A date for your diaries
Courtesy of the BBC Media Centre:
BBC Radio 4 marks a year out from Brexit
On 29 March, with one year to go until Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union, Radio 4 will broadcast a number of specialist programmes under the theme Britain at the crossroads.
This day of programming will go beyond the detail of the negotiations, and the drama of Westminster politics, to explore Britain’s future role and place in the world - and that of our European neighbours.
Gwyneth Williams, Controller of Radio 4, says: “A year before Britain is due to leave the European Union we want to consider what this moment might mean in the broadest terms. We have reshaped our schedule and, drawing on Radio 4’s flagship news programmes with analysis from our current affairs and documentary teams, we will attempt to assess its significance in terms of culture, politics, history and economics.”
The Today programme will start the day by co-presenting from a factory in the North East and will feature reporting and interviews from the around the UK. Following this at 9am a lengthened episode of The Long View will consider moments in history when Britons faced a new and uncertain future after a break from the established order. At 9.45am the fourth episode of The Channel - a series of five essays running throughout the week - explores the waterway that both links Britain to, and separates it from, Europe. Contributors to The Channel across the week are Professor Sanjeev Gupta, Professor Dominic Rainsford, writer Alba Arikha, historian Dr Renaud Morieux and journalist Christine Finn.
An extended edition of World At One, presented by Martha Kearney, will consider Britain’s post-Brexit place in the global order; our role, our values and our alliances. In addition, the programme will be launching a new 12-part series called Brexit: A Love Story? Each episode will look at one event during the UK's membership of the EU, retelling the story of a fascinating and complex relationship - and asking whether the tensions and contradictions which ultimately led the UK to choose to leave the EU were evident from the beginning.
At 4.30pm is The Brexit Lab, where Iain Martin talks to policy-makers, experts and campaigners about the ideas which could come to fruition after 29 March 2019 - both in the short and long term. From the way we work to the environment, he asks how we could do things differently if the UK is no longer bound by EU rules, and asks how much appetite is there for new ideas across the political spectrum.
At 8pm is The EU After Brexit, where Radio 4’s Bottom Line and Briefing Room combine in a special hour-long programme to look at the future of an EU without Britain. Evan Davis meets Jean-Claude Trichet - formerly president of the European Central Bank- and is joined by a panel of business leaders from across the EU. David Aaronovitch will look at the EU’s political future - asking what a more deeply integrated bloc on its doorstep means for the UK.
Ending the day is The World Tonight. Over the next year The World Tonight is following four very different businesses as they prepare for Brexit and the opportunities and problems that it will pose. On 29 March Paul Moss will introduce listeners to the four firms that we’ll be hearing from at regular intervals across this critical year.
... 'On 29 March, with one year to go until Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union, Radio 4 will broadcast a number of specialist programmes under the theme Britain at the crossroads'....
ReplyDeleteThis opening paragraph from the BBC sums up their reluctance to see beyond the process of leaving. We are left with the impression that even now, they hold onto the hope that a rabbit can be drawn from the hat and the result of the 2016 Referendum can be overturned, and we can stay under the comfort blanket of the EU. ... 'scheduled to leave'... No. We are leaving.
And, .. 'Britain at the crossroads'? ... Surely, 'Britain at the crossroads' should have been the phrase used as we entered campaign stages for the referendum, not as we finalise the terms upon which we leave.
“A year before Britain is due to leave the European Union we want to give the Remain campaign one last push in the, albeit increasingly faint, hope that we can still stop Brexit. We will not consider what this moment might mean in the broadest terms. We will just rehearse all the anxiety-provoking stuff we've been highlighting ever since the vote. We have reshaped our schedule and, drawing on Radio 4’s flagship news programmes with analysis from our current affairs and documentary teams, especially biased Chris Morris from the BBC Reality Tweak team, we will attempt one more time to scare the living daylights out of the listener whether their main interest is culture, politics, history and economics. Lastly, the Archers will have a special Brexit Plus One featuring life in Ambridge one year after Brexit. This will include distressing scenes of cattle lying dead in the fields, faithful old sheepdogs being shot, the Grundies starving to death, and violent racist regretters from the big city invading the village in search of food and victims for their bloodlust. George Osborne and Mark Carney will be the special script advisors for that programme to ensure balance.”
ReplyDeleteIn this, as so much else, it astounds me how easily responsibility is concealed and accountability made non existent.
ReplyDeleteEveryone by now knows that almost all politicians are either dumb or venal or both, and the current crop simply another set of beauties on top thanks to quotas.
But they come, make their mint, and go. A few linger on like a dag, if the BBC finds them useful to bring on to pontificate about something the BBC holds as dear as they do.
What used to make this less of a problem was the commitment and competencies of the civil service in making this country great despite these clowns.
But what we have now are vast numbers, in layer after layer, of PC, SJW and/or common purpose numpties in the military, health, police, etc, all raking in a fortune to actually make what starts bad even worse.
And all secure in the knowledge that no matter how badly they foul up, the taxpayer will foot the bill and their careers and pensions will not be dented.
Dick, Shoesmith, just about every Brexit-related Mandarin, anyone connected with Rotherham or Telford, the security services 'handling' high likelihoods... all promoted way beyond competency, all inflicting vast hurt on persons and country... and all set to see out their twilight days after early retirement with pensions that can only go up as well as up.