Call me a cynic, but I doubt Jolyon Maugham, Alistair Campbell, Jon Sopel, John Simpson and Dan Walker would have rallied to the defence of Huw Edwards if he was a GB News presenter. It’s only because they regard him as one of their own that these panjandrums have urged the press to back off, with Sopel stressing there is “no illegality” and any further reporting of this story is therefore an unwarranted intrusion into “someone’s private life”.
This isn’t a considered reaction, but a tribal one. Given that the allegations originally surfaced in the Sun and the reputation of the BBC is at stake, these metropolitan liberals are prepared to extend the benefit of the doubt to Edwards. Again and again, his defenders emphasise that these are only “allegations” and the police have decided not to take any further action, overlooking the fact that numerous other public figures have been thrown under a bus in similar circumstances, e.g. Michael Fallon, who was forced to resign as Defence Secretary after far milder allegations were made against him in 2017. But, of course, it’s one rule for Conservative MPs and another for the BBC’s highest-paid broadcasters.
It probably helps that the charges against Huw Edwards involve four young men (two of whom, it is alleged, were only 17 when the presenter first made contact). If they involved young women, it’s hard to imagine so many bien pensant members of the media class leaping to his defence. They certainly wouldn’t have if he’d been accused of breaching a woke speech code, as Danny Baker was in 2019. When Archie was born to Harry and Meghan, the then BBC presenter tweeted a picture of a couple emerging from a hospital with a chimpanzee, which led to accusations of racism. He claimed it was an innocent mistake – and I believe him – but when he was summarily dismissed there was barely a squeak of protest from any of his BBC colleagues.
Incredibly, the anger you’d expect the BBC’s defenders to feel towards Edwards – after all, it is the charge that he paid a young man £35,000 in return for sexually explicit images that has brought the BBC into disrepute – has been directed at the Sun instead. How dare the tabloid print this allegation?
“A number of people have been in touch with the presenter to say they feel righteous fury over the way the Sun has covered this and it is fair to say that the presenter at the heart of this is also extremely angry over a lot of the Sun coverage and is convinced they’re trying to dig and find new dirt to harm this particular person’s reputation,” Jon Sopel said on The News Agents on LBC.
Hacked Off, the campaign group lobbying for state regulation of the press, published a piece saying the Sun had “questions to answer”, arguing it had got the balance wrong between an individual’s right to privacy and the public’s right to know.
“Shame on The Scum for its homophobic lies – and shame on all the Murdoch titles, including the Times, for poisoning our country,” tweeted Jolyon Maugham. “Solidarity with @thehuwedwards.”
“I hope the media will look at themselves in the coverage of this story,” said Alistair Campbell on Channel 4 News last night, who stressed that in light of the fact that the police had dropped its investigation it was just a story about “someone’s personal life”. (Same argument Jon Sopel made.)
But, surely, the public interest defence here is the same as it is when the New York Times exposes a MeToo scandal, as it did recently in the case of Nick Cohen, the Observer columnist (and lockdown zealot) – namely, that an abuse of power is involved. To add to the Sun’s defence, the allegation it reported was that the boy Huw Edwards had paid for sexually explicit photographs was only 17 when this first happened, which is a criminal offence. Turns out, that wasn’t true – at least, judging from the police’s decision not to pursue the matter – but those were the facts as relayed to the Sun by a member of the boy’s family (according to the Sun).
It’s also worth bearing in mind that the story would never have ended up in the taboid had the BBC done what the mother wanted when she first contacted the broadcaster back in May. She told the BBC she was making the complaint because she wanted Edwards to stop sending her son money who was using it to fund a drug habit. In response, the BBC passed on the complaint to the Corporate Investigations Team, but it didn’t even question Edwards, let alone place him under investigation, until July 7th, when the Sun got in touch asking for a comment on the story it was about to run. (This is according to a timeline of how the scandal unfolded in the Mail.). In other words, the boy’s family only contacted the Sun because the BBC’s response to their original complaint was inadequate. And, incidentally, the Sun didn’t pay anything for the story.
