A low key look by the BBC’s Gavin Hewitt at probably one of the most important and interesting questions in politics at the moment:
Europe braces for first EU-wide vote since 2008 crash
In many countries this will be a referendum on the European project.
Many voters will have the chance to support parties disenchanted with Brussels and all its powers. The last few years have seen the rise of anti-establishment parties both from the left and right, some nationalist, some extreme and most of them drawing their support from being Eurosceptic and anti-immigration.
So the battle will be fought less over the minutiae of policy but in broad strokes about Europe itself.
The elections matter and not just because of the growing power of the parliament. The vote touches on deeper questions about the health of democracy, such as whether the governing elites are perceived as on the side of the people or their own political ideas. Is there a decline in political trust between the governed and those in power?
Despite a couple of slights against UKIP and the Front National and some praise for the EU such as this….
The European Parliament, although often derided, is a much more important institution than it used to be. Only last week it was taking important steps towards banking union, voting on greater transparency for lobbyists and setting up a new European Fisheries Fund.
….the article raises that important question about the EU’s democratic legitimacy and how accountable it is to the voters.
However it only does so in a general way with fairly abstract suggestions of concerns about democracy or identity….or ‘the fears of the workers’.
The question is how much further down this line of inquiry will the BBC go?
Here it raises those questions:
For the disillusioned this is not just a chance to cast an angry cross or tick against austerity. For many it goes much deeper. It is about insecurity and identity….ordinary workers are not just wary of further immigration but suspicious of an elite that does not address their fears.
…..but will it do the usual and dismiss them as just that, unjustified ‘fears’…. fuelled by extremist tub thumping politicians whipping up public anger and discontent?
Or, will it give credence to people’s concerns and accept them as legitimate rather than dismissing concerns about immigration as racist, or people who might want to control the sovereignty of their own country are ‘little Englanders’ dreaming of a mythical lost past in a non-existent ‘golden age’ of Britishness?
Naturally no mention of the BBC as a large and important part of that ‘elite’ providing the propaganda that props up the privileged and unaccountable EU cabal.
The usually reliable Sheila Fogarty yesterday makes you doubt the BBC will ever change.
Talking about UKIP and its posters she asked (12:25) a UKIP spokeswoman if she didn’t see that there could be, not saying there is, Fogarty assures us, a correlation between posters like that and racist attacks…and if not could she explain why she thought not.
So the default position is that UKIP generates racist attacks….and UKIP must defend/explain itself.
Fogarty had previously had on some ‘Brits’ to talk about their ‘fears’ on immigration. It was the usual BBC trick of only asking white working class people to comment and therefore limiting the concerns about immigration to a small ‘suspect’ group….and they are ‘suspect’ in the BBC’s eyes…often portrayed as prejudiced and racist due to their ignorance and, well, horrible whiteness..all white people are inherently racist. Thus such concerns can be dismissed as the result of prejudice and ignorance.
The one immigrant they brought in was a Romanian, of course, who ran a building business apparently..and ‘had never claimed benefits in her life’…..Of course we just have to take such claims on trust….and judging by the BBC’s past record that’s not a good idea.
Trouble is….she is far from typical…how that one immigrant can be presented to us as typical and representative of the 4 millon who have come here in the last decade is hard to imagine.
Where are the unemployed, where are the unskilled, where are the workers undercutting British workers, where are the criminals who fill our prisons, where are the people crowding the schools and NHS, where are those who do claim benefits?
The BBC didn’t see fit to make an example of those immigrants.
Fogarty didn’t let us down, or rather she did…asking later ‘are the people who complain about immigration are necessarily right?’
The BBC is always on hand to ‘prove’ just how wrong you are on immigration.
just before i make my comment.can i apologise to all those in here who get upset and offended by my poor puntuation and poor spelling,i just thought i would clear the air to all my haters who are no doubt great fans of the bbc and suffer from imbecllic mood swings every time i make a comment lenovo and co,to my point,short and sweet for a change.i agree with this blogs comments on the annoying giggling shelagh fogartys attitude to ukip,its a biased agenda and totally dispicable.thats that.
Handy hints. Capitalisation DOES help readability (see below), and putting a space after punctuation does as well, regardless of whether your spelling is good or not.
Capitalisation. Consider the difference between
“Jimmy, help Uncle Jack off his horse” … and
“Jimmy, help uncle jack off his horse” … to see
why capitalisation matters.
