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Source:- Why Palestine’s envoy who shared dais with Hafiz Saeed is not as innocent as Ramallah claims Buckling under pressure from India, Palestinian National Authority yesterday recalled its envoy to Pakistan for publically showing solidarity with 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed and other jihadi terrorist leaders in Rawalpindi on Friday. Recalled Palestinian envoy  Waleed Abu Ali  attended and spoke at a rally purportedly oganised to condemn the Donald Trump administration’s move to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. But, the platform was used by Hafiz Saeed among others to give another call for jihad in Jammu and Kashmir. Jamaat-ud-Dawa (or Lashkar-e-Taiba) chief Hafiz Saeed is a proscribed terrorist by the UN and designated as global terrorist by the US. The US government has a bounty of USD 1 crore on his head. Hafiz Saeed is the mastermind of many terror attacks including 26/11 Mumbai carnage that took 166 lives. Hafiz Saeed is one the most notorious figures in Pakista

A comment at Biased BBC   (from David W) strikes me as making an interesting point about the BBC: In its 2017 online death roll , the increasingly ludicrous BBC has managed to forget the death of Jiří Bělohlávek, principal conductor of its own BBC Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 12. That 'online death roll' is headlined  In memoriam: Entertainment and arts figures we lost in 2017 and contains many names (including the odd classical music figure) but, yes, poor old Jiří Bělohlávek is missing, even though his near namesake Japanese manga artist Jiro Taniguchi is present-and-correct. That is extraordinary, isn't it? "But then who cares about some silly elitist old white bloke?", asks David W.  Well, I do (and many a silly elitist old non-white bloke too). And here's Jiří performing a rousing masterpiece worthy of New Year by his compatriot, Leoš Janáček:  As they say in Moravia, Šťastný Nový rok!

As it's New Year's Eve, here's a tweet from Tim Montgomerie: Though I wouldn't agree that it's "on its own, just about worth the licence fee" (that would be going way too far), but it is   "unparalleled in its consistent excellence" (and forget the 'almost'!). Plus Baron Bragg of Wigton FRS, FBA, FRSA, FRSL, FRTS is incomparable as its guiding light. So well done Melvyn, and please keep up the good work in 2018! P.S. Here's an ITBB exclusive. Lord Bragg's name actually came first on this year's Honours List -  at least according to the Government's official NY18 Queens List page .  And, ITBB 'has learned' (from reading the same government website) that he shares his Order of the Companion of Honour will just one other person this New Year: Lady Antonia Fraser (of history, champagne socialism and Harold Pinter fame). 

Georgina Rannard Ah yes, fake news! Never mind about Lord Adonis's famous career as an elected MP ( fake news! ),  Georgina from the BBC has a 'thorough' review of this year's fake news for you on the BBC News website. Or at least the kind of fake news that the BBC considers 'fake news'. Read it and you'll come away with the impression that fake news appears to come exclusively 'from the Right' and from social media ("right-wing blogs" get a mention). What about 'respected' media outlets who messed up badly this year (the major US networks especially, who've had to fire staff for fake news reports about the Trump administration)? And what about those "left-wing blogs" like The Canary, Skwawkbox and Evolve Politics who have been accused (often fairly) of pushing fake news? Why not mention them too? InfoWars is, of course, at Number One in Georgina's run-down, followed by 'the Muslim g

As it's New Year's Eve, I thought you might like to read John Dugdale in  The Sunday Times   (eagerly) looking forward to that BBC festive staple (though I've never watched it),  Jools’ Annual Hootenanny . 

