David Dimbleby front’s the BBC’s EU coverage and will lead a debate to be held at Wembley Arena just two days before the referendum.
This is pure showbiz from the BBC….there’s absolutely no need to hold such a major debate at such a massive venue and at such a dramatic time. The BBC’s description of the event is possibly more truthful than they intended to let on….’The corporation’s biggest ever campaign event’.
What if, for the sake of argument, the BBC stage managed such an event and it turned out to be strongly in favour of staying in Europe? What if it nudged the vote in favour of staying? Two days before the referendum it’s a bit late to complain…if it swayed the vote it’s way too late and there would be no way to go for a steward’s enquiry…we’d be in Europe for the long haul. There are naturally other BBC debates but this looks to be purposely designed to be the eye catching spectacular.
Such a huge debate should be held long before the actual referendum to allow people to digest what was said and to allow those involved in the debate to expand on what they have said…this should be a debate that stimulates more discussion and knowledge… Dimbleby himself likes to think such debates should be ‘open, provocative in the sense that you provoke ideas and thought, where you get a cut-and-thrust of to-and-fro between individuals across a spectrum of opinion. ‘…difficult to make that work with only two days to go.
Such a ‘spectacular’ is liable to be hijacked by a sensationalist and persuasive speaker, from either side, regardless of what he/she is actually saying, winning the headlines and they hope, the votes. Only this morning on the Today programme we heard how the Scottish referendum was really ‘won’ by the silver tongued and charismatic (compared to Alistair Darling) Salmond and Sturgeon….’won’ in the sense that they won the hearts but not the minds… ‘project fear’ won the actual vote.
Will Dimbleby be rigorously impartial? The jury’s out on that….he certainly doesn’t come across as critical of Europe in any way and rather gives the impression of being in favour.
During the election he famously clashed with Nigel Farage as to whether the audience was biased…BBC CHALLENGERS’ DEBATE ‘SERIOUSLY BIASED’ AGAINST EU WITHDRAWAL CASE
Dimbleby said that the audience was hand-picked by an independent, reputable polling company and there was no bias.…a company that seems to always give the worst possible picture of UKIP.
His proud boast that the audience was hand-picked and impartial rather goes against this statement from him last year about another BBC debate programme on Europe and the value of a random audience….
We don’t select scientifically our audience for these programmes. We invite those who want to come, so it is also transparent and democratic, in that sense. Anyone who wants to come to the programme, anyone who wants to pose questions, can do so.
What is more interesting and possibly informative as to his leanings is his other comments in the same interview….
I think the British public is woefully under-informed about the structure, organisation and leadership of the European Union.
And I think that is in part the failure of the communicators, not excluding even the BBC, that tries its level-best, but doesn’t always succeed. But there is a relentless media debate, which either deliberately, sometimes, or by default, offers a distorted image of Europe.
That’s to say, it has a strong view, there are parts of the media – this does not apply to the BBC – which are strongly anti-European Union, and so they cover the European Union in ways that reflect that attitude.
How patronising is that? I imagine the British public is pretty well informed on the essential details of the EU and how it effects their lives. Dimbleby is of course talking about the Euro-sceptics and not the ‘British Public’ in general….so the Sceptics don’t like the EU because they don’t understand it or know enough about it…classic BBC.
That statement alone gives a clue as to what Dimbleby thinks about the EU, but if that weren’t enough we get a further clue in his claim that it is ‘certain parts of the media that are strongly anti-European Union’ that have misled the British Public with a distorted image of Europe.
So Euro-sceptics are only sceptical because they are being lied to and are under-informed….otherwise they would, of course, be wildly in favour of the EU if only they could see how amazing it really is. Pretty clear Dimbleby is for the EU.
He could of course have been talking about the BBC which is well known to push a pro-EU line…..as a House of Commons scrutiny committee confirmed….
We also took this opportunity to review how the BBC covers the EU scrutiny process and EU issues.
We deplore the fact that we had to repeatedly press for Lord Hall, the Director-General of the BBC and its Editor-in-Chief, as well as the previous BBC Trust Chairman Lord Patten, to appear before us.
As the nation’s public service broadcaster the BBC has very particular obligations under its Charter and Framework Agreement, both to be impartial and also to educate and inform. We do not believe this is currently being achieved in the context of the BBC’s EU coverage. Furthermore the BBC has not properly carried through its compliance with its own published aims following the serious criticisms made of the BBC by the Report by Lord Wilson of Dinton in 2005 relating to the BBC’s coverage of EU issues.
