Category Archives: BBC bias

She was making plain her fury in fresh air, in front of the black door to No 10 that is a symbol of British government. 

You could hardly stage-manage more clearly the difference between the European Commission’s sneaky secrecy and Britain’s open, sovereign democracy (and how the Eurocrats hate and fear that!).

Quentin Letts

It is abundantly clear what the EU and its minions are up to as they launch attack after attack on May and the British negotiating position…clear to everyone except it seems the BBC which expresses shock and surprise that May has accused the EU of hostility and of attempting to manipulate and interfere in the outcome of the election…..the EU would like nothing better than a weak, irresolute and incompetent Corbyn at the helm or failing that a LibDem rump providing an awkward squad to make Brexit all but impossible.

The BBC went into overdrive running cover for Clinton filling the airwaves with accusations of Russian interference in ‘American democracy’ and the of peddling ‘fake news’, the BBC intent of course to put Hilary in the driving seat and now, as the BBC continues with that narrative having failed to get their preferred candidate elected, to unseat Trump.

Contrast that pious outrage with the almost complete lack of interest in an attempted coup against our own country by another foreign ‘government’, the unelected EU, as it works to undermine British democracy and attempts to put its own collaborators in place…the BBC actually providing so much useful help as it peddles the EU message whilst attacking May relentlessly.

All this should serve to underline why the undemocratic and increasingly tyrannical EU should be destroyed and replaced with a co-operative, non-political union of willing countries that serves to unite nations in purpose but not in a political or financial superstate that the EU has become intent on crushing all dissent and imposing its will upon those sovereign states….a monster out of control.

You just have to look at the BBC’s Kuenssberg’s ‘analysis’ of what May said this afternoon to realise that the EU is not the only enemy May has to contend with.  Even the title of Kuenssberg’s piece gives the game away as she claims May is  ‘Upping the ante’.

Curiously Kuenssberg hasn’t thought that it was the EU which had been ‘upping the ante’ with its torrent of hostile briefings, so often to the BBC direct, and its spreading of misinformation and alarmist black propaganda…also aided by the Remain supporting FT which seems to delight in coming up with increasingly ridiculous figures for ‘reparations’ to be paid to the EU by Britain.

Kuenssberg sets out from the start to try and undermine May claiming she has done a u-turn and is engaged in ‘megaphone dipomacy’….no thought that perhaps May is right and the EU has been launching hostile attacks on Britain?

This morning, the chancellor and the Brexit secretary said the noises off out of Brussels and suggestions of an exit bill of 100bn euros were only “manoeuvring” and that the UK would not be pulled into “megaphone diplomacy”.

By 15:30, the prime minister was standing at a lectern in Downing Street accusing some in Brussels of trying deliberately to interfere in the election, to make trouble for her politically at home, and of wanting the Brexit talks to fail.

Kuenssberg then expresses shock at the PM’s words and tries to suggest they are not only unmerited but a deceptive political ploy by May rather than a genuine insight into EU manipulation and corruption of our democracy…it’s not ‘quite some statement’, not ‘quite an accusation’….the statement and accusation were bang on and absolutely jusitifed as nearly all other commentators, BBC aside, believe…..not Kuenssberg though….

Forget that nuance for a moment – this was quite some statement, quite an accusation to make. It seems the prime minister is intent on playing the Brexit card for all it’s worth in the next election.

It’s no coincidence that the Tories want every UKIP voter to turn to them, no coincidence that many Labour seats were Out areas in the referendum, no small matter that in 71 Labour constituencies, the UKIP vote was bigger than the size of the eventual majority.

It’s all just a tactic says Kuenssberg…May doesn’t really mean it…and those poor old Brussel’s bureaucrats, once again the innocent targets of fake news and anti-EU spin…

British prime ministers taking public aim at “Brussels bureaucrats” is hardly an original tactic from the playbook.

And do not, for one second, be surprised if come 9 June, IF Theresa May is back in power, her language starts to sound rather more conciliatory.

And of course it is May who has gone ‘full throttle’ and is thus out of control and over the top….not the EU who started the war of words and the gunboat diplomacy then?…..

But words like this cannot be unsaid. What is perhaps more surprising is that Theresa May has gone full throttle at such an early stage in this election, and in a situation where the polls put her as the clear frontrunner.

