The BBC’s basic instinct kicked in today when it had to report this from the OECD:
Labour energy freeze plan ‘could bankrupt investors’
As said this report came from the international OECD, the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development……listening to 5Live report this story their conclusion was that…the OECD is a fan of the market economy and so would be expected to be philosophically opposed to Miliband’s plan.
In other words the BBC is dismissing what they say by claiming ‘it’s political’.
Whereas of course Miliband’s little scheme had no political side to it.
It has taken the BBC a long time to come up with some serious criticism of Miliband’s plan…he announced his scheme in September….the BBC has reported the concerns of the energy companies about the price freeze but hasn’t before proactively taken to dissecting them itself until now.
Contrast that with how they treated the Coalition’s plan to reduce the green levies on the energy companies…day in day out the BBC broadcast criticism of this plan leaving us in no doubt that the poor would be dying in droves in their uninsulated homes because of it.
Of course the ‘internationally respected OECD’…as often stated by the BBC….has beeen criticised before when it came up with statements that some perhaps at the BBC didn’t like…such as it believed Osborne’s economic policy was the correct one:
Economic body OECD reaffirms support for UK debt plan
…Flanders felt the need to tell us :
‘…. the OECD is fallible – it gets things wrong at least as much as every other forecaster, possibly more. Remember that, next time someone tells you the “OECD has said” this or “recommended” that.‘
When does the BBC ever qualify statements from the leftwing ‘progressive’ Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the New Economics Foundation or the Resolution Foundation in a similar manner?
‘In other words the BBC is dismissing what they say by claiming ‘it’s political’.
Whereas of course Miliband’s little scheme had no political side to it.’
They do seem to have created another tricky precedent when it comes to what is acceptable or not, based on their own oddly selective definitions.
One must be alert to anything ‘political’ sneaking through in future, like some think sink amazingly agreeing with what the BBC cut and pastes that ‘Labour says…’.
Stephanie Flanders is fallible – she gets things wrong at least as much as every other forecaster, possibly more. Remember that, next time someone tells you the “BBC Economics editor Stephanie Flanders has said” this or “recommended” that.‘
Yeah, me neither. She’s gone now, I know. But it’s still accurate. She used to selectively say the same thing about the IMF, when it suited.
In any case, it’s pretty obvious the BBC sees this as their own small victory over the Tories. When Fallow says this:
…he’s correct. It’s a response to the BBC’s pressure and demonization. The BBC has led the charge against energy companies and screaming about fuel bills, and any action by the current Government which will allegedly reduce consumer costs has to be viewed as a result for the BBC.
Up to their old tricks……almost impossible to find reference on BBC Iphone app. This morning it was in UK section….by late afternoon had to seriously search and eventually found it in the England section (Heaven knows why there!!!). Just checked again now and surprise surprise cannot find it anywhere.
The BBC are surely getting worse…..
May isuggest using the pic in my avi (titter) for this post ? 🙂
If the BBC/Labour morons completely eliminated the fraudulent green crap from their minds, and then implemented this as a policy, then a price freeze would prevent a fall in fuel prices, especially if they encouraged competition by breaking up multinational monopolies.
Old fashioned and failed Socialist/Communist price control ideas are not political because the BBC says so, this is because the BBC has a left-wing Socialist/Communist Labour supporting bias.
The BBC are conducting a survey to find out how they’re doing: http://consultations.external.bbc.co.uk/bbc/news_review
Not very well is my response.
So is mine, but in a much more detailed way, as I assume yours is.
The great irony in all this is that if the BBC actually challenged the government’s plans on the basis of transparency within the energy industry (rather than act as Miliband’s cheerleaders), it would be much closer to the truth and would ultimately help bring bills down further for consumers.
Specifically, it appears that the energy industry has been allowed to create company structures that enable it to hide the true cost of energy provision through the entire chain (i.e. from extraction all the way through to the end consumer). This may be what allows the retail facing segment of the industry to claim, without lying, that their profit margins are not abusively high – when in all likelihood the amounts they ‘pay’ to group subsidiary companies at the wholesale end of the market have been deliberately inflated to achieve this very purpose.
But rather than behave as real journalists would, the BBC is keener to cynically promote its political agenda. Just one more reason that the license fee is increasingly intolerable.
that their profit margins are not abusively high – when in all likelihood the amounts they ‘pay’ to group subsidiary companies at the wholesale end of the market have been deliberately inflated to achieve this very purpose.
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Cf BBC Worldwide and how it enables the BBC to earn (what they laughingly call) ‘our own money’.
I wonder how the BBC will cover events in a couple of years when the inevitable power cuts (due to fossil-fuel crippling carbon tariffs leaving us with insufficient coal-fired power stations) leave ‘vulnerable people’ shivering in the cold and dark.
Bet they’re working on the script already – along with Ed, of course.
how become the energy bills are 50% cheaper in the usa compared to the uk.how does that work out i wonder
Our domestic fossil fuel production is increasing (despite the President’s and the environmentals’ best efforts), and while we still import some natural gas (for reasons I’m unable to comprehend), it’s from Canada, which is an easier ride, for starters.
And most of us think our fuel prices are far too high. This winter is going to make a lot of people unhappy with heating bills.
flipping hell david,think yourself lucky in the states,38.000 old age pensioners many of them veterans from world war 2 froze to death in england last year and these energy company bums and expense fiddling politicians in the uk could not given a toss,on that matter,does your energy companys and the goverment let your pensioners in the states freeze to death or does your goverment help people like that out.