Latest news with #SirEphraimMirvis
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The only acceptable outcome after the BBC's Glastonbury horror show is Tim Davie's resignation
In 2026, there will be no Glastonbury. Have all the BBC execs and Corbynistas from Crouch End (often the self-same insufferable people), with their recreational keffiyehs and kefir yogurt poultices to treat Chlamydia (the sexually transmitted disease not the name of their daughter), decided a year of atonement is in order for the grotesque display of anti-Semitism? I'm afraid not. The Somerset festival has a fallow year to allow the land to recover from the righteous stampede of woke wellies and ethically-crafted Crocs. Well, the grass may grow back, but the reputation of our national broadcaster is as scorched as the earth the hordes of stoned progressives leave behind. Millions of licence-fee payers will today be asking, why should the corporation continue to call itself the British Broadcasting Corporation when it promotes anti-British values while causing pain and fear to our Jewish citizens? 'Death, death to the IDF [Israeli Defence Forces]!,' crowed rapper Bobby Vylan, real name Pascal Robinson-Foster, and the vast crowd joined in the blood-curdling, homicidal chant – a moment which the Chief Rabbi has rightly described as a ' time of national shame '. I met Sir Ephraim Mirvis recently and he is a man of almost saintly sweetness, but the 'Be Kind' brigade at Glastonbury caused him finally to snap. 'The airing of vile Jew-hatred [… ] and the BBC's belated and mishandled response brings confidence in our national broadcaster's ability to treat anti-Semitism seriously to a new low,' the Chief Rabbi posted on X. 'It should trouble all decent people that now one need only couch their outright incitement to violence and hatred as edgy political commentary for ordinary people to not only fail to see it for what it is but also to cheer it, chant it and celebrate Jew-hatred is a threat to our entire society.' After that stern rebuke from the spiritual leader of British Jews, you would have expected BBC director-general Tim Davie to tender his resignation. The situation demands nothing less. It turns out Mr Davie was present at the festival on Saturday afternoon and he could easily have ordered the livestream on BBC iPlayer to be halted. Instead, the repugnant performance at the West Holts stage was allowed to continue with a feeble on-screen warning. To add insult to potential incitement, the Irish rap trio Kneecap, took to the stage directly after Bob Vylan (as Bobby Vylan's rap group are confusingly called) and led chants of 'Free Palestine'. Band member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – performing as Mo Chara – appeared in court last month charged with a terrorism offence for allegedly displaying the flag of Hezbollah, a proscribed terrorist organisation. Could some highly paid, Bafta-winning Tristram not have looked at that charming line-up and thought, 'Hang on, this is a potentially incendiary bit of programming. Should the BBC really be giving a platform to someone accused of terrorism?' Even Sir Keir Starmer said Kneecap's appearance was 'not appropriate.' Either no one in a position of power cared, or – more likely – they were happy to tacitly endorse those performers and their rancid sentiments. (Although the BBC didn't live-stream Kneecap, it did upload a largely unedited version of the performance to iPlayer.) The Beeb's official apology was a joke: far too little, too late. 'The anti-Semitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable and have no place on our airwaves,' it said. 'We welcome Glastonbury's condemnation of the performance. The judgment... to issue a warning on screen while streaming online was in line with our editorial guidelines […] With hindsight we should have pulled the stream during the performance. We regret this did not happen.' Editorial guidelines? Unacceptable? Regret? As the whole stinking, Jew-hating mess is now under investigation by Avon and Somerset Police as a possible public order incident, something stronger than regret is urgently called for. Compare and contrast the leisurely reaction to Bob Vylan calling on a vast throng to murder Israelis (the IDF is not just soldiers, a majority of people in Israel are either in the IDF or are IDF reservists) with the lightning clampdown on Lucy Connolly and others who merely tweeted their anger and dismay to a small number of followers after the Southport massacre of little girls. A few days ago, Lord Hermer, the Attorney General, told the BBC it was 'disgusting' to claim the UK has a two-tier justice system. Let me tell you what's disgusting: it's the way flagrant displays of anti-Semitism have been tolerated on the streets of our capital city for 20 months, since the October 7 murderous Hamas rampage through southern Israel, with