Last night the BBC summit report was bizarre. It was anti UK, anti Mrs May and anti the USA. It was from the Merkel fan club. So here’s some balance, reporting on Mrs Merkel as the BBC do on Mrs May and Mr Trump.
“Mrs Merkel chaired the summit badly hampered by her lack of authority at home. She failed to win a majority at the last election and has to govern in coalition with her main political enemies, the SPD, the German Labour party equivalent. She soon faces another election when she is widely expected to fail again to win a majority. She visibly lost control of the streets of Hamburg, the city hosting the summit, and had to break off from chairing the sessions to deal with the problem of many injured police and civil disturbance on a worrying scale.
Aiming for a diplomatic triumph, she had lectured the USA on the need to reach an agreement with the others and set the whole summit up as a device to tame Mr Trump. Instead she failed to get his buy in to her wishes.
Her main policy of promoting the end of carbon fuels was seen as burdening the world with dear energy. As a result China has insisted on being able to expand her carbon energy use and the USA has refused to join the Treaty to limit it.
It emerged from detailed questioning that the EU/Japan trade deal is far from agreed, with continuing rows over the enforcement mechanisms and limited progress on tariff reductions.
Meanwhile Mr Trump confirmed the work now underway to create a US/UK trade deal and expressed enthusiasm to get it through quickly.”
July 9, 2017
JR
When is something going to be done about the BBC?
July 9, 2017
A boycott.
July 10, 2017
There is clearly evidence the BBC is biased. When is the evidence to be collated and presented to a power that can strip the BBC of their journalistic licences. The process of dismantling the BBC needs to start. It may take a while and it may involved trying a few different processes, but it needs to start.
July 10, 2017
You cannot address this without firing nearly all who work at the BBC. This as the BBC only seem to employ “Guardian Think”, politically correct, climate alarmist, feminist, innumerate, chip on the shoulder, art graduates and magic money tree economists.
But then that is largely what Theresa May is too. Though I suppose you could argue that geography can be a bit scientific sometimes. She certainly is not scientific or rational in the slightest.
These overpaid dopes simply cannot help it, it is in their genes. Like naive six form students who never grew up.
July 10, 2017
BBC staffer Robbie Gibb has just been appointed as No. 10’s Director of Communications.
I know there is a seamless stream of transfers between the BBC and Labour, but now the Tories have joined the club.
What are we to conclude from this?
July 11, 2017
Well May is clearly a tax borrow and piss down the drain socialist at heart, she was (is?) a remainer and she believes in climate alarmism.
She is therefore surely another “BBC think” person in essence.
She is also clearly innumerate – as why else would you go ahead with HS2, Hinkley C or the greencrap subsidies?
July 9, 2017
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/826318/Business-House-of-Lords-BBC-bias-propaganda-Brexit-process
Lord Digby Jones is spot on, the BBC do there very best to put the UK and the Tories down at every opportunity and try to portray the eu as a land of milk and honey, the tv license fee should be scrapped and see the snide talking Kuenssberg put out of work
July 9, 2017
I don’t understand the animus towards Laura Kuenessberg she seems perfectly professional to me. An example of a clearly biased TV journalist is Channel 4s Jon Snow. I don’t think I’ve ever actually watched his programme, but have seen extracts. Channel 4 should clearly be auctioned to the highest bidder, the state has no business owing two broadcasters (or even one but that’s another matter). Once in private hands it can be as left wing as it likes. But whilst we own it as taxpayers, bias is not acceptable.
July 10, 2017
Yes I agree with you completely Richard1. Laura Kuenssberg appears pretty impartial, but Jon Snow is a byword for disgraceful bias. Roll on private ownership for both these organs.
July 9, 2017
Talking about the BBC: now that politician Steve Baker (who preached EU destruction in 2010) has come out so clearly in favour of further EU(minus UK) integration in the BBC’s ‘Daily Politics’, maybe the angry mob, I sometimes encounter in this website, could follow suit?
July 9, 2017
Yup. Doing so well, the EU. Turning western civilisation into Africa apace.
July 9, 2017
I would not categorise myself as part of the angry mob. I think further EU integration is clearly needed to make the euro function, and avoid it destroying deficit economies. But it should only happen if that’s what people in the EU want. There must be democratic choice or it will end in disaster. Maybe the democracy can be moved up to EU level, with a directly elected commission and much more power for the EU Parliament. There’s no substitute for democracy though!
July 10, 2017
@Richard1: You’re obviously not one of those angry men. I can largely agree with your points (more north-south solidarity would have been preferable), but the democracy point is a complex one, because of all the different nationalities. Take the current most powerful institution – the European Council (28 heads of 28 democracies). That one didn’t exist nor was foreseen in the earlier years – check it for yourself in wikipedia.
The European Commission has become almost like only a powerful civil service – powerful as it is the guardian of all the treaties signed by the 28. Few people in Britain know that Juncker was actually “directly elected” in much the same way as Cameron, he was on the ballot paper in his “constituency” and the candidate of wht became the largest party at the last direct European elections. Unlike the UK, which twice sent candidate commissioners who had never held elected office, we sent our then minister of foreign affairs (Frans Timmermans), as candidate approved by a majority of the Dutch parliament, and then vetted and approved by the European parliament. I cannot imagine direct elections in which British voters help elect a Dutch commissioner. The European parliament doesn’t yet have the formal right of initiative, but both the parliament and the Euroean Council more or less tell the Commission when to take an initiative on what. The commission has no real decision power, it just proposes or implements a piece of treaty. Due to the co-decision procedures (both parliament and Council have to agree) the real power of the European parliament may actually far greater than expected. You’ll find out at the end of the Brexit procedure early 2019.
