Though she's doubtless being singled out by the papers for special unfavourable attention at the moment (especially given that lots of other MPs will also have received pots of money from the BBC over the years), the Daily Mail's investigation into Diane Abbott's monetary dealings with the BBC is still quite eye-opening. (The Express and the Sun later 'lifted' the Mail's scoop).
It gives us another insight into how things work between the BBC and politicians.
Until becoming shadow home secretary (when the BBC stopped paying her), the car-crash-prone Labour MP received £700 for every appearance on This Week and, in total (as the Sun puts it), "raked in a whopping £110,000 of licence fee payers’ money for appearing on the BBC" (since 2003, it seems).
'£110,000 of licence fee payers’ money for appearing on the BBC' ... Are similar amounts directed towards politicians of a different political hue? Can the BBC demonstrate 'balance' in this matter?
ReplyDeleteShe's not worthy of a penny. The fact that such an idiot is also a serving MP, having been returned several times, doesn't say much for the Great British public's judgement either.
ReplyDelete"£700 for every appearance on This Week" ... I've often thought that the financial management at the BBC is likely very loose. Would Diane not appear for £500 or £200? Or even for free as she's already funded by us to be an MP. Have the BBC asked?
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's deliberately loose to fund "BBC friendly" voices. All those Guardianistas on Newsnight, or feminists on Women's Hour, sometimes 4 of them to agree entirely with each other on the same point.
I'd also like to see the individual expenses published for all those trips to the USA for the Presidential elections and around Europe for the EU referendum, French election etc.
I'd also like to see some analysis of post duplication. The BBC appears to have a North American correspondent and a US State Dept correspondent...but also any number of other roving world affairs and international correspondents who go over there and chip in.
DeleteMeanwhile in other parts of the globe the BBC seems to rely on highly partisan local correspondents with often incomprehensible accents (who are obviously hostages to fortune when it comes to political pressure from their compatriots and the oppressive governments they live under).
Is payment made on the condition that the politician remains on-message?
ReplyDeleteJust in case you had any doubt that More or Less is pushing a pro-mass immigration agenda.
ReplyDeletehttp://timharford.com/2017/05/why-we-should-be-grateful-to-immigrants/
Our Tim simply cannot conceive of economic arguments against mass immigration as it's actually happening in Europe (not as it might be happening in his imagination).
(Thanks to StewGreen for linking to this on Biased BBC).
Imagine how much money all those Leftie comedians have raked in over the years. It must be tens of millions.
ReplyDelete