John Cooper Clarke supports Michael Gove, on rote learning anyway.

Not what BBC's Newsnight would have wanted to hear...

Harriet Harman expressing solidarity with her former economics advisor Duncan Weldon, now BBC Newsnight's new economics editor

When I saw this tweet, and thanks to Guido Fawkes for the spot, I remembered that I had some video of Harriet Harman giving assistance to another BBC presenter...



The BBC and the Labour party - two cheeks of the same arse.

BBC institutionally pro Labour?

Following the appointment of Labour's James Purnell, BBC are now to appoint Ian Katz deputy editor of The Guardian as editor of Newsnight.

Don't the BBC bosses care about looking biased? Or is it that they know they can't be stopped?

It seems that the Newsnight line on Israel and the Palestinians won't be changing either; read this from 2001 if you can stomach it.

'I am doing everything I can' - apart from watching defamatory programmes before they are broadcast, that is.

This screen grab shows the BBC's problem regarding the Lord McAlpine defamation

George Entwistle is doing everything he can but George Entwistle also admits that he didn't see the Newsnight report, which led to Lord McAlpine being wrongly implicated in child sexual abuse, before it was broadcast. Somewhat too late George Entwistle says that the Newsnight film should not have been broadcast.

What gives me hope is the news that Lord McAlpine is seriously considering  taking legal action against the BBC:

'"Then we have to look at Newsnight and... the way in which they behaved, the way they trailed, they made it obvious who it was, or who they alleged it was by referring people to the internet."'

What happened seems fairly clear to me; the BBC and its Labour allies saw a way of taking attention away from the Jimmy Saville story and placing the spotlight onto the hated Tory party. Tom Watson raised the matter in the House of Commons during PMQs on 24 October:

"Mr Tom Watson (West Bromwich East) (Lab): The evidence file used to convict paedophile Peter Righton, if it still exists, contains clear intelligence of a widespread paedophile ring. One of its members boasts of his links to a senior aide of a former Prime Minister, who says he could smuggle indecent images of children from abroad. The leads were not followed up, but if the file still exists I want to ensure that the Metropolitan police secure the evidence, re-examine it and investigate clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and No. 10."

The BBC took the story forward with its Newsnight programme, a programme that cast serious aspersions without every even showing the alleged victim any photos of the alleged culprit. Basic journalism you'd have thought, but not at the BBC.

When even The New Statesman and The Guardian can spot the problems with Tom Watson and the BBC's coverage, you know that the left have a problem.

John Redwood has a pretty good feel for the BBC/Labour motives:

'Some  Conservatives feel particularly unhappy about the way this has been treated. Of course the treatment of the wrongly accused is the worst feature, but they are not happy that in a fairly unsuccessful attempt to disguise his name the Conservative party was accused of harbouring a paedophile in the Thatcher era. Some Conservatives will ask why the unnamed person had to be described in this way. Would the BBC have said a senior figure of the Callaghan or Wilson era, if the dates had been different, or were they as often seems the case, out to attack Margaret Thatcher?  Would they have constantly repeated the word Labour, if the senior figure had been from that party, or sufficed themselves with a general word like politician? Why, in the North Wales abuse cases, did the BBC not constantly refer also to Clwyd Council, the  Council responsible for the childrens’   homes? Clwyd was certainly not a Conservative Council. Why did  they not add the Labour party label to a very nasty set of incidents if they thought the fact that it was a national Conservative government mattered? Why didn’t the unpublished Clwyd report into the abuse crisis become a matter of interest, as well as the wide  ranging enquiry ordered and published by Conservative Ministers?'

What is also interesting is that Tom Watson asked another question in the House of Commons recently,

Hansard 29 October:
'Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many files relating to the premiership of Sir Edward Heath (a) are retained by Government Departments and (b) have been transferred to the National Archives but have not yet been released under the 30 Year Rule. [124917]'

Anything you'd like to add Mr Watson?

Well said sir

From Newsnight's Twitter...

Well said @jhnbrssndn

Was Ed Balls misleading the public on Newsnight last night? And a challenge for Ed Balls.