that prejudice given daily succour in biased reporting about Israel's actions by the BBC, which has a clear problem with anti-Semitism, whatever it might say, and other news outlets. There is a straight line, I reckon, from Jeremy Bowen's sympathetic accounts of Hamas-controlled Gaza to crowds in a West Country field chanting, 'Death, death to the IDF!' What's disgusting is ordinary Britons being criminalised for their justifiable anger at the predictably awful consequences of illegal migration as successive governments fail to 'smash the gangs'. Instead of stopping the boats the ineffectual cowards stop the mouths of their own people. Yesterday, on the phone to her husband Ray from Peterborough prison, Lucy Connolly wondered, 'Why can pop stars at Glastonbury get away with saying stuff like that while they send me to jail for 31 months?' We know the answer, don't we? It is fashionable in Leftist circles to cosy up to the Islamist barbarians, waving the Palestinian flag. But murmur a word against undocumented, young male 'asylum seekers' who, as Lucy Connolly told police, pose a danger to British children and you're guilty of inciting hatred against a protected characteristic. The Jews may have suffered actual genocide in the 20th century but, as one senior police officer explained to me, they are now seen as 'white supremacists'. While this floundering, shameless Government plots an Islamophobia law in a desperate attempt to shore up its Muslim client group, it is Judaeophobia that stalks the land. As it happens, Lucy Connolly does not believe anyone should be behind bars for 'shooting their mouth off'. Not even that vile preening idiot Vylan. Lucy is a believer in free speech, as am I, although we may shudder and feel that a line is most definitely crossed when a gathering of entranced Britons engages in Two Minutes Hate against Jews at a music festival. The BBC should stop spending a fortune on Glastonbury, a corporate jolly attended by between 400 and 900 staff with an estimated (although unconfirmed) £7 million handed over to the Eavis family. The hotels with buses and taxis laid on every morning, the on-site designer pods and dinky little vintage caravans bedecked in jaunty bunting, that rosary of the 'Be Kind' brigade. The mountain of free food, the staff bars, the four-wheel-drive buggies that are on tap for the broadcasting elite A massive clique of bien-pensant backslapping, 'they greet each other as if it's their annual Club Med holiday, the entitlement is off the scale,' recalls one engineer who worked at Glasto but grew too nauseated to go back. Why do all those smug creatives feel they have a licence (the bill footed by our licence fee) to impose their embarrassing political views on the rest of us? Not just by signalling the correct way to vote and feel, but by actively insulting people in middle and older age who are the ones that continue to pay for the BBC. Bobby Vylan wished death on the IDF, on the men and women who have done their damndest to protect Western civilization by routing Hezbollah and Hamas and damaging Iran's nuclear capability. He also took aim at the corporation's audience whom he called 'gammons' in his execrable doggerel: I heard you want your country back Shut the f--- up I heard you want your country back Uh-uh, you can't have that I heard you want your country back Well s---, me too… We the people on the street Got the gammons in retreat About that, at least, Bobby Vylan is correct. We do want our country back because it doesn't belong to the hateful and divisive likes of him. Part of getting our country back and banishing anti-Semitism may involve defunding the BBC, now so deeply and fatally detached from the best instincts of the British people. Many of us have supported the Beeb all our lives; the Jew haters of Glastonbury could just have changed our minds.
The Independent
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
BBC boss Tim Davie was at Glastonbury during Bob Vylan set
The BBC 's director-general was at Glastonbury Festival when led chants of 'Death, death to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces)' that were broadcast live. It is understood Tim Davie was on a visit to meet staff at the Somerset music event on Saturday afternoon when the set was taking place. He was informed after Bobby Vylan, one half of the British rap punk duo, led his audience in chants that also included 'Free, free Palestine'. The performance, which took place at the West Holts Stage, was livestreamed by the BBC but the organisation later expressed regret for not stopping its broadcast of the 'unacceptable' set. A BBC spokesperson said: 'The director-general was informed of the incident after the performance and at that point he was clear it should not feature in any other Glastonbury coverage.' The news of Mr Davie's presence at the festival comes as the Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis berated the BBC for what he called 'the airing of vile Jew-hatred' and the broadcaster's 'belated and mishandled response'. The corporation has faced strong criticism for continuing to livestream the performance on iPlayer with on-screen warnings about discriminatory language. Broadcasting regulator Ofcom saying it was 'very concerned' by the decision and the Culture Secretary claimed the issue should have been foreseeable and constituted 'a problem of leadership' for the BBC. In a post on X, Sir Ephraim wrote: 'This is a time of national shame. 