Somehow I don’t see the Wembley debate being of any real service and, as said, is more showbiz that real politics though the BBC will be hoping it can get enough pro voices on the night to project ‘fear’ into people’s hearts making them just nervous and jittery enough to stick with the devil they know.
Really running scared aren’t they. The whole liberal cultural marxist project will unravel if we vote to leave. Not only here but across Europe. The BBC is at the very heart of cultural marxism and has been for 50 years at least. Corrupting and misinforming and desirous of destroying old England.
With this referendum we the shire people and the despised white working class can put an end to 50 years of treachery and what is in the life of a nation pure malevolence. .
Even my useless MP is mindful of our shire town feeling and going to come out against staying. They are afraid and this proposed show is a measure of how desperate they are. In one day we can start to take back England from those who wish it ill and must be driven from power and influence.
“I think the British public is woefully under-informed about the structure, organisation and leadership of the European Union.”
Remind me again who provides the news and information for most people in Britain, could it be the lot that Dimbleby works for?
I don’t think our MPs have much of a clue either as to how far the EU ‘competencies’ extend, as Michael Gove recently revealed our Permanent Under Secretaries, (Sir Humphreys), constantly say, “No minister!”
Ideas for the BBC to educate and inform people by producing ten documentaries before the referendum:
(1) A documentary based on the findings in the book “The Great Deception” Can the European Union survive? Christopher Booker and Richard North could be the BBC’s advisors for the Documentary.
(2) A documentary by UKIP describing the democratic faults in the constitution of the EU
(3) A documentary by Cameron describing the bureaucratic benefits in the constitution of the EU
(4) A documentary looking into whether Canada and Australia are able to survive as independent democratic nations not in the EU
(5) A documentary looking at why Germany and France could not survive as independent democratic nations outside of the EU
(6) A documentary looking at why the USA and China are isolated and alone, due to not being members of the EU
(7) A documentary looking at why the House of Lords and the European Union are so admired by the pro-EU elite
(8) A documentary looking at why direct democracy through the internet could replace the elite, with a much cheaper form of governance than the non-democratic resurgent (101 to 112 Lib Dem peers, two fingers up to the people) House of Lords and the EU.
(9) A documentary explaining why UKIP loves old fashioned concepts such as free speech and national democracy.
(1)) A documentary explaining why the pro-EU elite like modern concepts such as political correctness and international elitism.
As for 8 above, do you mean an analysis of the Harrogate Agenda (qv) ?
Looks like an opportunity for the celebs to strut around Wembley, giving their valuable messages
It’s ok, the BBC are ‘fact checking’ for accuracy. No, really.
Comments could be going a wee bit better, frankly.
I don’t remember the BBC doing a ‘reality check’ on any political claims up to last year’s general election, especially any Labour party claims relating to the ‘bedroom tax’, cuts to welfare spending, or food banks and the supposed negative effects of those things on society. If they had done a reality check on those issues they would have revealed the reality that they were having a positive effect on society, as we have subsequently discovered.
Perhaps they realise that suppressing the truth did them no favours so are trying a different approach to nationwide brainwashing by doing a reality check on things that cannot possibly be presented as facts either way, such as the myth that it is a ‘fact’ that 3 million jobs would be lost if we left the EU.
The future, whether we leave or stay, will always be unpredictable. No one can claim to know the future, therefore the BBC’s reality check is nothing but pure speculation without any concrete reality.
‘Such a ‘spectacular’ is liable to be hi-jacked by a….persuasive speaker…’
It’s potentially the Clegg Scenario again, isn’t it? Remember how he came across in those pre-election debates as balanced, knowledgeable, fair-minded, a true ‘man of the people’, so much more believable than Cameron or Brown. And how many voted Lib Dem as a direct consequence? That went well, didn’t it….
Well sad to say, after watching all the news, It would seem I must turn to the dark side. Clearly this newly discovered leap in the dark was not known about before the Cameron so called renegotiations and has suddenly appeared like a black whole to engulf us should we leave. If this vast emptiness always existed then what was the point of any discussions. Perhaps the recently discovered gravity waves allowed us to see this huge void clearly for the first time.
