A bit of blatant anti-May politicking from the BBC as it targets her ‘strong and stable’ government…not once but twice…and no doubt many other times and place as well…it’s not a virtue to be strong and stable…the BBC trying to undermine a Tory election position?…
‘Strong and stable’ – Why politicians keep repeating themselves
As the general election approaches, MPs start to repeat themselves. Over and over again. In every interview. Why do they do it?
The final Prime Minister’s Questions before the general election had just finished when an exasperated Paul Flynn asked the Speaker whether a microchip had been planted into Tory MPs that makes them say the words “strong and stable” every 18 seconds.
The veteran Labour MP had a point – the Conservatives’ slogan had just been used 16 times, including a hat-trick of mentions inside a single question by backbencher Michael Fabricant.
Ah…a Labour MP has a point does he? Hmmm…good of the BBC to expand upon it for him in the middle of an election campaign.
The BBC is obsessed….it doesn’t like its own bias being stopwatched and detailed but the Tories saying ‘strong and stable’…well…a very important issue for the BBC to spend so much time upon…
“Strong and stable”
The Conservative slogan has been used:
- 25 times in the Commons in 10 days
- 16 times during PMQs on 26 April
- 12 times in one speech by Theresa May
And look…a strong leader is a bad leader the BBC tells us in a second bite of the crab apple.….the BBC asks a man who wrote a book, Archie Brown, author of The Myth of the Strong Leader, who is clearly not going to give you any other answer than ‘strong leadership’ is bad.
And of course it’s back to May’s ‘strong and stable’ as the reference point….
The soundbites are constantly repeated. “Strong leader”. “Strong and stable leadership”. “Strong and stable government”. But what do they mean?
At first glance the terms are not contentious. It is easy to get agreement that “what we need is a strong leader”, and few would argue that “what we need is a weak leader”.
Yet, there is a lot to be said against an over-mighty leader.
The BBC tried once before to paint May as an isolated authoritarian who talked to no one and was running a shambles of a government that didn’t know what it wanted to get from negotiations and had no plans in place for Brexit during the run up to the vote on Article 50…that was clearly nonsense as the government set out its comprehensive plans shortly after the BBC claims.
The article continues to tell us that Labour’s Attlee was not a strong leader but, LOL, led a strong and stable government…contrast that, the BBC says, with Thatcher who was a disaster….and the future?
Theresa May took personalisation of power a rhetorical step further in the House of Commons this week when she repeatedly said that “a vote for me and the Conservative candidate” in the 8 June election will lead to strong and stable leadership and a better Brexit outcome.
Strong leaders need not apply…because they will fail…
The greatly respected political scientist and TV election analyst Anthony King, who died in January, observed last year that the best-governed countries “owe their good government in large part to the fact that their political institutions and political culture obviate the need for strong leaders”.
He concluded: “A successful liberal democracy is liable to be one that is effectively “leader-proofed”, one in which… it is made difficult for a strong leader to acquire and wield power and in which the government does not rely on strong leaders for its long-term success”.
He was surely right.
There is a pop at Corbyn..or is it supposed to prop him up, telling us he is a ‘strong leader’ like May when the reality is that he is more weak and irresolute on so many issues…and this article completely forgets that his power comes not from his MPs but Labour members…and so he obviously does appeal to the electorate…those that like him anyway….and if he ever did get the keys to No10 I’m pretty sure many of those MPs would also see him in a new light all of a sudden….as the jobs are being handed out…they all love a winner…it also forgets that he isn’t a strong and stable leader…anything but…he fails to lead and muddles on through regardless…..
Ed Miliband, as Labour leader, persuaded the parliamentary Labour party to give up electing the shadow cabinet and accord him as leader of the opposition the power to appoint them…[once Corbyn] inherited those powers, he refused to return them to Labour MPs, even when they voted overwhelmingly last year to take them back.
Although Mr Corbyn would then have less power individually, a leadership chosen by the parliamentary party would be stronger in its political composition and, arguably, in its appeal to the electorate.
Have just received this email about the BBC:
A group of seventy two MPs have accused the BBC of being pessimistic and skewed in its coverage of Brexit, saying that it is unfairly representing leave voters by focusing on those who regret their decision, despite polling evidence showing that far more Remain voters regret voting for the EU, due to “Project Fear”. They also complain about the BBC’s inability to accept that Project Fear had been proven wrong, and the BBC’s failure to accept new facts was distorting its reporting. Good economic news was played down and any doubts were magnified. Research found there were three times more anti-Brexit speakers than pro-Brexit speakers in prestigious slots, which is evidence that the BBC had broke its charter requirement to be impartial. Labour MP Kate Hoey said: “This report is further evidence that the BBC has not accepted the verdict of the British people to leave the EU. Their continuous negative coverage and their downgrading of positive stories with the phrase ‘despite Brexit’ must stop. It is clear that many of the BBC journalists have not been able to hide their personal bias in favour of staying in the EU. The public has the right to expect genuine impartiality and fair reporting.” Peter Bone, the Conservative MP for Wellingborough says “There is a real problem with the BBC“
BBC Reporters interview each other, their ignorance of EU governance compared to Commonwealth self government, and the single market compared to the free market, and the greater standard of living in the White Commonwealth and other territories similar to Britain, but not in the EU, is shown by the childish emotions of doom and despondency. Ignorant and decrepit old Europhile has-beens are wheeled out to spout their usual anti-democratic and elitist bullshit, such as a Member of the House of Lords describing democracy as a populist “tyranny of the majority“. The few pro-Brexit speakers are subjected to aggression and contempt, and as usual, those MP’s identified by Mensa as having unusually high IQ’s, Graham Stringer and Frank Field, who just happen to be committed Brexiteers, are absent from the BBC.