"By having the fastest cuts of any country in the world, he (George Oborne) is running a huge risk"

That's a claim that Ed Balls made during his Newsnight interview with Jeremy Paxman last night. Jeremy Paxman did not pick him up on this claim but I will.

First an explanation that cuts in UK government spending are not fast or huge:

'In 1999-2000, government spending was £343bn. Had this merely moved in line with inflation, total expenditure would have reached £450bn in cash terms by 2009-10. Yet actual spending in that year had jumped to £669bn, an entirely unaffordable 53 per cent increase in real terms. The spending plans outlined in George Osborne’s emergency budget reduce real terms outlays from £697bn this year to £671bn in 2015-16. Remarkably, spending in real terms then will still be much higher than it was in 2008-09.'

Secondly I have a challenge for Ed Balls: I presume that Ed Balls would not have made a misleading claim on last night's Newsnight and so will be able to prove the veracity of his claim by comparing planned spending cuts in the UK with those of the countries he compared the UK with - Greece, Ireland and Portugal - and also with Spain, Italy and the United States. so come on Ed, compare the planned spending cuts in the UK and those other six countries for the next year, two years, three years and beyond if you can. Then give me the figures. Do the figures back you up? If they do then I will admit that you were quite correct on last night's Newsnight and publish that fact on my blog. If they do not back up your claim, will you admit that you were wrong and go on Newsnight to admit that you were wrong? I am sure that Newnight would be only too happy to give you the airtime to make that admission.

Those 'cuts'

In the 1980s I remember as a 6th Form Economics scholar complaining every time someone attacked the Tory Cuts, that they weren't cuts just reductions in planned increases. It was a point that the Conservatives didn't seem to try too hard to make and that the BBC would not allow to be made anyway. So I was not surprised to read John Redwood explain that:

' According to this year’s budget plans, public current spending will rise from £600.6 billion in 2009-10, the last Labour year, to £692.7 billion in 2014-15, the last planned year of the Coalition government in this Parliament. That’s a rise of £92.7 billion, or more than 15%: a rise of £1500 for every man,woman and child in the UK.

Total spending including capital will rise from £669.3 billion in 2009-10 to £737.5 billion, a rise of £68.2 billion. This shows that capital spending will be cut, according to the plans inherited from the last Labour government which the Coalition government has accepted.'

History would appear to repeating itself and John Redwood made that point on Newsnight last night when he apparently:

'flummoxed Kirsty Walk when he said that the government was not cutting public expenditure. She didn’t really know where to go with her line of questioning since it was so off her script. The BBC weltanschauung is that we will soon be seeing massive and terrible cuts in government spending which will provide endless material of the grinding down the poor and vulnerable kind for them.'

"... the event which catapulted Northern Ireland from a civil rights struggle to an insurgency"

Jeremy Paxman's words regarding Bloody Sunday from near the beginning of last night's Newsnight. That's odd I thought that the IRA had been murdering soldiers and civilians for a couple of years before Bloody Sunday.

Once again here, from Wikipedia, is a list of the Provisional IRA's attacks and their victims prior to Bloody Sunday:

'1970

* 26 June 1970: Three IRA volunteers and two young girls were killed when a bomb being assembled accidentally exploded in the Creggan, Derry.[1]
* 27 June 1970: IRA volunteers used firearms to defend Clonard monastery in west Belfast, the Short Strand in east Belfast (see Battle of St. Matthews) and other nationalist areas from attack by loyalist mobs. Six people (one Catholic IRA member and five loyalists Protestants) were killed in gun battles.[2]
* 3–5 July 1970: During the Falls Curfew the Official IRA and Provisional IRA fought a three day gun battle with 3,000 British troops who imposed a curfew on the Lower Falls area of Belfast, over 1,500 rounds were fired by British troops. Four civilians were killed.[3]
* 11 August 1970: Two RUC officers were killed by an IRA booby-trap bomb attached to an abandoned car in Crossmaglen, County Armagh. The bomb contained 20 lbs of gelignite and exploded when one of the officers attempted to open one of the car's doors.[4][5][6]
* 4 September 1970: IRA volunteer Michael Kane (35) was killed when a bomb he was placing at an electricity transformer in Belfast exploded accidentally.[4]
* 16 November 1970: The IRA shot and killed two alleged criminals in the Ballymurphy area of Belfast.[4] The men are alleged to have been involved in protection rackets, fencing stolen goods, minor racketeering, moneylending, burglary and robbery.[7]

