BBC Desperately Tries to Re-Assert Old Political Spectrum 257


SECOND UPDATE The BBC has celebrated the lifting of election fair reporting restrictions by giving us a full morning of broadcasting that genuinely is 85% Tory. I find this astonishing. Following the Tory commentariat conversation that opened the show (see below), Andrew Neil has now done long individual interviews with three Tory MPs in a row – the Chair of the 1922 Committee, Anna Soubry and the smarmy Dominic Raab.

ORIGINAL POST

The BBC is institutionally incapable of reacting to the shift in the political spectrum revealed by the last election.

Astonishingly on Marr the papers are being reviewed by Toby Young (far right), George Osborne (right) and Polly Toynbee (Blairite right ). The old politico/commentariat bubble is entirely intact as far as the BBC is concerned. We are going to have Michael Fallon in a minute.

Finally, Jeremy Corbyn will be invited on. He is the one person who articulates what half the country believes, and whose existence the BBC cannot entirely ignore. But the straining and stressing as the BBC try to heave the Overton window back into place is palpable.

UPDATE

Wow the BBC is really going for broke now with The Daily Politics and a review of events between “independent” commentators Andrew Neil (Tory) Julia Hartley Brewer (Tory) Tom Newton Dunn (Tory, Political Editor of Murdoch’s Sun) and Steve Richards (Blairite). Followed by an interview with a member of the Tory 1922 Committee. Followed by another Tory MP!

The Guardian/Observer on the other hand might be struggling to come up with some sort of readjustment towards the views of its readership and away from the worst of the truly obnoxious overpaid right-wingers who dominate the paper. They are, in their Sunday guise of the Observer, carrying another barking mad article from Nick Cohen attacking Jeremy Corbyn. Cohen of course to this day maintains the Iraq War was a good thing and is horrified anybody should prosper who does not agree with him. But, given the extraordinary amounts of money they pay him for these witterings, they are peculiarly hiding it. Their star columnist’s new column today appears nowhere at all on their massive website front page. It did fleetingly, but has been well and truly buried.

(I do realise you can’t read that. I just posted it to show I had looked through the entire thing).


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257 thoughts on “BBC Desperately Tries to Re-Assert Old Political Spectrum

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  • Alcyone

    Trump may or may not defer his visit to the UK, but even he now has a greater incentive to fast-track discussions on a UK-US trade deal. I saw someone suggest that the quickest way to do this would be to include the UK into NAFTA. Something in that direction is inevitable for the two natural English-speaking allies sharing broadly similar cultures.

    Remoaners thinking gloom and doom will be surprised to see life moving forwards rather than backwards. I believe Scottish ‘unionists’ think similarly.

    Change brings some turbulence and that could explain some of Trump’s woes. We shall see–this is just the beginning. In the meantime, Trump has told Abbas to get his act together and embrace Egypt and Jordan’s commitment to NO terror.

  • nevermind

    You could not make it up, Gopve, a man who has disrupted the education of millions of young people with his moral laden, second hand, discredited academy system, the man who wanted to abolish environmental education in schools, has become minister for the environment.
    Ms Truss, by the thrust of two PM’s has been jolted into another completely new portfolio in her education through the House of Commons portfolio journey. From a useless environment secretary to the justice ministry where she rankled with judges for daring to judge the limp Brexit effort. Now she’s in charge of the treasury when the chancellor is on holiday……

    • K Crosby

      Academies are a natural consequence of the return to a flow model of employment; there’s no need to educate working class people beyond the basics because we don’t need A levels and degrees for permanent mass unemployment, underemployment, shorter life spans and menial labour.

    • Sharp Ears

      This is the NEW Environment Secretary, not the blonde but the one with the rubber lips.
      http://pbs.twimg.com/media/DCD18eBXcAAdQgX.jpg

      His voting record on environmental matters. LOL Do have a look. YCNMIU
      https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/11858/michael_gove/surrey_heath/votes#environment

      His Register of interests. https://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=11858

      £150,000 pa from News UK ie Murdoch plus plus donation after donation, some large, from companies and individuals.