I suppose it’s possible that the BBC’s internal investigation into Huw Edwards, which has resumed now that the police investigation is over, will conclude that he hasn’t done anything wrong. Perhaps the four young men who’ve made allegations against Edwards will all turn out to be fantasists and his BBC colleagues who’ve accused him of sending “inappropriate and flirtatious” messages will just be over-sensitive snowflakes. Perhaps the fact that his wife, who named him yesterday and revealed he is now a patient on a psychiatric ward, did not actually deny any of the allegations was of no significance. It may all turn out to be a giant miscarriage of justice, with the Sun having triggered a witch-hunt against an entirely innocent man. But I doubt that’s how this story will end.
What’s really at stake here is the future of the BBC and its current funding model. What will it say about the judgement of the BBC’s senior executives if the presenter who announced the death of the Queen and reads the News at 10 is a wrong-un? How damaging will it be to the public’s trust in the Beeb and, by extension, its willingness to shell out £159 a year to fund it, if an independent investigation into the BBC’s handling of the original complaint – which will surely happen – concludes it left a great deal to be desired? That’s why the BBC’s defenders are circling the wagons and trying to shoot the messenger. It’s a desperate attempt to defend their beloved Auntie because they know just how damaging this is likely to be.
I can’t help feeling a bit of humility and a period of reflection might serve their cause better. But that’s not how they roll.
Stop Press: Watch me talking to Mark Dolan about this on GB News last night.
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“Finally”? Anyone who would say it has “finally” collapsed has been paying zero attention. There has never been an economic case for mass migration. There is nothing to collapse.
Pretending otherwise is just folly. Lies is all there was, because economic proliferation was never the goal. It was just the nicely wrapped lie that the true goal was wrapped in, so gullible people would eat it up. This has always been about the destabilization of Western society.
Yes “The Great Replacement” is going very well , Baron Kudenhove would be well chuffed to see his plans carried out !!
Look at these corrupt, lying barstewards dissing Tommy Robinson. Just a ”right-wing thug” that’s been right the whole time and had the bollocks to stand up and say the truth, despite him coming off worse for it. One of the only few that listened to those abused girls and took them seriously. Tommy who’s now in Sweden to interview that poor Salwan guy who’s about to be deported back to Iraq and certain death. Just what ”thugs” do though, isn’t it? These slimy, duplicitous buggers in suits make me sick. I really hope they get all they deserve from these Islamist extremists and their treacherous buddies;
https://twitter.com/DaveAtherton20/status/1762830478913024012
Right of reply goes to Tommy. I won’t copy it all because it’s a long one;
”Labour leader @Keir_Starmer
takes to the stand and calls me a ‘right wing thug’.
Like I care about the opinion of a man (and I use that term very loosely indeed) who led the CPS at the time Jimmy Saville child noncing revelations came out, what did he do about it?
Nothing.
He didn’t prosecute the child raping face of the BBC, instead he passed the blame onto the police and a low level prosecutor in the CPS, the ‘man’ will never take responsibility for his personal failings, his departments failings, or his party’s failings, even though he’s a miserable, incompetent failure himself.
Keir Starmer also FAILED child victims of Muslim child rape gangs during his time leading the CPS.
Starmer was director of public prosecutions from 2008 to 2013, in which time the scale of sexual abuse of children in areas such as Rotherham and Rochdale became widely known.
Starmer later admitted that the guidelines his department used when dealing with child victims of Muslim rape gangs was ‘the wrong approach’.
What was the ‘wrong approach’ you ask?
Well the approach was to ignore the cries of vulnerable British girls trapped in a life of drug abuse, criminality, and sexual exploitation, because they just weren’t reliable enough to be concerned with, they were ‘damaged goods’ as far as the CPS were concerned.
Leaving those poor children to the animals, the parasites, the scumbags who controlled and exploited them through fear and intimidation.
Yes that’s the ‘man’ Keir Starmer, a useless career politician and and even worse enforcer of British laws…….”
https://twitter.com/TRobinsonNewEra/status/1762830429013356870
“Page does not exist” Mogs.