July 14, 2017
Or Dutch people voting against the Ukraine invasion of people to their country for the govt to announce it is too weak to stand up to the EU and so went against the electorates wishes. In Holland even if you vote for a politician they do not act on your best interests or wishes.
PvL, sort out your own country before preaching bile here.
July 10, 2017
Richard1
Hard to imagine how half a billion people can have democracy. How Mr One Half-Billionth of an Opinion is represented precisely or even roughly at all in the tiers of “democracy” and its committees, sub-committees, and sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub committees.Of course democracy of any meaningful kind is not possible. It is like betting on a two million pound lottery with tickets at ÂŁ2 each on condition you join a syndicate of half- billion members. In fact, mathematically it is far far worse than that.
July 10, 2017
Peter Van Leeuwen: “has come out so clearly in favour of further EU(minus UK) integration in the BBCâs âDaily Politicsâ ”
Do it. We don’t care.
July 9, 2017
Question is, how can the BBC be brought back to it’s original Reithian broadcasting aims without destroying the good programming it achieves. I accept that some of the downside which you highlight can at times creep into other programmes. I have in mind Country File, and the very negative messages in soaps, but on the whole it does good work. My solution is to hive off all news and news comment programmes to the private commercial sector and let them survive on advertising revenue. If their message continues to be unbalanced their sponsors will soon let them know.
I got the impression from the body language between Trump and Putin that we might be at the start of a new period of détente and greater cooperation. As to China I know not as they seem not to do body language or I cannot interpret it.
July 9, 2017
How would you prevent another Sky or Channel 4 arising from the ashes of the BBC? In many respects they are even worse.
July 10, 2017
Are this years Reith lectures from Dame Hilary Mantel the most tedious ever? Some strong competition but I think so.
July 10, 2017
You have to go back to the reasons the BBC was formed in the 1920s, to avoid the chaotic free for all seen in the USA, to maintain a high moral tone and to make sure that the government had ultimate control over this new, immediate, little understood but obviously powerful medium of radio. The General Strike was in 1926.
Then you have to ask whether these reasons still exist, especially in the view of technological developments. Then if they exist, whether the current BBC is an appropriate solution. If for some reason the BBC didn’t exist, what sort of body would we create from scratch – if any.
In my view, it’s currently a very overblown organisation, which largely exists because of historic reasons and pursues its own agenda.
July 9, 2017
Indeed the BBC reporting (and also often that of the FT and the Economist) is very bizarre, to say the least.
The BBC are nearly always absurdly pro EU, anti-English, pro the break up of the UK and devolution, anti democracy, anti business, anti landlord, pro an ever larger state and ever more regulation and pro endless green crap and exaggerated climate alarmism.
Why on earth do the BBC think Jack Monroe is a suitable guest for programmes like Any Questions yesterday? She/he makes even Diane Abbot seem relatively competent. I think the only sensible thing she/he said was something like – I am a very simple person.
July 10, 2017
For the BBC, anyone who has gender changed is a valued minority who must be heard. People with bits intact and not interested are so boring.
When choosing expert journalists, the choice is obvious. Last week they had the editor of the Economist on QT and a FT expert on the Hamburg meeting.
July 9, 2017
That version John, is very much how I saw it. I just wish Mrs May would get real over man made climate change which is not happening. Temperatures have fallen worldwide again.
July 9, 2017
Indeed how much evidence does May and the government need before they see that the predicted climate armageddon is, at the very least, somewhat exaggerated. All their predictions have been wrong rather like Carney. Group think lunacy as usual.
July 9, 2017
I am pleased people have now picked up on the propensity of the BBC to put ‘despite Brexit’ in front of any good news. The other aspect of bias is the constant unchallenged opinion pieces by Remainers disguised as independent experts. Yesterday a former FO diplomat called Simon Fraser took this form and told us – unchallenged – 1) that the US and other countries would not want any trade negotiations with the UK until our trade relationship with the EU was clear and 2) that the UK would lose all the existing 3rd party trade deals we have currently through the EU and would need to renegotiate the lot. I have no doubt Sir Simon knows more than me about all this, but my understanding is neither of these two assertions is correct?
July 9, 2017
Both those assertions are correct broadly.
July 10, 2017
‘Inflation since fall in the ÂŁ’ reports are always ‘since Brexit’, not only on the BBC but even LBC. The fall in the pound started the previous year.
July 9, 2017
Is it possible to cut and paste this article to the BBC web site?
July 9, 2017
Dear Major–I am forever bellyaching to John that somehow he simply must get more of his stuff made (more) public. I do very much appreciate he is working his socks off and can only do so much, but today I wonder whether he can be more challenging by eg writing a letter of complaint to the BBC at the highest level along lines of his article today (What could they possibly say in reply??) or perhaps a letter to the Torygraph (or both); else some of this tweeting one reads about. Seemingly everything the BBC says or does these days is snide and unpatriotic. I am even starting to feel a bit sorry for Mrs May but why doesn’t she sack Hammond?
July 9, 2017
Good morning
If you want to change the way Auntie reports news then you need to do something rather than just complaining. Ask your partner’s the DUP they have just such a policy to hand. đ
July 9, 2017
A good counter but the BBC media bias needs to be investigated by Parliament, who have to be their ultimate guardian of balance. Every week, if not day, the lack of political balance is evident. Questiontime last Thursday had effectively four lefties versus JRM, who of course won the arguments hands down – great bloke.
July 9, 2017
5 if you include the chairman.
July 9, 2017
BBC News said ‘President Trump tweeted: “The #G20Summit was a wonderful success and carried out beautifully by Chancellor Angela Merkel. Thank you!” ‘
That presumably means he got what he wanted.
July 9, 2017
Thank you for bringing a smile to our faces, Dr Redwood.