Apparently our large companies will be devastated overnight by their inability to use the tax havens in Ireland, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, a number of which I recognize as signatories to the famous ‘unprompted’ letter spreading doom and desolation.
The Forces High Command have stepped forward and issued forth on the security problems of leaving, having airbrushed NATO (and the Americans from the argument). The self same parasitic non-entities who clung on to their Knighthoods, residences, staff, and chauffeur driven cars, and then stood idly by as the armed forces were devastated.
Now I discover even more traumatic events await us. The Government and our treacherous TV media are preparing to advise us of further devastating problems. All infrastructure projects in the UK will cease immediately as the EU refuses to pay for them …. with our money. All farmers will go bankrupt overnight without the EU subsidies that erm …. oh yes, we fund. The Gulf Stream will be moved South in an agreement with Obama. The Trade Winds will collapse without an EU negotiated deal. Spain, Portugal, France and Germany will drain the channel and North Sea in order to preserve their fishing rights in our waters. The Sun is to be switched to Central European Time and we will be deprived of light in the early mornings (apart from Scotland of course who will apparently still be part of the EU). It will take years to negotiate our own bilateral agreement with the moon, not to mention all the individual stars so our night sky will be plunged in to darkness. Faced with this Armageddon how can I not vote to stay in. Hmmm perhaps by voting no and waking up the next morning to a world that is still turning and unchanged by one Country’s withdrawal from an agreement.
On Sky news, General Dumtwat was claiming that Brexit would lead to the collapse of NATO!?. What would Brexit matter to the USA, Canada, Turkey, Norway, Poland, etc. Some of these claims are so ridiculous you begin to wonder if bribery, blackmail or threats of violence are involved.
Martin Schulz, the President of the European Asylum was on R4’s Today program claiming that the “refugee ” chaos was what Nigel Farage wanted. As Europe cannot stop unarmed invaders crossing its pseudoborder, I don’t see what it could do against an invader that meant business. As Erdoğan is now Merkel’s saviour, perhaps Europe should become part of the new Ottoman empire and have irs borders protected. As the argument goes “giving up sovereignty is not giving up sovereigty, but actually gaining influence and security”.
If you are going to make an appeal to authority, which is a weak form of argument anyway, you have to find authorities who have a consist record of being right or successful. I don’t know how many wars Dumtwat thinks he has won recently and Schulz’s only claim to fame is as the butt of Farage’s barbs in the European parliament.
Shulz’s arrogance can only have been good for the Leave campaign.
On Sky news, General Dumtwat was claiming that Brexit would lead to the collapse of NATO!?. What would Brexit matter to the USA, Canada, Turkey, Norway, Poland, etc. Some of these claims are so ridiculous you begin to wonder if bribery, blackmail or threats of violence are involved.
Martin Schulz, the President of the European Asylum was on R4’s Today program claiming that the “refugee ” chaos was what Nigel Farage wanted. As Europe cannot stop unarmed invaders crossing its pseudoborder, I don’t see what it could do against an invader that meant business. As Erdoğan is now Merkel’s saviour, perhaps Europe should become part of the new Ottoman empire and have irs borders protected. As the argument goes “giving up sovereignty is not giving up sovereigty, but actually gaining influence and security”.
If you are going to make an appeal to authority, which is a weak form of argument anyway, you have to find authorities who have a consist record of being right or successful. I don’t know how many wars Dumtwat thinks he has won recently and Schulz’s only claim to fame is as the butt of Farage’s barbs in the European parliament.
Just heard that a General has had an apology from No.10 for including him in a letter published in the Telegraph that he did not want his name added to.
Seems the politico-media establishment is run by desperate idiots.
Well, slightly more than usual.
Hmmmm! Now let me think about this one, the Wembley bBBC debate.
Lefty supporter Dimbleby the Chair, audience vetted by Euro funded bBBC who support Remain, if consistent with Question Time probably four panellists in Remain one panellist in OUT. Questions to be hand picked by bBBC. Plants in the audience selected by bBBC, just two days before voting. Audience hand picked by Remain and the bBBC
No, not a good idea.
Shock at work yesterday!
There was only one person in our department who voted Labour last year, so imagine our jaws dropping when he declared that he would be voting to leave the EU! He’s as pissed off with the EU as we are – and he’s a fierce member of Unite.
Could it be a sign?
We should prepare ourselves for Charlotte ( voice like an angel) , Brand Brand and Paul Mason .