Kuenssberg should leave the analysis to those with insight and understanding of events, stick to facts not making it up as you go along.  The BBC was desperately accusing the Russians of manufacturing fake news to change the course of the US election and yet here the BBC is engaged in exactly the same behaviour that it deplored on behalf of Clinton as it peddles the EU’s fake news in order to undermine Britain and Britain’s future success and prosperity.  The BBC working to betray us to the EU.

Lord Hall Hall…lock him up!

I’ll be on holiday when you read this – in a place where I assuredly will not be watching the BBC! Anyway for those less fortunate this is where YOU detail the bias!

The PM is battling for Britain

The BBC is battling for the EU

We are at war with the EU…it’s a war of words, of propaganda, of soundbite diplomacy, but it’s still a very real war with very real consequences…a war that the BBC has chosen sides on, and it’s not the British side.  Lord Hall Hall lost the Referendum vote and he doesn’t intend to lose again, intending no doubt to hand a recalcitrant Britain over to the EU to be dismembered and neutered so that it can never again rebel against the Regime….the Telegraph tells us that the EU’s ‘briefings’ are ‘worthy of a Kremlin propaganda operation.’...the BBC?  Reports it all as fact.

Lord Hall Hall’s BBC is the enemy within working for the EU against British interests.  A simple illustration is how the BBC’s anti-May rhetoric is being used by the enemy, and the EU is the ‘enemy’ seeking as it does to attack, undermine and destroy British interests…the BBC has across the board been mocking May for the use of the phrase ‘strong and stable’ to describe her leadership and government, hardly an hour goes by when a BBC journalist doesn’t disparage that phrase in a way that they don’t for Corbyn’s continual stance of ‘the many against the few’ which he did in fact steal directly from Blair’s 1997 campaign.  The Eurocrats have picked up on the BBC anti-May narrative and are using it to attack May…as the Mail reports..

EU chief TAUNTS Theresa May over ‘strong and stable’ election slogan

The Telegraph reports...Germany ‘interfering in General Election in attempt to undermine Theresa May’, an interpretation of events which is undeniable and blatantly obvious and yet the BBC barely registers such a significant fact of a foreign power tryng to undermine and interfere in British democracy instead reporting every leaked [often directly to the BBC] bit of misinformation and black propaganda from EU sources as gospel whereas anything from the British is scorned and doubted…the BBC tryng to  make the British look intransigent and foolishly ignorant about the ‘EU’ and its workings, living in a delusional La La Land.

There’s this report from the BBC that recognises there is spin going on, and yet, and yet, it gives more credence to the EU spin…there might be spin but ‘That said’….

These tough-sounding comments are at least as much aimed at their domestic audience as at the British government.

That said, a high-level EU source has confirmed to me that feelings were running pretty high following the Downing Street dinner due to what he described as a huge “asymmetry of expectations” and a “completely different reading” of the Brexit situation at No 10.

He said the British government, from their comments about negotiations, clearly had “no good understanding of the fundamentals” around which he said the EU was united, and which would now not be undone.

Ah yes, whatever the EU says must be true.

Over and again, EU diplomats insist this is no “us against them” situation; that there’s no desire to punish Britain and that a good Brexit is in everyone’s interest.

“It’s in our mutual interest to correct all the misunderstandings,” I was told today. My source was confident that Downing Street was beginning to realise that now too.

Yes…The BBC is helpfully aiding and abetting the EU to re-educate the British and correct all their misunderstandings abut Brexit….amazing how they report everything the EU ‘sources’ say as if all true….despite the fact that there is very definitely an ‘us against them’ scenario and the EU are out to punish Britain and is working to destroy Brexit and interfere in the election..you’d never know if you listened to the BBC.

Look at this main BBC report, it’s entirely negative for May, it even misleads readers on a quote attributing it to May as if she said it herself in her leadership election campaign and is now ‘reviving’ it, the wording intended to make it a negative for her….

Theresa May says she will be a “bloody difficult woman” towards European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker during Brexit talks.

The PM revived a line used during her Tory leadership campaign to respond to claims the two clashed over dinner.

It’s only later we are told that it was in fact the other ‘enemy within’, arch- Remainer Ken Clarke, who said that about May.