We produced an upbeat piece this morning, highlighting President Trump’s positive views on the UK and putting this into the context of a supportive Anglosphere – something which the BBC would be loathe to acknowledge.
Best wishes, the Facts4EU.Org Team
http://www.facts4eu.org/news.shtml
July 9, 2017
A boycott of the BBC is long overdue. They can’t prosecute us all, surely ?
July 10, 2017
Just dont watch broadcast live tv.
All they can do is send various letters which impy a court date has been set , blah ,blah ,blah.
Of course that should be made illegal, as it is obvious it would cause distress to most who do not require said service.
Easy tax cut !
July 9, 2017
These summit meetings appear only to be an extreme demonstration of hubris on the part of our elected (in some cases) leaders. If they really wanted to get any work done they’d chose a quiet place, away from the anti-everything demonstrators that they know will turn up. My suggestion would be Iceland, two wonderful long runway airports, (they could close off one entire airport and not inconvenience very many good folk), and establish a ‘campus’ for the leaders who turn up. Save a lot of money and prevent injury to all the security forces forced to bash the heads of demos..
July 9, 2017
And maybe a volcano might go up and they wouldn’t be able to get home!
July 9, 2017
Excellent John, thank you. I do not listen to the BBC news at all now, so their reporting passes me by (as it does an increasing number of people), but I can well imagine their ‘take’ on it, so say no more.
As an aside, I’ve devised my own newsfeed now on Twitter. It makes a most refreshing change to the ‘force-fed’, biased, mass media variety. You set up a Twitter account, and follow a few people to show it is genuine – people like the National Trust, or Local Wildlife Reserve, maybe Local Council. Then you use Twitter’s List feature to list all the trusted people you want to hear news from – politicians, journalists, opinion formers, maybe even a newspaper, although I do not bother with these – but the point is you choose them. Then you make your list private.
I now get news from across the world that is of interest, excellent amusing satire, good news on the UK economy, links to informative articles I would not otherwise know about, and the truth about what someone has actually said. I would throughly recommend it. (And, you are on my Twitter list Mr Redwood.)
July 10, 2017
The BBC is largely unwatchable/listenable as most things are laced with political correctness and bias.
July 9, 2017
Mrs Merkel, who has overseen the closing of Germany’s new nuclear power stations and built the dirtiest carbon dioxide producing lignite power stations instead, begged the environmental vandal President Trump not to do the same. Just because the US has greatly reduced its CO2 emissions by using cheaper shale gas this is no excuse for lagging behind Germany’s efforts to use home- mined carbon.
While outside the conference, green activists strived to save the planet by stting fire to cars and looting shops with goods with high carbon content.
July 9, 2017
Mr Trump does make grand statements. He is a moderate actually though most do not know him. It is almost impossible to get the Democratic Party on board with his ideas nor his own Republican Party as both are full of extremists of one bent or another But it is in US interests to make our Brexit successful.
America has had to intervene several times in Europe militarily. Imagine if our military and economy over one hundred years had needed to cope with sending troops, war materiel and food to feed American states and build up their econiomies because Americans were so darned useless and insane but to be bombing and killing one another by plane, ground big gun bombardment and from the sea all the time! That is alot for a young nation. It shows how very unstable and dangerous Europe is and that it is a continuing threat to world peace and to peace for America..
America, in reality, does not have any problems with Russia. No Russians on American soil. No borders with Russia. From an American stadpoint you can guess it sees Germany, France, Italy, Ukraine, Poland and the Baltics as a combined pain the …
July 9, 2017
Instead of talking about stupid things like climate change why don’t our politicians and representatives get real and talk about this?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4676640/Europe-underestimating-scale-migrant-crisis.html
This is more scary than so called and made up climate change. We need to wise up or is it all a hidden agenda? I can’t think what benefit all these immigrants will bring. Just more overcrowding and discontent amongst our own people. We can’t house those from Grenfell let alone all this lot. Mrs May needs to do something to inspire the country with faith in the Conservative government and instead of listening to the lefties she could start by tackling this and all the foreign aid we give out. Many of these people will end up on our doorstep.
July 9, 2017
@ FOS
We need to wise up or is it all a hidden agenda?
It has a name AGENDA 21
July 9, 2017
I heard a man at Calais say: “the French make you live in a small village but the English give you a big house in a big city.” And another: “In England my mother can wear her veil but not here.” I have also been told that the wisdom all over Africa is that the English are the kindest, most tolerant, and generous people in the world. That is where you need to go.
July 9, 2017
The broadcast media in general and the BBC in particular breach the broadcasting code of impartiality and accuracy on a daily basis with apparent impunity. Does Ofcom ever take action against them? It has reached the stage where I can hardly stand to listen to their “reports”- actually often their own opinions. They are openly anti-Brexit, anti-Trump and like a pack of hounds against a wounded Prime Minister. Elsewhere they give succour to those who would foment the sort of disgraceful direct action we have just witnessed in Hamburg.
July 9, 2017
“Mrs Merkel chaired the summit badly, hampered by her lack of authority …”
or
“Mrs Merkel chaired the summit, badly hampered by her lack of authority …”
but I suppose either way it was less than a success.
July 9, 2017
@ Duyfken
Love it and oh so true either version you want.
July 9, 2017
An illuminating post – and thankfully written not broadcast so my consumption of it did not cost me payment to the disgraced, unreliable BBC of ÂŁ147 as Parliament demands.
July 9, 2017
I hope you’re not suggesting the BBC is unpatriotic, John. What an idea!
July 9, 2017
Angela Rayner, Labour’s odd choice of Shadow Education Secretary, was on Andrew Marr just now, (I do wish she would stop talking of the “amount of students”). She said that writing off off student debts would cost some ÂŁ100 billion. While I am in favour of student fees, as hopefully it make the students think is this rather expensive degree really worth the ÂŁ100K of debt plus loss of several years of earning and most UK degrees are clearly not worth it.