'The airing of vile Jew-hatred at Glastonbury and the BBC's belated and mishandled response, brings confidence in our national broadcaster's ability to treat antisemitism seriously to a new low. 'It should trouble all decent people that now, one need only couch their outright incitement to violence and hatred as edgy political commentary, for ordinary people to not only fail to see it for what it is, but also to cheer it, chant it and celebrate it. 'Toxic Jew-hatred is a threat to our entire society.' Irish rap trio Kneecap, including member Liam Og O hAnnaidh who appeared in court earlier this month charged with a terror offence, took to the stage directly after Bob Vylan and led chants of 'Free Palestine'. On Monday, Avon and Somerset Police said it had launched a probe into both performances after reviewing video footage and audio recordings, with a senior detective appointed to lead the investigation. A police spokesman said: 'This has been recorded as a public order incident at this time while our inquiries are at an early stage. 'The investigation will be evidence-led and will closely consider all appropriate legislation, including relating to hate crimes.' In a statement on Monday, the BBC said: 'Millions of people tuned in to enjoy Glastonbury this weekend across the BBC's output but one performance within our livestreams included comments that were deeply offensive. 'The BBC respects freedom of expression but stands firmly against incitement to violence. 'The antisemitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable and have no place on our airwaves. 'We welcome Glastonbury's condemnation of the performance. 'The performance was part of a livestream of the West Holts stage on BBC iPlayer. 'The judgment on Saturday to issue a warning on screen while streaming online was in line with our editorial guidelines. 'In addition, we took the decision not to make the performance available on demand. 'The team were dealing with a live situation, but with hindsight we should have pulled the stream during the performance. We regret this did not happen.' US deputy secretary of state Christopher Landau announced that Bob Vylan's US visas had been revoked due to 'their hateful tirade at Glastonbury', with the duo scheduled to tour in Chicago, Brooklyn and Philadelphia in October. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told the Commons on Monday the Government was 'exasperated' with the 'lack of account from the leadership' at the BBC. Ms Nandy said the incident at Worthy Farm had raised 'very, very serious questions at the highest levels of the BBC about the operational oversight and the way in which editorial standards are understood', adding that she wanted to see 'rapid action' from the broadcaster. Cabinet minister Jonathan Reynolds said the scenes at Glastonbury raised wider concerns about society. He told BBC Radio 4's Today: 'There are some lessons, I think, for broadcasters from this, but let's also not shy away from the issue, which is people in a crowd glorifying violence. 'I don't think it's something we'd associate with any music festival, but it's a wider societal problem.' He added:'It's possible, I think, to be completely concerned by the scenes in Gaza and not stray into the kind of behaviour and endorsement that we saw with that performance. 'And I'm deeply shocked to be honest, that people would even not realise what I think they're participating in when they do that.' Glastonbury Festival organisers also condemned Bob Vylan's chants, saying it was 'appalled' by what was said on stage, adding 'there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence'. Bob Vylan formed in Ipswich in 2017 and have released four albums addressing issues such as racism, masculinity and class. Bobby Vylan is the stage name of Pascal Robinson-Foster, 34, according to reports. His bandmate drummer uses the alias Bobbie Vylan. In a statement posted to Instagram, he said: 'Teaching our children to speak up for the change they want and need is the only way that we make this world a better place. 'As we grow older and our fire starts to possibly dim under the suffocation of adult life and all its responsibilities, it is incredibly important that we encourage and inspire future generations to pick up the torch that was passed to us.'