Then the BBC peddles more EU propaganda.  May has always wanted to get the question of expats settled…the EU has always refused to do so and yet the BBC has been reporting the EU’s latest words claiming they want to settle the matter as if it is May who is being intransigent and difficult….

She also declined to commit to settling the issue of expats’ rights by June.

Hang on, isn’t it May who wanted to settle by June and the EU who is refusing to do so?

Then there’s this..

Opposition parties have accused the Tories of pursuing a “hard Brexit” strategy, with the PM insisting no deal is better than a bad one and planning to withdraw the UK from the EU single market.

The phrasing of that is intended to indicate that a ‘hard Brexit’ is a bad thing, and then there’s this about Osborne…no indication that he is a hard-line Remainer and that he is using the Standard as his own personal propaganda sheet….note his use of the phrase ‘blank cheque’…a standard Remain phrase that comes out of the mouth of Farron usually…no sneering from the BBC about the ‘reviving’ and constant reuse of that old chestnut then?…..

The first edition of the London Evening Standard published under the editorship of ex-chancellor George Osborne was headlined “Brussels twists knife on Brexit”, with an editorial warning the PM against seeking a “blank cheque” from the EU.

And the Kuenssberg assessment?  Here she tries to make out that May is stupidly uncompromising and is refusing to listen…that’s entirely Kuenssberg’s own interpretation and implication, and of course a negative one….

Theresa May’s comment is revealing about her strength, and also her weakness. No political leader wants to be seen to be pushed around…….Refusing to be pushed around is one thing, refusing to show any sign of compromise or listen quite another.

Both Kuenssberg and Nick Robinson are fairly hopeless as political journalists making increasingly fact free comments and ‘analsyses’ that bare little resemblance to what is actually happening…this morning Robinson told us that May was scared of debating and was afraid to meet the public…never mind that she was out on the streets knocking on doors in Scotland, not the most Tory friendly place, and that she has called an election….so hardly afraid of being challenged.  That was just an out and out lie by Robinson.

Lord Hall Hall is peddling Berlin’s propaganda.  Sack him.  Lock him up.

From Guido…

£3.6 Billion Fund Lists in London Despite Brexit

Given how the slightest hint of a bad news story from the City is seized upon by certain elements of the media, it’s interesting that this one has gone under the radar. 

US billionaire Bill Ackman’s £3.6 billion fund Pershing Square Holdings, which initially listed in Amsterdam some years ago, has listed on the London Stock Exchange today. The move clearly reinforces London’s attractiveness to international fund managers despite the doom and gloom from Remainers.

Haha – EVEN the BBC couldn’t save Diane Abbott from making a complete fool of herself today on the topic of Police numbers. I caught her on the Today programme early this morning where she sounded evasive but John Humphyrs did not quite nail her down. Over on LBC, Nick Ferrari did – and here is the video of it. It’s wonderful to listen to.

But then, when you thought it could get no worse, she popped up on the BBC’s Daily Politics and Jo Coburn got stuck into her, a delight. Not often I enjoy the BBC but Abbott has just provided an epic moment of political incompetence.

The BBC is rushing out the news that ‘sources in Brussels’ have contacted the BBC to reveal that they think Brexit will fail.

Why did they target Lord Hall Hall’s BBC to disseminate this ‘news’?   And why does the BBC give any credence whatsoever to what is an obvious bit of ‘enemy’ propaganda?

Nothing to do with BBC bias but just of interest after the last post about the BBC’s hagiography of Saint Blair…the New Statesmen has its own go at running the rule over Cool Britannia and the Blair bewitched project…it’s from a music writer’s perspective, John Harris from the Guardian….Cool Britannia: where did it all go wrong?

This is the most telling bit…those rebellious young Turks just wanted their dad to love them really, to understand them…and give them pocket money no doubt…..

The end of 18 years of Conservative government was a truly euphoric moment. There did seem to be a shift from fusty, greying Tories to a new breed of politicians who at least had some idea about culture and how it worked.

So much for Drugs, Sex an’ Rock’n’Roll…they just wanted hand outs and understanding from the government.

They were much better off under Thatcher who cut the art grants and forced them to think, strive and create to survive…and the art world was immeasurably better for it….no need for a ‘breed of politicians who had some idea about culture and how it worked’.

Always amazed that people think Blair was ‘right-wing’….the BBC likes to peddle that message…

The voting public might have bought into New Labour’s blend of Thatcherite free market economics and social justice, but it never had very deep roots in the Labour Party itself.

