The Guardian's report on President Macron's visit to Calais goes begins:
Emmanuel Macron has vowed there would never be another large refugee camp in Calais and warned those people remaining in the area who hope to reach Britain that they were at a “dead end”.
The French president also accused certain organisations of lying about police brutality and encouraging people to remain in Calais and attempt the crossing to the United Kingdom.
The Telegraph's report on the same story begins:
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, vowed there would be no return of the so-called "jungle" migrant camp in Calais on Tuesday, as he urged Theresa May to take on greater responsibility for the refugee crisis.
Speaking in an aircraft hangar in Calais, Mr Macron said: "In no case will we allow another jungle here . . . all is being done so that the illegal passage [from Calais to Dover] is not possible."
He also attacked "certain organisations" for spreading "lies" - referring to volunteers and charities accused of encouraging migrants to enter Britain illegally, and of fabricating claims of police brutality against them.
Such groups were "far too great in number" and were "harmful to our collective effectiveness," Mr Macron said.
The Times (online) tonight includes the following lead headline:
The striking thing when you read the BBC's report on the story is that M. Macron's sharply critical comments about those NGOs, activists and charity workers - groups and individuals who have featured so often, so sympathetically and so uncritically in BBC programmes and reports over the years advancing the migrants' cause - criticisms which both the Guardian and the Telegraph and The Times make central to their reports, are simply not being reported by the BBC News website.
The striking thing when you read the BBC's report on the story is that M. Macron's sharply critical comments about those NGOs, activists and charity workers - groups and individuals who have featured so often, so sympathetically and so uncritically in BBC programmes and reports over the years advancing the migrants' cause - criticisms which both the Guardian and the Telegraph and The Times make central to their reports, are simply not being reported by the BBC News website.
Why is the BBC failing to report these criticisms, when even the Guardian thinks they are an important part of what President Macron said today?
The BBC is outdoing the Guardian here - and not for the first time.
Now, it might have been possible to just dismiss this as sloppy reporting on the BBC's part were it not for the fact that, to make matters even worse, the BBC report does (repeatedly) note the criticisms made by such of people against President Macron for being too "hard line" on immigration!
Now, it might have been possible to just dismiss this as sloppy reporting on the BBC's part were it not for the fact that, to make matters even worse, the BBC report does (repeatedly) note the criticisms made by such of people against President Macron for being too "hard line" on immigration!
That suggests outright bias to me - and something approaching activism.
The BBC's bias on issues like this is blinding it to the need to report things in full and without spin. (Nothing new there of course).
The BBC is a no-borders pro-mass immigration propaganda lobby outfit. This is partly because it has worked assiduously to promote people from migrant backgrounds over those from non-migrant backgrounds within its organisation...so now it is hardly surprising that the organisation itself is rabidly pro-migration and against migration control. They also have a bit of a problem with Macron - can't decide if they love him or hate him since Trump's infamous (as they would consider it) visit to France.
ReplyDeleteWe could do with a 'troll'. I'd love to hear someone try to defend this (other than those trained wafflers at BBC Complaints).
DeleteWhy doesn't our government have anything to say to the BBC about this? Because Blair begat Cameron, Cameron begat May and May begat Rudd - and they don't have a single vertebra between them.
ReplyDeleteQuite. I was saying the very same thing to the wife this evening. The PM, Foreign Secretary, Brexit Minister all seem to have gone AWOL. In particular May should be making absolutely clear that it is outrageous if the French are admitting that they know there are child migrants living in the open countryside in France and they are doing nothing about it, not taking them into care...could that be true? And why aren't our government making clear we will, as a matter of urgent protection of our own children, in future undertake a range of medical age checks on migrants claiming to be children. Furthermore, our government needs to make clear all future asylum seekers or illegal migrants will be taken for processing off the UK mainland, probably somewhere like St Helena in the Atlantic - that will be the end of migrants gathering in Calais. Fat chance of that though.
DeleteThe Australian solution would certainly get my vote but, as you say, dream on! What May could do is find out which of the charities Macron mentions are British & strip them of their charitable status - it might not stop them but it would, at least, cramp their style.
DeleteI mean it might not stop the individual members.
DeleteIf Norwegians were camping ouside Liverpool docks hoping to sneek a passage to the USA would that be the USA's problem?
ReplyDeleteI fail to see why the EU/France's failure/unwillingness to control its own borders is for the UK to provide a solution.
Just two of the questions that the BBC will never ask.
Quite. It's blindingly obvious as far as I and I expect the majority of UK residents who haven't yet had their brains turned into mush by the BBC and the rest of the MSM are concerned.
DeleteI've got a caption for that photo of Macron: "Bring me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses, and I will forward them on to Kent."
ReplyDelete