THE IMPARTIAL GENE GENIE

THE IMPARTIAL GENE GENIE

>> SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2010

Here is a guest post by Clameur de Haro.

"With all the protestations coming from Our Beloved Bastion of Collectivism about how impartiality is in their genes, I thought I’d occasionally delve a little deeper into the genes of some of its more prominent luminaries to try and establish just how much impartiality there is to be found there.

Stephanie Flanders (above) seemed as good a place as any to start – and topical too, for she’s been much in evidence in recent days, pronouncing Thursday on the G20 in Seoul (but contradicted very convincingly at 1:54:25 by Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs Asset Management) and a couple of days earlier on the US’ latest round of quantitative easing (but contradicted persuasively even by Larry Elliott in the Guardian!). It turns out that Flanders’ maternal grandfather was none other than that gifted writer but also long-time communist sympathiser and probable Soviet agent of influence, the journalist Claud Cockburn. Cockburn it was who, when covering the Spanish Civil War, was accused by George Orwell of slanting his reports to discredit non-Stalinist elements fighting against Franco, and of being Stalin’s confidant, mouthpiece and direct agent in Spain: Cockburn it was too who recanted his previous opposition to the 1930s’ appeasement of Hitler immediately on the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 which conceded to Stalin the subjugation of Eastern Poland. It’s sometimes alleged that, curiously, despite his professed sympathies for Stalinism and antipathy to capitalism, Cockburn never visited the Soviet Union but visited the US on many occasions – well, I guess you have to experience a free society many times to remind yourself how bad it is……… Flanders also has as one of her half-uncles the US-based journalist Alexander Cockburn, equally a very fine writer, but one who - apart from his scepticism about the AGW scam - is predominantly left-wing. Among the most consistent themes of his writing are: criticism of the Democrats for not being sufficiently “progressive”: criticism of US foreign policy generally and of support for Israel in particular: and criticism of those already on the left who attack political positions further to the left than their own. Flanders is an alumna of the same St Paul’s Girls’ School which counts Harriet Harman and Shirley Williams as former students, and is noted for her close networking links with current pillars of the Labour establishment. (Two Eds.....DV)

None of this is to decry Flanders’ formidable intelligence, commitment, or achievements – we’re not talking ability here, after all, we’re talking genes, and it’s not us, it’s the Beeb, who brought the subject up. But, with that kind of pedigree, surely we mere mortals of ignorant licence-payers could be forgiven for wondering whether, whatever it is that’s actually in Our Steffie’s genes, impartiality between statist collectivism and free-market libertarianism it quite probably ain’t.

Curb Your Tonge

Nick Clegg seemed television-friendly and attractive before the general election, but after gaining all that popularity during the first election debate he threw most of it away, almost snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Neither the Lib Dems’ underwhelming performance in the election nor Nick’s astonishing indecision when the balance of power lay in his hands have curtailed the public’s enthusiasm for the deputy PM. Well, maybe a tiny bit. The current Lib Dems are not known for their support of Israel. Nick Clegg was all for disarming them, which the BBC probably found rather endearing. Then he tried to distance himself from Jenny Tonge’s unfortunate remarks about organ harvesting, but he wouldn’t ditch her; no doubt the BBC felt not ditching her was the right thing not to do. Fancy making a rash promise in your election mani-fiasco, then having toadmit that you didn’t realise what you were saying at the time? Nick got away with it though, credibility intacto. Didn’t realise how bad the deficit was then, but we do now? Sorry. Robin Shepherd has pointed out a strange thing. Nick Clegg has spoken at a Liberal Democrats Friends of Israel lunch. (lol) ‘We got it wrong on Israel.’Whaddya think of that, BBC? He said he recognised there had “not always been an equal voice for Israel within his party”. That’s certainly one way of putting it. He didn’t mention Jenny Tonge, nor Lib Dem Peer Lord Phillips who spoke at a PSC meeting about America being in the grip of the Israel Lobby. But Jenny Tonge is at it again. She has spoken in a debate on the strategic defence review in the House of Lords. 3:33 pm. In her muddled view the Israel lobby is forcing us to be nice to Israel. Then we can use Israel as a launching pad to attack Iran, and dispense with the Ark Royal etc. Cuts, you see. Moving on from this illogical supposition, she says Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians has alienated the Muslim world, which she thinks is at the root of terrorism worldwide. If Israel stopped persecuting the Palestinians there would be world order and peace. Just like that. She does look a bit like Tommy Cooper, without the fun. Didn’t realise how badly he got things wrong then, but he does now? Is that it? Or does he endorse all this nonsense? Plenty of otherwise sensible people apparently do, thanks to the BBC’s relentlessly partial reporting of the Israel/Palestine conflict, despite the best efforts of Jewish tentacles, the Israel lobby, the holocaust industry and Zionist control of the universe. Thanks to Jonathan Hoffman for the H/T.