Then again writing off the student debts is probably a far better investment than HS2, but then almost everything is. It is after all, in effect, a large tax cut and people and businesses use money rather better than governments do. Something Hammond and May do not seem to understand at all.
July 9, 2017
The policy of Writing off student ‘debt’ (actually a higher-paid graduate tax) should rightly be classified as a ‘tax cut for the rich’. I think the likes of Jeremy Corbyn and Angela Rayner are too dim to figure this out – or if not, too cynical to admit it.
Anyway, I will leave my children to continue to take these loans even at the usurious rates set by George Osborne. It’s my only natural hedge against the potential – but no longer vanishingly unlikely – event of a Corbyn government.
July 9, 2017
The lefties and liberals on social media hear only bias against their view of the world. That is because their total viewpoint is inter-reliant on 100% of their views being fact.
With the case for Brexit and the G20, I am quite willing to accept we may, but not necessarily, be economically damaged by leaving the EU. I was economically damaged when I left my parents home and got a flat. I had to pay my own utility bills for instance. Buy smaller amounts of food when a larger amount would be cheaper per unit but I would have had to throw away. The reason Remoaners have their name” …moaner ” is obvious. They want to live with Mummy and Daddy. Crybabies.
July 9, 2017
The Chinese and the Americans were too well-mannered to point out that Mrs Merkel’s Germany is mildly hypocritical in continuing to dig and burn its own Brown Coal. They were too polite to ask her when the practice would cease as it probably won’t. German will rely on expanding its ‘renewables’ so that it looks as if they are reducing their dependence on carbon – and of course buying gas (how clean is that?) from the Russians.
July 9, 2017
I honestly think the BBC wants us to stay in the EU continent and then it will become the Brussels Broadcasting Corporation, thinking of all the license fees from all over Europe coming in . . .and inevitably all the money they can stick in their own pockets.
July 9, 2017
Nicely put. I have found the BBC’s underlying political and moral compass at odds with my own for decades, and yet I pay a licence fee.
July 9, 2017
That’s great, John. That should be published far and wide to put things into perspective!
July 9, 2017
…and what are government and MPs going to do to put a stop to this bias and enforce the Charter rules? Nothing effective, as usual?
July 9, 2017
The BBC has become the agent of change in Britain today and unless the Conservatives do something about their monopolistic influence they will regret it for decades to come
Their output is not the news it is the BBC’s version of the news and of course its viewers believe the BBC’s version of the news. The aim of this increasingly political and pernicious organisation is to coerce the perceptions of its viewers.
The BBC is pathologically obsessed with the politics of identity to the point where they deliberately construct their output either to hide the truth and distort it. They try to damage the Tories and elevate Labour at every turn even to the point of ignoring abuses deep within the Labour party itself
Which of course begs the following question. Why have the Tories not reformed the BBC in a most savage manner? What is it that the Tories are afraid of?
Have some courage, grow some cojones, let’s see some anger fgs
Abolish its monopoly
Abolish the licence fee
Set up a competing broadcaster and fill it with right leaning journalists and other suitable broadcasters
Stop dithering and being frightened of your own shadow. The public want to see a party fighting for the UK, its values, its role in the world. May doesn’t hack it
We need to see a leader with core principles again not a leader who panders to the unions with silly ideas about putting workers on board and all the other left leaning nonsense..
Reforming the BBC and removing its monopoly should be your first priority and you appear to ignore just how much power to influence the BBC now possesses.
July 9, 2017
No.
The true renegades are those who throw off the indoctrination of the BBC.
The BBC refusenics are the true freedom fighters !
July 9, 2017
Mr Corbyn was born just after the war and before rationing had come to an end absolutely. The following ten years were not rich times for anyone in Europe or the UK. So it is odd he believes the poor have got poorer since then.
In fact, it is a lie.
July 9, 2017
Dear Mr Redwood,
Comparing the SPD to Labour, especially to Labour under Corbyn, is a gross approximation and you know it very well.
Also a direct and straight comparison of the U.K. and German political systems is nonsensical. You are comparing apples and oranges here as Germany does not use a first-past-the-post electoral system unlike the U.K.
If I may say so, since your upset at the last election, the quality of your posts have come markedly down. I hope this is only a temporary spell.
As for blaming the press and the BBC, who read them anyway ?
Best regards
Reply Thank you for praising my pre election posts, though I do not recall you doing that at the time. I did not myself experience an election upset and was honoured to receive more votes in 2017 than in 2015.
July 9, 2017
Dear Mr Redwood,
You are indeed entitled to your views on Brexit, though they are fundamentally different from mine. This goes without saying.
I do note however that pre-election they used to be grounded in facts, not fiction. As such, they were quite interesting and articulate.
I miss the old days.
Shall we at least agree for old time’s sake that no, the SPD is not like labour underground Corbyn on many fronts ? If you have to make a comparison, may I suggest you pick Die Linke instead ?
As to wether Chancellor Merkel is a failed politician as you seem to infer, I will quietly wait for the elections. As you know, Theresa May has clearly demonstrated it is perfectly possible to botch a massive lead on your opponent.
One is never too prudent.
Reply Mrs Merkel is unlikely to win a majority of seats and may well poll a smaller proportion of the votes than Mrs May.
July 9, 2017
Among the reasons for the terrific success and achievement of West Germany and subsequently united Germany has been the fact that Germany has never been plagued by an equivalent of the Labour Party. SDP governments in Germany – even in the 1970s – pursued broadly pro-market, sound money policies. There never was a need for a Frau Thatcher in Germany as there most certainly was in the UK. The issue of EU integration apart, Mrs Thatcher in her prime would surely have recognised Mrs Merkel as a kindred spirit. She would have gloried in the fact that someone born and brought up under the slavery of socialism in Soviet dominated East Germany has become the elected leader of a liberal democracy and with a broadly pro-capitalist prospectus.