I wonder what Billy Bragg and Martin Freeman think of it all…Actually scrap that, I don’t give a Monkey’s about their opinions.
I predict another BBC drive-by smear, where they’ll throw out a load of nonsense, confident that 48 hours won’t be long enough to unpick the various lies.
In fact, you could probably make a competition out of it:
5 points for someone using ‘EU’ when they mean ‘Europe’ or vice versa
10 points for spotting an ‘ordinary man in the street’ audience member who turns out to be nothing of the sort
25 points for Strange New Respect i.e. the BBC or the left – but I repeat myself – citing approvingly a banker, general or some other leftie hate figure
50 points for a quote from a famous Britain being used ludicrously out of context (100 if it’s that Churchill quote about a United States of Europe).
The mass rally at Wembley will, of course, be hijacked by busloads of pro-EU activists, who will attempt to swarm the proceedings. We know this will happen, because it is simply too good a target for these regressive vandals to miss. I suspect that even now there are social media campaigns being organised to ‘get the vote out’ to turn up en masse and absolutely dominate the event.
The BBC will, of course, insist that the audience are ‘representative’ of the British public.
And the women in Burkas, segregated as they do in Labour rallies. Well maybe not that blatant. But it will be a multiculty audience.
This could be Emma Thompson’s finest hour.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3449390/Emma-Thompson-leads-luvvies-telling-Britain-stay-Europe-not-retreat-cake-filled-misery-laden-grey-old-island.html
Kinnock Snr. could do a reprise of his Sheffield rally “We’re all riiiight” speech, that should sway a few million undecideds.
You watch what the Clash became, and you wonder why hard leftists still put them on a pedestal as being “fellow travelers” and thus “people that they can identify with”.
Although there again, and as with all alleged “Socialist humanitarians” when it comes to the crunch all that really matters is “me, mine, myself and I” all washed down with as much money as they can possibly get their grubby hands on…
And their Socialist ‘beliefs” system is every bit as false as that of which they’ve become..
The Clash: A collection of public school, grammar school, art college, bourgeouis virtue signallers, who knew a “career opportunity” when they saw one.
The middle class lefties pastiche of what a working class, punk band should sound and look like.
Saw the Clash three times.
London Calling tour was very good, it must be said.
Give Them Enough Rope and Sandinista tours bloody agitprop when not downright boring and self-indulgent.
Rock the Casbah great single though-and conflicted the anti US/anti capitalist poseurs as they hoovered up over there…they lost the will to go on after that.
Joe Sturmer at his worst-but did back the Americans after 9/11 so is probably now “Square With The House”.
Mick Jones a talentless prick though…and Simonon probably the worlds worst singer after Keith Richards.
I gave myself a like for the above sad little post.
Do I need a job or what?
Reminded me of the runty puppy in the shop window that everyone passes by with face steeled to the headwind.
Is there an honesty box for likes?…a confessional for fiddled postal votey things like this?
The Babblers of Babel Corp don’t seem to be covering the news that Havering Borough Council and Bromley Borough Council have voted to leave the EU. I can’t for the life of me think why that would be. Any ideas?
There never seems to be any acknowledgement of the role that the EU has in funding the BBC.
Why would that be ?
kind regards
Reasons to “Just Say No” to the BBC and EU Grooming gangs
#11096…Felicity Andreasen-EU Accountant from Denmark who was booted out from there for blowing the whistle on the fact that EU Accounts had not been signed off in 1999.
Kinnock and his sponges were decommisioned thanks to her…but he was soon back with the rest of his family a la Dale Farm afew months later when the smoke cleared.
And Felicity had been removed from HER job.
A perfect account of the democratic EU in action.
Vote No-remember Neil Herron, Steve Thorburn and Felicity Andreasen-martyrs all…literally in poor Steves case in 2004.
Reasons to say No to the Eurocreeps
#11095.
Rocco Buttiglioni 2004.
Was not allowed to become an EU Commissioner, even though the Italians nominated him for the Environment post or what have you.
Guaranteed shoo-in usualy, but he was a Catholic who had previously not given same sex marriage or homosexual rights the unqualified free rein that the EU wants.
Even though it was a previous interview back home-and had NO bearing on his fitness to lead on Green crap.
But he was blackballed.
Meanwhile Mandelson and some Latvian crook with his hands in the till previously were-of course-most welcome to THEIR new Commissions.