      No CFoI paid trips to Israel declared but he was paid + £3k to go to Washington to speak to AIPAC in March this year and was also paid by the Henry Jackson Society to have ‘Meetings with Administration, Congressional and NGO officials in role as HJS Trustee’ at the same time.

      In 2009 the United Jewish Appeal in Toronto paid him an honorarium of £12,260 (why?) and £3,164 for ‘Purpose of visit: to speak at four events organized by the UJA (see Category 2 above) and hold private meetings..’

      £2k plus from Lord Rothermere for two days in France with his lovely wife NOT (Sarah Vine, who scribbles for the Heil).

      The Henry Jackson Society’s name crops up a lot as he is a trustee of the extreme right wing outfit as does the American Enterprise Society to whom he speaks annually in the US. Many £thousands received again.

      I see D Miliband, Sajid Javid, Bolton, Cheney, Kristol, Kagan, Larry Summers, Eric Schmidt and Karl Rove on the 2016 agenda. Get the picture?
      https://www.scribd.com/doc/303250077/2016-AEI-World-Forum-Agenda

      Remember too his wrecking of the state education system under Cameron – now academies and free schools and then as Justice Secretary when he used to dress up as Lord Chancellor. Our prisons are a disgrace for a supposedly civilised country.

      He’s over Twitter and there is outrage and incredulity.
      https://twitter.com/search?q=michael+gove&ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Esearch

      Anthony Horowitz interviewed him in 2014 and found him strange. Horowitz is the author of the bestselling Alex Rider children’s spy novels, and the creator of Foyle’s War.
      https://www.spectator.co.uk/2014/03/the-disturbing-certainty-of-michael-gove/

      and most importantly Tom Watson asks ‘Theresa May if Rupert Murdoch told her to give Michael Gove a Cabinet job, in his letter.

      Tom Watson tells PM ‘it might be tempting to allow yourself to be influenced by powerful media proprietors’ after election disaster
      http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-rupert-murdoch-michael-gove-cabinet-job-tom-watson-labour-deputy-leader-letter-sun-times-a7785631.html

      Quite interesting in the light of Murdoch’s £150k pa to Gove for the self described 8 hrs ‘work’ per week. See TWFY link above.

      A bad joke is being played on us.

      • Sharp Ears

        II was reminded that I omitted Gove’s connection to Atlantic Bridge.

        Monbiot:

        ‘We have no hope of understanding what is coming until we understand how the dark money network operates. The remarkable story of a British member of parliament provides a unique insight into this network, on both sides of the Atlantic. His name is Liam Fox. Six years ago, his political career seemed to be over when he resigned as defence secretary after being caught mixing his private and official interests. But today he is back on the front bench, and with a crucial portfolio: secretary of state for international trade.

        In 1997, the year the Conservatives lost office to Tony Blair, Fox, who is on the hard right of the Conservative party, founded an organisation called The Atlantic Bridge. Its patron was Margaret Thatcher. On its advisory council sat future cabinet ministers Michael Gove, George Osborne, William Hague and Chris Grayling. Fox, a leading campaigner for Brexit, described the mission of Atlantic Bridge as “to bring people together who have common interests”. It would defend these interests from “European integrationists who would like to pull Britain away from its relationship with the United States”.’
        https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/02/corporate-dark-money-power-atlantic-lobbyists-brexit

        Craig Murray too of course. Fox. Werritty. Gould.
        https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/?s=atlantic+bridge

        Fox has been reappointed as ‘Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade’ so nothing has changed.

        Werritty is still around. Married now!

        Matthew Gould ex UK Ambassador to Israel has been ‘Director, Cyber Security and Information Assurance in the Cabinet Office’ since 2015.

        So these traitors are still embedded in the state.

        • Sharp Ears

          I can’t remember Gould’s name cropping up in the UK media when the NHS was hacked. 😉

          ‘Biography

          In his previous role as British ambassador to Israel, he set up the UK Israel tech hub, which laid the foundations for the UK and Israel’s powerful tech relationship. He also led the Cabinet Office’s cyber security unit as its Director of Cyber Security and Information Assurance, focussed on keeping Britain safe from cyber attack.