I don't feel it's Christmas unless I've watched or listened to or read a version of A Christmas Carol (if not the original) .  Having starred as the scary, silent, black-clad Ghost of Christmas Future in my primary school days and memorably tripping over Scrooge's bed, I feel very close to the story.  This year I watched the classic Alastair  (Campbell) Sim version where the (spin doctor) miser Scrooge scowled and later danced a jig in black and white, as superbly as ever.  (His performance is admirably consistent, year in and year out, despite being dead these one-and-forty years. Now that's acting!).  Tiny Tim and Mrs Cratchit  From reading Twitter and the comments at Biased BBC , it's clear that the social media wing of the TV-viewing public was split last night.  The majority view seems to have gone heavily with me though - namely that BBC One's  A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong was very funny. I don't think I've laughed s

And to round off today's string of posts about this morning's Broadcasting House on Radio 4, can you guess which three public figures the programme selected to express their hopes for 2018? (Samira Ahmed will be pleased. Nigel Farage wasn't among them). Well, there was space scientist Monica Grady, League of Gentlemen member Mark Gatiss...and, somewhat provocatively, anti-Brexit crusader Gina Miller.  Gina, naturally made the kind of anti-Brexit point you - and, surely, the BBC too - would expect her to make. Hmm.

Lord Adonis Returning to this morning's Broadcasting House on Radio 4, I really do have to note this startling confrontation between presenter Paddy O'Connell and Leave Means Leave co-chairman John Longworth:  John Longworth : I find this quite remarkable because Lord Adonis, of course, is a classic example of somebody's who's not been elected, has been appointed, doesn't represent anybody and is a classic of the Whitehall problem which is... Paddy O'Connell : [interrupting]  But he was a minister, he was elected, he was an MP. John Longworth : Well....he has been in the past...yeah... Paddy O'Connell :  [interrupting]  But unlike you and me he has been elected.  John Longworth : He has been in the past... Paddy O'Connell :  [interrupting]  That's a point of fact! He has been! John Longworth : OK, OK, fair enough, but...but... Paddy was very assertive there and temporarily put Mr Longworth off his stride. But there's on

Another sign of the times.  This morning's Broadcasting House paper review heard Helen Pidd of the Guardian bringing up a Daily Mail piece headlined Our swimming pond is NOT gender fluid: Fury of Hampstead Heath ladies after men identifying as women are allowed into their famous bathing lake .  I'd already read a similar story in The Times , headlined The female NHS nurse I asked for came with stubble  which began, "A woman who requested a female NHS nurse to perform her cervical smear test was “embarrassed and distressed” after a person with stubble and a deep voice summoned her for the intimate procedure."  Being a good Guardian gal (if I'm allowed to say that), Helen declared, "But what we need to remember here   [a very Guardian  way to put it]  is we're not talking about men. We're talking about transgender women who who've taken the very difficult decision, a very painful, costly decision, which will probably mean they're su

Who says ITBB doesn't lead the way in incisive commentary about the BBC? (Not me.) Where I led on Christmas Day  Peter Hitchens of the evil Mail on Sunday has  followed on New Year's Eve.  As Nick Robinson would say, LOL!

Interesting times.  Nick Robinson has just tweeted a plug to his Mail on Sunday piece , From robots stealing jobs, to mob rule online – and even what it means to be a man or woman, 2018 will be a year of instability and uncertainty. And our so-called leaders have never been more impotent.  Can you guess the response he's got from the outrage chamber on Twitter?  Well, it can be summed up in just one phrase: "Oh. My. God. The Daily Mail!!!"  Here's a flavour: You are using #BBC account to promote Daily Mail. Inappropriate use of Public funds. Also trust in #BBC erodes with your actions.  What on earth are you doing writing for the Mail? Don't work for the Mail. Shocking misjudgement to write for this vile rag. Too much hatred, anger and intolerance - a large part of which has been fueled by the"Mails" - what on earth are you doing writing for that appalling group - very disappointing.  Excellent article: just a shame it was in the Mail

Source:- India pursued bold and aggressive foreign policy in 2017 Cashing in on its growing economic muscle power, India pursued an aggressive foreign policy in 2017 which boosted the global image of the Narendra Modi government even as relations with key adversaries like China and Pakistan plummeted to a new low during the year. Also, the growing influence of China in Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives remained a cause of concern for New Delhi. The election of Justice Dalveer Bhandari to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) with an overwhelming majority at the United Nations was the crowning feature of India’s diplomatic successes. The fact that Britain, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, was forced to withdraw its candidate from the race highlighted the importance the world community attaches to India’s role in the international arena. India also became a member of the Wassenaar Arrangement, a key non-proliferation regime, but China continued to block New Delhi’s

