Thursday 5 March 2020

Open Thread


Rooks have Returned, Aleksey Savrasov. 1871

Edward Thomas, Thaw
Over the land freckled with snow half-thawed
The speculating rooks at their nests cawed
And saw from elm-tops, delicate as flower of grass,
What we below could not see, Winter pass.
Well, we can hope!

Thanks for all your comments.

99 comments:

  1. As so often with Westminster bubble issues, what we are seeing today for Priti Patel (and Philip Rutnam) is trial by media. Speculation and opinion being reported as fact. Endless analysis of hearsay and rumour being whipped up by the MSM.

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  2. May I recommend a piece by Neil Lock on WUWT {whats up with that} about post-modernism etc. at Cambridge University.
    It is obvious the BBC has also been infected by it. A sad state of affairs.
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/02/29/on-cambridge-university-post-modernism-climate-change-oppenheimers-razor-and-the-re-enlightenment/
    AnneG.

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  3. The Metro: "The BBC has been flooded with more than 100 complaints after it gave ‘too much coverage’ to Caroline Flack’s death."

    I'm not sure the 'flooded' is warranted given that
    "According to the website, it received several complaints from viewers ‘who felt there was too much news coverage of the death of TV presenter, Caroline Flack’. While the BBC hasn’t revealed the number of complaints they have received, Metro.co.uk understands they will have received more than 100 from viewers. The website states that it only responds to complaints of a ‘wide audience concern which have either generated significant numbers of complaints or raised significant issues’."

    "The BBC has since defended its coverage after releasing a statement that reads: ‘We believe this was a considerable and newsworthy story, given Caroline Flack’s notable career in the media industry, and the circumstances leading up to her tragic and sudden death."

    Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2020/02/29/bbc-flooded-complaints-giving-much-coverage-caroline-flacks-death-12323957/?ito=cbshare



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  4. I see Google are taking the p' out of the Welsh by having a Chinese dragon adorn their logo on St David's Day.

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  5. An interesting video featuring BBC non-person Katie Hopkins.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WyRdz1Ix64

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    Replies
    1. meant to add H/T theisland on the other channel.

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  6. Davis Keighley has an article on The Conservative Woman site that we should cause us to be alarmed:

    https://conservativewoman.co.uk/trump-sir-cliff-and-the-skewering-of-the-bbc/

    Craig dealt with the publication of David Sedgwick’s new book about the BBC in an earlier thread - and highlighted the sinister machinations of Amazon, in their apparent obstruction in the sending out of review copies.

    I for one had not understood that this came as a final put-down at the end of Sedgwick's efforts to find a publisher. From Keighley's article:

    ... 'It [the book] also deserves to be widely read, but there is a danger that it won’t be. Publishers are virtually to a man and woman of the same mindset as the BBC, and none of the big names will commission or touch such content. David has therefore published it himself, so distribution and supportive PR effort is limited. On top of that, Amazon – these days essential in launching a book – mysteriously failed to send out review copies and have now also (David tells me) wiped his author page.' ...

    Never has the Orwell quotation been quite so relevant: "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear".

    Craig, perhaps you might update your February post about the Sedgwick book, with an update to the CW article. If DK can't rely on a publisher, then on this site we should help to promote the book as best we can.

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  7. It is available on Amazon uk. I ordered my copy this morning.

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    Replies
    1. Kindle edition available too at £2.99. Just got mine.

      Delete
    2. Kindle or other e-books are probably the best way to obtain this book. It removes printing and distribution issues, should they arise! Self-published books rarely make it into bookshops.

      Delete
    3. The Free Speech Union shows the way forward, I think. Toby Young should probably think in terms of setting up an independent publisher.

      Delete
  8. A good speech from Carl Benjamin:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA7INdRbMK8

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  9. I'm part way through my copy. I'm a little bit dyslexic and am finding that the long sentences and poor punctuation make it hard going.
    Whereas this site is a day to day record of bias, the book goes way back in time. It has reminded of some stories that I'd forgetten, and the book introduced me to some new ones. And the threads (for me at least) show how the bias is an engineered construct rather than a series of slips and errors.

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    Replies
    1. ... ' the long sentences and poor punctuation make it hard going.' ...
      This is another problem with self-publishing. A traditional publisher would employ the services of a copy editor who would work to agreed style sheets thus sorting out readability, grammar and punctuation issues.

      Delete
  10. Listening to the Jeremy Vine show on the radio this lunchtime, someone said (brought on as an expert, I guess) that food prices would go up 22% if we didn’t get a good deal with the EU. I don’t even need to check if that it true because it is just speculation with no facts to back it up. I mention it here because it’s another example of the rubbish they broadcast as fact and just allow it to be put out there. Needless to say the host didn’t challenge the assertion. This expert also said trade with EU is 30x more important than any US deal.

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    1. Dead right Charlie! They're just reviving the anti-Brexit campaign: "You peasants will all be punished."