          Matthew’s previous roles also include serving as principal private secretary in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and as private secretary for foreign affairs in the Prime Minister’s office.

          Matthew has worked in Tehran, Islamabad, Washington and Manila. This international expertise will help the Government deliver its ambitions to help UK digital businesses expand across the world.

          Read more about Matthew’s appointment and experience on gov.uk’

          https://www.gov.uk/government/people/matthew-gould

          Horizon last night.
          ‘Cyber Attack – The Day the NHS Stopped
          Horizon, 2017
          A few weeks ago, the National Health Service was hit by a widespread and devastating cyber attack – Horizon tells the inside story of one of the most challenging days in the history of the NHS.

          On the morning of 12 May the attack started. Appointment systems, pathology labs, x-rays and even CT scanners were infected – putting not just data but patients lives at risk, and on every screen a simple – some may even say polite – message appeared. ‘Ooops, your files have been encrypted!’

          But what followed was far from civilised. It was very clear that all the data on an infected machine was now scrambled and only the hackers could unscramble it. For a price – and with an extra twist – after a few days the ransom money doubled, and if nothing was paid within a week, the hackers threatened to destroy all the data – forever.’

          1 hr. duration
          30 days to watch
          http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08vfzm0

          • Trowbridge H. Ford

            I recall Matthew Gould’s name cropping up during Operation Crevice.

            He showed up as a MI5 agent for those suspects who had not been arrested, urging their families to see that they fled, as if they were terrorists too.

            Went off then as a Mi6 agent to Tehran where he looked for resdents who would work for the UK.

            Quite possible that Gould arranged for two Iranians with stolen Austrian passports to not only sabotage Asiana Flight 214 in San Francisco but then managed miraculously to crash the yet to be found MH370.

            He is one of the UK’s worst assassins.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Pungent assault on Tory complacency, and not-too grudging acknowledgement of Corbyn’s campaign success here

    http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/

    This farcical unwanted Election must surely have shown everyone a key fact – we now live in a country where the supposed natural party of government can no longer really command a majority.

    That’s like having a fridge that doesn’t keep your food fresh, or a bicycle with no wheels. If we had any sense (do we?) we’d dump this dead, rotting faction in the nearest skip or landfill, and find a new one to replace it. The Tories failed on Thursday because they have long believed in nothing and are interested only in being in office.

    They won in 2015 only because of a grotesque splurge of millionaire donations, and ultra-expensive black magic techniques, which partly made up for the collapse of their once-majestic membership and the machine it supported.

    They are, in effect, a zombie party, lurching and shuffling along in a procession of the undead, thanks to transfusions of money and the BBC’s ancient broadcasting rules, which guarantee them air time.

    Some of our rightwingers would do well to read and digest this.

    • Dave

      Peter Hitchin is often a good read, let down by his conclusions. He wants a genuine conservative party to succeed and can’t understand why anyone votes for the (non) Conservative Party, but rejects the voting reform needed to facilitate a genuine conservative party as anti-conservative!

      The reason people vote for the Conservative Party is because they consider themselves conservative and then project that onto the Conservative Party, but what constitutes conservative can change over time and the secret of Conservative Party success is it adopts itself to change and vote wise did very well in the election.

      • Ba'al Zevul

        I wondered why people voted Tory, thanks. I thought it was mainly self-interest, modulated by media and business interests pretending to have an altruistic concern for society and offering absolution from guilt. What is pathetically evident in the current Tory government is that it has not adapted to change, and has no intention of doing so. Unless you mean relentless and continuing change in the application of propaganda, and something of a relaxation in that inconvenient old quality of truthfulness. If the Tories had had the remotest awareness of and intention to adapt to economic and social change, it would have skewered both Corbyn and Blair, to say nothing of the LibDems, by moving leftwards, not further in the direction indicated by its rooted, traditional, prejudices.