Ooh how weird. Works for me…OK then, here you go. 🙂
”….As for the non elected numpty prime minister that is @RishiSunak
, the man still defending the safe and effective ‘vaccine’, the man who kicked out @SuellaBraverman
because he could not deal with political heat – admitting ‘grooming gangs’ are majority Muslim and Pakistani.
The ‘man’ who can’t and wont deal with illegal boat invaders, because hes still subject to ECHR laws which allows the illegal invasion to continue uninterrupted, the very same laws that stop us from deporting filthy child raping scumbags that still walk British streets.
When these two failures of ‘manhood’ label me as a ‘far right thug’, I wear that as a badge of pride, because neither of these useless wankers have ever done anything good for our people, our country ,or for the rule of law.
We are sick of uniparty virtue signalling, you’re both full of shit, both of you are a disgrace, both of you are an impediment to the potential greatness of our nation.
Both of you are invertebrate, yellow bellied, politically correct, silver spoon fed, out of touch morons who do not speak to the concerns of the working class, you only speak and act on the concerns of globalist elites, you’re both sellouts and should be absolutely ashamed at your pathetic track records.
Resign immediately, both of you, you incompetent , corrupt, rotten festering polyps on the anus of humanity.
Meanwhile, I will continue to shine a light on subjects you run a mile from, because unlike you cowards, I do have a backbone, I do care about my people, and I do love my country.”
Dude deserves a standing ovation for that, in my opinion. LOL
Here’s the whole 1min HoC clip for more context;
https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1762813133184196943
Thanks for that Mogs. I wholeheartedly agree with Tommy.
Thanks for the post.
Noticeable that Fishy trots out this in response to Kneel…
“Thank you Mr Speaker. I don’t think there is one single member of this House that backs Tommy Robinson.”
Abd there in a nutshell lies our problem 😒
Tommy’s address to the Oxford Union several years ago was a powerful and honest appraisal of the extent to which radical islam has ruined his home town.
He’s been unfairly turned into the boogeyman. He’s just a normal bloke with a right to feel angry.
We all need to read “Beyond Terror” by Anne Marie Waters
Actually I think the link won’t work for you because Tommy started a new Twitter channel with more security and only people with Twitter accounts can access it. So those without accounts won’t be able to see the stuff linked. Think he’s got a Rumble channel though for interviews and stuff, and the interview with Salwan in Sweden will be well worth a watch I think. I did always wonder why he would go to the extent of burning Korans and endangering himself as a result of his actions, I’ve also never heard the guy talk before so that’ll be interesting. I sincerely hope he has a good lawyer though to fight this deportation. Christ, rapists seem to be successful at fighting deportation, because ”human rights”! All of the scummy crims and gangsters they’ve got in Sweden and this guy hasn’t harmed anyone and isn’t a danger to the public. I’m concerned for him. 🙁
“Actually I think the link won’t work for you because Tommy started a new Twitter channel with more security and only people with Twitter accounts can access it.”
I am pretty sure you are right on this Mogs. Thanks.
How is it our criminal illegals, the rapists, murderers and paedophiles can avoid deportations on the grounds that there lives will be at risk if they are sent back but Salwan, who has harmed no-one, is already a dead man walking even though he has harmed nobody?
Somebody in Sweden should swing for the way they are treating this man.
Tommy Robinson is a hero, a warrior who has risked everything to defend British children.
”right-wing thug”
I’m sure most of my metro “liberal” colleagues and ex acquaintances think all white working class people are basically uncouth, thick, racist thugs.
A pack of black thugs assaulted a white man in Lisbon.
African immigrants in Portugal have mastered the art of travelling in groups and preying on the unsuspecting Europeans. Perhaps it’s precisely these skills that make them so sought after in Europe.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1739785591540035741
Problem solved! 🙂
Many a true word spoken in jest 😳🤦🏼♂️
A factor in some industries is to reduce the wages via immigration, rather than paying more to encourage the locals.
Correct & less H&S etc
That is correct and there is no incentive to increase (labour) productivity, which has many benefits.
It has always been so.