      Delete
    2. Food prices went up when we joined the EEC. The government at the time warned us that that would happen.

      Delete
    3. We plunged straight into a serious recession and a period of extreme and prolonged industrial strife immediately after joining the EEC. But of course the Remainiacs have rewritten history and now suggest the EU rescued us from the 1970s economic decline! lol

      I am sure we can develop alternative and cheaper supplies from countries like the USA, Kenya and Morocco.

      Delete
  11. 6pm News. The BBC interviews Hilary Mantel on the long-awaited publication of the last of the Thomas Cromwell trilogy...and what interests the Beeb the most? - Does Ms Mantel consider that the Duchess of Sussex is the victim of British racism? I despair! But I despair still more that Mantell considers that that is, indeed, the case.

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    1. We are one of the least racist countries on earth. Why do the BBC push the narrative that we are not?

      The question to Mantel must have been set up and arranged beforehand because it would not normally be brought up when interviewing an author about her new historical novel.

      In reality Mantel is another metropolitan liberal luvvie because the BBC know all too well that she is a leading left- liberal and Corbynista who accused the Tories of a social wrecking agenda. They rewarded her with a lavish serial adaptation of Wolf Hall. She is one of them.

      Delete
    2. She hates Catholicism, fantasised about assassinating Mrs Thatcher and came out as a full on deranged Remainiac after the Referendum. What's not to like, eh, BBC? Only problem - and no doubt they avoided this topic - she also hates Islam, on the very good grounds that she has experienced it close up having lived in Saudi Arabia for four years.

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    3. I saw a comment at The Other Place noting that Hilary Mandel had actually declined to bite on Andrew Marr's 'Start the Week' hooks about Boris, Brexit and Trump. The angling after helpful political points is standard BBC practice on such programmes. It's noticeable, for example, how often Andrew Marr's entertainment celebrity guests on Sunday are encouraged to talk about politics (almost invariably from a near-identical position).

      Delete
    4. "And lastly,Stormzy, would you like to give us your thoughts on Boris Johnson's obviously racist comments about hand-washing?"

      Delete
  12. :::NEWSNIGHT WATCH:::

    Maitlis fresh from her RTS triumph and glowing more orange than even Donald was in her beloved USA tonight and moreover was in full on anti-Trump partisan mode, accusing him of ignoring expert medical advice in relation to the risk of the coronavirus. Her virtue-signalling has reached a new, insane level.

    The thought occurred to me, she seem so concerned about protecting Americans from the coronavirus, why has she travelled there, currently low risk, from Europe, where the risk is much higher. There was no need for her to go. There are at least 20 other BBC reporters out there who could cover the story. But by travelling she was prepared to add to the risk to Americans, since she could be carrying the virus and not be aware of the fact. Can you imagine the childish tantrum she would have thrown if she had been denied access...?

    So who do you go to seek advice on how to deal with potentially catastrophic scenarios in the Middle East? Why - you go to someone who was instrumental in our involvement in the disastrous Iraq war and aftermath, and who encouraged the Civil War in Syria, promoting the bogus idea of an "Arab Spring" and arguing for UK military involvement in the war: David Miliband of course, the BBC's "prince across the water".

    As usual, International Rescue's supermarionation puppet gushed with platitudes. He offered no insights and no solutions. But he'll be back don't worry!

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    1. Not just Emily...Sweeney presenting at A&E...thought we were asked not to do that?

      https://twitter.com/johnsweeneyroar/status/1234604078157717505

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    2. Oh I forgot he was on something else recently - was it Broadcasting House a week ago? - and I meant to post a comment here to flag it up.
      It's strange they seldom bother with the brother who lives here. He's rarely interviewed or on the various platforms.

      I was thinking the BBC must never have given up on the idea of the absent elder brother as a Blairlike future leader. Perhaps Purnell has something to do with it.

      Delete
    3. Yes Ed never gets a look-in but David gets at least four slots a year on big BBC news progs to speak virtually unchallenged...normally arguing in favour of us intervening militarily in the Middle East. International Rescue doesn't seem much concerned with "humanitarian disasters" in the rest of the world.

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    4. The Prince Over the Water is on surprisingly often, and given top billing - including the 8.10 spot on 'Today' - despite being out of frontline UK politics for a decade.

      Delete
    5. Yes, "Over" not "Across"! Thanks!!

      Delete
  13. Can you imagine the BBC adopting such a laid-back matter-of-fact tone if it had been Royal Navy vessels
    firing live rounds near migrant boats in the Channel?

    No, neither can I, but because it's the EU, they get a free pass...the BBC know that strategically the last thing they want is a repeat of 2015, another million male migrant wave, because that will just bolster pro-Brexit opinion in the UK.

    So they are happy for the Greek Navy to do their dirty work for them.

    I have no criticism of the Greeks - every nation has the right to repel invaders.

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    Replies
    1. Here's the link:

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-51715422/greek-coast-guards-fire-into-sea-near-migrant-boat

      Delete
    2. There seems to be all sorts of typical misreporting going on over this.