        • Dave

          I don’t think many people who vote conservative think the way you describe and self-interest applies to all the other parties too. But the point is the election delivered an overwhelming vote for the main right and left parties and I don’t see how either can really improve on their vote. Indeed any further change only depends on a handful of votes changing sides or not voting in a small number of seats.

          • Dave

            But many conservatives do believe their own propaganda that austerity is needed because “the money’s run out”, a view shared until recently by Labour. Now I don’t dispute that some promote this fiction as a cover for privatisation, but the truth is austerity was EU austerity to save the Euro. Now following Brexit there is a “money tree” because as there is now no prospect of joining the Euro the books can be balanced over a longer period making a big increase in public spending possible. Hammond recognised this when he tore up Osborne’s fiscal plans, but still foolishly continued the language of cuts which they thought sounded more financially responsible. But the Corbyn Left know the truth and have announced support for Brexit as part of their anti-austerity agenda, with O’Donnell now supporting leaving the single market.

          • Ba'al Zevul

            I don’t dispute that some (Tories -BZ) promote this fiction as a cover for privatisation,
            The only ones who mattered did, and still do.

            the truth is austerity was EU austerity to save the Euro.
            That was a local concern. The general cause was the implosion of a corrupt financial system across the West, and the need to create debt to fill the vacuum. The assumption was that austerity would stimulate growth by replacing government expenditure with profitable activities. It hasn’t done yet. After a decade, unsecured debt is ballooning, savings are eroded, stock markets are far into bubble country. Another crash is just round the corner, and the touted solution will be that the least able to stand it will feel the pain, as usual. The assumption is wrong. So, btw, is the concept of a society dominated by unlimited economic growth, which, when boom gives way to bust, reveals itself as inflation and devaluation.

            And there’s always been a money tree. Suckers will even accept negative interest on government bonds, and do.

          • Dave

            Yes and yet Labour supported austerity too. That means they either supported privatisation, or they supported austerity to save the Euro due to wanting to join when politically possible to do so. The evidence for the latter is the extensive promotion of PFI, mickey-mouse accounting.

            And it was Labour extensive deregulation of the banks, as part of the so-called independence of Bank of England that led to the crash (American malpractice operated from London) and claiming austerity was the solution to the crash was the cover story for propping up the Euro.

        • Ba'al Zevul

          My feelings on the Blairite takeover of Labour during the period in question are well known here. Blair shifted Labouir well to the right of the one-nation Tories during his time, and anything unpleasant I have to say about Tories applies unequivocally to him and his ilk. Nul points.

    • Dave

      Discussing the campaigns is a bit misleading as it assumes that the campaigns by the party’s, or at least their official campaigns, made the difference. Even the social care debacle didn’t really hit the conservative vote going by their share of the vote. The big difference was the secret services campaign to demonise Corbyn which clearly back fired by mobilising the non-Tory and anti-establishment vote in his favour, which he simply countered by saying make peace not war. I.e. the Trump effect.

  • Matt

    Hi Craig,
    I would be interested to hear more about these ‘election fair reporting restrictions’ and why they only apply for a short period of time,

    surely such a thing would be a permanent restriction for the national state broadcast service in an open democracy?

    • Jo

      The BBC IS meant to maintain political impartiality at ALL times. It’s one of its obligations due to its public funding status.

      It ignores this requirement. That’s worrying.

      It gets away with ignoring this requirement. That’s even more worrying!

      • nevermind

        Jo trust me, as a previous Green party member on their regional council it was impossible to get a decent fair worded transcript the BBC would adhere to, from their political editors. They excluded them for decades for various reasons they made up as they went along.
        The day of the local elections finished the Green party had won 40 seats in a highly contested election that saw a wipe out of UKIP cllr’s. The BBC led with their demise all day long, they promoted the Tory’s then as they do now.

