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Listed below are comments made by Doogletastic between Saturday, 14th March 2009 and Friday, 21st August 2009.

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Burma: Are there signs of change? 08:46am on 21 Aug 2009 #23 KennethM

You appear to have latched onto a short phrase within the editorial guidelines without pausing to consider the important differences between opinion and estimation.

If you are roughly the length of a football pitch away from an object and knowing that a football pitch is about 100 yards in length, you might be inclined to guess that the distance between you and the object is 100 yards. Is that just a matter of opinion? No it is not, because the actual distance can be measured. It is an estimate.

In forecasting the political future for Burma, Alistair Burnett provides an estimate whose accuracy can be measured over the coming years.

That is quite different to purely expressing an opinion. An opinion is personal to its holder and incapable of substantiation for the present or at any future date. For example if Alistair Burnett had said "It looks like the Burmese government might realise that they have been wrong all along": that would have been an opinion.
Burma: Are there signs of change? 1:06pm on 20 Aug 2009 #15 KennethM

It is difficult to see how the BBC could maintain such a diverse and much-used (particularly by you) blog section without introducing the personal perspectives of the bloggers to deliver the necessary level of analysis. The example you cite is an informed estimate of outcome, not a judgmental criticism or statement of allegiance and I fail to see how it affects the BBC's impartiality in even the smallest way.

I am wrong? That is nothing more than your opinion and I continue to disagree.
Burma: Are there signs of change? 08:53am on 19 Aug 2009 #16

You cannily choose German examples, mindful I am sure that most English place names are the same (or very similar) in German, highlighting the lack or reciprocity between our two great nations. Saying that, how many Germans do you imagine are offended in the slightest?

If we look at France or Italy however the situation is very different. Do you feel it is discourteous or are you yourself offended by the use of the names Londres, Londra, Ecosse, Scozia, Pays de Galles or Il Galles? If so I suggest you get out more.
Burma: Are there signs of change? 1:06pm on 17 Aug 2009 #2 KennethM

Offering up points of view for discussion, in addition to simple reporting of facts, is precisely the role of our independent, publicly-funded national broadcaster. You neither agree nor disagree with the point of view presented but argue that it has no business being presented in the first place. That is your right, but I disagree with you.

#10 ATNotts

The BBC, in keeping with the policy of our government and many other western democracies choose not to recognise the name changes implemented by the military dictatorship in 1989. Do you believe we do the Irish a post-colonial discourtesy by using the name "Dublin" instead of "Ath Cliath"?
Panorama producer imprisoned 08:42am on 28 Jul 2009 Walrus I don't think it's particularly provocative to call the service "BBC Persia", considering it broadcasts in Persian, a language widely spoken throughout central Asia, not just Iran.

Do you happen to know anyone who feels provoked by the name? Thought not.
Three years in China 1:09pm on 08 Jul 2009 Dear James

I don't know what I will do with my lunch breaks now I no longer have your China blogs to read! I broadly trust the impressions that you have shared with us although I sometimes take it with a small pinch of salt because naturally you seek out the news items that are, rightly or wrongly, of perpetual interest to your home audience. Nevertheless many times you came through with a unique perspective on something I had never heard of before, revealing China to be a fascinating place, something that concurs with the experiences I have heard tell of from acquaintances who have been there.

A common complaint amongst friends of mine who have been to China is that people tend to be astonishingly rude. The abusive and often incoherent belligerence of your detractors on this blog would tend to support this assertion.

Please start up a new blog wherever they send you next.

Toodle oo
The Conspiracy Files: 7/7 12:51pm on 25 Jun 2009 #31 StephenJMUK - I really enjoy reading your well informed posts but I am a little suspicious of your tireless obsession with BBC's broadcasting of the go code for the 1953 coup d'état in Iran. It seems to appear in every posting you ever make. Why do you consider this to be of such overwhelming significance today that you must mention it quite so frequently? No doubt the World Service overstepped its remit to "speak truth unto (another) nation" on that occasion but does that mean nothing has changed in 56 years?
As if 1989 never happened 1:12pm on 09 Jun 2009 #75 tclim38

Your post started out sensible but degenerated rapidly into unrestrained fantasy.

"And the foreign powers certainly would have sent in the occupying troops (using the pretext of protecting their own citizens ... sound familiar?)"

Do you mean like during the boxer rebellion? Or like the Japanese occupation? Do you still believe references to such distant history are relevant to today's world? Perhaps in the mind of the CCP propaganda machine - a useful rallying cry for nationalism after all. In any case, what power or coalition of powers would have had the manpower or remotest wish to have done as you suggest? You are on a different planet my friend.
As if 1989 never happened 12:35pm on 03 Jun 2009 I was interested to see the response to this blog from the China-can-do-no-wrong brigade and I must say it is all pretty weak. One attempt to deny that anything ever happened in Tiananmen Square, several attempts to defend the moral principals justifying a machine-gun massacre of unarmed students but in the lead we have the usual questioning of the motivation of the BBC and the entire western world in lingering over such a "minor" event in world history.

I can only speak for myself but I so vividly remember 20 years ago the great sense of hope that we were all on an unstoppable roller coaster and finally the stony-faced tyrants of world communism were going to have to listen to the little guy for a change. Then I remember my sense of total horror at the Chinese government's response. I must say I am glad that China has done well for herself economically but to cheerfully attribute this to an act of such unspeakable brutality is beyond contempt.
Ex-BBC journalist arrested in Iran 11:37pm on 14 Mar 2009 #17

Please teach me how I can become as deeply pessimistic as you. What an art.

While you are at it let's hear about the "bright" people with "things to say" being arrested left, right and centre in the UK. As bright as you are I'd be scared to leave the house.

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