voice of the nation'?


      Delete
  42. A great video from Tucker Carlson:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iruf0Qc7saw

    Only quibble I have is that he doesn't point the finger at Nixon-Kissinger who started the whole globalist ball rolling. The worst strategic mistake ever - making peace with Communist China and abandoning Taiwan. The behaviour of Cheating China ever since has been their epitaph.

    ReplyDelete
  43. There is a newly identified form of BBC bias, that I put on the 'Polar Bear' thread below:

    Bias by supplanted question. Primarily, this is a QT form perfected by DD and now being used by FB. When you consider that Marr uses the same methods, of interrupting by firing out a supplanted question, you realise it's a widespread. Marr doesn't audibly disagree with his interviewee - though clearly he does - he simply doesn't wait to hear an answer before interrupting with another question.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep. It's particularly galling on QT since that is supposed to be about questions from the audience, not the chair. Emma Barnett is another serial offender. She often seems to use it to confuse the interviewee (used mainly on Conservatives, though she doesn't like Corbynistas either - but she goes easy on her friends like Stella Creasy).

      Delete
    2. "Supplanted question" is a great term.

      Delete

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