July 12, 2017
@Richard1: you are absolutely correct. To establish a direct comparison between the SPD and Labour, especially Labour under Corbyn is plain wrong.
July 9, 2017
Tabulazero
I detect a serious (SERIOUS) right wing manifestation in Europe. France and Holland – and Germany. This does not exist in Britain (more specifically England.)
Europe is bust economically. It is bust employmentally. It is bust immigrationally.
You lost Brexit because no-one could sell us a positive of the EU during the referendum. All they could sell us was Project Fear.
Well that doesn’t work with the English, I’m afraid.
July 12, 2017
Could it be that you’re bust vocabularily?
July 12, 2017
@Anonymous: if I had wanted to vote out of Europe then I had the choice between 7 candidates out of 11 at the last elections.
The fact that the most pro-EU candidate and the sole to have campaigned positively on Europe won with a landslide should tell you something.
Even the National Front is re-thinking its pledge to leave the Euro because it cost them the election.
July 9, 2017
More of these please, John. ps don’t bother printing this note since it has no relevance to your other readers.
July 9, 2017
Very good entry John, bang on the money.
It just begs the question:
When are the occupants of The House of Westminster really going to wake up and smell the coffee on just how destructive the BBC has become to the political agenda in this country and do something about it?
The time has come for it to be reorganised or just disbanded, for the money we pay it is totally unfit for purpose.
July 9, 2017
Mrs May isolated at G20 summit says Times. No evidence from film footage.
It appears That the remainiacs in the Tory party are trying to force a leadership election and then a general election to get Corbyn into power and derail Brexit.
Destroying the party and trust in politicians seems to be a price worth paying to keep us shackled to the EU corpse.
No doubt Hammond is their leader of choice.
I fear it will unleash a very unpleasant backlash.
July 9, 2017
Oh no, not at all. Mr Trump was responsible for everything unpleasant apart from the inclement weather, which was the fault of Brexit.
July 9, 2017
Priceless, great note, I hope they read and digest it đ
July 9, 2017
Off-topic, JR, please could you do me a few favours?
1. Kick that bloody idiot Andrew Mitchell up the backside and tell him that if it’s time for anybody to go then it’s him. If he hasn’t learned by now that there is no reliably private dinner party in the Tory party or among politicians in general then he never will.
2. Tell David Davis to publicly disown anybody who is suggesting that he should try to take over the leadership when there is no vacancy for that position and moreover a change of leadership would inevitably lead to calls for another general election.
3. Tell David Davis that now he is free from the pro-EU chief of staff provided by George Osborne he should find himself somebody reliable to run a press office charged with the task of countering the pro-EU propaganda being pumped into the mass media.
July 9, 2017
The Sunday Telegraph says “A new campaign to sell Brexit is needed”.
I wouldn’t object to a new campaign to sell Brexit, but the top priority should be rebut the lies which are being fed to the media day after day. I repeat:
THERE IS A PROPAGANDA WAR, AND WE ARE LOSING IT.
The government is taking it all lying down, more or less letting the opponents of Brexit have a walkover. In particular when I look at the website for David Davis’ Department for Exiting the EU I see nothing slapping down the liars and traitors who are trying to prevent us leaving the EU. In fact I see very little at all.
July 10, 2017
Denis, you are absolutely right on this. Since the launch of the disastrous 2017 manifesto the party has been on the back foot. No 10 seems incapable of countering the mildest of negative comment let alone the positive torrent we have been seeing since election day.
Yes, we are most definitely losing the propaganda war and once an opposition party, however incompetent, establishes a firm and regular lead in the polls, a sitting government has always found it impossible to win a subsequent election.
Mrs May proved to be a hopeless campaign manager although her stage managed and overprotected appearances were just about OK. It’s clear that others have got to get a grip and go on the offensive. Our host’s piece on the summit is a fantastic example.
Corbyn should have no chance to win a majority given his policies and his position in Scotland but we are in such a serious situation that we are in danger of a rout at the next election and he might even get a majority.
If not, the situation will be even worse with Sturgeon pulling his strings.
They can be beaten – easily. The hopeless shadow education secretary almost admitted to Andrew Marr that Corbyn was wrong about fewer poor kids going to Uni but the very idea that labour could find ÂŁ50bn to wipe out existing tuition fees ( that’s after discounting the 50% that will never be repaid) is farcical.
But how on earth can the Treasury expect students to pay 6% interest their huge debts and that’s the rate calculated on today’s low base rate ! It is totally unsustainable. Appalling.
July 9, 2017
Fine, but as I always say it’s not just the BBC. Anyone who thought they could escape the bias on the BBC by switching to Sky or ITV or Channel 4 would be disappointed.
July 9, 2017
Channel Four is like a university liberal studies department course with a mickey mouse certificate and a bag of fruit gums at the end
July 10, 2017
But the BBC is privileged in that it can take licence refusenics to magistrate court. The other channels can’t.
July 9, 2017
Precisely. The BBC and the Guardian now seem on a par, and some days, I can hardly bare it. Yesterday was such a day, and this morning, we have the joyful face of Vince Cable!
Thank you for your refreshing optimism. At least we can see that its not just Britain, but the whole world that’s in a mess, Brexit and Trumpism being the last standards lifted against the evil tide. Sadly, the peddlars of liberalism carry on unchecked behind the lines, even in our midst.
July 9, 2017
Vince Cable has in your terms a joyful and unnauseating an unpatronising voice too.
