ECONOMIC SUICIDE...

ECONOMIC SUICIDE...

>> WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2010

North Sea oil and gas transformed the economic fortunes of the UK from the grim days of the 1970s and underpinned our re-emergence as a world power. The boom ensured that we had abundant energy and could keep warm cheaply. This is a fundamental reason why our living standards are so relatively high today. Now the Cleggeron government is severely limiting further exploration (and has needlessly restricted the number of exploration licences)because - no doubt partly as a result largely of a deluge of greenie PR by the BBC - Greenpeace and others now dictate energy policy. This means that more emphasis is now placed on marine wildlife than human welfare, and that the days of cheap energy are well and truly over. The BBC, of course, report the whole disgraceful charade with the emphasis on the Greenpeace perspective; the picture of their pathetic publicity stunt has been carefully chosen so that the greenie concerns are foremost. And note how they give credence to the idea that the economy can be "de-carbonised". Which planet do they live on?

Race Riot

The BBC is overjoyed today because there is a disturbance in an Israeli-Arab village. What's more, it's a deliberately provocative incitement by a hardline right wing group, reminiscent of the Orange marches in NI.

Last year on a similar occasion a clip on the BBC website featured Katya Adler in a fetching baseball cap, ducking the occasional missile, saying that all the Palestinian residents want to do is live in peace alongside their neighbours.

This time, no Katya, but more of the same.

Meanwhile back on BBC News 24, we’re given the background.

An extremist Rabbi was murdered in Manhattan. His party (racist) was outlawed by the Israeli government. There’s a resurgence of such (racist) sentiments in Israel, and right wing (racist) Israelis are trying to carry out their annual supremacist march, provoking clashes in Umm al-Fahm, an Arab village in the West Bank.

There’s a handy reminder of the proposal (racist) by right wing hardliner Avigdor Leiberman, requiring all Israeli citizens to swear an oath of allegiance (racist) to the Jewish state.

Unfortunately though, the violence seems to have subsided, but the BBC is anxious to squeeze every drop out of the story.

But wait. Rupert Wingfield-Hayes is on the scene too. He’s saying there is an Islamist resident in peace-loving Umm al-Fahm. The BBC anchor is telling Rupert that the right-wing Leiberman and his ilk are after booting all the Arabs out of Israel. Rupert is attempting to elucidate. It’s not quite like that, he tries to explain. They think there should be a transfer of Israeli Arabs from Israel / West Bank to Palestinian /West Bank in a future Palestinian state.

But the BBC is very keen on tolerance. Obviously everyone everywhere should be free to vent their spleen, even if it means tolerating those who would happily stop you venting yours. Literally. So Israelis should be like us, tolerant and accepting of hostile groups in their midst. (Which theyactually are) They should even be tolerant and accepting, as the BBC is, of the quaint and quirky (if a tad racist - it’s their culture innit) diktat that noJew will ever be allowed to live in a Palestinian land.