CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE

 

CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE

>> THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2009

Richard Black, reporting self-indulgently and with puffed-up arrogance about his earth-saving role at Copenhagen, notes: 

Most of the real deals are done behind closed doors guarded by security guys with stern faces and impressive pectorals.That's where the important countries and blocs reveal more of their real demands, where trades are bartered between national delegations. Reporting it is a nightmare.

So that's how the new world government that Richard wants to much will operate? Thugs barring entry to lesser mortals while the "important" shadowy blocs impose their lunatic will on the rest of us? Yet our intrepid Richard seems only to be breathless with admiration, and proudly tells us how he procures the crumbs from their dictatorial tables. And meanwhile, he and the rest of his 35 cronies at Copenhagen continue to spew out their lying propaganda.

Biasville

Coming up on Monday, the next film to be screened as part of BBC 4's Storyville documentary slot is "Age of Stupid", climate catastrophe porn for the green cultists. Even the Observer's Philip French called the film "a hectoring lecture", which makes it perfectly in keeping with the rest of the BBC's Copenhagen-related coverage.

And don't forget, still to come on Storyville - "By the People", described by the Washington Post's Hank Steuver as "a stultifyingly naive, please-drink-a-little-more-Kool-Aid paean to the historical highlights of President Obama's campaign and election…a very long commercial for Obama."

Update 3pm. Today's Afternoon Play on Radio 4 (h/t to John Anderson in the comments):

Getting to Four Degrees
What if we can't limit global warming to two degrees? What if it reaches four degrees - or more? Three real-life climate change experts spin one average family into the future, to look at life on a warmer planet.
With Professor Kevin Anderson, Mark Lynas and Dr Emma Tompkins.

Open Thread

Bit of festive poetry for you:

"I bought a magic goose from a jolly farmer.
This goose laid Barack Obama."

(From Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy's Twelve Days of Christmas, commissioned by the Radio Times. Critique from Oliver Mare here.)

Like the first seven windows on your advent calendar, this thread is open. (Bumped).

"YOU RUN THE ECONOMY...."

>> WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 09, 2009

I was watching a debate on Newsnight concerning the Pre Budget Report. Kirsty Wark said to Liam Byrne "You run the economy....". Erm, no, he doesn't. We don't live in a full on totalitarian State, yet. But an interesting insight into BBC think. Maybe she meant to say "You ruin the economy...."?

Paul Mason and Michael Crick were also on to try and suggest that all three main political parties have a similar agenda on dealing with the deficit. Again, nonsense.

If Only

Reproduced fully and without further comment by Melanie Phillips is a superb speech made by historian Andrew Roberts at the annual dinner of the Anglo Israel Association.
It is lengthy and all encompassing, touching on every aspect of the predicament of Israel and Jews, with particular emphasis on the Arabist sentiment that influences Britain’s conduct in Middle East affairs.

I have long been fantasising about a television series of the calibre of The World at War that would set the record straight. Now here’s a man that could make it.
If only.
If only the ignorance that abounds in Britain - perpetuated by the BBC - could be swept away by this man’s enlightening words there would be no need for me to keep troubling you with my constant whining about Israel and the Jews.

MIND YOUR LANGUAGE

OK, so it's not the lead story and indeed one has to click across from the main newspage to even see it. I refer to the item curiously entitled "UK Muslim guilty of planning attack". Mmmm - a tad innocuous but curiosity got the better of me so I went over and discovered that the actual story is that several Muslims have been convicted of planning mass murder over the Atlantic. So, "Jihad horror averted" might have been more accurate, or perhaps "Muslim plot to murder hundreds of British people"......but I guess "UK Muslim guilty of planning attack" fits the bill for the BBC.

Question Time 10th December

In what appears to be a blatant bit of ratings tourism, Question Time tomorrow comes from Wootton Bassett and is set up to be completely devoted to the war in Afghanistan. The panel will consist of former head of the British Army General Sir Richard Dannatt, Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague, and former News of the Screws editor Piers "Moron" Morgan (as Private Eye styles him). Armed Forces Minister Bill Rammell will be on, presumably to shield Bob Ainsworthless from the public, as will Salma Yaqoob, the leader of Respect.

George Galloway has already got his ha'pennyworth in the much ignored Swindon Advertiser saying that the panel is biased in favour of the war, and the local mayor is boycotting it because he wants to talk about something, indeed anything, else.

As usual, Biased-BBC will be hosting a live-chat on this blog to follow the discussion - chaired by our very own no-nonsense David Vance and with All Seeing Eye helping proceedings through to the end of This Week. For those playing QT Buzzword Bingo this week, we'll be playing by the Pre-Election Ruleswhere Thatcher's are wildcards and G20 scores double points. Good luck and see you here at 10:30pm!

(Click on the image to enlarge it)

PRE BUDGET DAY

I have been away most of the day and not been able to follow much BBC coverage of Mr Darling's last stand aka his Pre Budget Report. I did catch George Osborne's response to it and thought he was pretty good but wanted to open the topic up to you....