The neoliberals manipulate data and misrepresent studies in favour of immigration.
It is funny how millions of people including many on this website could have told the last few governments this. In actual fact vast amounts of people did tell them but were ignored and branded as “racists” and “bigots”. ———In the eyes of the world government in waiting at the UN and WEF national identities need to be destroyed because they are a threat to global governance, and what better way to do that than fill countries up with people from all corners of the globe so they no longer Feel French British German Dutch etc e and instead simply feel like citizens of the world. —Global citizens governed by a global government. With global treaties imposed under false pretences eg “the climate crisis”
The ‘Fudge and bury’ mob will be working overtime on this little bomb shell.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/scandal-of-the-social-care-migrants-who-break-the-rules/
The “social care” workers scam as reported two days ago in TCW. I did post this at the time so some may have already read this. A perfect partner to this article.
“The social care visa route was introduced two years ago to help plug chronic labour shortages in the industry. David Neal’s report exposes jaw-dropping details: the Home Office issued 275 visas to a care home that didn’t even exist. Another 1,234 visas were granted to a company that claimed to have only four workers when it got its licence to recruit care workers from overseas. That’s more than 1,500 migrants who’ve slipped through the cracks, pretending to be care workers. We suspect this is only the tip of the iceberg.”
Thanks for reposting, I missed it the first time.
The Home Office ‘finest’ engaging in corrupt practices again, to the detriment of the UK.
I am pleased you read it ellie.😀👍
Exactly the same in the rest of Europe that’s suffered uncontrolled immigration for years, of course. That’s why this former civil servant and chief of Frontex in France has now joined Marine Le Pen’s party. Like he got told from the horse’s mouth; immigration in the EU is being overseen as a project, not a problem;
”What could make a former Frontex director decide to run in the European elections, and to do so with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally?
As you know, I was director of Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, for over seven years. I was at the heart of the European machinery for managing external borders and immigration, and thus of the fight against illegal immigration.
As a result, I am a witness and a key player who has realized that urgent action is needed to counteract the European Commission’s negative action on migration. I came to realize that the European Commission didn’t see illegal immigration as a problem but as a project.
I became particularly aware of the seriousness of this fact with the arrival of the von der Leyen Commission at the end of 2019 and in particular, within this von der Leyen Commission, of European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson.
Johansson told me right away, at the end of October 2019, when I first saw her: “But with this European corps, why do you need weapons and uniforms? Migrants come out of love, and your job is to welcome them. Europe is an aging continent, and whether you like it or not, you have to welcome them.”
https://rmx.news/european-union/exclusive-former-frontex-chief-tells-remix-news-the-inside-story-behind-the-eu-commissions-push-for-mass-immigration-and-open-borders/
Yep Deliberate ——“Stop the Boats” is about as genuine as Wildebeest saying they love Lions.
The Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan in action.
The case never existed
“… it failed to account for the public spending on the migrants and their families.”
It also failed to account for decreased labour productivity that an oversupply of labour would bring, and the effect that would have on wages – driving them down.
Benefits of increased labour productivity: better use of resources in increasing output; reduced prices to consumers and raised quality; increases wages and thus living standards; reduces overheads, increasing profits for reinvestment; increases per capita GDP and economic growth. (This is all standard stuff known by every economist.)
So the reverse of these benefits applies when labour productivity is reduced, which of course explains why influx of immigrants doesn’t produce the gains the nitwits in Government claimed.
The UK has the lowest labour productivity in Europe and USA.
Well done chaps!
We have had a steady cohort of traitorous WEF politicians nominally running the country at least since Bliar in ’97 and I do not accept that any of them was not aware, with the exception of Liz Truss, that what they were doing was undermining this country.
Bliar, Brown, Cameron, Bozo, May, Fishy – have I missed any – all knew they were in place to effectively wreck this country. All of them understood that massive immigration was the key to unravelling Great Britain (empathis on Great) and all played their part. It is naive to condemn these bastards as “dimwit.” I accept that none of the above are particularly bright but they had access to brighter minds and if they bothered to look and listen would have seen the damage that rampant immigration was causing and that the damage would only get worse.