      Delete
  14. What is it about Priti Patel that excites AC Grayling so?

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

    I don't know but it feels a bit racisty. I guess AC Grayling )from an old colonial family that benefitted much from Imperial oppression of non-white races) could tell us.

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    1. The thing that comes through loud and clear from Graylings tweets is how thoroughly unpleasant he is.

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    2. Grayling is such a bitterly venomous man you wonder what happened to him. He's a true misanthrope. And anti-Leave fanatic to the level of an Adonis.

      Julia Hartley-Brewer is on the case:
      'Wow. @acgrayling calls the Home Secretary @patel4witham a “succubus” - a female devil who has sex with sleeping men.
      Yeah, cos that’s an acceptable way to talk about a female MP and Minister, isn’t it?

      *Waits for the Left/Remain outrage over this*
      *silence* '

      Delete
    3. Grayling calls the Home Secretary a succubus - in his dreams?

      Delete
    4. There's rarely been such as 'falling-off' as that AC/DC Grayling has brought on himself. He was Thunderstruck by Brexit and hasn't recovered. I used to be a fan of his.

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    5. Same here...I'm almost thinking I should go back to his books on philosophy and see if the fanaticism was always lurking there...perhaps it was!

      Delete
  15. I see that Chris Packham is launching a legal challenge on HS2.

    He seems to work exclusively for the BBC on TV, but is probably a freelancer. Nonetheless he is a political activist, like many others who do work for the BBC. He is a big supporter of XR and Greenpeace, is against Heathrow expansion, dislikes Boris and the Conservatives. A perfect fit for the BBC. So long as it’s the right kind of activism the BBC don’t mind, in fact they probably encourage it. .

    I wonder who is funding the challenge? It is unlikely that the cost is coming from his own funds.

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    1. The Chris Packham Question is a very interesting one, BBC-impartiality-wise. I'm a fan, but his high BBC profile and passion for causes - however freelance he is - must raise serious questions, and it's right to keep asking such questions.

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    2. He's fine when he focuses on his amazingly encylcopedic knowledge of nature. But supporting XR's policies means you want to decarbonise within 5 years. That would reult in hundreds of millinos of unnecessary and painful deaths across the planet. We would run out of medicines. The NHS would collapse. There would be mass unemployment, worse than in the 1930s. Most people would be plunged into poverty, except for rich Greta and her rich friends. Eventually the environment would suffer as we could no longer afford to maintain environmental protection. Forests would disappear to keep people supplied with wood for their fires.

      I doubt though that Chris Packham has the intellectual capacity to understand why this should be so.


      Delete
  16. 'Rachel Mann - Trans Identity'
    'Lent Talk
    Lent Talks is a personal perspective on an aspect of the story leading up to Easter. This year’s theme is identity – losing and gaining identity; struggling with identity; accepting and owning identity. Anglican priest Rachel Mann reflects on Jesus’ journey of self-acceptance in the wilderness and how it has encouraged her in her own identity as a trans woman.'

    You couldn't make it up!. Yes folks, roping in Lent, austere Christian religious season of fasting, self denial and penance for the BBC's pet cause - even Jesus himself isn't safe.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000fvzz

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    1. You really couldn't make it up! And, looking at the three other pre-announced 'Lent Talks', it seems that Identity (politics) is the theme this year. Another episode is about 'Identity and Race'.

      Delete
    2. One man's meat is another man's poison, they used to say. Let's update that now:

      One person's identity is another person's objectively privileged membership of an oppressor class.

      I think we can safely assume there won't be a pleasant meditation on what it means to be English during the Lenten period.

      Delete
  17. Egregious Emma on Radio 5 Live...

    She enthusiastically airs the (seemingly justified) grievances of a businesswoman unfairly maligned by the Mail. OK, but Barnett seems more than a little interested in doing down the intrusive press running stories seeking to expose scandals. Full disclosure: her father was jailed for three years and eight months in 2008 after admitting to keeping a string of brothels, controlling prostitution and conspiracy to control brothels. Emma had to give evidence in the trial about what she knew. Her father was using migrant women to generate the huge profits, by the way - profits that helped pay for her private school education.

    What was particularly annoying was that Barnett spoke as if the BBC would never, ever seek to destroy a person's reputation without proper, verified evidence...hmmm...couldn't help thinking about Sweeney's notorious "Tommy Takedown" attempt, that has never seen the light of day - so must now be known by the BBC to be full of lies.

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    1. Or at the treatment of Priti Patel.

      Delete
    2. As I mentioned on an earlier post, the BBC are the instigators of the Priti Patel takedown. Their persistence has been rewarded by it now becoming a key news topic by all MSM.

      Most have a metro liberal mindset so are quite happy to see her and the Government squirm.

      They smell victory and so the negative reporting will continue. ‘Under pressure’, ‘calls grow to resign’ and ‘has faced repeated claims of bullying’ are now mentioned on every BBC bulletin.

