Saturday 2 July 2016

5-0 on 'Today'


Baroness, etc

Except for a few minutes whilst driving to work, I've not heard much of Today recently. So I don't know if their post-June Brexit coverage has been good, bad or indifferent. 

I decided to check today's edition though to test the waters, and have to say that I wasn't remotely reassured by what I heard. 

At around 7.18 Tim Farron of the Lib Dem's gave a Remainer's point of view on today's pro-EU march. He discussed various ways (political, constitutional, legal) to reverse the Leave vote. (He spoke with very little interruption).

At around 7.50 two lawyers - Labour's Baroness Helena Kennedy and former government lawyer Carl Gardner - discussed the legal issues around Brexit and agreed that Article 50 isn't a guillotine. If the UK government and all the other EU governments agreed to stop it after it had been triggered then the UK could remain in the EU. Baroness Helena Kennedy ending by hoping we'll "step back" from leaving. Both Baroness Helena Kennedy and Carl Gardner are strongly pro-Remain. 

Then at around 8.30 two economists - Sir John Gieve and Labour advisor Anastasia Nesvetailova - talked austerity and Brexit. They both sounded a gloomy note on the economic effects of Brexit. They are also both strong Remain supporters.

Five ardent Remainers and no Leavers then, all steering the debate in one direction - three of them steering us towards (somehow) either staying in or quickly rejoining the EU.

That really is quite something, isn't it?

Of course, we weren't told that most of these people are strong opponents of Brexit - though listeners ought to have been able to work that out from what they actually said. I had to Google most of their names to find out if their strong anti-Brexit views are publicly-known - and, yes, they are (so Today should have known that too).

2 comments:

  1. Not even a BBC 'split'. They are getting cocky.

    ReplyDelete
  2. All of the presenters and producers should be sacked, and then taken on again only if they signed a notice of neutrality.

    ReplyDelete

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