Remember Rocco…stuff the EU!
Who gave the BBC the right-and indeed the money-to decide that we needed to be “better informed”?
WE all KNOW what the BBC thinks….it`s clear at every corner…and , if you follow their funding…their Pattens and suchlike…it`s bleedin` obvious that the BBC want unelected judicial marxism.
Because it`ll NEVER happen democratically in this country.
Hence the uses of the EU, UN quangos, court rulings and charities, academics and pressure groups.
A spineless mentally ill brahmin class of Oxbridge scum who DO think that the Clash really “mean it maan”.
And Blur did too…as do Coldplay and all the other cultural cringers.
Have I got to rely on the mighty Wurzels for my “anti-EU soundtrack”?
Heard them sing some anti-EU tune at Tolpuddle( well, somebody head a CD of it, and I`m sure the lyrics shafted the EU).
If not, will do it myself…Portaloo Sunset is the first track…any more titles about how the EU have fucked over this country appreciated!
The BBC really think that they can summon their brownshirts to Nuremburg, and we`ll vote accordingly…
‘Unelected judicial Marxism’ – the best description of the BBC’s preferred system of government I have yet heard!
That gold standard BBC fact checking got off to a shaky start this morning.
Michael Gove says Cameron’s EU agreement could be overturned by the European Court.
Cameron says it ain’t so.
Our Chris Mason is brought in to adjudicate – well, compared to Charlie Statist and Louise Munchkin, he’s almost a grown up
Speaking of our Louise, if I recall my Dylan Thomas, doesn’t her surname sound like something very rude in Welsh?
Anyway, our Chris is supposed to tell us who has spoken all the pork pies
Of course he can’t. He says Number 10 used the ‘careful wording’ that the Euro Court “must take into account” Cameron’s precious scrap of paper. That’s as near as a BBCer will get to calling out lie to the ‘In’ campaign.
Now I wonder, had the boot been on the other foot, I’ve little doubt the BBC would have stuck it into the ‘Outers’
Wembley Stadium is a sign of planning, not of desperation. The game plan for Wembley is that it will act as a stage for a last-minute ‘offer’ or deal which will be revealed by Mr Cameron, and where he will hold hands with Mr Corbyn and Ms Sturgeon. This offer will be the true substance of the negotiations that have already taken place, and Mr Johnson will also appear alongside Mr Cameron to state that, to his immense relief, it is sufficiently reassuring for him to change his mind and recommend us to vote Remain. There will be several other leading politicians who will also take the platform to basically say the same thing.
There will be an immense show of unity and coming together from across the board of UK politics, and there will be no opportunity at that time for any effective reply from the Brexit camp. Mr Johnson will avoid any charge of treachery, as he will have assiduously refused to share a common Brexit platform with any of the other members of that campaign.
So: the only possible way to spike the guns of this enterprising initiative is to prepare detailed demands for a ‘deal’ of even more heroic and unlikely proportions for the UK within the EU, in advance of ‘Wembley-Day’. Demands calculated to exceed anything that can be revealed then – opt outs from virtually everything, vetoes on everything else; return of every aspect of sovereignty – independent trading rights, foreign policy dominion, energy policy, freedom to subsidise home industries freely, total restriction of benefits and citizenship, and working rights based on UK-determined quotas based on skills shortages. Lots of other things. Whatever is on offer, we need to be able to shout ‘Not enough! Not enough!’ with enormous volume back at the platform.
The idea should be to achieve two things:
* to utterly remove any element of surprise, by ruthlessly working on people’s expectations;
* and to ensure that any ‘offer’ can only disappoint – that it can only be seen as a failure to live up to a completely rational, modest set of demands drawn up by a very reasonable cross-spectrum majority of our people.
We should be working to make Dr Alinsky proud of us.
I think the British public is woefully under-informed about the structure, organisation and leadership of the European Union.
And I think that is in part the failure of the communicators, not excluding even the BBC, that tries its level-best, but doesn’t always succeed. But there is a relentless media debate, which either deliberately, sometimes, or by default, offers a distorted image of Europe.
That’s to say, it has a strong view, there are parts of the media – this does not apply to the BBC – which are strongly anti-European Union, and so they cover the European Union in ways that reflect that attitude.
…….”Gaw-lee, Mr. Dimbleby: you use your tongue purdier than a $20 whore!”
(With apologies to Taggart, Blazing Saddles 1974)