For some reason we found ourselves watching both the 10 O’Clock News and Newsnight last night. In the end I had to switch off and vowed not to allow myself to suffer in this way again. It started with the warnings from the convicted fraudster Christine Lagarde and the IMF on Brexit.
We were told on both programmes that the IMF is highly respected and Ms Lagarde warned that any Brexit would damage the UK and a No deal Brexit would be a disaster, causing a recession, etc. No -one on either programme mentioned the fact that during the referendum, the fraudster and the IMF warned that simply voting to leave would cause a recession in 2017! It would also trigger a stockmarket and house price crash at once.
Of course there has been no recession, the economy has grown, the stockmarket has headed higher and house prices now are ahead of where they were in 2016 though are now falling. The IMF has, to its credit, ‘fessed that its 2016 forecasts were all wrong. I should cocoa. Yet there was no mention of this as the BBC treated Lagarde’s words as gospel. Natch Channel 4 Fake News also lead with these siren warnings without any comment on the “form” of the IMF when it comes to predictions in this area.
On Newsnight we were treated to a panel debate on Brexit with Kirsty Wark not hiding her remoaning views in the chair. Warning that Britain was in a bind and Brexit would end badly was an Irish politician and, for balance, er.. a former Civil servant who adamantly opposed Brexit. Impartial, fair and balanced? There was no-one present to argue in favour of Brexit.
Newsnight also covered the hearings for the Supreme Court vacancy where Trump nominee Brett Kavanaugh has been accused of sexual harassment 35 years ago when at High School. There was no mention of the witnesses who flatly contradict the allegation, only a grudging admission that the accuser is a rabid Trump hating democrat, that she has been accused by her own students of being flaky or that Kavanaugh’s mum (also a Judge) found the accuser’s parents guilty in a Court case many moons ago. Instead Wark sneered that Kavanaugh is a “known conservative”.
WTF. A conservative President nominates a conservative judge – well what a surprise that is. Knock me down with a feather. Whatever next? The Pope nominating a catholic to be a bishop?
The Wark sneer was in the same way you might talk of a “known felon” or a “known pervert”. The use of words was a shocking admission of partiality.
Back to the BBC News at ten where Middle East correspondent Jeremy Bowen reported on the evil Israelis trying to tear down a village, constructed illegally, in the West Bank. The details are for another day but what struck me was Bowen’s use of words. He talked of how Israel had “seized” the West Bank. Hmmm. I guess viewers might have thought Israel “seized it” from the Poor Palestinians.
The truth is that in 1967 Israel was attacked on all sides by the Arab nations. The West Bank was part of Jordan and the Palestinians were given no autonomy whatsoever by the Hashemite Kingdom. Jordanian troops went into Jerusalem’s Jewish areas to kill Jews. Israel fought back and eventually pushed the Jew murdering Jordanian army back past the Dead Sea and back into Jordan proper. That is how Israel gained control of the West Bank. That is not quite the story Bowen’s use of the word “seize” might suggest. It is part of the drip drip drip feed of fake news designed to blacken the name of Israel which the BBC serves up almost daily.
Why, I ask, should I be forced under threat of jail to pay a license fee for this tosh?