[edit] 1971

* 6 February 1971: A British soldier on security duties, Gunner Robert Curtis, was killed by Billy Reid in a gun battle in North Belfast. Curtis was the first British soldier to die in Ireland since the 1920s. IRA volunteer James Saunders (21) was shot dead in a shoot out with the British Army in the Bone area of Belfast and one Catholic civilian was shot dead by three British soldiers. Eight British soldiers and five civilians were also injured in various gun battles around Belfast.[8][9]
* 9 February 1971: An IRA landmine killed five men near a BBC transmitter on Brougher Mountain in County Tyrone. Two of the dead were BBC engineers, the other three were construction workers. It was believed their vehicle was mistaken for a British Army landrover. British mobile patrols frequently inspected the transmitter.[10][11]
* 15 February 1971: A British soldier was shot and killed by an IRA sniper while taking part in a mobile-patrol in the Ardoyne area of Belfast. Two British Army scout cars came under sniper fire and had a bomb thrown at them. The soldier was shot in the head.[12][13]
* 26 February 1971: Two RUC officers who were attached to the forces Special Patrol Group (RUC) were killed in a gun battle with the IRA in the Ardoyne area of Belfast.[10][14]
* 8 March 1971: IRA volunteer Charles Hughes (26) was shot dead by the Official IRA in the Lower Falls area of Belfast. This was part of an ongoing dispute between the IRA and the OIRA.[12] In response the IRA shot and seriously injured a member of the OIRA.[15]
* 10 March 1971: The IRA abducted three off-duty British soldiers from Belfast and brought them to a mountain road outside the city, lined them up, and shot each of them in the head. They were the first off-duty soldiers to be killed in the conflict.[16][17]
* 15 May 1971: IRA volunteer Billy Reid (32) was killed during a gun battle between the IRA and the British Army on Academy Street, Belfast. Two British soldiers were wounded in the incident.[12][18]
* 25 May 1971: A bomb was thrown into Springfield Road British Army/RUC base in Belfast, killing army Sergeant Michael Willetts as he shielded civilians from the blast with his body. He was posthumously awarded the George Cross. Seven RUC officers, two British soldiers and eighteen civilians were injured.[12][19]
* 12 July 1971: A British soldier was shot dead by an IRA sniper at a British Observation post on Northumberland Street in Belfast. The IRA claimed his death was in retaliation for the killings of two civilians in Derry by the British Army the previous week.[12][20]
* 14 July 1971: A British soldier was shot and killed in an IRA ambush on a mobile-patrol in the Andersonstown area of Belfast. Three IRA gunmen using automatic weapons fired at least 35 shots at the patrol.[12][21]
* 8 August 1971: A British soldier was shot dead in an IRA sniper attack while on foot-patrol in the Ardoyne area of Belfast. The IRA said he was shot in retaliation for the shooting dead of a civilian by the British Army the day before on the Springfield Road.[12][22]
* 9 August 1971: 343 suspects were detained as internment was introduced. In the following two days 17 people were killed in gun battles between the IRA and British Army.The IRA killed one British soldier and one UDR soldier while the British Army shot dead one IRA volunteer, Patrick McAdorey (24) and 14 civilians. Between 1971 and 1975, 1,981 people were interned; 1,874 were Catholic/Republican, while only 107 were Protestant/Loyalist.[10]
* 9 August 1971: A British Army UDR soldier was killed in a joined Provisional & Official IRA ambush in Clady, Tyrone.[23]
* 11 August 1971: IRA volunteer Seamus Simpson (21) was shot and killed by the British Army while carrying out a bomb attack on their patrol in the Andersonstown area of Belfast.[12]
* 16 August 1971: The commander of the Provisionals' Belfast Brigade, Joe Cahill, gave a press conference claiming only 30 IRA volunteers had been interned.[10][24]
