Seven times Cameron and Osborne suggested they might vote Leave
Funny what interests the BBC. And what doesn’t.
Their top headline today…an old story from a couple of weeks ago being rehashed by the Times to keep the story bubbling…and the BBC obliges…
Johnson defends writing ‘pro-EU column’
The pro-EU Times and Sunday Times are bashing away at Boris and the BBC is on it like a tramp on chips. Did you know Boris gave a great deal of thought to the subject of whether or not to leave the EU, that he weighed the evidence and came to a conclusion? A conclusion the BBC curiously ignores as it tears into him for considering all the options. Reckless, thoughtless, cunning old Boris. The BBC has always tried to claim Boris’ Brexit stance was a ‘job application’ for the leadership of the Tory Party…an analysis somewhat undermined by the way he so easily gave up the chance to stand and the fact that he has always been a Eurosceptic should the BBC have cared to check. Strange, in contrast, how the BBC makes so little of Cameron’s resignation and the way he left the country in the lurch after leading it to this ‘disastrous’ and ‘ruinous’ Brexit. The BBC seem more interested in attacking Boris for having considered the options than the reality of Cameron’s actions and never mind what Boris actually, finally supported.
What is important to the BBC is what Boris might have done rather than what he actually did. A very odd way of ‘reality checking’ the world. All aimed, of course, at discrediting Boris and thus undermining Brexit…look you fools, you who voted Leave…Boris conned you, he tricked you…..vote again!!
Odd though that the BBC utterly refused to remind us during the referendum campaign that both Project Fear orchestrators, Cameron and Osborne, said that Britain could easily leave the EU if major reforms were not forthcoming…which they weren’t.
2014:
David Cameron: I’m ready to lead Britain out of Europe if migrant reforms fail
2015:
David Cameron says he will not rule out Britain leaving EU
“If we can’t reach such an agreement, and if Britain’s concerns were to be met with a deaf ear, which I do not believe will happen, then we will have to think again about whether this European Union is right for us. As I have said before – I rule nothing out.”
2015:
‘Asked if he[Osborne] could imagine calling for the UK to leave the EU, if he did not get what he wanted, he said: “We don’t rule anything out.”‘
During the campaigning for the referendum the BBC neglected to highlight Cameron’s and Osborne’s previous comments even as they changed tack and told us leaving the EU would see the onset of an economic apocalypse…the BBC didn’t see fit to question that at all….in fact they did everything they could to push that message.
Which brings us to Stephen Glover in the Mail last week, and other ‘right-wing’ commentators who have claimed that the BBC was even-handed in the referendum campaign.
What planet have they been on? We’ve looked at this previously.
Interesting to see several ‘right-wing’ commentators suggest that the BBC is giving us a balanced view of the EU referendum…and yet it’s just not true. Certainly there have been many debates and interviews that give the suggestion of balance but comparing them the Remain camp gets an easy ride and the underlying tone of the BBC narrative is pro-Remain…very uncritical of Remain’s claims…such as Brexit will cause a new world war, that Brexit is based on the racist hatred of foreigners or that the economy will plunge off a cliff on Brexit…where is the ‘Reality Check’ on the latest ‘Treasury’ claims? The BBC pushes those claims as fact…the language used is intended to make them sound credible and authoritative…the ‘treasury analysis’ sounds scientific rather than the obedient regurgitation of the Treasury’s boss’s (ie Osborne) words and Osborne ‘warns’ rather than ‘claims’…altogether more dramatic and intense than a mere ‘claim’.
Glover suggests that the BBC was ‘laudibly impartial during the referendum’……nothing further from the truth than that…but he now sees that post-referendum the BBC has ‘reverted to type’…
What is indisputable is that the commendable balance which BBC journalists for the most part exhibited during the referendum campaign has been jettisoned, and replaced by an hysterical anti-Brexit partisanship which offends against the Corporation’s obligation to be neutral.
The transformation in the way Brexit was covered by the Beeb was evident soon after the result. Every bit of apparently bad news, such as initially declining business confidence, was gleefully reported, while abundant good news about consumers’ enduring confidence was largely neglected.
This of course is still going on as the fall in the currency is unremittingly painted as bad news, or bad news in the pipeline.
He finishes with this:
I believe that in taking sides Auntie is playing with fire. She justifiably remains for the most part popular and loved. But if she seen to obstruct the will of the majority by trying to undermine the result of the referendum, she risks ending up by being widely hated by Brexit supporters.
For its own sake, as well as the country’s, the BBC must recover that sense of fairness and balance which characterised its coverage of the referendum campaign. Why do I fear that it will fail to do so?
