It’s the rose-tinted spectacles of the BBC that give the Left a relatively easy task, a user-friendly task, in presenting themselves to the British public.
Currently on the BBC website is a goofy sort of article about Mrs Blair and Mr Blair’s proposal to her, many years ago. It’s actually a kind of advert, too, as there is a documentary coming out this week about the “first couple” as they might like to be styled (hat-tip to Iain Dale for pointing this out). So, instead of a sober reflection on a momentous period (for good or ill, depending on POV), we get a soppy take on the “human angle”.
This comes just as Gordon Brown is presenting he and his government as the defenders of the nation in the face of the fizzes and bangs of Islamic extremism (article here– defiance is easy when threats evaporate). Brown had the softest of soft interviews with the BBC’s Andrew Marr, who is something of a specialist in these, on Sunday morning. There could have been two lines of attack which dealt with the news agenda- one that the Government has never sold the war on terror to the public effectively (I would not expect this line from the BBC, though it might add a touch of impartiality), the other that the UK’s Iraq venture was the cause of strife at home. Neither emerged- the BBC incapable of making the former criticism (because they do not believe it) and unwilling to make the latter (mindful, no doubt, of Brown’s importance to their darling projects). What we had instead was a kind of sloppy drawing room chat, Brown intoning reassurance with every word, his accent a little softened, his hair short and dapper. Marr made a few wry remarks about Brown’s non-spin, Parliament-centered pitch- he knew it so well, he could barely bring himself to point out this, let alone give vent to what many viewers may think about Blair’s Presidential style or point out that Brown has many a crony in the wings of his new “administration”, ahem.
I remember the old days- the Thatcher hate- when “that woman” was routinely villified. Today no-one, especially not the BBC, speaks for those who loathe Blair. Much as I dislike hatred, the real feelings of many are utterly ignored by the BBC. Just put a lid on it, they seem to say.
The Blairs’ valedictory documentary brought to mind a rather more remarkable spouse, Dennis Thatcher, whose only interview was broadcast four years ago on Channel 4. Channel 4 vs BBC1. One week versus 13 years after the events. There is no balance to the BBC.
“UK’s Iraq venture was the cause of strife at home … unwilling to make the latter”.
Ed, am I reading this right in that you’re suggesting that BBC coverage hasn’t sought to infer that the Iraq war may someway have triggered greater terrorism in the UK?
Yes, there may be some OBN with Brown, but with regards to Iraq, BBC coverage has been critical and gloomy all the way.
You cannot expect any hard questioning from people like Andrew Marr or Adam Boulton (Sky), they all drink out of the same cup and socialise together. The MSM are part of the problem. Thank goodness for Bloggers.
To give Marr his due, in his Telegraph diary column a couple of years ago, he gave credence to an off-the-record remark made by someone within the security services that claimed that well over 170 (IIRC) terrorist plots had been foiled in the previous 18 months.
Richy- I think the BBC are waiting to see if Brown will be a good boy and do what they want by taking troops out.
Jon Gregory- Boulton, I think, has always been fighting to maintain Sky’s infuence. It’s the BBC to my mind which gets political access as a matter of course. Even if one can expect nothing else, it doesn’t do any harm to point it out from time to time. We do deserve better, we just get used to the situation.
So here is my newest explanation for why biased news is accepted by so many people:
http://www.thadguy.com/comic/on-liberty/156/
Andrew Marr was educated in Scotland at the High School of Dundee, Craigflower School and at Loretto, an independent boys’ school in Musselburgh, East Lothian. He went on to study English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
He was once a member of the socialist group Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory and reportedly a seller of its newspaper Socialist Organiser while at Cambridge, where he acquired the sobriquet of ‘Red Andy’.
Whilst writing his column in The Observer newspaper, Marr expressed a number of political views. In 1999, Marr defended the implementation of the Race Relations Act after the Stephen Lawrence enquiry stating :
“And the final answer, frankly, is the vigorous use of state power to coerce and repress. It may be my Presbyterian background, but I firmly believe that repression can be a great, civilising instrument for good. Stamp hard on certain ‘natural’ beliefs for long enough and you can almost kill them off.”
Marr lives in West London with his wife, the political journalist Jackie Ashley, a daughter of the former Labour Member of Parliament, Jack Ashley. The couple have three children. He once jokingly wrote in a newspaper that he had no idea what to get his wife for Christmas, so was intending to buy her a burqa. Jackie Ashley responded by writing in to the paper to say that he would probably get her the wrong size anyway.
“Stamp hard on certain ‘natural’ beliefs for long enough and you can almost kill them off.”
Bloddy hell. Sounds like something out of “Mein Kampf”
On Sunday AM;
Andrew Marr interviewed Gordon Brown and left unchallenged his ‘NHS priority’ claims, even tho GB has just cut 2bn from the NHS [england only] acciording to the FT.
Peter Sissons interviewed George Osbourne MP and [rightly] gives him a hard time, with quotes from the papers.
If Sissons can do a bit of research, why can’t Marr?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/sunday_am/6307415.stm
http://tinyurl.com/374lqd
Gordon Brown quietly slashed by a third this year’s hospital building and equipment budget in one of his last acts as chancellor.