It was the product of a tight-knit group headed by Blair, Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson and media chief Alastair Campbell.

But he was if anything an archetypal socialist masquerading as an almost right-of centre social democrat.  A man who indulged in a massive borrow and spend spree, who spent billions he didn’t have on infrastructure in order to buy votes, who deliberately deregulated the City and almost destroyed it, a man who threw open the borders in order to undermine national loyalty and identity, a man who set out to destroy the United Kingdom by introducng Devolution knowing full well that it would always be ratcheted up, and a man who was intent on selling out what remained to the EU along with the population as obedient citizens…an EU that is, if nothing else, more like the Soviet Union than a democratic, accountable, open and transparent entity.  Blair no doubt felt it would be like going ‘home’.  Blair was not in any way right-wing.

Which is probably why the BBC seems to like him giving him as it does a glowing obituary….yes I know, there’s a slight problem there, Blair’s still alive, you just can’t keep a good man down can you?  The BBC has definitely got the rose tinted specs on here…

Tony Blair’s legacy 20 years on

It is 20 years to the day that Tony Blair won a landslide general election victory for Labour – how did he change the country and what is left of his legacy?

“A new dawn has broken, has it not?”

With these words, spoken to a cheering crowd of supporters as the sun rose over London’s South Bank, Tony Blair ushered in the first Labour government in 18 years.

This sounds familiar…

Blair sketched out, in vague but confident terms, his vision of a modern, united country fit for a new millennium. A country for the “many not the few”.

Ah yes…recycling…very good…no doubt the BBC will do a whole series of programmes and articles on Corbyn soundbites ala May’s ‘Strong and stable’…no?…thought not….

Blair was wonderfully inclusive and diverse…the working class, women and gay people…blimey….

“Traditional values in a modern setting”, as John Prescott, a man who straddled the new/old divide with more agility than he was often given credit for, would say with a knowing smirk.

They were a diverse bunch – with more women than had ever sat in a British cabinet before and the first openly gay cabinet minister, Chris Smith.

Blair had some wonderful policies, basic but sound, and yet…‘the new government did not lack ambition.’

On the day after their election victory, Gordon Brown surprised everyone by handing control of interest rates to the Bank of England – a move that would have far-reaching consequences for the economy.

Blair was also determined, like many a prime minister before and since, to fix some of the country’s longstanding social problems.

Failures are anodynely reported as nothing much to see here…despite the BBC blitzing the Tories for the gap between rich and poor…

The gap between rich and poor remained more or less the same during the Blair years, according to analysis by the Resolution Foundation, although there was a big increase in pay at the top end of the income scale.

Education…a brilliant success….

Education was Blair’s other top priority. He oversaw a big expansion in higher and further education, and poured money into early years learning, as well as pioneering academy schools.

As was his funding of health….outcomes in both improved the BBC approvingly reports….no sense of where the money came from or any mention of the massive debts from PFI now crushing public services….

His first term was characterised by caution on tax and public spending, thanks to Labour’s commitment to stick to tight Conservative spending limits for the first two years.

That changed after the party’s second landslide election victory in 2001, when billions began to pour into the health service and education, on the back of a booming economy. Outcomes improved as a result.

Oh, and immigration….another Blair success….nothing to see here…

Blair’s 2004 decision to open the door to East European migration was entirely in keeping with his values as an ardent pro-European, who had championed the eastward expansion of the EU and who believed globalisation and flexible labour markets were the answer to industrial decline.

What was so successful?

The plentiful supply of cheap labour arguably helped the UK economy to expand without facing the issue of spiralling wages – and this in turn held inflation and interest rates down, contributing to a decade-long boom in property prices, adding to the feelgood factor among middle income home owners, even if fewer people could afford to get on the property ladder in the first place.

Ah yes…so having your wages cut or even losing your job due to cheap imported labour and employers not bothering to invest in training, research and development and thus not improving productivity [that ‘puzzle’ that the BBC always blamed on the Tories] was a great little plan as well as really expensive housing.

Oh wait the BBC recognises there was some discontent…due to ‘the pace of change’..er… not the resultant low wages, no jobs and no houses, no school places and a crowded NHS then?  No, just that amorphous pace of change….

