Sometimes, even as a blogger, you do wonder if you're in the wrong business.
I listened to this morning's paper review on Broadcasting House and heard left-wing comedian David Schneider going off on one over Nigel Farage, saying how his populism "frightens" him. The Conservative peer Patience Wheatcroft agreed that his appeal is "frightening" and the prospect of him getting 33% of the vote is "terrifying".
To his credit, Paddy O'Connell stepped in at this point, saying "But not to people who support him. I mean, the views aren't terrible. What's a terrifying view he's got?"
David Schneider chose Nigel Farage's citing of 70% of our laws being made in Brussels as such a "terrifying" view....
...at which point Paddy interrupted and challenged him again, asking "Is that terrifying?"
Now, Paddy didn't get into a debate with him here, or bring up Nick Clegg's "terrifying" use of that deeply dodgy 7% figure, but he did dissent from & question his guests' use of language here, and he certainly didn't give them free reign to attack UKIP.
Still, I could just have said that he did, couldn't I? Would you have even checked?
That thought crossed my mind because of this comment at Biased BBC:
Broadcasting house this morning, and ALL the guests, plus the reporter are ‘horrified’ that UKIP are so popular and that they might have some MPs elected at the next election.
The host gives them free reign to explain why they are ‘horrified’, and comes the reply – “well he said that 75% of laws are made in Brussels when they’re not”. Illustrating perfectly the ridiculous language being used by those who are personally terrified that someone with an opinion different to their left wing fascism might be elected.
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Incidentally, and moving away from the topic off BBC bias....
...the third guest, Dan Snow, historian son of former Newsnight host Peter Snow and regular BBC presenter [though not a BBC employee, so he's entitled to express his views openly], had a dig at Nigel Farage for going to the Pall Mall Reform Club immediately after TV debate, saying "He's such an outside, going to the Reform Club after the debate". (Oxford-educated Dan himself, of course, is a classic outsider, what with being married to Lady Edwina Grosvenor, the second daughter of the 6th Duke of Westminster and all.)
He ended the short discussion with this telling piece of faint praise for Nigel:
We choose our enemies carefully, and looking at France, looking at Greece, looking at the advance of certain extremists across Europe, I think we're fairly lucky to have Nigel Farage.
That Dan Snow describes himself as a "pro-European" isn't surprising. Will he be presenting the next BBC landmark history of Europe?