      Delete
    3. And so it continues. BBC journalists are happy to wade in.
      https://twitter.com/iainjwatson/status/1235186114723540992?s=21

      Delete
  18. All that's missing from Zurcher's tweet is a concluding: "I certainly didn't."

    https://twitter.com/awzurcher/status/1234274605721935878

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  19. Senior BBC Presenter Martine "Totally Impartial" Croxall happy with the petition against Boris Johnson accusing him of seeking to avoid being held to account by doing away with the licence fee. I guess that proves the point really doesn't it?

    https://twitter.com/MartineBBC/status/1229863625998946305

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  20. Jon Sopel confirms that he and the rest of the media are just herd animals and can't undertake any intelligent analysis on their own:

    "In politics everything is about expectation - and managing it.

    Coming into Super Tuesday there was an expectation that Sanders would become a runaway train and nobody would be able to catch up with him.

    It hasn't been that way tonight. When Virginia was quickly declared for Biden, things started to suddenly look like a two-horse race.

    With all that expectation for Sanders, all of us in the media are now saying 'Wow, Biden is doing much better than expected'."

    Is that why we pay Sopel £250,000 a year - so he can follow the herd?

    Jeez...

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  21. For those who enjoy a little pre-history. From NHK World. Stunning computer graphics - much better than Attenborough's whispered tones!

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

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    1. Here's the site with a series of videos.

      https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFEzXnIQVwV-HhepdeDKbXtGWEo5np_Wt

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  22. Did you see Monday’s Panorama about a scam call centre in India that targeted thousands of British victims?

    It now turns out that Panorama obtained its evidence from an online vigilante who goes by the name of Jim Browning. He hacked into the call centre's computer system and took control of the CCTV cameras in the building.

    The scam was bad, no doubt about that.

    But surely questions need to be asked about the ethics of the BBC working with a vigilante who admits to hacking and controlling CCTV cameras without permission.

    I suspect laws were broken somewhere by doing this. Where should the line be drawn on this type of exposé? Was it good investigative journalism or a breach of privacy where the BBC strayed into work that should only be undertaken by police?

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    1. Browning has been doing this for years. His many videos are on YouTube and are well worth watching.
      He's helped quite a few people out by stepping into scam situations and sabotaging the scammers. All power to him.

      Delete
    2. Yes I thought he sounded familiar. I've seen him on YT.

      The point is though surely that our government should be protecting us. It should be spending hundreds of millions if necessary every year to put these scammers out of business - most effectively by simply phoning them (automatically) with AI "conversations" to scam them into thinking they are dealing with genuine potential customers. The volume of calls should be in the tens of thousands per hour to ensure these call centres give up on targetting the UK.

      Scammers cause huge misery and anxiety. But I think governments could pretty much put them out of business.

      It's interesting to note that many - perhaps most - scammers seem to be from a certain religious demographic and when confronted soon reveal what they want to do to our society, our mothers and our daughters (again plenty of videos on YT demonstrating that).

      Delete
    3. It's just yet another example of normal people doing stuff that government either does nothing about or feels the need to hand it over to Tarquin Inc.
      The scam baters on YT are brilliant and have amazing staying power and humour. Pity they aren't hired to do what they do by the authorities.

      Delete
    4. Thanks anon, I didn't know that and wasn't aware that he is well known on YT.

      I think my questions are still valid though and as MB points out, whose job is it to protect us?

      If we believe that vigilantes and scam baiters are the way forward and to be applauded for doing a pubic service, don't be surprised if some cross the line into more unsavoury vigilantism.

      It may be only a short step to Death Wish. Don't laugh too much at my extreme example, in the 70's audiences clapped Charles Bronson.

      Delete
  23. Here in France we Brits receive calls from a young lady speaking in English, but with an Indian accent telling us that she is from Microsoft and that they have received an error message that they can fix for us. They take control of one's computer and claim to have found the problem and repaired it.

    It is a complete scam, but several Brits have been caught and have lost anything between 100€ and 500€

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  24. H/T to Guest Who on Biased BBC at 9.29pm 4 March. (I would have posted the tweet in question but looks like Twitter have banned the video for the mention of a certain non-person whose first name begins with T).

    https://biasedbbc.org/blog/2020/03/04/midweek-thread-4-march-2020/comment-page-2/#comment-1041162

    Anyway, in the video, we see Mark Easton delivering a high intensity Fake News experience:

    "Crossing Divides"...let's not forget "Divides" is a loaded term. The majority community didn't create a "divide". How could they?

    So we have Easton's left wing social progressivist opinions dressed up as "news".

    After a bit of agonising over the divide, it's staight into BBC Fantasy Land.

    "Arts to Heal" - nothing wrong with a bit of art therapy but it seemed to be a women's only group. Wonder why?

    Easton enthused by the idea of altering bus routes to make people mix! PC Craziness endorsed by the BBC. Bus routes should surely follow rational requirements, not the wishes of PC nutjobs at the local council. Typical that Easton finds the idea exciting rather than sinister and/or insane.