It also sowed the seeds of discontent in Labour’s heartlands, as growing numbers felt left behind and marginalised by the pace of change in their communities, and a growing anti-EU feeling began to take hold.

And look at this…a complete whitewash from a BBC that has otherwise relentlessly hounded Blair over Iraq and blamed him for every subsequent disaster in the Middle East….

In 2003, Blair had drawn on every last ounce of his persuasive skill to make the case for joining the US-led invasion to MPs and the wider public.

He had become convinced of the value of military action in pursuit of humanitarian aims and the need to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the US, in the wake of 11 September, 2001.

‘Every last ounce of his persuasive skill’?  WTF?  Last time I heard the BBC was calling him a war criminal and a lying bastard who took us to war on a lie.  And what’s this crap about ‘humanitarian aims and standing loyally shoulder to shoulder with an ally’?  The BBC has never ever put that forward as a credible explanation for the Iraq War.  The BBC must have taken something…they’re certainly sexing this dodgy dossier up no end.

Oh wait…a slight tinge of guilt about blowing smoke up our backsides…

The subsequent failure to find weapons of mass destruction appeared to confirm many people’s worst suspicions about him – that he relied too much on spin and was not to be trusted.

Just a bit o’ ‘spin’, no hint of the extremely serious accusations, so many from the BBC itself, that Blair lied and completely misled Parliament and the People?

And finally his legacy…yes a few problems over Iraq and the Corbynistas may boo  him but he’s a good egg really with some really good ideas….like how Blair is responsible for keeping the NHS state run and free…and now he’s a bit of a saint…working for the good of the country….

Blair’s supporters claim that his vision of a self-consciously modern, multicultural, socially liberal country, has endured – and that David Cameron’s six years in government were shaped by it.

It is there in the Conservatives’ commitments on foreign aid and promotion of gay rights, they say, as well as Britain’s continued commitment to a health service free at the point of delivery, funded by taxation.

And, at 63, the man himself is still in the game.

He has ditched his business interests – that had generated so much negative publicity for him – to work full time on promoting moderate, centrist policy solutions, fighting battles that 20 years ago he must have hoped would have been won by now.

Curiously I don’t remember Thatcher ever getting such a glowing legacy report…did she get thanks for the economy that Blair inherited or for keeping the NHS free at the point of delivery ?  [she and the Tories must get some credit as after 18 years in power they managed  not to privatise it…and all without Blair’s help…amazing!]

Remarkable how sanguine the BBC is about the extraordinary bully-boy tactics of the EU as they come out with ever more draconian demands and aggressive and insulting language.  Watching BBC interviews with EU apparatchiks the reporters so often nod along agreeably as  the Eurocrats lay into May and Brexit and set out the EU’s very onerous terms, the reporters often seeming to side with the Eurocrats as the journo’s themselves start laying into May and ‘the British’, usually along the lines of ‘don’t you Eurocrats find it all too trying having to deal with delusional Brits trying to split you apart and making absurd demands?’.

This write up on the BBC website does however actually recognise the EU’s tactics are designed to disrupt the British negotiations and cause concern and doubt in the British Public’s mind, and no doubt try to influence the election towards a more EU friendly government or a Parliament with a ‘mandate’ to dump Brexit…

The EU set out tough terms for the Brexit negotiations at the weekend – and has followed up with a steady drumbeat of briefing suggesting that the UK is unprepared for the talks to come and harbouring delusions about the possible outcomes.

Officials in Brussels naturally have a vested interest in stressing that leaving the EU is difficult and dangerous…there’s no doubt the European briefings will be seen in the UK as provocative – and designed to stir up fears among British voters about what Brexit is ultimately going to mean. 

It’s a shame that the BBC’s journalists on the ground interviewing the Eurocrats don’t start making the point to them that their position is so obviously tactical and intended to cause trouble in the UK, such as comments about Northern Ireland’s border and the EU essentially trying to annex both NI and Gibraltar taking them both out of the UK without any say for the UK government.

When the Eurocrats are so obviously interfering in British national politics such as the election the BBC should be making this quite clear and be challenging those Eurocrats on their behaviour….the BBC weren’t so  shy about denouncing Russia for allegedly supporting Trump and yet when it comes to our own country the BBC seems to look away.