* 18 August 1971: IRA volunteer Eamon Lafferty (20) was shot and killed during a gun battle between the IRA and the British Army in the Creggan area of Derry City.[12]
* 23 August 1971: A British soldier was shot dead by an IRA sniper on Flax Street in the Ardoyne area of Belfast. The soldier was shot in the head as he exited a British armoured vehicle.[12][25] Another British soldier from the same regiment was shot dead by an IRA sniper in Ardoyne during a gun attack on an observation post. He had been shot in the mouth. The Daily Express published a picture of the dead soldier, George Crozier, on its front page the next day.[26]
* 25 August 1971: A civilian was killed when the IRA bombed the NIES office on Malone Road in Belfast. An inadequate warning was given.[12]
* 29 August 1971: A British soldier was shot dead by an IRA sniper in near Crossmaglen in County Armagh. The soldier was travelling in a British patrol consisting of two armoured vehicles when they accidentally crossed the border into County Monaghan. When attempting to turn back angry locals blocked their way and set one of the vehicles on fire. After eventually managing to get back across the border the patrol had to stop to change a damaged wheel. While this was happening a six man unit from the IRA's Monaghan Brigade arrived on the scene and took up sniping positions in nearby fields. One soldiers was killed after being shot in the neck and another injured when he was struck in the shoulder.[27][28]
* 31 August 1971: A British soldier was killed when he was shot by an IRA sniper in Stockmans Lane in the Andersonstown area of Belfast. A single shot was fired by a sniper which passed through the shoulder strap of another soldiers flak-jacket before hitting the other soldier in the head.[12][29]
* 3 September 1971: A British Army UDR soldier was shot dead when an IRA unit attacked Kilawley British Army base in County Fermanagh.[12][29]
* 9 September 1971: A British Army bomb-disposal expert was killed attempting to defuse an IRA bomb in Drumankelly in County Antrim.[12]
* 14 September 1971: A British soldier was shot dead during an IRA attack on a British Army mobile-patrol in Edendork, County Tyrone.[12]
* 15 September 1971: A British soldier was shot dead by the IRA in the grounds of Victoria Hospital in Belfast.[12]
* 17 September 1971: A British soldier was shot and killed by an IRA sniper while on foot-patrol in the Ardoyne area of Belfast.[12]
* 18 September 1971: An RUC officer was shot and killed in an IRA gun attack on his foot-patrol in Strabane, County Tyrone.[12]
* 1 October 1971: A British soldier was shot dead in an IRA gun-attack on a British Army foot-patrol in the Ardoyne area of Belfast.[12]
* 2 October 1971: IRA volunteer Terence McDermott (19) died after the bomb he was transporting exploded accidentally outside Lisburn, County Antrim.[12]
* 11 October 1971: A British soldier was shot and killed by the IRA while on foot-patrol on the Letterkenny Road in Derry.[12]
* 15 October 1971: Two RUC officers were shot and killed when an IRA unit attacked their patrol car on the Woodvale Road in Belfast.[12]
* 16 October 1971: A British Army soldier was shot dead by the IRA during riots in the Bogside area of Derry.[12]
* 17 October 1971: Two British soldiers were killed when their armoured-mobile-patrol was caught in an IRA sniper ambush in Belfast.[12]
* 23 October 1971: Two unarmed female IRA volunteers, Maura Meehan (30) and Dorothy Maguire (19), were shot and killed by the British Army in the Lower Falls area of Belfast.[12]
* 24 October 1971: IRA volunteer Martin Forsythe (19) was shot and killed by undercover RUC officers during a bomb attack in Donegall Place, Belfast.[12]
* 27 October 1971: Two British soldiers were killed when the IRA bombed Rosemount British Army base in Derry.[12]
