Shropshire Star

Peter Rhodes on terrorism, smart meters and land 'ripe' for building

The BBC has been under fire for refusing to describe Hamas terrorists as terrorists.

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If not terrorism, then what?

So what's new? After repeated complaints of anti-Israel bias, the BBC in 2004 commissioned the 20,000-word Balen Report. I bet it makes fascinating reading but, alas, we licence payers never got to see it. Auntie Beeb has allegedly spent about £330,000 in legal fees keeping it secret.

Meanwhile, I found a 2019 BBC report describing the Birmingham Pub bombings as “the worst terrorist atrocity on English soil”. So slaughtering 21 Brits is terrorism but slaughtering 900 Israelis is not? Curious.

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Never has a party conference been upstaged quite so dramatically as the Labour Party's, overshadowed this week by events in Gaza. Even so, enough leaked out to cause some alarm. As when Shadow Chancellor Rachel (“Build, build, build”) Reeves promised “no wholesale building on the Green Belt” but supported building on “areas that are ripe for development”.