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
BBC director-general was at Glastonbury during Bob Vylan performance
The BBC's director-general was at Glastonbury Festival when Bob Vylan led chants of 'Death, death to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces)' that were broadcast live. It is understood Tim Davie was on a visit to meet staff at the Somerset music event on Saturday afternoon and was informed after Bobby Vylan, one half of the British rap punk duo, led his audience in chants that also included 'Free, free Palestine'. The performance at the West Holts Stage was livestreamed by the BBC but the organisation later expressed regret for not stopping its broadcast of the 'unacceptable' set. A BBC spokesperson said: 'The director-general was informed of the incident after the performance and at that point he was clear it should not feature in any other Glastonbury coverage.' The news of Mr Davie's presence at the festival comes as the Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis berated the BBC for what he called 'the airing of vile Jew-hatred' and the broadcaster's 'belated and mishandled response'. The corporation has faced strong criticism for continuing to livestream the performance on iPlayer with on-screen warnings about discriminatory language. Broadcasting regulator Ofcom saying it was 'very concerned' by the decision and the Culture Secretary claimed the issue should have been foreseeable and constituted 'a problem of leadership' for the BBC. In a post on X, Sir Ephraim wrote: 'This is a time of national shame. 'The airing of vile Jew-hatred at Glastonbury and the BBC's belated and mishandled response, brings confidence in our national broadcaster's ability to treat antisemitism seriously to a new low. 'It should trouble all decent people that now, one need only couch their outright incitement to violence and hatred as edgy political commentary, for ordinary people to not only fail to see it for what it is, but also to cheer it, chant it and celebrate it. 'Toxic Jew-hatred is a threat to our entire society.' Irish rap trio Kneecap, including member Liam Og O hAnnaidh who appeared in court earlier this month charged with a terror offence, took to the stage directly after Bob Vylan and led chants of 'Free Palestine'. On Monday, Avon and Somerset Police said it had launched a probe into both performances after reviewing video footage and audio recordings, with a senior detective appointed to lead the investigation. A police spokesman said: 'This has been recorded as a public order incident at this time while our inquiries are at an early stage. 'The investigation will be evidence-led and will closely consider all appropriate legislation, including relating to hate crimes.' In a statement on Monday, the BBC said: 'Millions of people tuned in to enjoy Glastonbury this weekend across the BBC's output but one performance within our livestreams included comments that were deeply offensive. 'The BBC respects freedom of expression but stands firmly against incitement to violence. 'The antisemitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable and have no place on our airwaves. 'We welcome Glastonbury's condemnation of the performance. 'The performance was part of a livestream of the West Holts stage on BBC iPlayer. 'The judgment on Saturday to issue a warning on screen while streaming online was in line with our editorial guidelines. 'In addition, we took the decision not to make the performance available on demand. 'The team were dealing with a live situation, but with hindsight we should have pulled the stream during the performance. We regret this did not happen.' US deputy secretary of state Christopher Landau announced that Bob Vylan's US visas had been revoked due to 'their hateful tirade at Glastonbury', with the duo scheduled to tour in Chicago, Brooklyn and Philadelphia in October. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told the Commons on Monday the Government was 'exasperated' with the 'lack of account from the leadership' at the BBC. Ms Nandy said the incident at Worthy Farm had raised 'very, very serious questions at the highest levels of the BBC about the operational oversight and the way in which editorial standards are understood', adding that she wanted to see 'rapid action' from the broadcaster. Glastonbury Festival organisers also condemned Bob Vylan's chants, saying it was 'appalled' by what was said on stage, adding 'there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence'. Bob Vylan formed in Ipswich in 2017 and have released four albums addressing issues such as racism, masculinity and class. Bobby Vylan is the stage name of Pascal Robinson-Foster, 34, according to reports. His bandmate drummer uses the alias Bobbie Vylan. In a statement posted to Instagram, he said: 'Teaching our children to speak up for the change they want and need is the only way that we make this world a better place. 'As we grow older and our fire starts to possibly dim under the suffocation of adult life and all its responsibilities, it is incredibly important that we encourage and inspire future generations to pick up the torch that was passed to us.'
BBC News
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Chief Rabbi says 'vile Jew-hatred at Glastonbury' a 'national shame'
The UK's Chief Rabbi has strongly criticised "the airing of vile Jew-hate at Glastonbury" after a live broadcast of Bob Vylan's performance at the festival went out on the BBC, during which the band's singer led the crowd in chants of "death, death to the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]".Writing on X, Sir Ephraim Mirvis wrote: "This is a time of national shame. The airing of vile Jew-hatred at Glastonbury and the BBC's belated and mishandled response, brings confidence in our national broadcaster's ability to treat antisemitism seriously to a new low."It should trouble all decent people that now, one need only couch their outright incitement to violence and hatred as edgy political commentary, for ordinary people to not only fail to see it for what it is, but also to cheer it, chant it and celebrate it. Toxic Jew-hatred is a threat to our entire a statement issued on Monday, the BBC said: "The team were dealing with a live situation but with hindsight we should have pulled the stream during the performance. We regret this did not happen." A criminal investigation has now been launched over performances by both Bob Vylan and Irish band Kneecap at Glastonbury on Saturday, Avon and Somerset Police has force said it had appointed a senior detective to investigate whether comments made by either act amounted to a criminal offence after reviewing footage.A statement added: "This has been recorded as a public order incident at this time while our enquiries are at an early stage."Speaking in Parliament on Monday after the announcement, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy called the scenes broadcast "appalling and unacceptable".