Source:- Isro’s 2nd Moon mission set for March-April 2018 The country’s second mission to the Moon, ‘Chandrayaan-II’ would be launched during March-April 2018, by using a Geosynchronous Satellite launch vehicle (GSLV MK II). This prestigious mission will include a lunar, Orbiter, lander and rover, said Dr. Mylswamy Annadurai, director, ISRO Satellite Centre, Bengaluru. Addressing a press conference at Tiruchy on Saturday, he said that they were preparing three unmanned vehicles for the mission developed in India including an orbiter craft, to hover above the moon’s surface, a rover, and a lander to facilitate the landing of the rover safely on the moon. This lunar mission will use and test various new technologies and conduct further experiments. The wheeled rover will move on the lunar surface and will perform a chemical analysis on site, he said.  Dr Annadurai said the orbiter will orbit the moon at an attitude of 100-km and create a detailed three-dimensional map of the lunar sur

Someone Samira Ahmed wants to hear less from This morning's Broadcasting House featured an opinion piece from Jeremy Vine (brother of comedian Tim Vine) based a book he's going to publish next year called  What I Learnt: What My Listeners Say - and Why We Should Take Notice .  Jeremy's argument was that the views of you and I are more valuable than those of experts. Experts have disgraced themselves over everything from diesel in cars, to fat 'making us fat', to the financial crash of 2008; indeed, they've done serious harm. He'd rather hear first-hand accounts from the man and woman in the street than listen to experts, as the people have a wisdom derived from lived experience. He'd rather hear from the astronaut than the astronomer. "An expert in parenting is a mother of five. An expert in Lyme Disease is someone who's had it for five years. An expert in ladders if someone who's fallen off  one." This is the future, he

As I've written before, I've been tuning into (and enjoying) Radio 4's Correspondents Look Ahead for decades now, and this year was no different.  A few years back, in the early years of this blog, I posted a review of the predictions made on the previous year's edition  and found them to be almost entirely wrong, and I had great fun pointing it out (especially at Paul Mason's expense). The post even got a mention on that year's  Correspondents Look Ahead  where I was cast as "a rather unkind blogger".  Unfortunately for me, however, it backfired. I really do think that the programme became far more cautious - indeed boring - as a result, especially for the next couple of years when hardly any concrete (i.e. potentially embarrassing) predictions were made.  Thankfully, especially as I've held back recently in pointing out the wrong predictions recently, we've finally arrived back the stage where caution is being thrown to the wind ag

Source:- Story of how SEPECAT Jaguar made its way into Indian Air Force The IAF watched the early development of the Jaguar with keen interest but with no real inclination to acquire it. The keenness was to see how its own HF-24 would do the job so that import or licence production of an aircraft would not be needed. After the Chief Test Pilot of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) was killed in the HF-24 Mk1R prototype in January 1970, it became clear that the HF-24 would not meet the requirements of a Deep Penetration Strike Aircraft (DPSA). The project to power the aircraft with engines with reheat was abandoned. Nevertheless, the HF-24 performed creditably in the 1971 War with Pakistan in the Western Sector. The HF-24, renamed Marut, had other shortcomings apart from lack of power. It had no avionics worth the name. Indian Air Force wanted to meet the ambition of DPSA requirement indigenously through Marut and Marut was the biggest competitor to Jaguar. After the ill-fate of Marut ,

  🇬🇧 Royal Mail will issue a large number of items on 23 January 2018 on the subject of the television programme Game Of Thrones  which is largely filmed in Northern Ireland . The issue will include a set of stamps, a miniature sheet, a retail booklet, a Prestige booklet, a Collectors Sheet and some Post and Go items.   In Blog 796 I described the 10 'Smilers' stamps produced by a collaboration between Royal Mail and Tourism Ireland which were produced in a 10 stamp Collectors sheet. The stamps were the 1st Class Northern Ireland regional definitive with labels attached which depicted motifs from the television programme.   I am at a disadvantage here as I still have never seen this programme but I realise that it is immensely popular and suppose, therefore, that Royal Mail has a winner on their hands with this issue with potentially very large sales of these items.   I'm sure that details of this mega-issue will emerge over the next few days.   🇧🇹 Bhutan Pos

