I am not a sheep, I have my own mind
I have had enough of being told what and how to think
Whilst we are still allowed the remnants of free speech, I will speak out.
I also reserve the right to discuss less controversial matters should I feel the urge.
'The Government's row with the BBC over the coverage of its welfare changes has escalated. Downing Street was infuriated when housing benefit claimant David Bennett challenged Iain Duncan Smith on the Today Programme to live on £53 a week, saying that Bennett was living on substantially more than that and that his claims should have been checked before being broadcast.
But Number 10 is now apoplectic after learning that Bennett was approached when he posted criticisms of David Cameron and the welfare changes on the BBC's user-generated content hub.
This has added to the Government's suspicions that the BBC was deliberately setting the Welfare Secretary up for a rough ride.'
This week's award is presented to Iain Duncan Smith as reported in The Telegraph for this:
'Mr Duncan Smith said it is too easy for migrants from the European Economic Area to pass a habitual residency test to prove they live in the UK and enable them to claim benefits.
He said the Government has met with stiff opposition from Brussels as ministers attempt to make it harder for so-called benefits tourists to abuse the system in the UK.
Ministers are currently exploring ways of limiting migrants’ access to social housing, healthcare and legal aid.
Responding to an urgent question from Labour MP Frank Field in the Commons, Mr Duncan Smith said: "I agree with you, there is somewhat of a crisis over this. I absolutely agree with you. For the last two years I have been fighting a rearguard action over what was left to me by the last government. '
A 'crisis' over immigrants claiming benefits - "No shit, Sherlock"
'A major row erupted after a Cabinet Minister accused BBC Economics Editor Stephanie Flanders of showing a pro-Labour bias by undermining the Government’s jobs claims.
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has made a formal complaint to the BBC about its ‘carping and moaning’.
He singled out Ms Flanders over her coverage of figures that showed unemployment and welfare handouts are falling in spite of the slump. In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, he claimed that the BBC backs the economic stance of Labour leader Ed Miliband and Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls and seizes every chance to ‘dump on the Government’.
And he accused influential Ms Flanders of ‘pouring cold water’ over the rise in employment and ‘peeing all over’ British business.
He said the BBC had ‘set up’ an interview with a self-employed nurse who agreed when Ms Flanders suggested that she was among the ‘hidden unemployed’.
Last week’s recession-defying leap in jobs in the three months to June surprised experts.
Mr Duncan Smith claimed it was evidence that Government policies are working.
He was furious when Ms Flanders questioned the figures in the BBC Six O’Clock and Ten O’Clock TV news on Wednesday – and did not screen an interview with him proclaiming the Coalition’s success.
On screen, she said: ‘Britain’s jobs numbers are a puzzle which keeps getting harder to solve. Of course it’s good news . . . but it is not necessarily good news for us or the Chancellor if we are needing more people as a country to make less stuff.’
Ms Flanders claimed ‘hidden unemployment’ could be ‘lurking behind the statistics’. She interviewed nurse Jacqui Connell, who was made redundant last year and is now self-employed, taking her off the dole register. Ms Connell agreed: ‘I do think I’m a hidden figure.’
Ms Flanders added that ‘many in the City’ expected dole queues to rise over the coming months.'
The Mail report the BBC's defence, which is what you would expect. The Mail also report some background on Stephanie Flanders:
'Ms Flanders, 44, is the daughter of British actor and comic singer Michael Flanders, of Flanders and Swann fame. She attended the fee-paying St Paul’s Girls’ School in London and studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford.
She lives with long-term partner John Arlidge and their two children in a £1 million West London home.'
Oddly they omit some rather relevant information about Stephanie Flanders' background. Some information that I have reported before:
'Stephanie Flanders earned her nickname as Wikipedia delicately put it
'She previously dated Ed Balls and Ed Miliband who went on to become Shadow Chancellor and leader of the Labour Party respectively.'