VICTORY FOR COMMON SENSE

I wonder if you noticed the BBC coverage here of the welcome news that an English Court has found a Christian couple who had been accused of "insulting" a Muslim to be innocent? Quite obviously this was another pointless prosecution by the CPS but I notice that twice in the BBC item they repeat the CPS claim that there was sufficient evidence to bring the prosecution. If only the Judge had agreed, eh? I am sure the BBC must be gutted.

COPENHAGEN CHALLENGE

So far, the BBC is totally silent on the Copenhagen Climate Challenge, anopen letter to the UN signed by 141 leading international scientists who work in relevant fields. It challenges them to provide hard evidence on 10 questions relating to alleged AGW, including whether CO2 rises are causing harm, whether surface station measurements are accurate, and whether there has been a threatening rise in sea levels due to 'climate change' or an increase in hurricanes. I would like to be pleasantly surprised by seeing this splendid initiative reported soon by the BBC - it would make a lively item on Today, for example. But I'm not holding my breath.

You might be biased if...

>> TUESDAY, DECEMBER 08, 2009

... even the presenter of your Newswatch show makes comments like this on Twitter:

THAT SINKING FEELING

Wonderful letter here from a genuine expert on the science of sea-level changes to the president of the Maldives saying that - despite his publicity stunt in which the cabinet met underwater - his fascist little fiefdom is not going to sink between the waves. What do the BBC do? Report the president's demands for more money to deal with the impending (non) disaster:

Mohamed Nasheed said there was so little money offered to vulnerable nations that it was like arriving at an earthquake with a dustpan and brush.

Not a peep that he's completely, utterly wrong.

BLACK IS WHITE (AGAIN)

This morning, the Times reported that the World Meteorological Orgainsation, using data from CRU, and with the clear purpose of influencing the discussions at Copenhagen, had claimed that this year had been the fifth warmest on record. Hours later, our dear BBC environnment correspondent Richard Blackreports the same story. He mentions that there's some controversy about the figures - and about CRU - but without a peep about the key propaganda point. He seems to take the whole thing at its face value, and ignores completely that these weather organisations are involved in a massive rigging exercise. Not only that, his story is illustrated with a blazing sun and a rigged graph that is a crude schoolboy variation of the hockey stick. How much more blatant can you be?

ONE MAN AND A BLOG!

The BBC's job is to report impartially what goes on in the world. To pursue that task, it receives at least £750m of your money every year, and it has almost 5,000 staff who are directly involved in journalism. So when steel-making on Teeside, one of our oldest manufacturing industries, faces closure, with the loss of 300 years of tradition and 10,000 jobs, you would expect the corporation to be in the forefront of explaining why. 

You would be wrong. Richard North, writing on his excellent EU Referendum blog, brings us today in glowing technicolour the real reasons why Tata steel have mothballed the Redcar steelworks (losing immediately 1,700 jobs, but in the longer term almost 9,000 more who support or whom are dependent on the plant). In an nutshell, it is being "mothballed" (but more likely permanently closed)not because of "falling demand", but as a direct casualty of the pernicious gravy train that is the EU emissions trading scheme. This makes it more lucrative for the host company to suspend production at the plant and use it instead to accumulate 'carbon credits' on its balance sheet. The cumulative worth of this sleight-of-hand juggling is, according to Richard, a staggering £1bn+. Against such forces, the poor saps in Middlesbrough did not stand a chance. 

I searched the BBC website for more than half an hour looking for any mention of this. There are dozens of stories and backgrounders about the closure, and lots of hot air from Mandelson and his henchmen, but not a whisper of this crucial angle. It seems also that BBC reporters were present at the press conference where Kirby Adams, the Redcar divisional boss, told the Times that the EU rules were behind the closure. They ignored what he said. So when it comes to climate change issues, the BBC are not only not reporting the truth, they are in cahoots with government ministers in deliberately hiding it. Their passion for global warming zealotry is so great that they simply cannot bring us facts that do not support it. And one man and his blog are more effective in bringing us the truth than all the wind and puff of the BBC's £750m news machine.

Deniers

>> MONDAY, DECEMBER 07, 2009

The BBC Trust's From See-saw to Wagon Wheel, p 40:

The BBC has held a high-level seminar with some of the best scientific experts, and has come to the view that the weight of evidence no longer justifies equal space being given to the opponents of the consensus. But these dissenters (or even sceptics) will still be heard, as they should, because it is not the BBC's role to close down this debate. They cannot be simply dismissed as 'flat-earthers' or 'deniers', who 'should not be given a platform' by the BBC. Impartiality always requires a breadth of view: for as long as minority opinions are coherently and honestly expressed, the BBC must give them appropriate space.

Evan Davis on the Today programme this morning: "climate change deniers"

BBC Scotland political editor Brian Taylor on his blog today: "climate change deniers"

BBC presenter Ros Atkins on the World Have Your Say blog: "climate change deniers" (and on more than one occasion during this programme, even after Christopher Booker had pulled him up on it)

The advice of the mysterious "experts" they take. The rest of it, not so much.

(Reminder re. that seminar of scientific experts - there is at least one FoI request outstanding.)