        That it was the Tory’s who followed the straw man Farrage and got all scary about his demands, that they granted a referendum to take the wind out of his sails. on followed political innuendo and lies upon lies, amplified by a Tory media that wanted out.
        Their failure is long term, when they should have been at the centre of decision making, they took the massive trade profits, sat on the fence and worked the system for all it was worth. Now they are screaming that its undemocratic after having done zilch to change it.

        The Greens in Europe wanted change from day one. They did not agree that the top decision makers were unelected and unaccountable, but they did not swing handbags but tried their best to unite with others to change it, thanks to no one.
        The BBC is a self perpetuating hydra that is directed to serve their dependency on the party in power on the day. If JC would have won they would not have known what to say, or how to be nice to him. Break them up, they are no different than the EU.

  • Trowbridge H. Ford

    Anyone seen an article in the the British press,especially the BBC, about the ongoing feud in the UDA which has claimed the lives of Colin Horner and George Gilmore?

    Perhaps May can sort it out in the Cabinet.

    The UK is just becoming a hornet’s next for criminals.

    • Trowbridge H. Ford

      Well, Craig et al. are watching it, and even am I in the USA. It is a bit better than the crap that CNN, Fox and MSNBC iare providing.

      And it at least reports the crap. in less irritating voices.

      • Bobm

        THF

        I prefer a half-hour of CNN on Trump to most of BBC’s coverage of May and Co.
        What am I missing?

          • fwl

            It used to be said that US media is almost tediously objective whilst British is amusing but shamelessly subjective, but that’s probably always just applied to print news.

          • Trowbridge H. Ford

            That didn’t even apply to the print news, as I am reminded of what I wrote negatively about what foreign correspondent Cy Sulesburger (sp?_had written in the NYT about something regarding LBH’s Vietnam War.. It would finally publish it if I agreed to his changes which i didn’t.

            The American public was so brain washed by Washington even then that even the Soviets were asking questions about how to do it.

          • Trowbridge H. Ford

            Right, fwi, remember when I broke out of the mold, just remember when it happened but not really why.

            I was teaching a course on Soviet foreign policy, and one of my students announced that the shuttle Challenger went up in smoke with teacher Chtista McCollough aboard.

            I just went bonkers about it being so absurd in a learning environment, and have never been the same since.

      • K Crosby

        Have you compared COMbbc with RT? RT is the only place I’ve found reportage of the quality that I took for granted from TradBBC in the 70s.

  • Trowbridge H. Ford

    Would our media be so sympathic if some critic, like that one in Moscow, violated an order about where and why to hold protests when the government had an unheard 81% approval rating?

    Our governments manipulate the polls but still can only come up with results in the 30s!

  • J Galt

    BBC latest – Queen’s speech delayed as they wait for the ink to dry on the traditional goats Skin.

    Not only that they had a helluva job getting the Goat to stand still!

  • Emanuel

    In all fairness the BBC had two panels on Breakfast News today where the pro-Labour panel was given TEN whole seconds!

  • Abulhaq

    And where do we as a nation figure in all this? Scotland dissolving the Anglo-Scottish Union and thereby ending the UK as a legal entity is the massive elephant in the British swimming pool. The system has been running scared of our departure for decades. Every time there is a ‘nationalist flair-up’ the prophets warn of things going down the pan for the establishment of which broadcasting is an essential part.
    Frankly I dont care what happens to rump Ukania or indeed what the state broadcasters say, my only concern is that my country gets out of this masochistic relationship with a country whose interests plainly diverge from our own.
    We can punch well above our weight on this one. Why do those running the show require that we pull our punches. Marr, Neill, Gove, Fox et al can go to hell in their unionist made handcart. Want a push guys?

  • Ishmael

    Well they may succeed some in Scotland. There being little to replace it that’s not stuck to political parties or partisan positions.

  • John Christopher

    The BBC have well and truly lost the plot, with great swathes of the populus simply choosing to ignore them. As for The Guardian, they are not long for this world.

  • Zippy

    Have you not heard the latest Craig? Seven Sinn Fein MPs are flying to London to back Labour. Obviously Gerry Adams disapproves of the Maybot’s unholy alliance with the DUP.

