In the line of duty I watched another BBC 3 programme in the series about Racist Britain. This episode starred what appeared to be a two-man operation called Britain First.
At first glance it looked more EDL than EDL and more BNP than BNP, but maybe that impression was misleading. The Union Jacks and the sinister white crosses they brandished at rallies didn’t help. It wasn’t a good look, that’s for sure. Many of the crowd that turned up at their marches and rallies sported a variety of shaven headed fashions and looked about 14 years old.
Jayda and Paul were masters of social media, filming their every move and sticking it up on YouTube faster than you could say Tommy Robinson.
As we got to know them, they seemed more intelligent and a little more plausible. Well, Jayda did, Paul not so much.
Jayda insisted that Britain First was not a racist organisation, she said its remit was solely to oppose the ‘Islamization’ of the country. “We want our country back” Not particularly convincing I'd say.
The nature of the crowd that supported them as well as the dubious way they went about their business amounted to not a very nice whole.
Jayda had ‘issues’ - with historic abuse, about which she did not wish to elaborate. She had left home at 14, and lived in a terrible hostel. Admirably and against the odds she managed to acquire a law degree.
At this point I have to mention that the couple suddenly pulled out of the show. They withdrew. The press said they did so because they feared they would be unfairly represented, and I can’t help wondering why it took them so long to figure this out. They must have known they would be unfairly represented from the outset. Even before the outset.
Anyway, the presenter, a young man named Miles Blayden Ryall with an agenda and a bun for a hairstyle interspersed his narrative with explicitly derogatory value judgements, the like of which, had the political scenario been any different, the BBC would declare indefensible.
The way the presenter whined and disparaged his subject was unprofessional and counter-productive. Towards the end of the show, he turned up unannounced with his cameras and was turned away by Britain First minders. Then he demanded freedom to ‘do what he liked in his own country’ with a petulance that had me rooting for Jayda.
Yet another series trying to intimidate the public and whip up anti-racism hysteria. I'm sure it's purely a coincidence that this is being run during the party conference season. Agenda? What agenda?
ReplyDeleteI hadn't read your review when I wrote this (which also covers the other racism programme reviewed here recently)
ReplyDeletehttp://hurryupharry.org/2015/10/08/racism-in-the-uk/
but I reached similar conclusions about the presenter.
Sarah, I did read your piece and I was pleased that your take on it was quite similar to mine.
DeleteI did restrain myself from writing much more on the topic.
I think I decided 'the less said the better’.
What a dreadful programme it was and what a missed opportunity. The programme was made by Miles Blayden Ryall. He is another identikit public school metro liberal. These are the types that nowadays dominate the politics and media and feed us the "narrative" that we are supposed to believe.
ReplyDeleteThe opportunity that was missed was to explore exactly why EDL existed and why, if they were "racists" their sole target was Islam and Islamification of the UK. And also Islam isn't a race, a fact which seemed to be lost on Miles Blayden Ryall.
The high point was to show the extraordinary bravery of Jayda confronting the Muslim taxi drivers who are refusing to install child protection cameras in their taxis.
The low, of which there were many (and all down to Miles Blayden Ryall), was to state the EDL march descended in to violence, accompanied by footage of the violence. But what we were shown was some slow motion flag waving! Laughably inane for a supposedly factual documentary.
It was possibly the worst non-fiction programme I've seen in a decade. and this wasn't a YouTube made by kids feature. It was a full BBC3 production broadcast nationally!
Yes I did think it was a very bad programme. I know it sounds a bit odd, but the part that really, really annoyed me was the protracted shot of the telephone as Miles B-R unsuccessfully attempted to speak to Britain First, obviously designed to implant, in visual terms, the emotive message that they weren’t going to pick up.
DeleteIt’s that sort of clunking, cliched cheap cinematographic trick that’s a sure sign of ‘the agenda’
The BBC`s political Q&A`s program Question Time has the most left wing audience of any political program I have ever watched ... Where do they pick these people from because they do not represent any person i have ever meet living or dead ... The problem with my country England is there are way too many left wing do-gooders , who have no idea what the majority of the country wants and really don't care... I feel like stopping paying my TV licence and when i go to court my mitigation would be that the BBC is a left wing propaganda machine and i refuse to pay for persuasive advertising . If i wanted that i would watch a commercial channel ........
ReplyDeleteI have sent several messages to Blayden-Ryall offering him the opportunity to explain this biased and contrived hatchet job on Britain First but so far he refuses to reply.
ReplyDeleteHe is probably under the control of his Communist bosses at the Beeb. Anybody remember the days when the BBC was a decent honest and respected source of unbiased factual reporting. Now it is run by a bunch of snivelling Lefties.