What is less well known about the BBC's economics editor is that she also worked as a speechwriter and adviser to the U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers in 1997. You will not be surprised to learn that Mr Summers was the United States Secretary of the Treasury for Bill Clinton.
So in summary Stephanie Flanders previously dated two men who went on to be the two leading figures in the Labour party and then went on to work for a US Democrat administration.'
'I am not saying that Stephanie Flanders is biased in favour of the British Labour party and against the British Conservative party. I am not saying that Stephanie Flanders is biased in favour of the US Democrat party and against the US Republican party. Many would say that she is guilty of both these types of bias, what do you think? However I do think that the BBC, if they insist on presenting Stephanie Flanders as their unbiased economics editor should at least subtitle her reports with a health warning as to her background.'
Will Ed Balls ever dare to go back onto Andrew Neil's show where he put up this performance last year, bearing in mind today's Telegraph revelations?
How can anyone believe a word Ed Balls says from now on when, bearing in mind this that I blogged earlier today:
'One fact that seems to be garnering too little interest is that Ed Balls has now been proved to be a liar. Ed Balls has denied several times that there was a plot to overthrow Tony Blair, he has indeed previously insisted he had "never ever" been involved in attempts to undermine colleagues. take a read of this Guardian piece from July 2010 about Ed Balls' BBC interview:
'Ed Balls, a Labour leadership contender and a close ally of Gordon Brown, today rejected suggestions that he took part in an "insurgency" against Tony Blair and insisted the differences between the two men amounted only to "creative tensions".
In a fractious interview on the BBC, he dismissed as "total, absolute nonsense" any idea that he had been party to a coup against Blair in 2006, which led to him announcing his intention to quit the following year.
...
He said: "I was the chief economic adviser to the Treasury. I was never involved in an insurgency, I was very close to Gordon Brown but I also saw Tony Blair very regularly, but we had our disagreements."'
In the light of the recently released documents why should anyone trust a word Ed Balls says again?
I trust that every interviewer of Ed Balls in the future will prefix every interview with him by pointing out that Ed Balls has been proved to have lied to interviewers before and therefore his comments must be judged accordingly.
Now I am not showing this next piece of video as an example of Ed Balls misleading per se but it does neatly illustrate the type of man he is - a bully. I have posted this video before and make no apology for doing so again as I think it healthy to see Ed Balls in full bully boy mode as he tries to intimidate Ian Duncan Smith by talking over him, repeating "absolute nonsense" and/or "how cynical" again and again whilst Ian Duncan Smith is speaking (how rude and childish).
When watching Ed Balls being interviewed you should always look at his eyes for either the blinking that Ed 'blinky' Balls was famous for or in later years the wild stare as he desperately tries not to blink.
Yesterday I received a comment on my old post entitled ' The BBC/Labour relationship in one video clip'.
Here's the comment from 'Anonymous'
'What was it that we're supposed to be annoyed about? She said something to him, and he then interrupted IDS, but you can't say that one led to the other. All David Dimbleby does on that show is interupt and challenge the speakers - that's what he's there for. He does it to everyone - well, to all the politicians anyway, he usually gives journos and business types an easier ride.
By the way, Dimbleby is not employed by the BBC, he's always been a freelancer.'
And here's the video
So let's see: can you really watch that piece of video and not see Harriet Harman tell David Dimbleby what to do and him acquiesce? Check Beeb Bias Craig for figures detailing David Dimbleby's lack of bias. And as for David dimbleby not being employed by the BBC, so what? They pay him and they broadcast the programme.
Do you like the way that the man, Ed Balls, who now snivels that he was the victim of bullying when at school sits there repeating over and over again "absolute nonsense" as Ian Duncan Smith speaks. I do like Ian Duncan Smith's coolness as he asks Ed Balls to "use his brain a bit". And then later on Ed Balls talks over Ian Duncan Smith again just repeating "that's so cynical" or variants. I love the way Ed Balls leaps away in mock horror as IDS gestures and then smirks as IDS talks about his service in the army.
