Trevor Phillips, in the Sunday Times (paywalled), tells us of the ‘stark warning of the passions that were being roused, even in this mild-mannered nation, by Britain’s growing ethnic and cultural frictions’.
He tells us that he came to the conclusion that ‘whilst beautiful in theory, in practise multiculturalism had become a racket, in which self-styled community leaders bargained for control over local authority funds that would prop up their own status and authority. Far from encouraging integration it had become in their interest to preserve the isolation of their ethnic groups.’
Phillips goes on to conclude that ‘If we are to tackle the problems of racial inequality and segregation, we at least have to name the problem…and we have to face the consequences of our mealy-mouthed approach to race….Britain’s lack of frankness is echoed in every major European country and it is fuelling a growth of angry, nativist political movements across the continent…..People need to feel free to say what they want without the fear of being accused of racism or bigotry.’
The BBC takes the opposite view…hence we get the abuses that happened in Rochdale where the Authorities looked away and were allowed to look away because organisations like the BBC, that are there to challenge the Authorities and ask awkward questions, also ducked the issue as too racially and culturally sensitive.
The same with immigration where all we hear is how wonderfully beneficial immigration is, the real truth, about the enormous pressures on housing, schools, the NHS, the legal system and so on, are glossed over and downplayed. The BBC doesn’t want to give you any information that would lead you to think immigration, whatever the numbers who come here, is anything but good for Britain.
Maybe one day the BBC will bring us the real news.
This all plays into another article in the Sunday Times, one by AA Gill in support of his friend Jeremy Clarkson.
Gill says that the BBC has ‘ruinously lost touch with its audience…having an arrant disregard for the viewers’.
Gill targets Danny Cohen as ‘a man of committed, right-on, social interventionist, politically precise principles.’
He says Cohen is ‘One of a cabal within the BBC who think broadcasting has a mission to guide, nudge and encourage society to be better….promoting a broadly homogenous, inclusive, positive, left-of-centre perspective on the world….and more importantly, expunge contrary or critical views….that the BBC has a duty to manipulate the country through information, education and enterrtainment.’
Gill goes on to say that the BBC has ‘Given up on making programmes for Top Gear’s audience…making programmes only for metropolitan types…wanting to dismiss Top Gear’s audience as UKIP voting dinosaurs.’
He says that the BBC ‘has to make programmes for all licence holders not simply the ones it approves of…if it cannot show that it is serving the nation as a whole then it should be a subscription service for those who want to watch it.’
I’m sure we’ve heard that all before somewhere.