Agree entirely.
I’m sure the content is very good, but if stuart can’t be bothered, I can’t be bothered to decypher it.
Stuart no problem I can always get your posts and couldn’t give a rats “£$% about whether you use the right punctuation and as for Lenknobo he will stop once he scrapes through his 11+ and gets his first job as a stress relief toy at BBC towers !
Carry on Stuart, the message is the important bit. Your comments are no harder to read than many texts I receive. In fact I find it harder to decipher texts with all those ‘shortcuts’.
butwhydoyoudoit?
Does it matter ? Hes making a comment not writing a dissertation.
No it doesn’t matter much. Clear writing is happy writing but what he writes is legible so meh.
I was merely curious.
The Beeb ALWAYS wheels out a sympathetic case when they try to sell something… a hard working immigrant or real asylum seeker (there are some here I understand) but they are extremely selective. The disgusting white (usually English) proles are served up when they want to show how nasty the indigenous people’s views are. They have been consistent in this as a news broadcaster.
However I believe its not working any more. The Beeb can only increase this propaganda (because that is what it is) to have an effect on the weary “seen this before” British public and then it becomes all too obvious what they are doing if it has an effect at all.
Take a look at Nick Robinson in action he can barely contain himself when working on Nigel Farage. The rest of the Beeb cronies too. It will increase in the next 4 weeks. They will go out to nail UKIP with their all their resources (which means of course our resources, our money). The idea that the people will ignore them and vote for a party they, the BBC, despise and that UKIP might even trounce their kindred spirit Labour Party (also full of sneering, condescending “I know whats best for you” hypocrites) to first place will make them apoplectic with indignation. The just wont be able to stop themselves. Voting UKIP (even if you don’t really support them) but you DO support true “upwards” democracy will really be a kick in the balls for these Snurts and show that its the people than run this country and not these self serving bastards.
Well said. I will certainly be delivering my vote to kick the liberal left establishment where it hurts and make the likes of the BBC realise just how OUT OF TOUCH they are with what we ordinary folk really think .
Its all very ironic that the lefty BBC ‘class warrior’ types, are effectively using class to divide and destroy the English people. What they subtly do is make working class people seem like incomprehensible, thick, hideously white racists and middle-class people look like aloof, effeminate, overly-intellectual twats. Its a hateful smoke-screen to obscure the fact that people from both groups often agree on many issues like the EU, mass immigration, ROP etc…………
They’ve always distrusted the working class (who they don’t understand) and sneered at the middle class and their values (usually their parents) who they are embarrassed. You are quite right the w/c and the m/c have much in common…including a contempt for the values of the metropolitan “elite.” Unfortunately this lot run the three major parties in varying degrees and thoroughly BBC News.
Just seen seen some bollox about Cornwall been given some special eu status ,right up al bbc street ,so they now have a sort of getto status , all courtesy of the eu ! No doubt trying to take the wind out of the sails of Ukip & Tories , just before the euro`s so it can be proclaimed ” Look what the eu has done for you” The only indigenous cornishman I can think of is Petroc Trelawny ,from Radio 3 , all the rest down there in the main are English, or intermarried Cornish / English . EU /bbc divide & rule on the English.
Alan,
“Talking about UKIP and its posters [Shelagh Fogarty] asked (12:25) a UKIP spokeswoman if she didn’t see that there could be, not saying there is, Fogarty assures us, a correlation between posters like that and racist attacks…and if not could she explain why she thought not.”
That Alan, is a complete lie.
What Shelagh Fogarty actually said:
“Do you not see that there could be, I’m not saying there definitely is, but there could be a correlation between the foreign worker we heard saying ‘I feel I get picked on’ and posters like that all over the UK?”
Absolutely no mention of “racist attacks” from Fogarty or ‘the foreign worker’ who complained about being “…qualified as a group – coming here to claim benefits”. In fact the only person to mention racism was Suzanne Evans; the UKIP spokeswoman.
Why Alan, if you think you’ve got a valid argument, do you have to resort to such a blatant lie?