With Question Time returning to our TV screens tonight, a comment made by host David Dimbleby in a Sunday Telegraph interview caught my eye.
"And no, he insists, the audience isn’t biased. How can it possibly be when it is carefully selected to represent as broad as possible a cross-section of society?
For the 150 places on each programme there are an average 500 applicants. These applications are then vetted by a ‘professional woman’ who spends an entire week sifting through them.
First, they are divided on party political lines; then by age, by sex and by ethnic make-up (the last weighted according to the broadcast location: for example, more blacks and Asians for an inner-London programme than for one in Cheltenham). "
Let's examine that defence quite carefully.
"the audience isn’t biased. How can it possibly be when it is carefully selected to represent as broad as possible a cross-section of society?" - On what basis is it selected?
"For the 150 places on each programme there are an average 500 applicants. These applications are then vetted by a ‘professional woman’ who spends an entire week sifting through them." - Just one woman, what information is she in possession of in order to select the chosen 150?
"First, they are divided on party political lines" - On what split? On basis of seats in the House of Commons at the last election? This seems unlikely with the composition of audiences during the years of Conservative government when the audience was clearly anti-Conservative and pro-Labour. On the basis of the percentage of the popular vote cast at the last general election? Again seems unlikely for similar reasons to above. On the basis of votes at the last major elections? This seems unlikely as otherwise there would be a strong Conservative/UKIP majority in the audience. On a 30% Labour, 30% Conservative, 30% Lib Dem and 10% other basis (or similarly ad-hoc percentage split)? If so why? This guarantees a majority left of centre audience; oh hold on that might be why. If the audience is meant to be representative then how many UKIP and BNP supporters are invited as compared to Greens?
"then by age, by sex and by ethnic make-up" - Based upon what factors? The last census or what?
But what of the man himself, where do David Dimbleby's political loyalties lie?
"Does this mean that over the years he has managed so perfectly to hone his position of neutrality that he no longer has any political views of his own?
‘I do have very strong political views,’ he says. ‘But as with most people, I’m a muddle of opinions, with views that don’t tally precisely with those of any particular party. I never tell anyone how I vote. Not my children. Nor my wife.’"
Whilst I do not know how David Dimbleby votes, I think it safe to assume that he either doesn't vote Conservative or is desperately over-compensating for doing so.
Here's some video of the great Question Time presenter being controlled by a Labour cabinet minister and obeying almost immediately...
To celebrate, the BBC have put up some video of "Question Time's top comedy moments". Apparently containing:
"Some comedy moments from the last 30 years of Question Time with Boris Johnson, Bernard Ingham, Jo Brand, Ted Heath, Alan Taylor, Arthur Scargill, Shirley Williams and Alan Clark."
Now the line from Alan Taylor is priceless
"To tell you the truth, I don't think anything about it at all... No if you think I'm going to start thinking about this problem, you're very mistaken"
The BBC also link to some recent programme highlights but not to the most revealing piece of Question Time video ever seen, which I first blogged about in July and repeat here in all its glory. It is Harriet Harman instructing an obedient David Dimbleby to try and stop Ian "A quiet man" Duncan Smith from embarrassing the government.
Now that's a video, that whilst not "comedy", certailbly bears repeating.
Here is one of my favourite Ed Balls performances, his constant repetition of "absolute nonsense" whilst Ian Duncan Smith is speaking whilst all the way grinning like the smug bully that he is shows his lack of respect for anyone other than his fellow Labour Ministers. I enjoy the way IDS makes mincemeat of Ed Balls.
For your enjoyment here's Ed Balls being questioned on inflation by Andrew Neil. Do watch right to the end for an interesting point made by Paddy Ashdown...
And here's Ed Balls being questioned on his specialist subject (heaven help us) Education...
