Have all those in the Remain camp converted to Islam? Are they budding Muslims? Do they kneel in submission and pray towards Mecca? You might have thought so from the reverence that the BBC treats them with…nary a word agin them…Andrew Neil aside. It has become apparent that a Remainer’s word is Gospel, or is that Koranic?, and is now taken as The Truth by default with the Leave campaign forced to counter it in the face of hostile BBC questions.
After Cameron’s mauling last week, a mauling unless you get the news from the BBC who saw it as a victory for the PM, we heard on 5 Live from the BBC presenter that the economic benefits of immigration were very positive, according to one academic study, and that ‘we should be hearing more of that in this campaign’…as she lectured the Leave spokesperson and claimed by implication that Leave were lying about the effects of immigration.
The BBC headlines after the Cameron bashfest were all about how Cameron would control immigration (LOL), never mind that the BBC has been previously heavily criticising him for his obvious and massive failure to do just that. In the news bulletins we had clips of Cameron and Miliband talking about immigration at length…and Leave? They got a 2 second mention…‘Leave disagrees with all that’…or something along those lines…blink and you’d miss it.
Last Saturday Today (08:20) brought on Kinnock, to speak for the Stay camp, who got such a free ride, such an easy ride it was embarrassing…compare that to how Whittingdale, Leave, (08:55) was treated…continually interrupted and abused in an aggressive manner…..Leave were accused of ‘masquerading as leftwingers’ in their concern for workers (never mind that the Church of England has just admitted it was wrong about Thatcher in the 80’s and that her policies were good for workers…not see the BBC make a song and a dance about that!) and that the things that Leave say they might do, such as spend more on the NHS, will never happen…ie they are lies suggests, speculates wildly, Nick Robinson. No bias there then.
Throughout this week whenever I’ve tuned in, and it must just be a coincidence, the BBC has been plugging the Remain campaign’s ‘issues’…whether its the EU health card for travellers (you probably automatically pay insurance anyway as part of your holiday cost and there is no good reason to cancel the EU arrangement on Brexit…it is unconnected to the ‘EU’ as such). Then we had warnings about the ‘EU’s law enforcement agency’…otherwise known, when not in EU referendum mode and bigging up the EU, as Europol…curious how the BBC decides to use that turn of phrase recently to describe Europol….and so many times.
This morning I heard the usual format in operation on ‘Wake up to money’ (34 mins) as the Remain spokesman was given a freeride to state his case, this was taken as the baseline correct version of how things are and it was up to the Leave person to counter that ‘truth’ with the BBC presenter butting in to argue against him…unlike the Remainer who was not interrupted or questioned in any way he might find inconvenient or displeasing.
We also heard that the EU was responsible for creating the success of the City…hmmm…again wasn’t that Thatcher and the ‘Big Bang’? Curious how the BBC flip-flops on history when it suits….Thatcher has always been the bête noir of the BBC for creating the ‘capitalist monster’ that is the City (Gordon Brown’s subsequent deregulation free for all ‘golden age’ that helped create the crash is always ignored by the BBC)…and now…not so…our jobs and prosperity depend upon the City and the EU is the cause of all that prosperity from the wonderful City.
When Wollaston jumped ship the BBC were constantly stating that Leave were claiming that the whole £350 million would be spent on the NHS and that they didn’t ever qualify their claim with acknowledgements about the rebate and EU spending…the BBC always, deliberately, misses the point on that…that it is us in the UK that should decide how to spend that money not bureaucrats in Brussels who also take their own huge cut.
Wollaston was clearly a Remain stooge…whether from the start or just persuaded to come over and time that betrayal to suit Remain you decide…but she had a script ready from No10 when she announced it…..it might have been Cameron speaking as she talked of being ‘safer in Europe‘, tick, that we get more back on research spending than we give (curiously a comment made by Cameron on PMQs just the day before) tick, that Brexit would mean world war…tick. I’m sure her 81 year old father, whom she claims sees the very real threat of ‘conflict in Europe’, would be ashamed of the daughter he spawned who exploits his name and betrays the democracy he served so long in the Forces to defend.
Wollaston was given, not unexpectedly, a very easy time and was barely challenged at all on her betrayal made all the more remarkable by the number of ‘concerns’ she suddenly has about Brexit and yet previously was ardently for …how can that be credible? The BBC didn’t delve too deep. I thought Montague was getting ready to tackle Wollaston and suggest she was a Remain plant…and indeed she suggested Wollaston was always a Remainer…oh hang on…she continues……‘But you didn’t think through the consequences early enough’….ah…silly girl….Remain is the default, obvious choice and Brexit has inevitable dangerous consequences…what were you thinking? The interview is here (08:37) No bias there then.
The BBC’s ‘Reality Checks’ and analysis of claims made by the two camps are laughable….Remain are hardly challenged at all on their numerous claims whilst Leave are forensically gone over. The BBC’s Kamal Ahmed is a perfect example as he examines, LOL, Remain’s economic claims.
When Steve Hilton suggested we should Brexit and that the EU made the UK ‘ungovernable’ and that the economic claims were so much guess work…’the bottom line on the economic argument is that no one really knows. It’s clearly ridiculous to claim that it’s settled in either direction; there are risks whatever we do. The real choice is not economic security or economic risk, but what kind of government will equip us best to cope with a risky, fast-changing world?’
Ahmed immediately produced a counter to Hilton’s piece claiming that the Treasury’s analysis was credible….
Political hubris to one side, the Treasury analysis can be set apart from the “he said, she said” tenor of much of the EU referendum debate. It is based on a well-understood and tested economic model.
It might be wrong, or the outcomes might be substantially different once real events take hold – as is true of all forecasts – but it is very much worth the paper it is written on.
The Treasury’s analysis is pure guess work and projected impossibly way into the future…but not for the BBC’s Kamal who just adores it…never mind the Treasury is Osborne’s domain and the Bank of England’s governor is his placeman.
Peter Allen yesterday was sure the NHS would collapse on a Brexit as the economy will tank. When it was suggested that the EU economy wasn’t working Allen claimed that it was the same for the whole world…curious how when Cameron claims it is the worries about Brexit that create uncertainty and a falling pound etc the BBC didn’t challenge that with the obvious point that America is also in exactly the same boat as us and they don’t have a referendum in the offing. The EU economy, Germany aside, is tanking….and it is to do with the single currency and the restrictions that places on countries limiting their possible actions to deal with problems.
Later we heard that the Leave crowd are more passionate in debates…why? Because they don’t care about the consequences of Brexit says Allen…it is all about emotion for them…whereas, Allen suggests, the Remainers are all pragmatic and can see the real problems that will be caused by Brexit. No bias there then.
Just a few examples of many that illustrate the slanted, pro-Remain ‘reporting’ from the BBC.
Must be nice to have not only the full resources of the government, and its friends in high places, on hand to support your campaign but also the massively resourced, influential and unprincipled BBC backing you as well.
