I missed this in The Guardian last week:
The Now Show, the vehicle for comedians Punt and Dennis, will be renamed The Vote Now Show, for the duration of the election campaign and broadcast every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
FFS.
The article also says that Labour Party supporter Simon Schama will be presenting Radio 4’s A Point of View for three months.
It’s all so predictable. There will be “balance” in the sense that the Tories will be criticised for being Tories and then to try and show that it’s not all one way they will criticise the Government, but from the angle of attacking where they are not being left wing enough.
I thought political satire was banned during election campaigns, I remember Spitting Image being taken off the air in the run up to a General Election. The BBC are quite shameless at the moment and it is going to get even worse in the run up to the election,.
Shouldn’t that be the “Vote Labour Now” show?
When brought to their attention, the Tories had this to say about it:
What do they say about anything? By keeping quiet, by avoiding anything which looks like playing “party politics”, by crapping on their core supporters in the pursuit of greenies, benefit-claiming “professionals” and public sector drones – they are in striking distance of becoming HM Loyal Opposition after the next election.
I had the dubious pleasure to listen to Radio 4 all weekend, as I was redecorating our kitchen. They managed to fit in an anti-Thatcher joke on a bit about the Falklands oil drilling proposals. Apparently “there is some debate on who won the Falkland War, because at least Argentina was able to get rid of their totalitarian government!” Laughter all round.
Hilarious, but not for the reasons the show might suppose. Is this the most tired, worn out, boringly predictable joke ever to broadcast on a current affairs sketch show? And who laughed – anyone who was born to vote for Mrs Thatcher must be well into middle age – right on comedians my arse.
Edit: not “born to vote for Mrs T” but “old enough to vote for Mrs T” Doh!
meanwhile back in the real world
Lynda was told she will not be allowed to present the flagship UTV Live or other news programmes because her husband, Mike Nesbitt, is running as a UUP candidate in the election, widely expected to be on May 6.
Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/dropped-lynda-bryans-angry-at-utv-14695384.html#ixzz0gTFyll5H
No surprise here. Lisa Jardine, the present incumbent, is also a member of the Labour Party or certainly is a keen supporter. As she said in this 2008 interview http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/214764/1/jardine.htm (my emboldening)
“the Labour Club [at Cambridge] was serious; Parliamentarians would come up to speak to us and had the thrill of fighting a national election, which we won; it was a heady time and probably any subject I studyied would have suffered alongside; it just formed me politically; I think on the strength of giving the Tanner Lecture on Raymond Williams and the legacy of ‘Culture and Society’, I can say that I have remained true to the values“
Labour Chancellor DARLING is BBC’s Darling with extended plug provided for him just now by his Labour chums on Radio 4 ‘PM’, as presented by BBC’s E. Mair.
I hope that someone at Conservative HQ makes a formal complaint to the BBC
This is outrageous. The BBC, as I’ve said before, use comedy as a trojan horse for left wing views. If it’s “comedy” it’s “entertainment” and they think they can explain the bias away as non-factual programming with no need to provide balance. Political satire is dangerous at the best of times but most definately should be off the schedule in the election window.