The BBC has been up to its old tricks of censoring programmes that send out the ‘wrong’ message….and even politicians have started to take note that the BBC is not a force for good, not a force for uniting Britain, not a force for maintaining social cohesion and stability…it is in reality a racist, anti-white, anti-British, pro-terrorism, pro-EU, pro-mass immigration extremist organisation that spreads hate and division….just look how it treated Jacob Rees-Mogg when he revealed his views on abortion and gay marriage……
NORMAN LAMONT: By refusing to air Rule, Britannia! at Proms concerts in Wales and Scotland the BBC undermines its reason to exist
The Last Night Of The Proms is a unique international celebration. It features singers, orchestras and conductors from all over the globe.
Nobody at this multinational festival is remotely offended when it culminates in a mass rendition of the most stirring patriotic music ever written, including Rule, Britannia! and Land Of Hope And Glory.
But in a move as outrageous as it was ridiculous, the BBC failed to broadcast those climactic moments of the Last Night in all regions of the United Kingdom on Saturday.
The performance at the Royal Albert Hall was beamed to Proms In The Park gatherings in Swansea and Glasgow, as well as Hyde Park in London and County Fermanagh’s Castle Coole. All four venues received a live feed of the BBC Concert Orchestra playing Sir Henry Wood’s sea shanties, taken from his Fantasia On British Sea Songs.
But while the English and Northern Irish audiences were then able to join in the rousing anthems of Rule, Britannia! and Land Of Hope And Glory, that part of the broadcast was mysteriously missing in Scotland and Wales.
I was simply appalled by the decision. It is about far more than music.
The BBC was denying people the opportunity to celebrate their Britishness. In doing so, it is denying our collective identity as a United Kingdom, and promoting separatism.
It is encouraging the cultural disintegration of our country, and fostering the pernicious idea that people in Wales and Scotland have nothing to do with those in England.
The fact cannot be ignored that, in the digital age, it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify the existence of the BBC. There is a greater variety of news and entertainment sources than ever before. People absorb information from a multitude of channels, above all from the web and from social media.
Yet I have been opposed to all calls for the abolition of the licence fee because it seemed to me our national broadcaster was just that — a force for unification, a common cause binding the disparate reaches of our islands into a single whole.
The BBC is not just a symbol of national identity but also the means by which we feel that identity.
Without it, we would have the monarchy and sport in common, but not much else. The BBC is meant to be a national institution.
Millions of people outside Britain interpret our national character through the lens of the BBC. And its schedules affect the way we perceive ourselves, and what it means to be part of the United Kingdom family, wherever we live. This to me is the strongest argument that remains for the continued funding by the licence fee of the BBC. And by its atrocious decision not to broadcast Rule, Britannia! in Wales and Scotland, it undermines its own reason to exist.
I have come to the decision that the simplest thing would be to abolish the Corporation altogether, while maintaining one or two small-scale services such as Radio 4.
There’s a lot of vanity about the BBC. It still clings to the belief it is the best broadcaster in the world. But that is no longer the case: its news service is inferior to CNN and Al Jazeera, especially on international affairs, and it no longer provides current affairs analysis of the highest quality.
Since the Brexit referendum last year, the bias of the broadcaster has been increasingly obvious. Barely an evening goes by without an interview with some businessman who claims to be anxious about the effect of leaving the EU.
Yet we never hear the counter-argument — that foreign investment is increasing and that British exports are at the highest level for over 20 years. The bias of BBC editors seems to filter out those facts before they ever reach our screens.
They have a sworn duty under their charter to be impartial, and it’s hard to see how BBC bosses could have been unaware that the Last Night of the Proms has become politically sensitive.
There is nothing xenophobic about a boisterous crowd singing Rule, Britannia! — just as there is nothing aggressive about a rousing chorus of La Marseillaise from French supporters at Twickenham before a rugby match… a far more blood-curdling set of verses.
The BBC has chosen to shoehorn its divisive political attitudes into an occasion where it has no place. In doing so, it stands accused of encouraging the break-up of the United Kingdom and denying our national identity. That, I believe, is unforgivable.