On last night's BBC News at Ten, Huw Edwards could have introduced the Brexit segment like this:
The House of Commons has started to take a detailed look at the legislation designed to take Britain out of the European Union. The EU Withdrawal Bill will end the primacy of European law, but MPs have tabled some 500 amendments, including one which opposes setting a date in law for Britain's departure.
Instead he introduced it like this:
The House of Commons has started to take a detailed look at the controversial legislation designed to take Britain out of the European Union. The EU Withdrawal Bill will end the primacy of European law, but MPs have tabled some 500 amendments, including one which opposes setting a date in law for Britain's departure.
Not just Huw ... the R4 6pm News headlines also used the word controversial to describe the legislation. Beeb is at least consistently anti-Brexit!
ReplyDeleteIt would be controversial if they didn't use the word controversial. The guys at Cardiff Uni would immediately pick up on that - marking down the BBC as pro-Brexit as a result. :)
DeleteA search for controversial on the news site brings up President Trump and Spain's new football kit.
ReplyDeleteOn the main point how often is government legislation not controversial?
Good game...what else does the BBC consider "controversial" - well the Australian Government's policty of towards undocumented asylum seekers (taking them off to a remote island and processing them...er - seems to have been completely successful in stopping the flow). What a surprise! :) And the duly elected democratically elected government of Poland - they're controversial. So far I haven't see any reference to the Venezualan government's policies being "controversial" or the Chinese government's asylum seeker policy being "controversial".
DeleteOr they could have said "which is considered controversial by Keith Starmer, Anna Soubry, Dominic Grieve and all BBC staff past, present and future".
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the idea of that weasle being called Keith :-)
DeleteSorry - my mistake! Keir...as in Hardie
DeleteThis in complement I believe, to the ever impartial blonde bombshell Laura apparently 'analysing' Brexit still on the basis it can always be reversed.
ReplyDeleteIt's like the voices in BBC heads are only those of the BBC.
This is how the BBC operates. Just a word inserted here and there - seemingly innocuous. A journalist adds his own opinion (or rather BBC groupthink) to what should be a straightforward piece of reporting. It’s the amateur surreptitiousness of it that makes it so objectionable. What is it about BBC journalists that makes them come across like a bunch of stroppy six formers?
ReplyDeleteHang on ! A BILL to end the primacy of EU law in the UK, being passed through Parliament ! And this is NOT controversial !
ReplyDeleteWhere did madness come from ?
Surely we should have had a referendum or election or something before such legislation was considered ?