    So how's the mixing going? - the example given is between two paid "Community Ambassadors". What appeared to be a rather shallow relationship between two paid officials of the government social cohesion project was hardly a strong piece of evidence.

    Mention of "Government support". Ah yes, you can get people to do a lot of thigns with "Government support".

    On to a mixed martial arts club (is learning how to pummel the sh*t out of people really a good way of "crossing the divide" one wonders? - excuse my scepticism). Looks like another gender specific activity - this time male only.

    Easton sticks to the BBC Party Line: all the problems result from Tommy Robinson, the Far Right and Racism. The TR reference is placed close to mention of Far Right racism, you won't be surprised to hear.

    I'm very happy to hear of genuine crossing of social divides, but this report, like virtually all Easton's report, struck me as not far removed from Soviet propaganda of the "great friendship among the peoples of the USSR" class.

    As always with these reports, there is a disconnect between reality and what is desired. As always there's a lot about how we are moving to some new dispensation but a shortage of facts about how the communities really interact after two years of a "Government-backed social cohesion project".
    You can sense the disconnect in Chakrabati's introduction that tells us there are now there are "signs that different communities are beginning to come together". Only signs? After two years of this social cohesion project that's the best Easton can come up with?

    Of course, in his leftist opinion piece, Easton avoids all difficult questions:

    - Does one community actively prevent outmarriage to another? If so, which one?

    - Why does it appear there is no gender mixing between the communities?

    - Is it really only Far Right propaganda that prevents the communities from healing their divisions?

    - What is taught in the Madrassas about people from the other community?

    - What has been the impact of the never ending series of grooming gang cases on the divide and how did this grooming gang culture arise?

    - What is the reality on the ground e.g. sports teams and leagues?

    I see from the internet that Blackburn is a bit of a BBC obsession. But I suspect that the reality on the ground is no different now, compared with 2 years back:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUmiCS-gRQs

    Maybe this is an internal BBC dispute. I don't think the BBC can any longer make programmes like that Panorama one which had some sort of connection to reality. Now, Marxist-Eastonism has triumphed any only glorious propaganda hymning heroic deeds is alllowed.

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    1. Until the cotton mills closed the infidel lived in harmony with the true believers, the indigenous peoples of Blackburn. (There was a time when no decent Blackburn lass would be seen out without her hair covered by her Shawl). Sadly the rise of Thatcherism saw the closure of the mills, the loss of faith and the creation of divisions. Fortunately there are signs that the divisions are beginning to heal, assisted by young missionaries from Afghanistan. The young kaffir are adopting the facial hair of the true believers, it surely can't be long before they revert to the faith, Inshallah!
      But who was that insensitive man dressed in suit and tie? One would have thought he would have had the decency to dress in a thawb?

      Delete
    2. I reckon he thinks he's got a sharp Italian style about him our "Marco Eastonini". lol

      The woman quoted in the Panorama programme has got it right - "eventually, in 20 or 30 years, this will be a totally Muslim Asian town". Well maybe not 100% but more like 75% compared with the current 40%, and that's how these "divides" become irrelevant. There'll be no more talk about divides and the need to cross them once tables are turned, on that you can be pretty sure.

      Delete
  25. Did anybody listen to Ken Cheng "comedy" programme last evening? It was dire; so dire that I could not switch off, I was thinking that it must become better - but it did not. The 'canned' laughter was a disaster and amplified the complete lack of integrity with the racist subject of the humour.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000fw03

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    1. I think I heard a mirthless trailer for his programme...suffice to say it didn't encourage me to tune in.

      Delete
  26. What a treat we have in store with Noughts and Crosses - worth the licence fee by itself:

    https://www.indy100.com/video/culture/bbc-ones-adaptation-of-malorie-blackmans-noughts-and-crosses-trailer-lBsr26xx

    It's suppose to be a reverse black and white thing.
    But I'm guessing from the trailer that the racist thugs are still white, as always with the BBC... :)

    Still at least it has Stormzy in it - we don't see enough of him on the BBC. :)

    Incidentally this is not a wildly original idea. I dimly recall a radio drama from the late 1960s I think, based on the then current scientific orthodoy that we were fast approaching a new Ice Age. The central conceit of the drama was that, as the ice advanced, all the white people in the UK had to migrate to Nigeria where they were maltreated as an underclass by the black majority.

    I doubt they'll be remaking that for fear of offending Griping Greta.



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  27. What is Zurcher the Beserker on about which this tweet? You'll note the snake doesn't actually quote Trump but paraphrases him. As far as I can see there's nothing wrong with Trump's comments but it's like Zurcher is trying to blame Trump for an idiot failing to self-isolate (the NYT story).

    https://twitter.com/awzurcher/status/1235432999526809601

    Of course Zurcher is a chronic sufferer from Trump Derangement Syndrome along with all other BBC presenters - even people like Andrew Neil.