Source:- Artillery gun Dhanush’s induction into Army delayed After accidents during the final phase of user exploitation trials, the induction of the Dhanush artillery gun into the Army has been delayed. The Dhanush is an upgraded version of the Swedish 155-mm Bofors howitzers, which India procured in the mid-1980s, based on its original designs. “There were two accidents in May and July during user exploitation trials. A Board of Inquiry is under way to determine the cause of the incident. As part of it, there will be an investigative firing likely to take place next month,” a defence official said. The upgrade is being done by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) based on the requirements of the Army. To a query from The Hindu, the Board said that the Army was satisfied with the Dhanush gun, but before accepting it, wanted to do a wider exploitation of six guns prior to the grant of the bulk production clearance. “So far, the exploitations have been carried out satisfactorily in the

Source:- Indian Navy has a submarine problem In 1999, the year when the Kargil War was fought, the then BJP-led NDA government cleared a 30-year plan to ensure by 2030 a fleet of 24 conventional diesel-electric submarines for the Indian Navy. The ambitious plan involved creating two separate assembly lines to build a set of six submarines each, under Projects 75 and 75(I), which were to be sourced from two different countries. This project of building 12 submarines with foreign collaborators was to be followed by India building 12 indigenously designed submarines, thus taking the total to 24. It is expected that by 2030 the then (as of 1999) fleet of submarines would have been decommissioned. Earlier this month, India inducted its first conventional submarine in 17 years, thus taking the present strength of the Navy’s conventional submarine fleet to barely 14, which are 10 short of the planned strength of 24 supposed to be inducted over the next 13 years, going by the original plan.

Ansar al Furqan says this photo depicts an attack on an Iranian oil pipeline. Ansar al Furqan, an Iran-based jihadist group, claims to have targeted an oil pipeline in Iran’s Khuzestan province. The group’s report has been shared on many al Qaeda-linked Telegram channels, including the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF). FDD’s Long War Journal could not independently verify the claim, which is plausible but unconfirmed. Ansar al Furqan states that “a major oil pipeline was blown up in Omidiyeh region of occupied Ahvaz, Iran.” The group added that it had established a new unit, the Ahwaz Martyrs Brigade. The area of Ahvaz has historically had a large Arab population. However, it is unclear if this purported brigade is comprised of Iranian Arabs or Baluchis, as most of its members are thought to be Baluch. The jihadists say the “operation was conducted to inflict losses on the economy of criminal Iranian regime.” A video of the purported operation was also released, showing surveilla

This year's Correspondents Look Ahead featured a new member of the cast - namely BBC Special Correspondent James Naughtie. As you might guess, his first answer was so long and laboriously delivered it swallowed up around half of the 50-minute programme, leaving little time for any other predictions or anyone else to speak. The rest of the BBC reporters just sighed, gave up and went home, and Jim just carried on talking. I fell asleep. Here's how it began, with Jim's 'take' on President Trump: Owen Bennett-Jones : We're going to start with the United States and Donald Trump. And we've all followed the last year of Donald Trump, Jim. What's ahead for Donald Trump in 2018?   James Naughtie : Well, I think we've got to start with the fact that some people forget, Owen, which is this: that his rating at the end of one year in office is lower than the ratings, on equivalent poll findings since the '50s, than any other President in our life

  🇮🇳 India Post has moved from issuing new stamps in order to have a source of income from stamp collecting to the full scale exploitation of stamp collectors, particularly those who feel they must have 'one of everything'.   Witness this enormous deluge of new issues as India Post attempts to get out every stamp it possibly can before the end of the year. What a pity that in its new issue programming India Post has turned to the dark side  and could soon be as infamous as Stamperija , IGPC or Australia Post for its monumental overissuing policies.   So, in these final days of 2017, we have:- 28 December - Commemoration of Dr. Shivajirao Ganesh Patwardhan (1892 - 1986) who devoted his working life to the care of people with leprosy. This single stamp issue clearly features a worthy subject for a stamp issue and I have no problems with this issue. Illustrated at the head of this piece. Rating:- ****. 29 December - Centenary of the death of Dadabhai Naoroji. Now