Indeed MP’s are already asking questions…
MPs condemn BBC’s biased covering following the referendum: Group write to director general to protest the number of pro-EU speakers
Even pro-EU Dan Hodges thinks those who seek to undermine Brexit thwarting the will of the people will end in tears….
If you want a revolution, this is how to spark it. The people spoke on Brexit – but MPs stuck their fingers in their ears and ignored them. This could get nasty…
Cameron said we should all have our say. We’ve spoken. And yet our so-called representatives in Parliament want to overturn our decision.
Ros Altmann Majority of MPs in all 3parties want to stay in EU. They’re your democratically elected leaders. Voting Brexit overrules your own MPs
Pitchforks at the ready!!!
Absolute belter that one Alan! Sums up everything this website is about and why it exists in the first place… Holding the utterly biased, utterly intolerant, utterly political, cult that is the so called BBC to account….because the PR fanatical, reality TV actors that moonlight as politicians on the side, are too busy feeding their fat, devious faces at Al Beebistan’s trough to do it!
Great article Alan but the concept of researching a subject and coming to an informed decision, rather than looking only for facts that support your existing position, will not register in the average BBC mind. As John Maynard Keynes said,”When my information changes, I alter my conclusions. What do you do, sir?”
That is the main problem with the BBC, you get only one viewpoint and that viewpoint refuses to accept it could be wrong.
Ros Altmann’s comment is astonishing in its naivete. Democracy is all about MPs being overruled every time the electorate goes anywhere near the ballot box. Hopefully, those MPs that are determined to hinder the Brexit process will discover this at the next general election.
Ms. Altmann is an ‘expert’, apparently.
Mind you, this accolade is self-accorded in a style the BBC is also prone to use.
Great post!
That should have been run before the ‘great independence referendum’ .
Did not see that on Al Beeb, It would have been dynamite .
We need to hope that Trump is elected next month, as Clinton will do everything in her power to undermine and demonise Brexit and its supporters.
Pitchforks? I want an AK47!
I’ve been listening to the BBC R4 news bulletins occasionally today, and each time they have mentioned the Johnson pro-EU essay ‘story’ they have said “Boris is trying to play down”. Talk about a loaded statement. “Trying to play down” is what guilty people do. The message they are trying to convey is quite obvious.
Altmann is being absurd. Parliament voted to hold a referendum . The result was clear . Parliament needs to be reminded that sovereignity is vested in us. We had this sort of nonsense sorted out in the 17th century.
On Trump I find the behaviour of our media and politicians incomprehensible. There seems no attempt to listen to what he says let alone report it correctly.
He has made a direct challenge to the money power and the power of the elites to control America. He is very clear on this and so are his supporters. His recent Florida speech was very specific as to policies. Nothing about this seems to have filtered through to our world class broadcaster.
I understand just how desperate the elites are now to control us. Brexit was a shock and they are terrified of Trump hence the campaign of disinformation and demonisation.
This has been quite successful as I have found quite normal conservative minded people unable to name a single Trump policy or view but very keen to dismiss him as a racist ,sexist etc etc.
This policy adopted by the elites and the media is unwise to say the least. If Trump wins then he could well take revenge by excluding Europe and this country in particular from his policies and strategies. I would not forget in a hurry the endless insults heaped upon me by the British media.
Liberals lack any real capacity for strategic thinking beyond emoting and mouthing slogans.
I also think that the more Trump is demonised the firmer his support amongst those inclined to vote his way grows.
Listen to American country music and you can hear the sentiments that in many ways underlie his appeal. Home ,family, mothers and fathers , patriotism and self reliance , respect for the past and the land.Not backing away or down and trying to do what is for the best for the country in the way it has always been done.
A world away from liberal values and probably derided by our good friends of the media and the BBC/Guardian in particular.
We will have to wait and see.
DaveS
You are right, but I don’t think Trump will win for the simple reason that the camapaign against him has been so overwhelming that the waverers who don’t want Clinton but dont much like Trump will probably just not vote.
Somebody should remind the beebyanka and our “representatives” in Parliament that we supporters of Leave got the biggest vote ever in the United Kingdom. The current government gained office on a vote several millions smaller. While it is true that the remainers also exceeded the vote for any elected government in the UK, the fact remains (haha!) that they came second in an obviously binary vote. Leave / Stay: it was as simple as that. There are no grounds for extending the argument.
It’s astonishing that an idiot like Nicky Morgan – emphatically NO relation – can treat more than seventeen million votes as nothing more than a suggestion to be ignored, in favour of the previous thought that went through her dense skull, about twenty years ago.