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  28. I made a complaint against the use of the word 'buffoonery' in a headline about Boris Johnson after the PM gained a god majority in the 2019 GE. Here is the reply:

    ... 'You raised concerns about our shortened headline ‘Johnson’s ‘buffoonery’ beat Corbyn’s ‘ideology’’.

    The BBC aims for the highest standards in its reports – to be fair, accurate and impartial. This headline reflected the view of one of the contributors to the piece who said voters “accepted all [Boris Johnson’s] buffoonery, as it were, more than Corbyn’s ideology”.

    The use of quotation marks in headlines is not an approach unique to the BBC - this is common in print media, especially where the space for headlines is limited. We feel it would be clear to our readers that this headline reflected the personal viewpoint of the contributor, rather than being presented as fact.

    It is worth noting that this was also only one part of our general election coverage, in which we reflected viewpoints from across the political spectrum.

    That said, we appreciate you may continue to feel this headline was inappropriate and please rest assured your complaint has been shared with the BBC News team and senior management on our audience feedback report. ' ...

    I conclude that even on the BBC News website, where the content is written, managed and edited by BBC staff, it is nevertheless acceptable to distance themselves by making out that the 'contributor' takes responsibility for the slur on Boris Johnson - not the BBC. Why? Because there are quotation marks each side of the offending word. Really - are we expected to swallow that line?

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    1. No you are not expected to "swallow that line". You are simply being ridiculed and insulted. They want you to understand you are powerless.

      Delete
  29. "please rest assured your complaint has been shared with the BBC News team and senior management on our audience feedback report"

    I have a vision of the Cadbury's 'Smash' aliens 'sharing' your complaint!

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    1. "Put-it-in-the-shred-der...hahhhahhhhahhha"

      Delete
    2. With the trend now to introduce all guests and reporters on BBC News with their hashtag, it looks as though the BBC see themselves as a platform where they have no responsibility for what the 'contributors' might say.

      The only editorial function is to decide who is to present to PC ideology on the BBC's behalf. A formula to maintain the degree of separation has become structural.

      Delete
    3. Yes, it's not that far removed from that old trick of zeroing in on the SWP Poster at a rally "Tories will kill NHS"...direct people to the BBC's mates where the bias is out in the open.

      Delete
  30. https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1235512996606197761

    When you or I read "Six Nations games" we think of 30 huge blokes engaged in mass gladiatorial rubgy combat.

    When the BBC reads the same words, they think "a lot of dyed blonde women having a runaround with a rugby ball in the park".

    https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1235512996606197761

    Wouldn't it be great if we could crowd-fund a World's Best Male Rugby Team versus a World's Best Female Rugby Team? Of course it would never be allowed, but it's an interesting thought. I reckon the score would be something like 200-0, although the amount of time devoted to injuries suffered by the women might eat into the score line possibly.

    As "Rod" comments below the line: "Why do you insist on ramming this woke rubbish down our throats?"

    I suppose the answer is: "Because they believe in it or at least believe it will advance their careers."

    ReplyDelete
  31. How much has this "Crossing Divides" malarkey cost?

    Still it's a rich seam of (unintended)satire. Who knew the BBC had a "Head of Editorial Partnerships and Special Projects"? Who knows what it means? Emily Kasriel, for it is she, claims that Crossing Divides is about promoting social cohesion...really?

    By promoting the idea that you have to audit your friends for PC characteristics?

    https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/987844893539258368

    Hmmm...

    As far as I can see "Crossing Divides" is all about BBC left-leaning activists identifying divisions and then exacerbating them by suggesting that only a fully woke-PC response will resolve the "divide", even when all the evidence suggests that is not the case.

    They set up bogus encounters between people who "disagree" over various issues e.g. Brexit but I think this is just a way of wearing down people's resistance to PC ideology - similar to the bogus "citizens' assemblies" where everything is structured to point people in one direction.

    This isn't social cohesion this is good old fashioned social engineering.

    The BBC tell us there are 10 reasons why the UK is "not" divided: 1.We agree it's important to be faithful to our partners. (Notice the plural) 2. The principle of equal pay. 3. Viewing a woman's role as no longer in the home. 4. Seeing gay relationships as 'not wrong at all' (but they comment their graph shows a recent dip in approval - why would that be...hmmm, I can take a guess) 5. Supporting a woman's right to have an abortion. 6. Trusting science and scientists 7. Believing in the NHS ("believing" is an interesting choice of word) 8. Believing the Royal Family is important (nicely put, Lucy - rather than "supporting the monarchy"). 9. Thinking climate change is at least partly caused by humans. (Hardly controversial, in my view, as humans were affecting climate even back in the stone age.) 10. Loving David Attenborough, health charities, Heinz, Lego, Google Maps and Maltesers (well, that's a pathetic list isn't it - we all like water, breathing air and scratching our nose as well).