The Mail has noticed the bully-boy tactics and doesn’t look away…

DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Why these EU bully boys fear democracy

There was more than a hint of the bizarre about the meeting at which 27 EU leaders set out their negotiating position on Brexit.

After getting round the conference table in Brussels, they deliberated for just four minutes before issuing a set of absurdly draconian demands.

Then, like some 1970s meeting of the Chinese Communist party, they erupted into a protracted round of applause and self-congratulation, as if they had done something terribly clever.

In fact, what they presented was not so much a negotiating position as an ultimatum to Britain – pay a £50billion penalty, guarantee the rights of all EU citizens living in the UK, give Spain a veto on the future of Gibraltar and promise not to enforce border controls between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

These ludicrous blowhards should also remember that Britain imports billions of pounds a year more in goods and services from the EU than we export to them. So German car makers, French wine producers and Irish farmers have more to lose from a trade war than UK manufacturers.

Of course, there is another agenda. With Euroscepticism rampant across the continent, the EU high command wants to punish Britain for leaving as a warning to other member states not to follow suit. They are terrified that a blast of democracy could soon destroy their cosy little club.

The Mail is confident Mrs May will not be deflected by these cynical tactics but she needs the full support of the British people in the difficult negotiations to come.

Full support of the British people…and the Media…the British Media.

More on the EU’s bully-boy tactics…here’s Daniel Hannan from 2008….it all sounds very familiar…

EU treaty censored by Euro-federalists

Shall I tell you the most annoying thing about Eurocrats? It’s not their readiness to toss aside inconvenient referendum results, nor their intolerance of dissent. No, the truly maddening thing about them is the flagrancy with which they break their own rules.

This week, a small group of MEPs decided to protest against the ratification, without the promised referendums, of the Lisbon Treaty (née European Constitution). The method we decided on was procedural delay – the technique that worked so brilliantly for the Irish nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell.

MEPs do have two rights that not even the Speaker can infringe. We can demand that a vote be held electronically rather than by show of hands – a slightly slower procedure, but one that guarantees accuracy and allows everyone to see how individual MEPs vote. And, when the vote is over, we have the right to state, in not more than a minute, why we voted as we did.

At worst, we would have kept MEPs from their lunch for half an hour, and perhaps delayed the afternoon session – hardly Samson bringing down the temple. But even this was too much for the parliamentary authorities. With brazen disregard for their own rulebook, they disallowed our requests for explanations of how members voted and suspended the session.

Their action had no legal basis. The parliamentary rules state that “once the general debate has been concluded, any Member may give an oral explanation on the final vote for not longer than one minute”. Indeed, the Deputy Speaker in the chair at the time didn’t even pretend to be following due process. He simply announced that “this house is sovereign” and that a minority could not stand in the way of the majority.

The authorities are now threatening – almost unbelievably – to disallow requests for electronic votes, despite proved inaccuracies in the show-of-hands procedure, and despite the fact that no one will be able to find out how his representative voted.

The people they really resent are their own voters, who keep on mulishly voting “No”. But, of course, they can’t be openly contemptuous of their constituents. So they take out all their frustration on us, the handful of Euro-sceptics in the chamber.

Yes, keep on voting until you vote the way the EU wants and if all else fails remove the right to vote in a way that is transparent and accountable, and if that fails to stop the annoying democrats, then just don’t let them vote.

Gotta love the EU.

The answer of course isn’t really Brexit but the dismantling and extinction of the unelected and undemocratic, empire building and tyrannical EU itself….keep the co-operation between states, keep open a talking shop to agree on what and how to co-operate, but close the EU ‘government’ which takes ever-more powers to itself and imposes ever-more draconian laws and regulations upon sovereign nation states with the intent of crushing and destroying them….so let’s crush and destroy the EU ‘government’ instead….out with the arrogant Drunkard….sorry, Drunckers…no it’s Junckers isn’t it?…and in with democracy, genuine co-operation and freedom to act in your own interests when needed.

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…

• 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.