“Fogarty had previously had on some ‘Brits’ to talk about their ‘fears’ on immigration. It was the usual BBC trick of only asking white working class people to comment and therefore limiting the concerns about immigration to a small ‘suspect’ group…”
Excluding the Romanian immigrant, there were vox pops of 8 other people, plus a UKIP activist and a local Conservtive party chairman. Your assumption that they were all “white working class people” is based on nothing but your own prejudice. Indeed the reporter repeatedly states that, whoever you ask about the election in Ramsgate (including non UKIP supporters), the main issue is immigration.
So not; “limiting the concerns about immigration to a small ‘suspect’ group” as you falsely claim.
Another lie.
“The one immigrant they brought in was a Romanian, of course, who ran a building business apparently..and ‘had never claimed benefits in her life’…..Of course we just have to take such claims on trust… Trouble is….she is far from typical… Where are the unemployed… where are the criminals who fill our prisons…”
I see; so interviewing 10 people against immigration is representing them as “a small ‘suspect’ group”, but interviewing 1 person who is an immigrant is representing them as “typical”. You haven’t really thought this through have you Alan?
Two things for you to consider:
According to recent government figures – just 7% of immigrants are receiving working-age benefits compered to 17% of British nationals.
http://goo.gl/p9jPnI
http://goo.gl/Y6bFpB
According to recent British Crime Survey figures – immigrants were about half as likely to be arrested or find themselves in court than native-born Brits.
http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/?p=16528
Dezmong, you’re gay and im not talking about your sexuality
Well said. I will certainly be delivering my vote to kick the liberal left establishment where it hurts and make the likes of the BBC realise just how OUT OF TOUCH they are with what we ordinary folk really think .
7 % is still 7 % more than it should be. We were never asked if we , the ordinary British people, wanted all these immigrants of all colours , faiths etc. If we had been we would of course have said NO. Which is why they, the liberal left establishment, never asked us of course and why they never let us speak and demonise anyone who tries to articulate our views.
So true – if you raise a voice against it you are called a racist, a bigot, a little Englander, any insult to shut you up.
And yes, 1% would be too much. We have our own problems without importing them.
..and subsequently this country is a more dangerous place because “we” (actually our political masters) have introduced groups and faiths that neither respect our culture or values. Moreover encouraged to continue their practices, through multiculturalism, however unpleasant and alien to the majority of the people in this country who were never asked.
And now our security services are so desperate they are asking the wives of extremists to stop their hubbies… When our hard fought for civil liberties are curtailed to deal with this increasing threat we can look to the Labour, BBC and yes the Tories who were and are responsible.
“Recent” BCS figures are for 2012. Example quoted related to Rumanian immigrants. Rules on entry to UK for Rumanians changed 1 January 2014. Low skilled people entitled to enter.
Rather than cherry picking a fact or a quote I recommend reading the LSE report referred to.
All is not as black and white as a single sentence might make it appear to be.
Just in passing: What kind of bastardised language is the post title written in?
Le French masculine definite article the
Grande French feminine adjective big
Project English noun as against French Projet masculine noun
Le Grand Projet, The Big Project or even The Grand Project
I’ll get my manteau!
You might find Miles Kingston’s Lets Parler Franglais more helpful.
Or even Let’s Parler Franglais!, by Miles Kington!
“Ce livre n’est pas suitable pour:-
1 les schoolteachers
2 les browsers qui n’ont pas l’intention d’acheter le livre
3 les touristes qui pensent, wrongly, que c’est un genuine phrase book
4 les Français sérieux
5 M. Edouard Heath” [ou M. Farrage?]
Sacred Blue! Just what I was pensing.
It is so sad that the tiny number of BBC programmes that I can bear to watch are being ruined by the biased and manipulative policies of the BBC.
The comedians have obviously all been vetted for ‘correct’ left of centre thinking, Steve Punt and Brigstock, for example, and now, ‘Have I Got News for You’ is constantly being used to influence the coming EU elections. I couldn’t bear to watch more that a few minutes of UKIP bashing on Iplayer, I certainly don’t watch live TV – I would then have to help fund the BBC!
‘This Week’ is only bearable on alternative weeks, thanks to the inclusion of, amongst others, that horrible woman, Diane Abbott – oh dear, I guess that makes me a racist!
Abbot is the racist. Her track record of racist comments and statements attest to this. But its the right kind of racism I suppose. So the BBC are accepting.
Look on the bright side our TV License fee helps pay for her son’s private education at one of Britain’s top schools.
GO LABOUR!