Yes, that’s one of the things that turned me off UKC. The extent to which the martial mentality has a grip on the national psyche is horrendous.
I heard a bit of Free Speech Nation on GB News (The People’s Channel!!) last evening talking about the ‘inevitability of war with Iran’ See HERE here from 8:49. Paul Cox had this to say:
you’ve got the world super power who aren’t going to let bad behaviour go unpunished versus the world’s super antagonists…if you’re the world’s super power you’re effectively policing the world because if you don’t somebody else will
Of course, when Cox says ‘world’s supper power’ he means the US - and as we know the US has nothing but honest and upright intentions - - - if only those ‘super antagonists’ would just behave, eh!?
Andrew Doyle and Cressida Whetton were equally woeful.
That tendency to accept war as an inevitable and natural state of being is absolutely rife. As indicated in that GB news clip, the chatterati are more concerned with pointing out the parlous state of UK forces than actually interrogating why it is we need to be permanently warring with some country or another.
In my earlier comment, I should have referred to the tweet announcing that one of Britain’s aircraft carriers, not the one that broke its propeller near the Isle of Wight a couple of years ago, the other one, can’t after all go and terrify the Houthis with it’s deckful of zero scary aeroplanes. After spelling out the problem it concluded “As such she cannot sail”. I treasured the “as such”, betraying that even Naval tweets are quite clearly written by officious clerical types who like to use important-sounding language and definitely do not know any jokes.
Oops… I forgot to say why the ship, as such, cannot sail: this is because it’s propeller broke.
No sniggering at the back: the propellor shaft broke, and that’s really quite different to how the other one broke. Apparently when that one, the first one, broke, this one, the later one, as such, sailed in it’s place all the way to America. And nothing broke. Now the other one, the first one, that they fixed up in Scotland, might be sailing in place of this one, the other one that is, as such, while it is fixed. Don’t worry: this will only cost a few million pounds and, one day, the Americans will provide some aircraft for them to carry. Then watch those Russkis tremble.
In other news, apparently, the Knesset is expected to approve a new law punishing dissent re the October 7th narrative with a sentence of up to five years’ imprisonment. Saying that the official narrative is somehow not entirely truthful will get you chucked into the chokey, so let that be the end of it.
Reminds me somewhat of the entirely serious Tory election poster wailing about how nasty Jeremy Corbyn won’t spend money on the bombs we so desperately need . . .
Hi Folks, I watched UKC today - Gaza was actually mentioned to the extent that reading a half dozen bullet points from a couple of UN press releases is a mention - the points being quickly mentioned alongside Oct 7th Israeli deaths and injuries. The intro for this “mention” - now we look at the very “emotive” topic of Gaza and this may not go down well with all our audience but you either want the truth or … so we’ll give you the truth! But of course failure to include relevant information on developments in Gaza is telling only half the truth -
I don’t think the words “Israel is on trial for genocide at the ICJ” or even the word “genocide” were mentioned.
the framing of UNRWA and its subsequent defunding by the usual suspect states was not mentioned.
the freezing of UNWRA’s bank account by Leumi Bank in Israel was not mentioned
The support from Norway, Spain and Belgium for UNWRA not mentioned
Both Norway and Belgium stating that other NATO members should review their provision of arms and other aid to Israel in the light of the genocide ICJ case - not mentioned
the destruction of a civilian building in Gaza by Israeli bombing which contained the offices of Belgium’s development agency in Gaza - not mentioned
Although BG read out a bullet point from the UN press release that said 2.2m Gazans under threat of hunger or starvation - he failed to point out that this is more than 95% of the total population of Gaza, almost half of whom are under 18!
8 No mention of the binding instructions the ICJ issued on 26th January 2024 to Israel which required it to enable immediate and effective humanitarian aid to Gazans!
When talking of the Houthis attacks on shipping in the red sea, no mention was made of the fact that it was undertaken to pressure Israel into stopping the genocide and that no one had been killed by the Houthis in this operation - who knows how many the US have killed in Yemen!
No mention of the fact that around half the Israeli cabinet attended and supported a conference discussing the case for settling Israelis in the newly captured territory in Gaza - particularly as being further evidence of genocidal intent!
Finally no mention of the finding by Max Blumenthal and others about the high numbers of Israelis being killed and injured by IDF and armed settlors on October 7th and the use of the Hannibal Directive. Nor mention of the new law in Israel making it a criminal offence to mention these murders! ( thanks to @KarenEliot for that)
if you spend half the programme on US immigration and US fences and almost the other half on UK defences and armaments against Russia, the real news gets squashed into a few seconds here and there.
Very sad performance - it would be more honest to come out openly and say that they are under pressure not to report certain items and that they can’t say where the pressure comes from nor what the items are!
under pressure not to report certain items and that they can’t say where the pressure comes from nor what the items are!
Touché. I take it they didn’t report that the 7 October death count has again been revised downward?
WiCIApedia copypasta:
On 10 November, Israel revised its casualty count from 1,400 to 1,200 after concluding that many of the identified bodies were those of Hamas fighters. This included 859 civilians, 283 soldiers, 57 policemen, and 10 Shin Bet members.
A month later, source France24
The final death toll from the attack is now thought to be 695 Israeli civilians, including 36 children, as well as 373 security forces and 71 foreigners, giving a total of 1,139… excludes five people, among them four Israelis, still listed as missing by the prime minister’s office.
I couldn’t find a source for the latest figure but iirc it was 1127.
A plausible reason, but not an excuse, for UKC’s hesitancy is that the Online Safety Bill creates the offence of publishing/broadcasting false information (although trusted news providers are exempted from prosecution in the very next section i.e. they may knowingly lie and not be sanctioned for that).
As for their reason’s for not reporting properly, I’m guessing that they have some big financial donors, who probably hold dual citizenship and I’m sure you can guess one of those.
Hi @KarenEliot , The online Safety Act was mentioned in their programme today - more or less saying they have to watch out.
The numbers you quote are of course ignoring the numbers of Israelis killed by Israelis on 7th October and later ( the hostages they kill ) which Max Blumenthal on the Grayzone has investigated in depth - particularly the use of the Hannibal Directive.
So who knows whether any of the unarmed civilian Israelis who were killed were killed by Palestinian resistance fighters!
The only thing we can see is the massive Israeli propaganda machine - David Miller ( on UKC today) mentioned that there are at least 2000 organisations in the UK alone which are constantly pushing out propaganda in favour of Israel!
2000 organisations… Wow. I’m genuinely surprised. It was good to see David Miller had won his unfair dismissal claim. Bristol Uni seem to have some rather mediocre legal advice. I recall they also lost the case of the student who was terrified of giving a presentation to the extent that she ended up taking her own life. I’ve forgotten the name of the case but it was in 2021 I think.
Forgive the reply-to-self gaffe. UKC are hosting a seminar next Sunday, 18th Feb, that looks like it might be worthwhile. David Miller is one of the speakers/panellists.