Tim Farron has claimed, to much incredularity[BBC aside…no reaction from Marr], that he is a ‘bit of a Eurosceptic’….because in 2008 he resigned from the LibDem frontbench when Clegg demanded they abstain from voting on a referendum on the EU Lisbon Treaty…the BBC puts it up in lights…

Tim Farron says ‘I’m a bit of a Eurosceptic’

…not sure why as the main thing of any import he said was that the LibDems would not form a coalition with any other party….[interesting that he mentions his new found Euroscepticism, why now?….could it be because the subject arose 5 days ago on someone’s Twitter feed….guess Tim himself forgot that he was a Eurosceptic and had to be reminded….1:51 AM – 24 Apr 2017]

He may have resigned but not because he opposed the Lisbon Treaty...he voted relentlessly for it...the only vote he opposed was an amendment that would give parliament a say on EU decisions…so much for his cheerleading for British democracy…..whilst of course voting yes to increase the EU Parliament’s power….

• On 21 Jan 2008: Tim Farron was absent for a vote on Lisbon Treaty — Second Reading Show full debate
• On 27 Feb 2008: Tim Farron was absent for a vote on Lisbon Treaty — Enshrine the Lisbon Treaty into UK law Show full debate
• On 3 Mar 2008: Tim Farron voted yes on Lisbon Treaty — Accept the changes of terminology in the Lisbon Treaty Show full debate
• On 3 Mar 2008: Tim Farron voted yes on Lisbon Treaty — Increase of powers of European Parliament Show full debate
• On 4 Mar 2008: Tim Farron voted no on Lisbon Treaty — Clause on ‘parliamentary control of decisions’ to remain in the Bill Show full debate
• On 5 Mar 2008: Tim Farron voted yes on Lisbon Treaty — Clause on ‘Commencement’ of the Bill should remain in the Bill
• On 11 Mar 2008: Tim Farron voted yes on Lisbon Treaty — Third Reading

Trouble is Farron didn’t resign in order to oppose the EU but because he had promised his constituency that they could have a vote, he makes absolutely no mention of his own views on the EU here….

Note how hard-core Remainder Farron, much as he ‘respects’ the people’s vote on Brexit but ignores it, also respected Clegg’s leadership…and totally ignored it.

And just because you vote to have a referendum doesn’t show you are a Eurosceptic….Clegg at the time wanted an in/out referendum…and was a committed Europhile as his leaflets made out in 2008…the LibDems would campaign to remain in the EU….

And here is Farron indeed telling us that he wants another referendum…..in order that the British people can vote to stop  Brexit…the LibDems are the vehicle to provide that ‘democracy’ to take place…much like Erdogan’s democracy bus…you get off it when you get to the destination you want…so keep voting until we agree to stay in the EU and then…no more referendums…cheers Tim…..

It wouldn’t actually be a vote on the terms of any deal but a rerun of the in/out referendum…reject the deal and we stay in the EU…no renegotiation of the deal to improve it….

According to an amendment tabled by Liberal Democrat MPs including Tim Farron, a vote should be held with the question on the ballot paper asking voters if they support the new proposed agreement with the EU, or if they want the UK to remain a member of the EU.

Farron keeps insisting that the 2016 referendum didn’t give May the authority to take us out of the Single Market and that the People voted for ‘a blank sheet of paper’...and yet that’s just not true…they voted to come out of the EU…that was the question on the ballot paper…do you want to stay in the EU or leave?  They voted to leave…and the ‘EU’ means all the EU…Farron is busily picking the bits he likes and insisting that the ‘People’ didn’t vote to ‘leave’ those bits.  Not only a remarkable ability to read peoples’ minds but also a remarkable ability to torture logic….by Farron’s logic the vote to leave was not a vote to leave at all…because people did not have a list, a list that would be extraordinarily long, that spelt out every law, regulation, treaty and rule that brought the EU to life and made it real….we, by his logic, must explicitly approve or not every single EU law, infrastructure and institution if we want to vote on the EU….we can cherry pick our membership of the EU according to Farron, though the EU disagrees…they say if you’re out you’re out.  Farron also ignores the very inconvenient fact that it was made quite clear by both sides in the referendum that a vote to leave meant leaving the Single Market.

More Farron logic…a massive vote for May would not be democratic.

More Farron logic as he accuses Andrew Neil of guessing what voters want having confidently told us that he himself knows….

Farron is talking out of his backside and spinning us a right old tale….but then again, as Cameron points out, the LibDems are renowned for dirty campaigning…..[why is Farron wrong in the video below?…check the recent post on the lies and hypocrisy of politicians who called Zac Goldsmith a racist Islamophobe]….