* 27 October 1971: An RUC officer was shot and killed by an IRA sniper while on patrol near Toome in County Antrim.[12]
* 27 October 1971: A British soldier was killed when a British Army armoured personnel carrier struck an IRA landmine in Kinawley, County Fermanagh.[12]
* 29 October 1971: An RUC officer was killed when the IRA bombed the RUC base on the Antrim Road in Belfast.[12]
* 30 October 1971: A British soldier was killed when the IRA bombed a British Army Observation Post on the corner of Cupar Street in Belfast.[12]
* 31 October 1971: A British soldier was killed in an IRA sniper attack on his patrol in Stockmans Lane, Belfast.[12]
* 1 November 1971: Two RUC officers were shot dead by an IRA unit while investigating a robbery at Avoca Shopping Centre in Belfast.[12]
* 2 November 1971: Three civilians were killed when the IRA bombed the Ormeau Road RUC base. The three were drinking in the Red Lion bar which is next-door to the base.[12]
* 4 November 1971: A British soldier was killed in an IRA sniper attack on Henry Taggart British Army base in Ballymurphy, Belfast.[12]
* 7 November 1971: A British soldier was shot dead in an IRA drive-by attack in Lurgan, County Armagh.[12]
* 9 November 1971: A British soldier was shot and killed by an IRA sniper on Foyle Road in Derry City.[12]
* 11 November 1971: Two RUC officers were shot dead by the IRA in Belfast. They had left the base to go into a shop on the street behind it when they were ambushed by an IRA unit.[12]
* 18 November 1971: A British soldier was shot and killed by the IRA while guarding a bus depot in the Short Strand area of Belfast.[12]
* 24 November 1971: A civilian was killed in the crossfire during an IRA attack on a British Army base in Strabane.[12]
* 24 November 1971: A British Army bomb disposal expert was killed attempting to defuse a car-bomb in Lurgan, County Armagh.[12]
* 27 November 1971: Two Customs Officials were killed when IRA snipers attacked Killen Customs Post near Newry, County Armagh. The soldiers guarding the post were the intended targets.[12]
* 27 November 1971: A British soldier was shot dead by an IRA sniper while on foot-patrol in the Falls area of Belfast.[12]
* 29 November 1971: An off-duty British soldier was shot dead by the IRA near Crossmaglen, Armagh.[12]
* 6 December 1971: A civilian was killed in an IRA bomb attack in Belfast. The bomb destroyed a business premises. The damage resulted in one of the walls collapsing in on top of the building next door, crushing a civilian.[12]
* 7 December 1971: A British Army UDR soldier was shot dead by the IRA in Curlagh, County Tyrone.[12]
* 8 December 1971: Two British soldiers were killed in separate IRA gun attacks in Belfast.[12]
* 10 December 1971: A British UDR soldier and an ex-soldier were killed when their car was attacked by an IRA unit near Clady. County Tyrone.[12]
* 11 December 1971: A bomb attack on a furniture shop on the Shankill Road in Belfast killed four Protestant civilians, including two children.[12]
* 16 December 1971: A British soldier was shot and killed by an IRA sniper in the Lower Falls area of Belfast.[12]
* 18 December 1971: IRA volunteers James Sheridan (20), John Bateson (19) and Martin Lee (19) died in Magherafelt, County Londonderry, when the bomb they were transporting exploded prematurely.[10]
* 21 December 1971: A Publican was killed when he picked up and attempted to remove an IRA bomb which had been planted in his bar on the Lisburn Road in Belfast.[12]
* 21 December 1971: Unarmed IRA volunteer Gerald McDade (23) was shot after being captured by the British Army in the Ardoyne area of Belfast.[12]
* 29 December 1971: A British soldier was shot dead in an IRA gun attack on a foot-patrol in the Brandywell area of Derry City.[12]
* 31 December 1971: IRA volunteer Jack McCabe (55) was killed when a bomb he was assembling exploded accidentally in Santry, Dublin.[12]