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49762140

    It's a very revealing list. This is what the BBC means by "crossing divides". It wants people who don't support its PC ideology to cross the divide and begin supporting PC ideology. Divisions can only be healed once everyone supports abortion, gay marriage, feminism, and the global warming thesis.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I tuned into Five Live Drive this evening at 6.20pm to hear Tony Livesey bring the Crossing Divides jamboree to a close.
      What was very interesting was that one chap gave the BBC a very hard time for bias and fake news; he even got an admission from Tony that, as a result of Brexit, the BBC needed to re think their approach to reporting and political coverage.
      What was also noticeable was that, in a number of the two person discussions between people with different or divided opinions, some of the 'remainers' had or were coming round to the Brexiteer point of view, with one individual admitting that she was 80% in agreement with Brexit but was only a 'remainder' for economic reasons!
      Mark Easton, listening to all this, must have been shocked to the core.

      Delete
    2. Thanks for that summary Anonymous...perhaps I have grown to cynical over the years having to cope with so much BS from the BBC! If there was anything like a genuine exchange of opinion, all well and good! However, my impression is that generally speaking Brexiters do NOT think there is a huge "divide". They simply think Remainers were stamping their feet and refusing to accept the result. It was certainly not an ethnic divide. It wasn't really a political divide as it crossed most parties.

      It was in the interests of the Remainers to claim a huge divide that needed healing, just as it was in Obama's interests to claim a huge racial divide that needed healing. After a binary vote in a clear-cut referendum, "healing" could only mean moving away from the intent of the Referendum vote...The Remainer forces almost succeeded in working this strategy. It was only the obduracy of the Leave voters and the decency of a large proportion of Remain voters (who rightly valued the principles of democracy over this one vote) that avoided disaster.

      Delete
  32. Question Time Watch.
    On an evening when most of the discussion was, quite rightly, about the potential impact of the Coronavirus, Fiona Bruce displayed the BBC's complete partisanship on the Priti Patel nonsense.
    The evening went well and Matt Hancock did a good job in reassuring the audience in the studio, and at home, that there was a plan and with calm heads we will get through it. There was even some unanimity on the panel about a solution to adult social care longer term. There was a great demand in the audience,,a large show of hands in the air, for more questions on Coronavirus yet Fiona suddenly announced that they had many requests, prior to the show, to discuss the Priti Patel affair and she was going to take a question on this issue.
    Now we all know that this is a non issue as far as the general public is concerned and it is merely being talked about in the Westminster bubble. On an evening when the entire programme should have been given over to Coronavirus, Fiona does an abrupt handbrake turn to include further persecution of Priti Patel, a story the BBC is fully invested in now. There is no doubt there is an agenda at work here!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Of course there is!

      I was half listening to that part and it was pathetic. Pansexual (she wants us to know!) Layla Moran attempted to take the moral high ground...this from a party that failed quite recently to deal with a serial groper...the party of Paddy Pantsdown, David "see, speak and hear no evil" Steele, Sir Cyril Smith and Jeremy "Dial Murder" Thorpe to name but a very few of their large collection of reprobates. Er no, Layla, we're not convinced...

      The weirdo BBC doctor, first name beginning X (Xander?), was virtue-signalling like mad. Hope his twin is equally PC or that could be an awkward relationship.

      I heard Bruce do some scoff-cackling at some point...has she caught it off Maitlis?

      Delete
  33. David Lammy claims he is a Taureg...if he's a Taureg then Elizabeth Warren is a Cherokee...

    https://unherd.com/2020/03/david-lammy-and-the-tribalism-of-the-left/

    Here's the relevant Wikipedia page...I was so taken aback I had to go there to make sure I hadn't imagined what a Tuareg looks like:

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

    David Lammy, one of our supreme dividers of recent years, always looking to racialise everything, was given a plaform on BBC's "Crossing Divides" to claim persecution for his views. All MPs receive threats from nutters - it's just one of those things that goes with the job. Basically anyone prominent in the media gets targetted by nutjobs but Lammy has to make it all about himself and of course the R Thing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I should think that, if Lammy has any Tuareg in him, it must be only a 'homeopathic' amount.*

      It seems strange that Lammy is so proud of his Tuareg roots - perhaps someone should have told him that the Tuareg were, and still ARE, enthusiastic slave-owners (Anti-slavery International, background document, Guardian 27.10.2008). It's well worth reading the whole article.

      * The main source of the Touareg's slaves was the black sub-Saharan tribes - most of the present-day ones will have been inherited; Google photos of slaves in Niger look considerably more like Lammy than the straight-nosed Touareg/Berber type; if Lammy recognised himself in some of the faces he saw, perhaps he was looking at slaves, from whom he is descended.

      Delete
    2. Is Lammy a VW Touareg, a mid size luxury SUV made in Bratislava, or just a regular Touareg (the Sahara wind (? I thought his roots were further oop north) caressing his fevered brow) ?

      The geezer's an idiot and sooner or later will be called out on his race baiting.

