Tuesday was Democracy Day on the BBC…no doubt they are glad that’s all over and they can get back to ignoring the plebs and their ignorant, working class ideas that threaten the nice status quo of the liberallatti.

 

Today gave its last half hour over to the ever present Professor Michael Sandel, the BBC’s philosopher of choice.

Not a huge amount of startling interest or originality….and a notable absence of comment on the Media’s role in democracy….only at the end did we get a comment that might suggest the importance of that Media role,  Sandel saying …

‘Democracy is listening to people with views of which we disagree’

 

Which is ironic given the BBC’s role in closing down genuine debate on immigration, climate change, Europe and Islam.

An irony reinforced immediately in the following programme in which Nick Robinson set out to do a bit of a hatchet job on Nigel Farage.

Robinson seemed intent on undermining Farage whilst at the same time asking if we can have a meaningful democracy that truly represents the many and not just the few….so undermine UKIP whilst talking about ‘meaningful democracy’…then he raises the memory of The  Peterloo Massacre (Manchester”s equivalent of Tianamen Square apparently)  and those who lost their lives fighting for democracy…..the same sort of people who marched with the EDL of course.

‘A powerful call for action’ Robinson says…bringing on Owen Jones to let us know where we are going wrong today….bankers and bosses of course….then Harriet Harman and Caroline Lucas….no prizes for guessing what they say.

The Greens, Robinson tells us, and ‘others’, are offering us a new politics….hmmm…isn’t it UKIP who are really challenging the consensus….the consensus about immigration and Europe which the other parties have agreed to carry on regardless of the population’s views…even denying them a say in a referendum….the only two issues that are of major interest to the Public aside from the economy which is not an issue that people look to UKIP to sort out.

Robinson tells us that political elite have ignored the widespread and legitimate concerns about immigration…..just politicians?  They have been able to ignore the issues because major elements of the Media have allowed them to do so.

The we get to UKIP….a ‘protest party’ says Robinson, dismissing them as a flash in the pan.

Professor Matthew Flinders is brought on to tell us of ‘Amazon politics’….individual, consumerised politics…politics acting like a market due to over-expectation of what can be delivered and how quickly by politicians…a politics that can only fail.  Identity politics and special interest groups demanding their own agendas that are totally incompatible with a fair society be adopted without compromise.

Who is to blame for that though?  Robinson suggests it is the politicians themselves….hang on though….it is the BBC especially that day in day out brings us individual cases of complaint about welfare, the NHS, cuts to council funding and so on…..the BBC forces politicians to run around trying to respond to these high profile cases which are so often backed up by highly politicised single issue campaign groups that have only one target and have no regard for how other seerviuces or budgest are effected by their demands.  The BBC is a world leader in encouraging highly divisive  identity politics.

Farage says proper debate on politics is impossible due to the Media’s role in presenting debate as a war with parties split asunder by rifts and arguments….it puts people off politics and makes media interviews impossible….an argument even the BBC has had itself recently.

Despite what Farage said Robinson ignores that and dodges the Media’s role in distorting how politics plays out when he suggests that it is the professionalisation of politics that has led to politics becoming like a market place and the public alienated from it.

Farage mentions a debate UKIP had about the NHS and how it might have to be funded in future given its problems….Farage arguing, and losing the argument, for an insurance based system.

Farage says that the debate is now presented as a split, as ‘something dreadful happended’ within UKIP….but no, what happened was they had a debate and a vote.

Robinson totally ignores that and indeed ploughs straight on suggesting this was a disaster, that Farage had lost the ‘courage of his convictions’ and that UKIP’s ‘apparent’ new line being they love the NHS…Robinson being once again dismissive of the UKIP policy, suggesting it’s a bit of a fraud….doing exactly what Farage complained of…hyping debate as ‘something dreadful’ in the party.

He says to Farage ‘Your real belief about health systems…‘….showing Robinson hasn’t listened….we know what Farage’s ‘real belief’ is…but he lost the debate and UKIP’s policy is to support the NHS…so Farage’s ‘real belief’ is unimportant….no mention from Robinson of this:

NHS may be forced to abandon free healthcare for all, says Britain’s top doctor as he warns service needs radical change

 

Robinson’s approach demonstrates Farage’s point perfectly…the Media are determined to ignore what really happens and look for a more dramatic story with attention getting headlines that reveal apparent infighting in a party…especially UKIP…regardless of the truth….Robinson instead of acknowledging that a debate had taken place and a decision made based upon that debate decided that Farage had ‘bottled it’ and suggests that Farage doesn’t ‘love the NHS’...which as we all know is obligatory….truth is Farage was outvoted by his colleagues so his personal beliefs are unimportant in regard to UKIP, or at least in the way that Robinson is trying to protray them….it also explodes the myth of the ‘one man party’ …UKIP obviously not dominated by Farage if he can lose such an important debate.

Robinson ends with sly and irrelevant dig saying that Farage, not UKIP, still believes that the NHS cannot survive in its present form…a view, Robinson tells us, that ‘wasn’t put before the voters of Rochester and Strood.’ ….Robinson is trying to imply that UKIP isn’t being honest…when in fact it is Robinson who isn’t being honest….why would it be out to the voters when it isn’t the policy?

Robinson goes on to try and undermine UKIP’s message that they can bring some powers back to Britain and have some control over its destiny.  Robinson suggests that no government has any power…and therefore you might conclude, UKIP’s policy is just so much hot air and unachievable dreams….so no point in voting for them.

 

Eseentially rather than discussing democracy and UKIP’s issues with it Robinson seemed purely intent on raising things they said for the purpose of then trying to rubbish them and UKIP…..implying, as said above…no need to vote for this lot.

 

So much for the BBC’s Democracy Day…..intent only it seems on reinforcing the same old status quo, or if a new party has to come up through the ranks let it be the Greens who seem to get an easy ride and a warm welcome on the BBC.

Maybe an indication of that is a discussion that was going on on one programme, I forget which, when someone said that no political party was increasing its membership….the BBC presenter came back to that later, such was her interest, and said that this wasn’t true…the Greens were increasing their membership..and oh yes..so were the SNP.

Curious that a BBC presenter should automatically prefer to talk about the Greens, or the SNP, rather than UKIP which is also increasing its membership and is, politically, the dominant, game changing party at present……..and no doubt some of the Green’s success in getting more recruits recently has more to do with the likes of the BBC giving them far more positive airtime than before….Caroline Lucas is hardly off the radio at the moment and party membership has leapt from under 30,000 in December to over 44,000 in a few weeks…far from me to be sceptical but can’t help thinking there’s a lot more to that ‘success’ than meets the eye.

Perhaps some at the BBC see the Greens as a potential block on UKIP and therefore aim to give them a boost…if they can get enough votes they might disrupt a UKIP run and maybe stop UKIP from holding the balance of power and prevent  the ‘nightmare’ of UKIP in a possibly forced coalition government with the Tories, political necessity overtaking Cameron’s hatred of them…ala the Tory antipathy towards the LibDems…..maybe Labour can slip in then and take power, perhaps with a Green aliance.

It is certainly the Tory ploy to stop UKIP by getting more people to vote Green…‘voting Green risks letting in the Tories’…..

The Tories have also been helpful. “Dear old Cameron, God bless his cotton socks, said we should be in the debates, and put all the Tory bloggers – and the Sun – on our side! It’s made all the difference for us.”

 

Far too cynical, no one at the BBC would ever dream of interfering in the political process in such a way.