July 9, 2017
Well said, although I fail to understand why anyone nowadays watches or listens to the BBC. It is time this failed, biased, criminal broadcaster was thrown to the wolves and goes “subscription” then we will see just how popular it really is.
July 9, 2017
I have never understood why the BBC is such a blatant supporter of Socialism.
Looking back over past Socialist regimes, they have done little, nothing, or worse, to improve the lot of the ordinary folk in this country. Yet the BBC remains an avid fan.
The 1970’s should have been a sharp reminder how things can go terribly wrong when Socialism takes control of our country.
A repeat is always possible under the guidance of Corbyn’s Marxist principles but I have yet to read, to view or hear anything from the BBC that warns us of the danger. The same applies to their EU stance. Why are they so pro-EU? Have they been bribed with OUR money? The so-called “Rebate” that is entirely under the control of Brussels? The org that uses OUR money to bribe the Unis, the Farms, some of our Public Sector and the BBC too.
Why else would they want to surrender this country to the control of an unelected and unaccountable gang of foreigners dictating our laws and ordering their rules and regulations to be obeyed without question?
I find it despicable that a publically funded National Broadcaster, whose license fee is guarded by Criminal Law, should so promote THEIR politics when they should provide a balanced view to the very people that pay their salaries. They are out of control.
It is high time the Government amended their status and reduced the burden of the ÂŁ145 per year levy on everyone in the country. That sum represent ÂŁ181 to a standard rate tax payer and it is totally abused by the BBC Elites.
A start would be to decrimialise the Licence Fee. Let the BBC follow the Private Sector in using agencies to collect any debts and NOT our Criminal Courts. It is so Stalinisque and unacceptable today.
July 9, 2017
Just shows how the news is interpreted by journalists, but mustn’t forget the BBC catchphrase ” despite Brexit”.
July 9, 2017
I am surprised that the Conservatives didn’t take some steps about ensuring BBC impartiality when they had the chance. But I suppose then that Cameron did nothing because he knew they would continue to push to remain in the EU, which it still does in spite of the referendum.
There was only a need for a public broadcaster when there was only a couple of TV channels and a few radio channels and none were available commercially, but since there are now a huge number of commercial TV channels as well as BBC and Channel 4, there is no longer a need for a public broadcaster, especially when it is far from impartial in its news and debates.
Fortunately at my age I no longer have to pay for a licence which is the only consolation.
July 9, 2017
Cameron even put Lord Patton as chairman, to make things even worse one assumes. Very clear proof of what a cast iron fraud the man was.
July 9, 2017
Looks to me very like your piece today is an attack on Mrs Merkel but I don’t know what that’s going to achieve?
There’s no doubt holding the G20 summit in Hamburg city was a big mistake – next time they could pick an island somewhere and only allow press and VIP’s in and that would save us all a lot of bother.
As for Mrs Merkel I suspect she has a few credits already chalked up and will do ok in the German elections- very probably a lot better than Mrs May has done in UK- and that should strengthen her hand alongside Macron when it come to deciding terms for any new deal that might arise later with UK, but all of this depends on there being a successful exit?
So, as you say, the BBC is in Mrs Merkels fan club- well I personally don’t see it- I think the BBC is doing a good job if we consider the unfortunate position that we find ourselves in today- somebody has to hold the mirror up and speak out if we are to avoid going off the cliff.
As far as the EU is concerned we have already activated A50 so there’s no changing that. We accept that we are leaving the common market and the customs union on 29th March 2019, and despite what some european chiefs might say, more with hope than anything else, there is no way that this decision is going to be reversed- so i wonder what’s there for the brexiteers to be worried about? In fact even if the remainers managed to get another vote on the brexit, I have heard it said in some quarters, that the UK would not be allowed back into the EU, not in a million years, not even if we voted by 90 to 10 to reverse..the decision has been made now and we’re going out..europe has had enough of english whinging.. so the only thing to be considered now is the cost of exit and then whatever discussion on the kind of possible new future relationship that we might be eligible for as a third country.. from the EU perspective I think Barnier could not be clearer when he speaks- it’s a pity his UK opposites could not offer us a little more of the same.
Reply Mrs Merkel is unlikely to win a majority of seats and may poll a smaller proportion of the vote than Mrs May. I just think the BBC should give her the same treatment as they give Mrs May.
July 9, 2017
Frau Merkel has also just voted against homosexual marriage but the DUP-phobic BBC didn’t make anything of that.
July 11, 2017
John, your argument is laughable. Since the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, that country has almost always been governed by a coalition with CDU/CSU, and FDP, or SDP and the Greems, or … Furthermore, Germany is a federation with different Laender having themselves different coalitions, so a very different political construction from the UK. You might not like Mrs Merkel’s politics, fair enough, but no need to use ridiculous argument. By the way, today your arguments are almost as sensible as your stand pro roundabout and anti traffic lights as an illustration of why socialism does not work. Roughly null.
Reply I suggest as you have such a low opinion of my work you find a site more to your liking. I used BBC style language from what they said of Mrs May to describe Mrs Merkel – seems fair comment to me.
July 9, 2017
The BBC has admitted bias and what is more they don’t care too much about it. Evan Davis has publicly stated this.
So I would not hold out any hope that their reporting will change any time soon.
July 9, 2017
Lovely comment.
I’m a lot more angry about it.
I’m also angry about the demonisation and mockery of old people in our country.
To the BBC they are ‘bed blockers’ and ‘house blockers’ and in comedy (s0 called) they are dithering bed wetters and in drama they are bigotted ignoramuses… no wonder they are victimised in care homes.
Why are they so demonised ?
