How can you tell that the BBC is hopelessly biased? Sometimes, it is revealed only after the most minute scrutiny. Take this File on 4 investigation of the gross misappropriation of EU funds. The gist is that at least 1.2bn euros have gone down the chute on crooked accountancy and lunatic “development” projects; and a jaw-dropping tens of millions have gone straight into the hands of the local Mafia dons in a neatly carved-up wind-farm scam on Sicily that has operated since 1996 but is thriving still. The EU is acting virtually as their own special projects piggy bank. In a sense, I am amazed that anyone from the BBC has investigated this at all because they have hitherto shown virtually zero interest in the fact that EU accounts have not been properly signed off for donkey’s years.
But once you start looking at the transcript, it’s not so straightforward. Step forward Lib Dem MEP Bill Newton, who says:
The only way finally to stop it is to give Brussels the power from the member states to actually intervene and have teeth and be able to bite and to punish.
The will isn’t there because the member states don’t want to share sovereignty and Britain is one of the leading players in resisting sovereignty transfer in this area.
So let’s get this straight. The BBC investigates a massive EU fraud in which taxpayers’money is going into the hands of major criminals and the man chosen to commentate about the solution is a fanatical federalist (who used to be a Tory but crossed the floor because he was so pro-EU, h/t the specialone, below). That’s a bit like appointing a fox to head chicken-run security.
It’s true that there is also a significant contribution for Mats Persson, the head of Open Europe, a think tank which wants some EU powers re-patriated to the UK. But even then – as a very moderate euro-sceptic – he is not asked about solutions, only about the nature and scale of the problem. And that’s where the BBC bias really shows. Even though in poll after poll, the majority of the UK want serious hacking of the EU monster, the corporation and its hacks never give this perspective a proper voice, even when it’s an open goal. A programme that could easily have been a decent investigation of major fraud ends up as yet another platform for those who want a superstate.