Saturday 20 May 2017

If only everything was black-and-white



I was listening to Today this morning and, after marvelling at the absolutely masterly way that the Rev. Woy Jenkins pivoted his TFTD talk from being about Chelsea Manning to being about God, heard Justin Webb talking to two former Tory advisors, Danny Kruger and Philip Blond, about Mrs May's brand of Toryism. 

It was pleasant - if you like that kind of thing. 

And, of course, some do, and some most definitely don't. 

The social media reaction to this Tory/Tory discussion consisted of masses of lefties moaning about it being "BBC propaganda" or "a Tory lovefest" or "a studio-wide Tory Party love-in" or "a political broadcast on behalf of Theresa May", etc, etc, whilst righties (in far smaller numbers) have tended to voice their pleasantly-surprised approval, with one regular BBC critic on another blog describing it as "remarkable" and "fascinating" and "reasonably moderated by Justin Webb".

Such responses do make me worry about my own confirmation bias. Do I sometimes react like that too? 

The Corbynistas were also furious at Today for featuring Labour's John Woodcock, the Trident-supporting, Jeremy Corbyn-disliking MP for Barrow-in-Furness (who I could wave to across Morecambe Bay). Mr Woodcock said Labour wouldn't win. 'BBC bias!', they cried.


Well, I'm going to cry 'BBC bias!' at Mishal Husain for her handling of the closing political discussion between a right-winger, a left-winger and a cross-bench peer. That guest selection might sound balanced but, as most of the discussion focused on Brexit and immigration, and two of the guests were Remainers and strongly pro-mass immigration while only one was a Leaver and in favour of controlled immigration, it should have been Mishal's job to either even up the numbers (devil's advocate-wise) or to stay completely out of it. Instead, she kept interrupting and questioning the one pro-Brexit, right-wing controlled immigration supporter from the stance of his two 'opponents'. It made Mishal sound like a Remain partisan and a pro-mass immigration hack rather than an impartial BBC broadcaster. 

Still, if there's one person 'people hereabouts' wouldn't expect to be given a lengthy, unhostile interview on the problems posed by mass Muslim immigration into Europe, it's Ayaan Hirsi Ali - and yet there she was this morning on Today. And a very interesting interview it was too, conducted "reasonably" by Justin Webb.

3 comments:

  1. Mrs. May's brand of Toryism is being a Social Democrat. No wonder the flag-level Beeboids are eager to see what she does.

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  2. Mr Blair didn't like the Labour party but he knew that if he kept the name and changed the policies the traditional supporters would still vote for him.
    Mrs. May doesn't like 'the nasty party' but she knows that if she keeps the name the traditional supporters will still vote for her.
    Don't be surpised if we keep the EU rules, keep paying the bills but have the 'freedom' not to have a vote in the EU. One can see The Simpsons' Mr. Burns rubbing his hands: "Excellent!"

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  3. The beauty of democracy is that we can ditch these bastards if they don't do what we have asked. If Treeza doesn't deliver on Leaving the dreadful EU, we will ditch her and replace her with someone who will.

    ReplyDelete

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