BBC World Service per Building the tallest solar tower

The rarest of BBC reports on something happening in Israel, one that doesn't mention 'illegal settlements' or the 'Palestinians'...  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03ywwvl

Did Labour over-spend? - BBC News

Robert Preston sort of has to admit it...

'But Labour wasn't just asleep at the wheel when it came to City regulation. Arguably it was drunk at the wheel - in that it loved the City boom, for generating huge tax revenues that it then lavished on public services.

So the failure to keep the City properly in check was in a sense wilful and therefore doubly wrong

And there's another thing. Even best-in-class regulation of the City can't protect any economy from periodic shocks.

Which is why there is something to be said for George Osborne's favourite cliche, that it is sensible to mend the roof when the sun is shining.

Or to put it another way, when the economy is growing strongly, as it did through most of Labour's years in office, it probably does no harm to finance growth in public services largely through the proceeds of growth, rather than through borrowing.

Why? Well, the lower the national debt at the time recession bites, the more scope there is to borrow to protect public services and increase benefits, to shield people from the pain of recession.'

 

More here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32549892

Robert Peston in unbiased reporting shock...

Thus BBC report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27722971 contains some shockingly unbiased reporting, how out of character...

'It was just over a year ago that the IMF's chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, warned George Osborne that he was "playing with fire" if he did not ease off on his austerity policy, because economic recovery in the UK seemed so elusive.

Just a few days later, Mr Blanchard's criticism of the cuts implemented by the chancellor was more gently repeated by Christine Lagarde, the IMF's head: "We have said that should growth abate, should growth be particularly low, then there should be consideration to adjusting by way of slowing the pace [of austerity]."

We now know that the IMF's timing was about as wrong as it could be, because the UK economy was on the turn - and a rapid recovery was about to take hold.

Even so, in today's IMF's report on prospects for the UK economy, the so-called Article lV consultation, there isn't a trace of humble pie, or any expressed regrets for last year's erroneous evaluation of what was happening under the bonnet of the UK economy.'

Robert Peston takes the side of the Conservative lead coalition government rather than the IMF, there's a first time for everything!

BBC News - NHS 'was too powerful to criticise' says regulator

The trouble with this BBC report is that whilst it starts thus:

'The NHS "became too powerful to criticise" despite many patients receiving a "wholly unsatisfactory" service, the health regulator has said.

David Prior told the Daily Telegraph that even the most senior staff were afraid of speaking out.The Care Quality Commission chairman said the NHS should not be treated as a "national religion" beyond criticism.'

It is, of course, the BBC and their fellow travellers on the left of politics who most often treat the BBC as 'a "national religion" beyond criticism"'.

More reporting, that ignores this fact, here at the BBC.

'Former head of Sky News Nick Pollard'

The BBC are relentless in informing us that 'Former head of Sky News Nick Pollard has been asked by the BBC to investigate why the Newsnight investigation was dropped last year. He will look at whether there were any management failings by the BBC. He will also look at the handling by the Newsnight investigation of material that might have been of interest to the police or relevant authorities.'

Oddly the BBC seem completely uninterested in telling us that prior to working at Sky he had worked at the BBC. BFBS tells us that:

'Nick Pollard, 58, has had a distinguished career in British journalism spanning four decades, and has extensive experience in domestic and international news coverage. Nick says he "sort of fell into journalism" when he joined the Birkenhead News on leaving school at 17 and has enjoyed it ever since. He has worked for BBC Radio News, BBC TV News, and, for 13 years, ITN where he was Executive Producer of News at Ten. Most recently he was Head of Sky News for 10 years from 1996 to 2006, scooping four RTS 'News Channel of the Year' Awards in a row and winning two BAFTAS for Best News Coverage.'

Wikipedia tells us that:

'He was born in Birkenhead and was educated at Birkenhead School.^[1] He started his career in journalism as a reporter at the Birkenhead News, and later worked for the BBC in Liverpool and London.^[1] He was executive producer at ITN for 13 years, before joining Sky News where he worked from 1996 to 2006.^[2][3] In 2009 he was appointed as chief executive of the Services Sound and Vision Corporation (SSVC), responsible for providing broadcasting and cinema services to British forces and their families.^[2]'

Alongside the above note the news as revealed by Guido Fawkes that  the law firm chosen to 'gather evidence for these two inquiries has... previously defended the BBC in litigation cases on numerous occasions' and that 'No less than six of their current lawyers have worked for the BBC in the past.' Also that  'Most interestingly of all, this year Reed Smith hosted a series of conferences entitled “Protecting the Media”.