Because they are the only class beyond Political Correctness.
etc ed
July 9, 2017
Good news bulletin. As the BBC costs ÂŁ6Billion per year to run, and their only job is to deliver fair and impartial news, surely we are better off privatising this organisation if they cannot deliver on their royal charter?
I feel that their anti-British message is so constant, so strong and so vindictive that the organisation should be shut down, perhaps with a jail sentence for treason for the senior responsible members who have so badly failed in their mission?
July 9, 2017
So I hope you are going to vote against renewing the BBC licence tax when it comes to the commons. By-the-way, there was a petition before the election to ditch the tax on watching TV and it received well over 100,000 votes, will that still come before the house or has it quietly been shelved?
July 9, 2017
Angela merkel has no need to aim for being more diplomatic high, she has been there for years. In fact of all of the world leaders that have been around for a while, i’d say she is the most diplomatic,
July 9, 2017
That’s the Mrs Merkel who is only in power due to an alliance with socially conservative religious MPs who voted, as did she, against gay marriage ?
July 9, 2017
Due to a petition on the Parliament petition website there was supposed to be a Parliamentary debate about the BBC Licence Fee on May 8th but it was postponed due to Mrs May’s snap election folly.
I guess it will be conveniently kicked into the long grass now, like any other demands from Joe Public that don’t fit the establishment agenda.
July 9, 2017
As a brief aside, Christopher Booker implicates the EU in the Grenfell tragedy:
https://behindthepaywallblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/08/the-grenfell-tower-fire-would-not-have-happened-without-the-eu-and-global-warming/
“The Grenfell Tower fire would not have happened without the EU and global warming”
I don’t know how much substance there is in this claim, and nor do I intend to spend a lot of time checking up on him on what is an extremely complex issue. I would however make two points:
1. As we are leaving the EU there is no longer any point in the government adopting its longstanding routine pretence that “This is nothing whatsoever to do with the EU”. It can now be honest and admit any involvement of the EU, and allow the investigations to go where the evidence may take them.
2. However on the other hand I think Christopher Booker should also be honest, and he should say whether any of the relevant EU legislation would be included in the part of the EU acquis which would still apply to the UK if we followed his advice and arranged to stay on in the EEA when we leave the EU.
In other words, should the headline really refer to the EEA, rather than the EU?
This article offers some slight indication that this would be the case:
http://www.fireprotectiononline.co.uk/info/what-does-leaving-the-eu-mean-for-fire-safety-regulations/
“What Does Leaving The EU Mean For Fire Safety Regulations?”
“CE Marks are also displayed, and they show a product has been manufactured according to the defined legal requirements of the EU. These are required for products which are sold within the European Economic Area, which is something weâre likely to remain a part of, and therefore wonât change.”
July 10, 2017
When working as an architect I found dealing with the environmental and other regulations such as fire spread, protection and spread very onerous and the building control offices unbending, nit-picking and obstructive. However, environmental regulations, such as very expensive and difficult to achieve insulation and energy saving measures, in the UK have been adopted enthusiastically by our own civil servants to a greater degree than in most other countries. They will carry on anyway, whether in the EU or not.
It is counter-productive to blame the EU for self- inflicted wounds. Having read more architectural blogs over the last weeks, there is now a good deal of information, which either the government is unaware of or keeping quiet about. From photographs before the fire and afterwards, some have identified the position of fire stops or barriers. The route of the fire up the columns and the walls is shown. The extent of the charring of the insulation is shown and the burning of the new tilt and turn windows. This is common knowledge. Re. e-architects blog.
The document by forensic architects, which was shown here, lists all the legislation and shows how the flames can leap 2m above a blazing room and how they can travel further in cavities behind cladding. Sections 2,3 and 6 are short and clear. In the case of Grenfell the distance from the top of a window below to the window above is only c 1.2m. The fire could have spread without any re- cladding if windows were open or radiant heat set fire to furniture.
If public bodies such as councils and the NHS are already pulling down cladding which may turn out to be compliant and not the cause of the fire, then vast amounts of public money may be wasted. It really is important that officially find the cause and advise quickly and nor wait months until a lawyer lead enquiry takes place. This may take years and this will have nothing to do with the EU.
http://www.probyn-miers.com/perspective/2016/02/fire-risks-from-external-cladding-panels-perspective-from-the-uk/
July 10, 2017
Correction ..fire resistance, protection and spread..
Also. The standards aimed for in Grenfell were set by the mayor’s office and are listed for point scoring in the planning document, also shown here. The name of the eco standards is BREEM. BR is for British.
July 12, 2017
Thanks. It is not only technically but also legally complicated, which is why I am cautious about following Christopher Booker in implicating the EU. We had something similar with the floods and attempts to work out the extent to which EU regulations had contributed to disaster. As I say there is now the difference that government policy is to leave the EU and so it not longer has the same need to defend it. I think it is also important to know whether this would be just an EU or alternatively a wider EEA problem, ie if we did want he urgently wants us to do and “became like Norway” then would that release us from the relevant EU laws, or are they included in that fraction of the acquis which is “of EEA relevance”?
July 9, 2017
Fascinating article on Breitbart London by Ted Malloch on Trump’s meeting with Putin, with Malloch debunking 4 myths on the relationship. It really does inspire hope that they two great leaders will work together, rather than be at loggerheads and worse, which is apparently what the globalists wanted.
July 9, 2017
Thanks John. So sad that our national broadcaster is so biased. One is tempted to think that they are blind to their bias but I doubt it.
July 9, 2017
Your BBC tirade is far closer to the truth than europhiles would ever dare to admit. Trump and Putin used the occasion to remind Brussels just who are the major world players, as did the Chinese. The Taming of the Shrew, updated for the 21st century.
July 9, 2017
The big question here is what can be done about the Bad Broadcasting Company ?