[edit] 1972

* 5 January 1972: A British soldier was shot and killed by an IRA sniper while on foot-patrol in the Lower Falls area of Belfast.[30]
* 7 January 1972: IRA volunteer Daniel O'Neill (20) was killed in a gun-battle with British troops in the Falls area of Belfast.[30]
* 12 January 1972: An off duty RIC officer was shot dead by an IRA unit in the Lower Falls area of Belfast.[30]
* 13 January 1972: A British UDR soldier was shot dead by an IRA sniper while driving a van through Newtownabbey, County Antrim.[30]
* 18 January 1972: A civilian was shot dead by the IRA after he came forward as a witness to the IRA hijacking of a bus in The Mount area of Belfast.[30]
* 21 January 1972: A British soldier was killed when he stepped on an IRA landmine near Keady in County Armagh.[30]
* 26 January 1972: IRA volunteer Peter McNulty (47) was killed when a bomb he was planting at an RUC base in Castlewellan, County Down, exploded accidentally.[30]
* 27 January 1972: An IRA unit which included Martin Meehan fought a 4-hour gun battle with a British Army detachment at Dungooley in south Armagh. The British Army alone fired over 4,500 rounds while the IRA returned fire with assault rifles and an anti-tank gun. There were no casualties in the battle with the exception of a farmers pig which was caught in the crossfire. 8 IRA volunteers were arrested south of the border but were eventually acquitted.[31]
* 27 January 1972: Two RUC officers were killed when their patrol vehicle was hit by IRA gunfire in the Creggan area of Derry City.[30]
* 28 January 1972: An off-duty RUC officer was shot dead in an IRA gun attack at a garage in the Oldpark area of Belfast.[30]
* 30 January 1972: A British soldier died four months after being injured in an IRA sniper attack in the Bogside area of Derry.[30]'

An odd "civil rights struggle"!

The BBC are in full attack mode

I note that tonight's Newsnight will include this:

"The Conservative donor and deputy party chairman Lord Ashcroft has admitted he is "non-domiciled" in the UK for tax. How damaging has his affiliation been to the party? Our Political editor Michael Crick will be considering why the Conservative poll lead is narrowing."

I am assuming that Lord Paul, Lakshmi Mittal, Sir Ronald Cohen, Sir Christopher Ondaatje, Sir Gulam Noon, William Bollinger and Mahmoud Khayami will not be mentioned at all; after all why should they as they are lovely Labour donors not evil Tory ones.

Michael Crick demonstrating his ignorance or bias

Michael Crick's blog piece entitled "How 'AV' made Cameron Tory leader" demonstrates how Michael Crick doesn't let facts spoil a good anti-Tory story. Michael Crick writes:

"Mischievously, I looked up the voting figures for the Conservative leadership election last time round, in 2005.

Lo and behold, the votes from MPs in the first round were:

David Davis - 62
David Cameron - 56
Liam Fox - 42
Ken Clarke - 38

It was only in subsequent ballots, after the weaker candidates, Mr Clarke and Mr Fox, were eliminated, and David Cameron picked up many of their supporters' second or third preferences, that he won through.

If the Conservatives had used "first past the post" in 2005, then David Davis would have won."

The key word here is indeed "Mischievously" as the Conservative Party leadership election was not held under the Alternative Vote system where electors rank candidates in order of preference and votes are redistributed accordingly until one of the leading candidates has more than 50% of the votes. It was a run-off election where after each round of voting one or more candidates drop out, there is more campaigning, another round of one vote per person voting; this process continues until one candidate has a majority of the votes. I seem to remember that the French elect Presidents in just such a manner.

Either Michael Crick made an honest mistake, in which case one has to question whether someone with that little understanding of politics should remain as Newsnight's political editor or Michael Crick's anti-Tory views are so entrenched that he just couldn't refrain from 'having a pop' at the leader of the Conservative Party, in which case he is too biased to remain as Newsnight's political editor.

So I hereby call for Michale Crick to either resign from his position as Newsnight's political editor or be sacked by the BBC whether for incompetence or bias.

"As long as the BBC is a publicly-funded state broadcasting organisation, its leading current affairs programme is going to take a Leftist view..."

David Hughes' piece in The Telegraph about the 30th anniversary of Newsnight contained an interesting section:

"But the programme today has a drawback for political junkies and that is its general view of the world. If you took all the trendy liberalism that makes up the BBC and bubbled it over the Bunsen burner until you were left with the purest residue, the irreducible core of metropolitan Left-wingery — well, that’s Newsnight.

It regards Right-wing politicians as some alien species, necessary (just) to the political process but viewed with either curiosity or contempt, depending on their demeanour. I’m sure this is not deliberate, that people aren’t consciously trying to present politics from a Left-wing standpoint.It happens because that’s the programme’s mindset.

