I can't help thinking that this Daniel Hannan blogpost, which includes specific reference to the lobbying activities of Christian Aid, may in part be a response to the twittering of BBC Home Affairs correspondent Matt Prodger.
(H/t George R)
Meant to cover this yesterday, I refer to BBC coverage of the latest European diktat bestowing additional rights and benefits on Agency workers. This has been presented by the BBC as a further instance of Euro benevolence and anyone arguing against it is treated as if they are the enemies if the enlightenment. It seems to have escaped the attention of BBC editors that legislation which puts extra pressure and cost on business in a recession will only lead to jobs being lost. On Today the other morning there was a harpy from the Trade Unions on bleating that this did not really go far enough but at least it was a step in the right direction. When the market adjusts for this imposition, and fewer agency workers are employed, the BBC will then bleat about the awful unemployment. This is how the BBC operates its pro-EU policy; it cheer-leads for the legislation from Brussels and then attacks the Government when the inevitable chaos ensues.
Wearying but predictable to see that the lead story on the BBC NEWS Portal this morning is one undermining the Conservatives. "Conservative Andrew Tyrie questions economic strategy". That's the single most important story in the world this morning. I am sure we can look forward to the BBC bringing more stories of division and conflict during the Conservative Party conference and the only guy that can expect favourable BBC coverage is Nick Boles. I am sure you can work out why.
"We get from time to time people saying you're biased in favour of the Labour Party. Every time I ask people - show me a case of that bias, explain to me where we got it wrong and why what we said was so unfair - they seem to be unable to do so",
Andrew Marr May 11th, 2001.
"The BBC is not impartial or neutral. It's a publicly funded, urban organisation with an abnormally large number of young people, ethnic minorities and gay people. It has a liberal bias not so much a party-political bias. It is better expressed as a cultural liberal bias",
Andrew Marr
the Daily Mail, Oct 21st, 2006.
"It's not a conspiracy. It's visceral. They think they are on the middle ground",
Jeff Randall former BBC Business Editor,
in The Observer, Jan 15th, 2006.
"The idea of a tax on the ownership of a television belongs in the 1950s. Why not tax people for owning a washing machine to fund the manufacture of Persil?",
James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture, Aug 24th, 2007.
"People who know a lot more than I do may be right when they claim that [global warming] is the consequence of our own behaviour. I assume that this is why the BBC's coverage of the issue abandoned the pretence of impartiality long ago",
Media Guardian, Jan 31st, 2007.
"I do remember... the corridors of Broadcasting House were strewn with empty champagne bottles. I'll always remember that"
Jane Garvey
BBC Five Live, May 10th, 2007, recalling May 2nd, 1997.
(courtesy of Jonathan Boyd Hunt)
"We need to foster peculiarity, idiosyncrasy, stubborn-mindedness, left-of-centre thinking."
Ben Stephenson
BBC Drama Commissioning Controller
Guardian, July 16th 2009
