An example of biased journalism

Radio Netherlands website has run an article on the popularity of Geert Wilders in that country, heavily biased against him, of course. I have “marked” the article here, supplying corrections which will expose the politically correct bias which is sadly evident across all of Europe’s mainstream publications:

“And the winner is… Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party. As elections are held for the country’s municipal councils in the Netherlands, it is already clear who will come out ahead. We need not wait for the ballots to be counted.

Right-wing populist Rising star Geert Wilders, pictured above casting his vote in The Hague this morning, has managed to dominate the agenda appealed to voters once again. Everyone’s talking about immigration, integration and Islam – the Freedom Party’s main issues. Evidence? Or they are talking about the Freedom Party (PVV) itself, and whether it should be ruled out of potential coalition talks due to allegedly racist standpoints. ? You tell us.

30,000 votes
The Freedom Party’s hold (Like a stranglehold? Nobody is forcing people!) on the Dutch national attention is the more remarkable given that it is taking part in only two of the 394 municipalities holding elections on Wednesday. About four percent of the Dutch population will be able to cast a vote for the Freedom Party. Good..

The municipal councils in these two cities, The Hague and Almere, right now are divided between 12 and 10 parties, respectively. The Freedom Party could become the biggest party in Almere with just 30 percent of the vote. Plus, turnout for local elections is always low. Good – reporting facts, avoiding blatant bias..

Add up all these factors, and about 30,000 votes for Mr Wilders’ party will make him the hands down winner on Wednesday. Can you be sure? What leads you to this conclusion?

All politics are national
Wednesday’s local elections were on the calendar long before the fall of the cabinet ten days ago. Local elections are always seen as a barometer for national politics, this time more than ever.

In the wake of the cabinet’s collapse (after failing to agree about extending the Dutch mission to Afghanistan), national elections have been called for 9 June. Wednesday’s municipal elections are the kick-off to what will be an intense three-month campaign.

Geert Wilders currently has nine seats in the lower house of parliament (out of 150), but his party has been polling much higher for the last year. The Freedom Party could become one of the largest, if not the largest party in The Netherlands.

And that on the basis of 20 percent support, due to the fractured nature of the Dutch electorate.

Wilders already in the driver’s seat
That steady support for Geert Wilders means that he is already much more influential than he was before the fall of the cabinet. The Netherlands is now being governed by a caretaker government. The cabinet must defer to parliament much more so than under normal circumstances. But not only is the current parliament more powerful – the wishes of potential coalition partners in the next government are also taken into particular account. No one wants to make policy that will be reversed after the next election.

So Mr Wilders’ current nine seats in parliament have already grown in influence in a certain sense, if not – yet – in number.

Proof in the pudding
Of course, many question the Freedom Party’s ability, or even its willingness, to govern. Who? Who questions this? It is not enough to merely cite “many” Taking populist standpoints Risking one’s life on principle is easier than making policy. A number of PVV policy proposals would be difficult to implement, but are attractive to some many voters: a ban on Muslim headscarves in public buildings, eliminating the fee for residential parking permits and eliminating the tax on dog ownership.

And that leads to another reason why Wednesday’s municipal elections matter. For the first time, in Almere and The Hague, the Freedom Party may be in a position to leave the opposition benches behind, and join the government. Governing at city level is not unlike governing at the national level – it involves forming coalitions, and making compromises.

Wednesday’s elections will tell us a lot about the state of play in Dutch national politics.”

6/10 Not too bad – some facts in here, but readers will be able to see your extreme liberal bias. You present Wilders as though he is some kind of villain, without giving any reasons why he should be seen as such. Stick to the facts.

Daniel Hannan on elephants

An unusual title you might think – here’s his blog article and speech. I note this because Hannan is quite politically incorrect (often a sign of an intelligent mind) and points out what I will coin as the “Liberal Fallacy” – namely thinking that just because you see things a certainly way then surely everybody else around the world must see them that way too (especially given half the chance). It ain’t necessarily so, as Hannan points out with regard to Africans in this case.