Take last year’s stunt by the programme to set up a panel to identify candidates for public spending cuts. The four members were Greg Dyke (a former Labour donor); Deborah Mattinson (Gordon Brown’s pollster); Lord Jones of Birmingham (a former Labour minister), and Matthew Taylor (a former adviser to Tony Blair). Didn’t it strike anyone, anyone at all, that this looked just a little rum? Probably not.

This is never going to change, of course. As long as the BBC is a publicly-funded state broadcasting organisation, its leading current affairs programme is going to take a Leftist view of things. It’s the way of the world, pointless complaining about it. But it’s still a shame. Imagine how good it could be if it broke out of its comfort zone occasionally. "

It would be interesting to hear the BBC's response to this charge.

Release of al-Megrahi was linked to a trade deal?

Tonight's Newsnight is claiming that one of Colonel Gaddafi's seven sons is claiming that Mohamed al-Megrahi's release was linked to trade deals. I wonder if Peter Mandelson, one of whose many responsibilities in government is Trade, would like to comment; maybe with reference to his meeting in Corfu with Saif al-Islam Gaddafi (one of Gaddafi's sons).

Another question that needs answering is was the son Newsnight are quoting the same one that Peter Mandelson met?

Wikipedia records re Saif al-Islam Gaddafi that:

"In 1997, he founded the official charity, the Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations, which has intervened in various hostage situations involving Islamic militants... Saif also performs public relations and diplomatic roles on behalf of his father... On December 10, 2004, shortly before a trip by Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin to Tripoli, Saif requested in an interview with The Globe and Mail a formal apology from the Canadian government, for joining U.S.-led sanctions against Libya after the Lockerbie bombing... In an August 2008 BBC TV interview, Saif said that Libya had admitted responsibility (but not admitted "guilt") for the Lockerbie bombing simply to get trade sanctions removed. He further admitted that Libya was being "hypocritical" and was "playing on words", but Libya had no other choice on the matter. According to Saif, a letter admitting "responsibility" was the only way to end the economic sanctions imposed on Libya. When asked about the compensation that Libya was paying to the victims' families, he again repeated that Libya was doing so because it had no other choice. He went on to describe the families of the Lockerbie victims as "trading with the blood of their sons and daughters" and being very "greedy": "They were asking for more money and more money and more money"... Interviewed by French newspaper Le Figaro on December 7, 2007, Saif said that the seven Libyans convicted for the Pan Am Flight 103 and the UTA Flight 772 bombings "are innocent". When asked if Libya would therefore seek reimbursement of the compensation paid to the families of the victims ($2.33 billion), Saif replied: "I don't know." Saif is involved in negotiating compensation from Libya's former colonial power, Italy, and according to prime minister Silvio Berlusconi a bilateral "friendship treaty" is expected to be signed by the end of August 2008. He is also negotiating with the United States in order to conclude a comprehensive agreement making any further payments for American victims of terror attacks that have been blamed on Libya — such as the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing, the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and the 1989 UTA Flight 772 bombing — conditional upon U.S. payment of compensation for the 40 Libyans killed and 220 injured in the 1986 United States bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi""

I think the al-Megrahi release story has legs as more facts emerge could actually prove to be the downfall of this Labour government. More and more people are beginning to realise quite how this Labour government operates and they don't like it. Maybe a point has been reached where enough people feel angry enough that a general election may be forced upon Gordon "courage" Brown and Peter "twice disgraced" Mandelson.

Bob Ainsworth showing his skills in mastering a brief back in 2007

Now I can see why Gordon Brown promoted Bob Ainsworth. Convincing isn't he?



Thanks to Political Betting for the spot.

The BBC do the decent thing

My complaints to the BBC re their misrepresentation of my views re Peter Mandelson becoming PM have borne fruit. I have not received an email (other than an automated acknowledgement) from the BBC but the Newsnight article has now been corrected to read:

"Could Lord Mandelson ever oust Mr Brown and become the next PM? News Junction thinks it's certainly possible.

Under the posting Peter Mandelson for PM, Not A Sheep concludes Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson... a downward slope of honesty and probity there but ability?"