Question Time still has a majority of the panellists taking the Europhile position, despite the Brexit majority in the real world, while the audience is regularly packed with Remainer thugs, baying at the token Brexeteer who defies the BBC Question Time panel consensus.
Also, a comment spotted in May’s edition of the Mensa Magazine: “I believe we have a biased media that hires and promotes people with liberal mindsets and they in turn present anyone with differing views in a negative light while positively praising those with a likeminded agenda“.
“A group of seventy two MPs have accused the BBC of being pessimistic and skewed in its coverage of Brexit”
While over on the “good news for Brexit” Chanel; we see that in the last few days a contract of around £530 miilion as been awarded to a Bolton Missile Manufacturing Comp to design/build/service as brand new set of Air-to-air missiles which will be used by the Royal Navy/Air Force to protect our new massive 65.000 ton Aircraft Carriers!
Yet not one report by the BBC news etc!
The problem with the strong and stable slogan is that Treezer has nothing else to say. Add it to Brexit is Brexit.
Rather like Macron who borrowed Obama’s hope and change revealing his emptiness
A strong leader should show strength not tell us she is strong.
Rather like the comedian who informs the audience that he is funny, when a joke is all that is required
Alan, hi. “the BBC trying to undermine a Tory election position?…”
Did anyone notice the boxing gloves of our new world heavyweight boxer the other evening? If you missed it, try to google the photos of the fight and you will see – in big white letters – written on his boxing gloves the words: BBBC!
If I’m right and he hates the BBC as well as we do then those BBC elites should watch out who they are up against!:
British Boxing Board of Control.
Nice thought though!
Mole, Umm? I never thought of that! Thanks!
Still, we can only hope that he – like us – has seen how the BBC treated “Harry” Carpenter in the last few months of his BBC boxing career!
It’s ever so easy these days, to just say to anyone, ‘don’t believe the BBC any more’, and leave it at that!
I used to respect the old BBC style when they had real reports on important matters, but now their opinions are so ludicrously biased, I tell everyone I see, (who needs any encouragement), that our national broadcaster is just a bunch of losers trying to make a non-existent case for staying in with a bunch of expensive time-servers in Brussels or wherever.
The bbeeb really are a laughing stock, and deserve nothing but ridicule at every turn.
Thankfully, despite a few saddos/trolls/sockpuppets, most sane people agree here!
Seems like only a few months ago that the BBC was happily labelling everything as ‘a shambles’ or ‘shambolic’.
It was almost as if someone came up with a campaign theme.
Journalists have a long history of inventing phrases that influence how their stories are perceived. The USA’s Strategic Defense Initiative, always called as such by government and the military’, became ‘Star Wars’; nearer home the ‘Community Charge’ became the ‘Poll Tax’. Why do they feel the need to change the message?
Most UK media keen to trash the UK PM trying to get the UK the best deal with the EU, by championing their main man and top lush JCJ leaking his lunchtime lack of… oh, who the hell cares….
Global and Sky News had this top of the hour, shouting from the hills. Bloody strange way to treat your own country. Don’t know about the BBC via the airwaves, but their home page suggests they have joined their bedwetters trying to put the boot in.
Less noticeable is news of Jezza and faction having a bit of a spat with the Blair faction in the latest Labour cock-up on the electioneering front.
https://order-order.com/2017/05/01/corbyn-slaps-down-clive-mason-and-owen/
Not even on their Politics page which, given the BBC’s obsession with that sorry activity, seems woefully remiss… unless they are frigging with the rigging again, just as they tried with Brexit.
Clearly BBC editorial integrity dialled to zero again, with DNA more fried than a Bradford first cousin wedding night coupling.
http://commentcentral.co.uk/will-auntie-accept-this-election-result/
Guessing not, on the evidence of the last several months.
Here’s the bbc on Facebook, spreading the muck allllll around:
“A German newspaper suggests the EC president and Theresa May clashed over Brexit issues.”
Suggests, eh? Nick Robinson will be agog at such detail.
Meanwhile the BBC is also thrilled to have seen a sick celeb dragged into making one of their famous ‘admissions’.
I hope the likes of Nick, Andrew etc never suffer relapses and get door stepped long enough to hand over a sound bite.
Hold on a minute! Just a couple of days ago, wasn’t one of the BBC drones (Reith in drag, I suspect) insisiting that the BBC had ‘ethics’ which contrasted so strongly with Tommy Robinson doorstepping a far Left hack at a local rag somewhere?