Category Archives: anti-business

The BBC report on the 10 0 Clock news concerning the Labour Party conference today is very interesting. The shrill calls from the comrades to nationalise, to tax and to punish capitalism further was reported with ill disguised glee and I note that new face on the block Robert Peston is very keen to advance the notion that changing economic conditions play into Gordon Brown’s court, which is verging on the surreal. There seems to be a political notion abroad amingst the media that only imposed socialism can save us from the perils of capitalism and the BBC is to the fore in subtly promoting this.

If you want a laugh, have a read of this BBC article entitled “Where now for capitalism”? Great to read the thoughts of such renowned free marketeers as….Noam Chomsky, Tony Benn, Brendan Barber. Along with other elements within the left-wing media, the BBC takes delight at the current chaos in the money markets/housing market and it is fantasising at the moment that capitalism is dying and it’s time for socialism uber alles.

Again early this morning on the business section of the Today programme between 6am and half pas the hourt, I listened to a BBC correspondent suggest that the state sector had suffered in recent years with very modest wage increases. This was related to the TUC conference today where the comrades are seeking to encourage Brown and Darling to open the cheque-book for some inflation-busting wage increases for the army of state workers. Now I appreciate that the BBC is PART of the State but please, can we not just have the facts? You know the facts I’m talking about, don’t you? The ones that show that average state sector worker now earns MORE than his private sector equivalent? The ones that show that the average state sector worker has enjoyed years of wage increases way greater than those awarded in the private sector? The ones that show that 99% of state sector workers enjoy final salary pension schemes (compared to 18% in the private sector)? If we want to debate the merits of wage increases in the state sector, can we please have the full economic background and not just selective cherry-picking by biased BBC journalists aimed at making us feel sorry for the state?

It’s clear that the BBC is sympathetic to those politicians who favour raiding the cash assets of the energy companies as a means to obtain cash to then bribe, sorry I mean help “poorer families” struggling to pay their bills. This article is typical of BBC bias. It starts by putting the case in favour of the alleged “windfall tax”. Then, it provides space for an opposing view. But it then carefully segues the recent profits of the energy companies with a poll from the Observer to suggest that the majority of the public favour this tax grab. All very subtle and all contrived to convey the idea that government raiding the profits of private business is an honourable and worthy course of action.

I know you’ve been discussing this over on the open thread but I’ve been away all day and didn’t want to let the BBC’s coverage of the great Northern Rock debacle today to pass without some comment. I listened to the Today coverage and then again to that on the PM programme and it was quite amazing to hear the BBC commentators blithely pass off the £3bn that is being wasted on top of the £26bn from last year as just one more economic necessity in this credit crunch world. I think it cuts to the mindset that characterises the BBC, it sees nothing wrong in principle with government taking £££billions of taxpayers cash and just peeing it up against the wall. Expenditure without responsibility is the name of the game and the fact that Brown and his pals have entirely screwed up over Northern Rock, costing us all a fortune, all in order to sustain the mortgages of those in the Labour voting north-east of England heartland does not seem outrageous to the BBC. It seems natural.