He also quotes Aristotle (“That which nobody owns nobody will care for.”). I have a lot of time for Aristotle’s ethics and this quotation immediately put me in mind of the council housing up my street which is strewn with rubbish and never maintained by the residents. No further evidence of the truth of this remark is required, I think.

I met Mr Hannan last night and he is certainly an extremely eloquent speaker, and well educated. He endorsed Theodore Dalrymple’s observation that the removal of personal responsibility has led to considerable societal disintegration in the UK. One to watch, as pheonixes may one day (we can hope) rise out of the ruins of Broken Britain and start about the repair process.

Pat Condell on Geert Wilders’ trial

Pat says it all, as usual, and very well indeed:

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Quick letter to NSS

“Geert Wilders (currently on trial for telling the truth in the Netherlands) has again been invited by members of the House of Lords to come and show his short film Fitna there.

The Telegraph reports here that Lord Ahmed has again threatened to mobilise 10,000 Muslims to block Mr Wilders from entering the House of Lords. If this is true then Lord Ahmed should be arrested for breach of the peace. I’m tired of this man’s threats.

Best regards,

Gavin Orland”

Geert Wilders coming to London again

Breaking news: Geert Wilders MP, currently being tried for speaking the truth in the Netherlands, has announced his intention to travel to the UK again to screen his short film Fitna.

Mr Wilders has again been invited by Lord Pearson and Baroness Cox and will travel to London to show the film in the House of Lords on 5th March.

Dr Goebbels describes propaganda

Joseph Goebbels understood propaganda. Here he describes propaganda methodology in a way that seems also to describe the policy of the government and the BBC here in the UK. For example, they are both devoted to the ideology of multiculturalism despite mounting evidence of its inherent problems, and both repeatedly tell us that Islam is a religion of peace, despite considerable evidence to the contrary.

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

- Joseph Goebbels, Reichsminister of Propaganda, Nazi Germany

This is an extremely interesting quotation at this point in time, because right now the political, economic and military consequences of various leftist ideological “lies” are now indeed becoming undeniable. The topsy-turvy case of Geert Wilders being tried for speaking the truth in his own country. One law for Muslims, another for non-Muslims. High indigenous unemployment. People like Pat Condell scoring over 1 million hits on his videos (well, there is no-one else like Pat). Commenters on the BBC’s “Have Your Say” near-unanimously contradicting politically correct news articles. Judges saying they think the maximum sentences they can impose are ludicrously lenient. You can find links for all of these on my site. The lie’s coming undone in all sorts of directions.

I await now, of course, accusations of Nazism from brainwashed liberals, who fail to see that it is the Left who have embraced Dr Goebbels’ rules of propaganda to wholeheartedly, silencing any dissent from the from “allowed” PC views, and therefore in many cases silencing the speaking of truths.

Geert Wilders’ opening speech

Here’s is Geert Wilders’ excellent opening speech at his disgraceful trial in the Netherlands:

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I believe this is a win/win situation for Wilders and whatever the outcome he will win more support.

I have written to the National Secular Society as follows:

“This week, the principle of freedom of speech while not inciting violence has gone on trial in the Netherlands, in the form of MP Geert Wilders being tried by his own government.

I want to note first of all that the start of this very significant trial has so far gone completely unreported by the BBC. (Of course, the Today Programme did instead run a feature on the “triumphs of Muslim science“. That’s “triumphs” of several hundred years ago, mind you. The bias of the BBC is embarrassingly transparent now).

It will be interesting to see how this trial proceeds. If Wilders is found guilty, then telling the truth, even while not inciting violence, will be seen to be illegal in the Netherlands. The Dutch government particularly disliked Wilders’ film Fitna, but in that film he hardly said anything at all, and merely quoted from the Qur’an.