Hmmm this investigation is looking all totally above-board isn't it?

Finally someone at the BBC has the guts to stand up to the loathsome bully Alastair Campbell

Not the 'feared' Jeremy Paxman on BBC 2's Newsnight or John Humphrys on radio 4's Toady but Vanessa Feltz on Radio London

Well done Vanessa Feltz, well done indeed. I have never heard an interviewer treat Alastair Campbell the way he treats others and deserves to be treated. He was his usual nasty, spiteful self but rather than roll over and let him walk over her, like most BBC interviewers do, Vanessa Feltz fought back and more than held her own. My admiration for Vanessa Feltz is through the roof; I just hope her bosses support her because big bad Alastair will not be happy and may look for revenge...

Annoyingly I am a regular listener to Vanessa Feltz's Radio London show but was busy at work this morning and so missed this live.

My previous post was about a putative boxing contest between John Prescott and Wendi Deng/Murdoch, I think a Vanessa Feltz should be employed as Wendi Deng's coach!


Thanks to Biased BBC for the spot.

Left-wing hypocrisy?

From Twitter I learn that:

'Guardian reader's remedy on press regulation, p6- don't tuck away apologies on p58. Guardian apology to the Sun- p36.'

It's worse than that though, look at The Guardian website front page, can you see a mention of the apology at all?

To give the BBC its due, they do report The Guardian's apology. However whilst the article is headlined 'Guardian apologises to the Sun over Gordon Brown story' and the article starts: 'The Guardian has apologised to the Sun for reporting that it accessed Gordon Brown's son's medical records.' The BBC cannot help themselves as they caption a picture of Gordon Brown looking serious and dour 'Gordon Brown Gordon Brown questioned how the Sun came about information on his son's medical condition'
Did Gordon Brown 'question' how the Sun came upon this information? I would have said that he 'accused' The Sun of foul play. Also was there another news organisation, one with more reach than News International, which reported Gordon Brown's accusations as fact? One with the initials BBC perhaps?

More on Gordon Brown's hideous hypocrisy later today...

Finally the BBC attribute political leanings correctly

One of my complaints about the BBC is that they identify 'right-of-centre' or 'conservative supporting' think tanks, newspaper and magazines etc. but not the left-leaning. So I was rather pleased to spot this line 'Writing in the Labour-supporting Daily Mirror newspaper, Mr Balls said' in the BBC's report  on Ed Miliband's latest speech.

The trouble is that I feel I have to praise the BBC for doing something that they should have been doing for years. I also wonder if they will keep it up?

Apologies

I can't seem to get motivated to blog about serious matters today. I think it's the BBC coverage of the massacre of the Fogel family in Israel. I have just re-read the BBC's coverage and they actually manage in one report not to name the family; there are commenters on Biased-BBC who accuse the BBC of a Nazi-like dehumanisation campaign against Israeli Jews, up until now I had my doubts.

No doubt I will turn my mind to serious blogging later today but in the meantime I will post some fun and fluffy pieces to se if that improves my mood.

It may be a first

None of the four 'top' Middle East stories on the BBC website are about israel and neither are any of the seven headline only stories on the right. Not only that but both of the 'Also in the news' articles are psoitive ones about Israel. What is going on? Is this a consequence of the BBC 'journalists' strike? How long will it last?

Childfree by choice

An interesting BBC article about 'The women who choose not to be mothers'. Take a read of it and the published comments underneath.

Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings...

From the BBC show 'Outnumbered' - someone is going to get a strong letter from the BBC Trust.

Blimey, what happened?

The Today interview with David Cameron was a surprise. Evan Davis pushed but not too much, was politely aggressive but interrupted less than I expected and certainly less than John Humphrys interrupted Gordon Brown in yesterday's equivalent interview.

What struck me was how much better an interviewee David Cameron is than Gordon Brown. David Cameron sounds controlled and engaged, rather than in a temper and dismissive of criticism. There is warmth in David Cameron's voice, maybe too much 'sincerity' but he sounds human and actually reacts to questioning, whereas Gordon Brown just bags on and on and on and on on his chosen line and ignores the actual question.

To sum up, a good interview by Evan Davis and, apart from his jokey "Daily Star" favourite newspaper answer, I think David Cameron came out ahead and I'm not even a great fan of his. I wonder how Gordon Brown would have reacted when asked what his favourite newspaper was?

I have used a new label for this post - 'BBC impartiality', I hope this won't be the only time I can do so in this election campaign, but somehow I think it will feature less than 'BBC bias' and 'BBC/NuLab'.