Of course being the BBC it has been a stealth edit as the page still claims "Page last updated at 17:38 GMT, Friday, 31 July 2009 18:38 UK" which is of course somewhat misleading/untrue. However credit where credit is due, the BBC have reacted to my complaint fairly swiftly. I await their email of explanation with interest.


To paraphrase Bobby Fuller and indeed the Clash - "I fought the Beeb and I won"; well maybe.

Newsnight - a complaint

Following my posting about Newsnight's The Buzz misrepresenting my views about the likelihood of Peter Mandelson becoming leader of the Labour party, I have decided to complain to the BBC and see how responsive our BBC is.

Here's the email I sent newsnightwebteam@bbc.co.uk and NewsnightInvestigations@bbc.co.uk

"I am rather upset at The Buzz for 31 July. It includes a reference to a piece on my blog that completely misrepresents what I said. The Buzz's piece states that "Could Lord Mandelson ever oust Mr Brown and become the next PM? News Junction thinks it's certainly possible.

However, Not A Sheep laughs at the suggestion saying Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson... a downward slope of honesty and probity there."

To the contrary my blog entry that The Buzz refers to actually argues the opposite point, that Peter Mandelson could well become the next leader of the Labour Party and concludes that "Who better to ensure that the UK is forever bound into the EU than Peter Mandelson, the man with the EU pension and thus the possible question mark regarding his loyalty to the UK relative to the EU?".

I would request that you publish a correction to your original piece, assuming that facts matter to Newsnight.


Kind regards

NotaSheep"

I have also made a complaint through the BBC's complaint department; I wonder what will transpire...

Newsnight fail to report me accurately, what a shock

Newsnight's The Buzz seems to be incapable of understanding a simple blog article. They report under the title "PETER MANDELSON FOR PRIME MINISTER?" the following (my emphasis):

"Peter Mandelson admitted on Newsnight that it will be very tough for Labour to win the next General Election.

Dr Peter Slowe, chairman of Labour's finance and industry group, this week called for MPs to oust Prime Minister Gordon Brown and replace him with Lord Mandelson, saying he is "the only one with the clout, intellect and charisma who could realistically take on the Tories and win".

Could Lord Mandelson ever oust Mr Brown and become the next PM? News Junction thinks it's certainly possible.

However, Not A Sheep laughs at the suggestion saying Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson... a downward slope of honesty and probity there.

Of course there is the small matter of Lord Mandelson's life peerage - though the government is tabling a proposal that would give life peers the right to resign from the House of Lords - something hereditary peers have been able to do since 1963.
"

So Newsnight say that I laugh at the suggestion that Peter Mandelson could ever become Prime Minister, read my original post and you will note that I say exactly the opposite:

"How could Peter Mandelson become Prime Minister when there is no provision for a Life Peer, as opposed to an Hereditary Peer, to resign his peerage? This was the shout whenever anyone expressed the view that Peter Mandelson had his eyes on the big prize, becoming Prime Minister, even if it was for only a short time. As I have blogged before there are several Labour "big beasts" who would be only too delighted to be PM for a few months and thus get their hands on the special PM pension that they would then be entitled to. So it was hardly a surprise that I read in the Financial Times that:

"Labour is to change the law to allow life peers to quit the upper house, raising the prospect that Peter Mandelson could stage yet another unlikely comeback and return to the political fray in the House of Commons."

Then we get an interesting aside:

"Asked last month by the Financial Times whether he might renounce his peerage and stand again as an MP, Lord Mandelson said: “It’s not legally possible to do that. I am trapped. I believe it is for life.”

He then added: “Of course, you could always change the law.” Although Lord Mandelson insisted he was “teasing”, the first secretary apparently only has to muse aloud and his wishes are fulfilled."

And then the kicker:

"Tackled on the subject, Lord Mandelson said: “The legislation has to get on to the statute book. I’m not anticipating any change for myself. Goodbye.”"

Who better to ensure that the UK is forever bound into the EU than Peter Mandelson, the man with the EU pension and thus the possible question mark regarding his loyalty to the UK relative to the EU?

Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson... A downward slope of honesty and probity there but ability? Taking a maths exam stance for a moment; how would you continue such a series?"

Typically reporting by the BBC, just 100% wrong which is I suppose par for the course.