      Has anybody seen the IQ squared debate on identity politics where Lionel Shriver ends her final speech with "If I'd have known it was going to go this way, I would have declined the invitation". ?
      That's what Lammy inspires.

      Delete
    3. I thought Lammy was from the same place as that Miller woman - another beauty!

      Delete
    4. Yes, Sis, and North African Islamic practice towards male slaves was even worse than European Christian practice: radical castration was the order of the day, which is why there aren't many fully Black African communities in the Arab world (only one small one in Iraq I believe), despite the history of enslavement.

      As we know from Celebrity Mastermind, history isn't Lammy's strong point.

      Anon - Thanks for the tip on the Lionel Shriver debate.

      Delete
    5. Just finished reading Giles Milton's 'White Gold', an account of the million or so white slaves snatched from their homes by the Sally Rovers at the time of Moulay Ismail - fear of the gelding knife explains why so many of them were prepared to convert to Islam - that and the threat of tossing", which involved being turned upside-down & thrown vertically up in the air, so as to land on one's head. After the third time, the victim looked like Plug from the Bash St Kids & was very dead!

      Delete
    6. Yes, we should have a museum or some sort of monument in Mousehole, Cornwall to commemorate that awful slave raid on our coasts back in the early 1600s.

      I don't think that million or so includes the cruel Janissary system where the Ottomans effectively kidnapped Christian children in Greece and the Balkans and turned them into bloodthirsty soldiers, loyal to the Caliphate.

      I don't think they were technically slaves, so probably aren't included in that.

      Looks like that over time they might have amounted to a couple of million.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janissaries#Recruitment,_training_and_status

      Delete
  34. It's not just the BBC's Jenny Hill who's impartial.It's Sky News's Mark Stone as well!

    And of course he gives the PC translation of the Arabic. The correct translation is "Allah is greatest".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry - here's the link:

      https://twitter.com/Stone_SkyNews/status/1234031482739576832

      Delete
    2. The doleful mournful sorrowful tear-jerking Mark Stone when reporting from foreign parts, particularly if it's about refugees. Blub blub.

      Delete
    3. Faux sorrow and empathy, turned on and off like a tap.

      They are all at it. Acting for the camera and microphone.

      Delete
  35. A rare moment when The Registered Democrat, the Snort-Cackler and Soapy Jon are in the same room.

    https://twitter.com/BBCJonSopel/status/1235670595746099200

    What connects these three? A deep loathing of Donald Trump.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Soapy Jon and the Snort-Cackler" - nice one! :)

      Delete
  36. BBC new vanity project in Cardiff, could be going better;
    https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/bbc-wales-move-new-cardiff-17852645

    ReplyDelete
  37. Saw the rebroadcast of the BBC doc on the two abducted Dubai princesses tonight (on BBC 2). I have to say it was very good. It actually referred to Sharia law and Islamic law (the same thing of course) and made clear that girls and women were placed under the guardianship of men, with no personal freedom.

    But of course this just shows that the BBC fully understand what Islamic law is and what it means (and no doubt understand as well what it means for, not just women, but also Christians, Jews, gays, lesbians, polytheists, atheists, artists, musicians, democrats and so on).

    So why then in virtually all the rest of the BBC's programming do they feign ignorance of what Islam really is, and what it entails, Sharia most obviously?

    It can only be a deliberate act of omission designed to fool the British public about the nature of Islam.

    This is one of the major reasons why the BBC has to be abolished or radically reformed - because they are deliberately misleading our people about Islam.

    ReplyDelete
  38. The Beebonavirus is spreading, infecting all parts of the media:

    https://twitter.com/toadmeister/status/1235858617779113989

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How to protect yourself against the Beebonavirus. It only takes a few simple steps:

      1. Wash your brain regularly. A walk in the fresh air might suffice.

      2. Go on You Tube and watch something you're actually interested in rather than what the BBC tells you you should be interested in.

      3. When you hear the names Evan Davis, Mark Mardell, Emma Barnett, Adrian Chiles, Mark Easton, Emily Maitlis, or Nihal Arthanayake just laugh out loud. That in itself is enough to kill the Beebonavirus.

      Delete
    2. Have you been tested for the Beebonavirus yet?

      Try these simple tests to determine if you have the virus....

      1. Do you find Nish Kumar funny?

      2. Do you think the BBC has been putting out a steady stream of propaganda in favour of Brexit?

      3. Do you think the BBC is insufficiently woke?

      If you answered yes to those three questions then you DEFINITELY have the virus!

      Delete
  39. Meanwhile, John is doing what he does best, which if he was making a documentary about himself (some say) he would turn into a narrative about a sad ageing alcoholic seeking solace by making the bottom of the glass appear at regular intervals...

    https://twitter.com/johnsweeneyroar/status/1236072355891462144

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Some say that you can tell the quality of a journalist by his choice of shoes"

      Delete
    2. What does it mean if the shoes are the same colour as the Snort-Cackler's makeup?

      Delete

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