Friday afternoon catch-up

Once again I have too many Firefox tabs and not enough time, so here we go:

1) Politics Home reveal why the LibDems control the coalition government.

2) The Telegraph reports that the Crown Prince of Iran is calling for aid for the demonstrators but unlike in Egypt Barack Obama and the western media are just not interested. Why the double standards Barack Obama? It is almost as though you want Islamists to keep and gain power in the Middle East.

3) The Blaze think that they may have video proof that Mexican authorities are operating inside of the USA.

4) Harry Phibbs in The Mail thinks that we should not get rid of the First Past The Post voting system.

5) Devils Kitchen agrees with me that National Insurance is a ponzi scheme and just as out of control as Bernie Madoff's and that the government's response will make us all poorer (except for the unemployed).

6) Gates of Vienna thinks that the BBC has broken its charter and explains at length why - all relating to Geert Wilders and radical Islam.

7)The Mail reports that the Royal Society has realised that 'A'Levels are now not fit for purpose - That's the comprehensive education system and 13 years of a Labour government dumbing down exams for you.

8) OyVaGoy has 10 facts that 'they' don't want you to know about the evil right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

9) CIF Watch have spotted that even The Guardian's travel section is influenced by the newspaper's anti-Israel agenda.

10) Daniel Hannan in The Telegraph thinks that the state can be successfully shrunk and that Ronald Reagan US Presidency should be the model.

11) The BBC report on a rather nasty comment made by one of their heroes - the Irish tax avoider Bono.

12) Harry's Place explains why iEngage should not be allowed to serve as the secretariat to the all party parliamentary group on Islamaphobia. Very sound stuff as always from Harry's Place now one of my favourite blogs.

13) The Mail managed to report the interesting fact that 'Road deaths dropped 14 per cent in three months while speed cameras were being axed or switched off.  Fatalities over a year fell 21 per cent to a record low, Department for Transport figures show.'

14) Finally The Mail reports on the Indian inventor who claims to have invented the flying car - unfortunately its a flying 1980s Maruti.

Saint Bono

The BBC's love for the sunglasses wearing U2 front man is well known. His political and environmental views are in line with BBC sentiments and so he gets an easy ride on the BBC. So I was intrigued to read at A Tangled Web that:

'Bono's anti-poverty foundation ONE is under pressure to explain its lavish salaries after it was revealed that only a small percentage of money it raises reaches the needy.

The non-profit organisation set up by the U2 frontman received almost £9.6m in donations in 2008 but handed out only £118,000 to good causes (1.2 per cent).

The figures published by the New York Post also show that £5.1m went towards paying salaries.'

If true, this fact would be astonishing and surely of interest to the BBC's many viewers, listeners and readers; but as of now I can find no report of this news on the BBC. Is Bono really that untouchable to the BBC.

This is not the first time that the shine has been taken off of Saint Bono, almost two years ago the news broke that U2 were avoiding tax by moving their publishing arm to Holland in 2006 as a result of the Irish Government capping tax-free earnings for artists at €250,000. U2 were one of the biggest beneficiaries of the royalties scheme. Now there is nothing illegal about U2 avoiding tax but bearing in mind Bono's predilection for campaigning for an end to world poverty, maybe using a scheme that in total meant that the Irish Exchequer was losing millions of euro might be considered crass.

If a right-wing author or politician had been caught legally avoiding taxation the BBC would be all over the story but when it is a favoured son of the left....

The BBC and their U2/Bono obsession

The BBC and their U2/Bono obsession just never fails to deliver. The BBC's third most important article on their website is that

'Bono has emergency spinal surgery, putting U2's upcoming concert dates, including Glastonbury, in jeopardy.'

This is important news? More important than the economy in free-fall, the Labour leadership wrangles, etc.? I think not.

However the BBC are obsessed by Bono, he's a living saint and of course Glastonbury is one of the great BBC staff outings.


UPDATE:
Beeb Bias Craig has posted a helpful comment looking at Sky News and ITN's news front pages that I repost here:

'Sky News has 'Mum admits killing her children in Spain, 'Royal Marine dies in Afghanistan blast', 'BA reveals record annual loss of £531m' and 'Outlaws gang leader jailed over drugs.' Bono doesn't feature anywhere on their homepage, despite their having dozens of stories there.

ITN has 'Massacre in Pakistan', 'BA's fighting talk', 'Cameron's veto hint', 'MI5 at terror inquest' and 'Statins doing damage'. Again, Bono isn't even mentioned.

As you say, what is it about the BBC and Bono? To be placed third (after 'Confessions over Spain killings' and 'No more powers to EU, says Cameron') is just unreal.'