    • Dave

      The formula for ending the conflict was to bring in the armed groups (but specifically IRA) into the peace process as the way to disarm them! Distasteful, but it worked and as a result DUP become Ulster Unionist and SF became SDLP. And as constitutional nationalists the SDLP attended Westminster and logically SF should now do the same, as part of the peace process. Personally I welcome it, just as I welcome SNP going native at Westminster, because it brings an Independent United Ireland within a United Britain Union closer outside the EU.

      • nevermind

        Will the protestant paramilitaries now disarm or are they preparing for another NI confrontation with those who are disarmed.
        The DUP wants the marching ban lifted, that sounds like the beginning of trouble for NI/European Citizens, something that will not be silently accepted by those in charge of Europe. For the Tories to go native and try to bust the Good Friday Agreement might be another stumbling block that is not acceptable. Every move by them points to one direction, favours for the DUP, when an impartial UK Government has been ratified.

        The more Mrs. May delays her Government and the talks, which she triggered in mid stream without a paddle, the more time to talk will be wasted and they will have nothing to show for their contortions and uncertainty. Creating a new sectarian divide will create violence, marching will do the same, and a hard Brexit, which should n now be a thing of the past, will guarantee a hard border in Ireland, something nobody wants in NI.

        She’s a Tin pot dictator.
        http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/british-election-results-make-brexit-talks-more-difficult-a-1151400.html

          • nevermind

            Are you a member of the NEC Dave, because otherwise you’re talking fiction here.
            NOBODY does know anything as to what will happen now. All wee understand is that the DUP and their demands will ensure that their views are more important than that of the UK’s public representatives.
            Unless we have a team that includes the views of the 48%, not the 17 million who failed to vote and have no voice whatsoever, or the EU citizens who were excluded from deciding their future in Europe, this tin pot coalition of the desperate, will NOT REPRESENT THE UK.

  • Trowbridge H. Ford

    Must say that responses on this thread and others are more depressing than anything I see on the BBC.

    Posters seem oblivious and/or ignorant about why anything serious happened, and uninterested in getting to the truth.

  • Trowbridge H. Ford

    Why no discussion of Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein’s role in the firing of FBI Director James Comey. and straugthening out the DoJ when he and then FBI Diretot Robert Meuller and their underlings and associates looked the other way when NSA’s Special Collection Service agents apparently assassinated leaker John P. Wheeler, III, and ali-Resa Pahlavi, heir to the Iranian throne, to suit the covert leaders of the Democrat government?

  • Clydebuilt

    Craig, why did Tommy Shephard stand down from the election for leadership of the SNP group in the commons?

    • Brianfujisan

      Clydebuilt..

      You may have seen Tommy’s Comments by now, Maybe not, and Craig may possibly have a wee bit of inside info..Anyhoo –

      Mr Sheppard, who was elected to the House of Commons in 2015, said while there is “widespread support” for many of his ideas, he does not have “majority support for becoming leader” from his colleagues at Westminster.
      He said the SNP must work to win back previous supporters who voted Labour in the election as a result of the “Corbyn surge”.
      With a second election possible in the coming months after the Conservatives lost their parliamentary majority, Mr Sheppard said: “We need to win these voters back and we might not have long to do it.
      “In my view this means our priority should be to focus on our left flank and take the battle to Labour in Scotland.
      “It is clear to me that whilst there seems widespread support for many of the ideas I am arguing, I do not have majority support for becoming leader.
      “The message is more important than the messenger and so I have decided not to contest the election for group leader.”
      Mr Sheppard added: “It goes without saying that I will fully support whoever is successful in the contest.”

  • Trowbridge H. Ford

    Of course, nothing about the Grenfell fire possibly bring terrorism.

    The photos just are enough.

    Beat anything about the Westminster Bridge attacks.

    Expect more such sabotage in future.

  • Trowbridge H. Ford

    And the counter terrorists have already determined the cause of the fire while it is still going. It is, according to the DM, a ‘faulty fridge”!

    And, as I told Clark, I am Superman.

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