In our house we’ve given up watching/listening to the BBC news as their sensationalist, biased and unpatriotically treacherous behaviour has become nauseating.
July 9, 2017
The BBC has done important and pathfinding investigative journalism into the reason why there has been an epidemic of drug abuse, drug-pushing, stealing, violence, and physical assaults in UK jails. It has discovered that the reason is that criminals are being sent there.
July 9, 2017
A joke post, obviously. Nothing to do with the – state sanctioned – overlooking by wardens and the soppy lack of netting to stop drone deliveries.
July 9, 2017
Dear John, I like reading your blog even though I usually don’t agree with you. Your posts are thoughtful and well-written. But I find this post very odd. It reminds me of Mr Fox accusing the BBC of anti-Brexit bias, and of Mrs Leadsom expecting the country to be more patriotic about Brexit.
Rather than taking Mr Trump’s comments about a US/UK trade deal at face value, I’m asking myself what these comments reveal about what he thinks Mrs May would like to hear. She is desperate for positive Brexit news. Even her own chancellor openly disagrees with her. Trump has only reminded her of her weakness.
July 9, 2017
Richard W
“Rather than taking Mr Trumpâs comments about a US/UK trade deal at face value”
Rather than taking the Referendum result at face value, I’m asking myself what this result reveals about what the Electorate thinks the Leave camp would like to hear. It is desperate for positive Brexit news. Even Chancellor Osborne openly disagrees with them. The Electorate has only reminded the Brexiteers of their weakness.
July 9, 2017
Mrs Leadsom expecting the *BBC* to be more patriotic about Brexit. Get it right.
She was absolutely right about this. The BBC is setting the agenda. Not reporting the news.
July 9, 2017
Errrrrrrr. Has not Germany just commissioned loads of coal burning power stations ?
July 9, 2017
And isn’t the EU seriously protectionist? If it weren’t, why is there any difficulty about our leaving their protection racket?
July 11, 2017
just like John and his biased views on German politics that he does not understand at atll
July 9, 2017
They are steaming hypocrites. They would have us believe they are oh so green with their wind turbines. Meanwhile, they go on burning their own brown coal – the only stuff they buy for their own power stations. So protectionist. The useless wind turbines are just there so a) Siemens has a market and b) they can claim to be meeting EU renewables targets.
July 9, 2017
They also refuse now to host nuclear power on German territory (a Green policy) while importing nuclear generated power from France.
July 9, 2017
Tee hee..children ! so true that there are many angles to argument. I still love the BBC it. s something of my heritage I can cling to , otherwise I am in complete perdition/ I don’t have to agree to love the beeb though.
July 9, 2017
agree,
July 9, 2017
Certainly Theresa May is in a much stronger position, IF ONLY she had the support of ALL Conservative MPs, at least whilst we need to get important Brexit Bills through Parliament.
But Theresa May does not have time on her side. Another Nasty Lefty is trying to derail the Conservative-DUP arrangement in government with legal action through the High Court. See here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/09/theresa-mays-1billion-dup-deal-faces-high-court-challenge/
If this gets to Court and the ruling goes against the Government, Theresa May may well not be able to get any legislation through at all, least of all the all-important “Brexit-means-Brexit” sort of legislation.
This Ciaran McClean, a Northern Ireland Green Party Member, seems to be a very nasty piece of work, like that Gina Miller who brought that legislation against the Government over Brexit back in January.
I don’t know about you, but I get the distinctly uneasy feeling that the Conservatives may be in Government but not really in power: That is because there are divisions in the Party over Brexit along with the House of Lords and the entire Establishment o/s Westminster (the BBC, educational institutions, parts of the judiciary and the Police) being Lefty and against Brexit.
If- and only if- ALL Conservative MPs were united in voting through the Government Bills, even when they are sent back from the Lords (Mrs May could then use the Parliament Act to force vital Brexit legislation through if need be), then the Conservatives have the numbers- just- to get legislation through even if this Ciaran McClean succeeds in getting the High Court to rule against the Government; provided that is, of course, the DUP abstain. However, there are pro-Remain Conservative MPs willing to vote against the Government and therein lies the problem.
Reply All Conservatives voted for the Queens Speech and should vote for the Brexit legislation.
July 9, 2017
Some good comments in the replies today . Pity mine was not included .
July 9, 2017
In a reply to me, my MP (Damian Collins) said that he didn’t think the BBC was biased. I think he must have gone mad!!!
July 10, 2017
Brigham
I think that is probably his considered and intelligent view. Most people of very high IQ in Stalin’s USSR, who studied in Moscow University which is and was far superior to Oxford or Cambridge univesities academically, thought that Pravda and Radio Moscow was unbiased. No they were not afraid to tell the truth. That was their considered and intelligent view.
July 9, 2017
Forgive me if this has already been said. If it can be proved that the BBC isn’t impartial, then the public should have the right to choose whether to sponsor it or not… on an individual basis. I mean, have a subscription system set up.
July 10, 2017
Todays attempt by Mrs May to draw Corbyn into the Brexit negotiations and so associate him with their outcome is an idea which is unlikely to work as his preferred position is to criticise the outcome whatever it may be.
July 10, 2017
its not just the bbc john,,,sky news is just as bad..churning out anti brexit propaganda on a near daily basis..even there political commentators such as (names left out ed) all hard line europhiles spining stories in an effort to try and influence ministers in interviews towards taking a pro eu direction…to be honest im losing heart we will get what we voted for now,,theresa may asking for ideas from labour on brexit puts the icing on the cake for me…my forecast the what we end up with after negotiations is a half brexit dictated by hammond and keir starmer
July 10, 2017
Very good. Balanced and impartial.
July 11, 2017
The licence fee need to go.
I would be interested in the arguments as to why we still have it ?