This brings me onto my next point, which is that Islam itself is effectively also on trial. If Wilders can show with reference to his witnesses and to the text that the Qur’an is indeed hateful towards unbelievers, then Islam is guilty. Whether the court would ever honour such a finding, however, is of course another matter entirely.”

George Orwell predicts political correctness

“The first and simplest stage in the discipline, which can be taught even to young children, is called, in Newspeak, CRIMESTOP.

CRIMESTOP means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction.

CRIMESTOP, in short, means protective stupidity… orthodoxy in the full sense demands a control over one’s own mental processes as complete as that of a contortionist over his body.”

- George Orwell, 1984

Geert Wilders receives summons

Straight-talking Dutch MP Geert Wilders has received a summons from the Dutch Public Prosecution Service, the charge being:

“Group insult of Muslims, incitement to hatred and discrimination against Muslims due to their religion and incitement to hatred and discrimination against non-western immigrants and / or Moroccans due to their race.”

This, despite more than 36,000 people around the world signing a petition to support him.

Mr Wilders says on his website:

“On the 20th of January 2010, a political trial will start. I am being prosecuted for my political convictions. The freedom of speech is on the verge of collapsing. If a politician is not allowed to criticise an ideology anymore, this means that we are lost, and it will lead to the end of our freedom. However I remain combative: I am convinced that I will be acquitted.”

You can read the full summons here, and hope it isn’t really possible to convict a person in the Netherlands merely for telling the truth.

Sally Keeble MP fails to acknowledge gift

An elderly couple have just died in Northampton because Social Services failed them. Sally Keeble, Labour MP for Northampton North, has just been on the radio about it.

Mrs Keeble is an MP who was elected having been placed on a “all-women shortlist” back in 1995. This blatantly sexist policy which Labour introduced was declared illegal in the UK in 1996, on the basis that everybody ought to earn their own place regardless of gender. But then in 2002 all-women shortlists were legalised again.

Jacqui Smith (the Home Secretary who was so obviously out of her depth over the Geert Wilders affair), was also elected on an all-women shortlist. In March 2009 a leaked poll of Labour Party members revealed that Smith was considered to be the worst performing member of the cabinet, with only 56% of her party believing she was doing a good job.

Anyway, I sent Sally Keeble a hardback copy of The God Delusion two years ago. While many MPs thanked the sender, hearing Mrs Keeble on the radio reminded me that I’m still waiting to hear from her.

Islam4UK to be banned?

Incredible news. I’ll believe this when it actually happens.

Islamic maniac tries to kill Danish cartoonist

This news just breaking.

Two problems will threaten world peace in this coming decade:

1. The rise of religion, particularly with an Islamic face
2. The embrace of decadence in once civilised countries

Until a government stamps down hard on these two problems (instead of ignoring or encouraging them), we’re going to see a continued decline. It’s as simple as that.

BNP another step closer to election

That’s the way it’s going to go while we keep seeing appalling, almost unbelievable, stories like this. Political correctness and ludicrous laws from the EU have us living an Alice in Wonderland existence in the UK now. We’re neutered, helpless, hopeless.

Ironically, it would not surprise me if it is now more dangerous for this individual to be anywhere in the UK rather than in Iraq, where he should be…

Eudaimonia: Political Correctness is Killing Us All

This time last year I made a song capturing the zeitgeist of political correctness in the UK. Here it is.

Echoes of the past

The BNP have two elected Members of the European Parliament. Mrs Thatcher explains why this has happened, in an interview recorded in 1978:

“There is a feeling that the big political parties have not been talking about this and sometimes, you know, we are falsely accused of racial prejudice. I say “falsely accused” and that means that we do not talk about it perhaps as much as we should.

In my view, that is one thing that is driving some people to the National Front. They do not agree with the objectives of the National Front, but they say that at least they are talking about some of the problems.

Now, we are a big political party. If we do not want people to go to extremes, and I do not, we ourselves must talk about this problem and we must show that we are prepared to deal with it.”

- Margaret Thatcher

Conservatives, listen.