Author Archives: David Vance

Each morning, just after 6.30am, the Today programme trails the political agenda for the rest of the day. I notice that this seems to be restricted to the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats. Given the UKIP are showing a poll rating double that of the LibDems, don’t you think this is unfair? It’s as if the BBC want to cut off any oxygen of supply to Farage and his colleagues.

I enjoyed this.

It’s the BBC’s rightwing bias that is the threat to democracy and journalism

So says the BBC’s much loved “pundit” Owen Jones, aged 13 and three quarters.

You would need a heart of stone not to laugh.

The UK’s economy grew at a faster pace than initially estimated last year, revised official figures show. The economy grew by 0.6% in the final three months of 2014, up from the previous estimate of 0.5%, the Office for National Statistics said. The unexpected increase meant growth for the year was 2.8%, higher than the earlier estimate of 2.6%.

Then this…

But shadow chancellor Ed Balls, speaking at a campaign event in Swindon, said Conservatives were “telling people you have never had it so good” despite it being the “slowest recovery for 100 years”. “This is a government which has presided over five years when wages have not kept pace with rising prices and family bills,” he said.

Just like Balls, the BBC is desperate to thrown as much cold water on the good economic news. It has the power to impose its own narrative and I suggest that without the BBC, Miliband would be languishing in the polls.

Well, Parliament has been dissolved and the Election is on. The BBC start their coverage on the Today programme by going to Newcastle, a Labour redoubt.  Where to tomorrow? Liverpool perhaps? Maybe Rotherham …well then again, maybe not there #awkward.

Here you go, on-time and ready for completion. Detail the BIAS here.

As we approach the General Election in May, the greater the menace presented by the far from impartial BBC. It’s clear they want to see Miliband in Number Ten and they are ensuring the daily narrative directs towards that outcome.

Andrew Neil remains one of the very few IMPARTIAL presenters on BBC political programmes. He treats all of those politicians who venture into his den with the same penetrating insight and is a pleasure to watch. Here he is exposing the vacuous heart of Labour economic policies, something I am sure that will not go down with at least some of his bosses at the BBC!

It’s interesting to consider how the BBC is treating the grotesque US surrender to Iran’s mad Mullahs as an act of supreme political statesmanship by John Kerry and his master, Obama.

Representatives of six world powers are intensifying talks with Iran on its nuclear programme, ahead of a 31 March deadline for a deal. The US secretary of state and German and French foreign ministers have all cancelled their travel plans in a final push for an agreement. Representatives from China, Russia and the UK are also at the negotiations. US officials say all parties have agreed to a “step by step approach” to the deal, but sticking points remain. The world powers, known as the P5+1 group – the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany – want to ensure that Iran cannot develop nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, back in reality and certainly not for BBC output…

“The tons of spoken and printed verbiage poured out on the Iranian nuclear issue and ongoing diplomacy year after year have exposed, rather than disguised, President Obama’s willingness to sign a nuclear deal with Iran – however bad and whatever the price.
The inescapable conclusion is that the US president has come around to accepting the reality of a nuclear-armed Iran. As seen from Washington, America never stopped India, Pakistan and North Korea from becoming nuclear powers, and has therefore decided it can live with a fourth – Iran”

Whether Israel can live with it seems of little interest to Obama, and the BBC seem prepared to hail the deal that will be reached in Switzerland as a breakthrough when it is in fact a breakdown of any vestigial political principle by Saint Obama.

I don’t watch Top Gear nor am I a fan of Jeremy Clarkson. I do enjoy some of his written articles and it is pretty clear he is not a part of the BBC Hive, despite the massive popularity of the programme he presents. What bothers me is that ever since the BBC took the decision NOT to renew his contract (he was not “sacked”) the BBC have run endless attacks on Clarkson by all hues of politicians and alleged “comedians.”  Clarkson cannot defend himself and whatever one thinks of what he did do/didn’t do – It seems odd to me the BBC has not found one commentator that will defend him.  It’s only a week since Nigel Farage found himself at the end of such very public bullying by a group of hard leftist extremists and the BBC saw fit to present this as amusing. The truth is too many in the BBC wanted to get Clarkson and he was fool enough to give them what they wanted.

I thought it was interesting the way the BBC present the “news’ that the Conservative Party are considering options for scrapping several benefits, Department for Work and Pensions document.

The leaked files, to the BBC (SIC) commissioned by Tory officials, also suggest a regional benefits cap and taxing disability benefits as ways to help cut £12bn from the welfare budget by 2017/18. The Conservatives insisted the proposals were not party policy. Labour’s Rachel Reeves said the public had a “right to know” the plans. The shadow work and pensions secretary has written to the Conservatives demanding they explain what welfare cuts they intend to make.

Look at the image the BBC selected to lead the story…

Cruel Tory bastards, right? Vote Labour, right?

At every turn, the BBC is trying to present sensible economics from the Conservatives in the worst possible light. In the face of excellent economic news on just about every front, Labour needs the BBC to do what it can to minimise the advantages to Mr Cameron.

Most polls indicate that Cameron emerged as the winner in the Channel 4/Sky debate last evening. But at 6.30am this morning and then subsequently across its news channel, the BBC handed the victory to Miliband. Remarkable.