We have been sold down the river for a few pieces of silver.
Apart from physical migrants, some firms make use of this technology (whic we are using) to move certain types of work globally for financial reasons. E.g. a decade or so ago I worked for a US based firm, with it’s shares on the New York market (here in England), and within it I had access to a huge email address list (the server was based in Florida), and awful lot of employees were evidently based in India. I guess a lot of it was acquired via buying whatever the local firms were.
The firm itself got taken over by https://aecom.com/ No doubt it’s the same trick, as they go along.
I have thought of scientific theories and mathematical theorems as sometimes beautiiful and you could argue the same about some economics theories. But to describe the idea or proposal of unlimited immigration as beautiful is not a correct way of putting it. The idea of mass immigration was not really about the economic results but, according to a Labour Minister, it was about rubbing the noses of the middle class it it.
That was not really a sensible proposition because the upper middle class at least have benefitted hugely from mass, cheap immigration. Not only can they do virtue signalling by welcoming it but they don’t suffer the disadvantages (except extra tax, which they have not so far associated with it) but they get huge benefits: cheap plumbers, builders, gardeners, cleaners etc.
Those who have suffered have been the poorer in society.
In short mass imigration was meant to be good for us all because of the unqualitifiable benefits of multi-culturalism. Just think of all your friends who live in calm neighbourhoods who rave about the new Turkish restaurant or the dishy Lithuanian waiter (or waitress). That was about the level of their analysis. They never experienced the run-down, over crowded near slums in which many of the ghettos are situated.
No theory could possibly claim a net benefit from mass immigration of people with low skills, expecting low incomes and with limited English or knowledge of British cultural norms. Most of the newcomers cannot even afford to live here without subsidy (housing, NHI, schools, trains, etc) let alone contribute towards the use of the infrastructure acquired over centuries.
It has been estimated that the per capita cost of roads, hospitals, schools, the justice system (sic) and all the rest of social paraphenalia we all share would be about £250k. Clearly a Bangladeshi or Nigerian on minimu wage and in receipt of social housing and in-work benefits could never in their lifetime make any contribution to infrastructure.
So what has happened. To a small degree the rest of us have funded, through taxes or our responsibility for government debt, the modest expansion of the capacity of all the above. But the main cost to all the pre-existing population has been sharing the resources so we have to queue or we just don’t get the use of them: NHS, schools, roads etc etc.
And yet, the Conservative are as committed to continuing mass immigration just as much as Labour, LibDems and SNP. It is clear from what all of them say and how their policies are constructed, they have complete contempt for the established population. They do not think we are worthy and the sooner they can replace us the better for them.
There has been a proliferation of chicken / fast food shops with literally sickening poor food hygiene scores over the years. Looking at the scores and how long they are allowed to remain in business is horrifying. All in the name of cultural enrichment, I suppose.
It’s called “Contamination Jihad”.
There was an article yesterday somewhere about the latest plan to “diversify the concept of Cockneys”, to include all the Third World Invaders, particularly Muslim Bangladeshis, who drove the English Cockneys from their homes and livelihoods, turning their pubs into mosques, their markets into alien bazaars, and erecting sculptures of hijabs as street ornaments.
All this happened after Sir Winston Churchill promised the Cockneys, who had suffered so much during WW2, that they would have “broad, sunlit uplands” after the war.
I remember a real “Cockney Sparrow” who said that, when he and his mates were continuing the charity-collecting traditions of the Pearly Kings & Queens, even the poorest Cockney would donate as much as he could, but the only people who refused to give a penny were from the Indian Subcontinent.
The Office for Budget Responsibility should be scrapped. It is a quango that was expressly set up to check up on and control our elected government.
It is part of the current trend away from democracy and towards government by unelected bureaucrats.
And to top it all, its forecasting record is risible.
Excellent article by Will Jones.
Does anyone have a link to the IFS report? The Telegraph article is behind a paywall but I doubt it has a link – mainstream media rarely do. All I kind find on the IFS web site is an interview from June last year.