Now this was one heck of a question from Emily Maitlis last night. I never thought I'd hear a BBC reporter ask something like this, but we are where we are now and here it is:
I'm going to say something really unpopular, which is that we keep on talking about, you know, the problem with democracy and the problem with the deficit, but at what point you to say, actually, democracy is not as important as the future economy and stability and prosperity of the country right now?
The Guardian's Afua Hirsch had been making the point that though she'd personally love a second referendum and to reverse the outcome of the 2016 vote but that "there are real democratic problems with that", and that's when Emily interrupted and asked that question.
It took my breath away. And it took other people's breath away too:
The sheer ignorance. We have a mountain to climb. pic.twitter.com/eFhFF2sFes— Midnight Moses (@robittybobnob) November 16, 2018
As you say, where d'you start? When Paxman said he had no regrets about leaving Newsnight because it was staffed mainly by children, he must have been thinking about people like our Em. I suppose we have to bear in mind that these people are mainly motivated by financial gain, so little things like democracy are mere frills. God help us!
ReplyDeleteHave to say, even for the BBC, my gob has seldom been quite so smacked.
ReplyDeleteSounds like she has taken Guy Verhofstadt's broadcasts well and truly to heart.
I wonder just how many dictators in the history of the last hundred years have made that very point?
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised. It's in the air. I pointed out on a recent thread that the Now Show, supposedly a bien pensant comedy show, had a "comedian" on a couple of weeks ago whose routine was based on "isn't democracy crap" because it keeps producing the wrong answers. That was followed on the next week by someone arguing against free speech.
ReplyDeleteThat the low IQ* Emily should make the same point about democracy doesn't surprise me at all.
The anti-democracy really took flight with the attempted coup, the attempt to stop Trump's inauguration. Remember, the FBI were involved in that.
This is serious stuff.
[* She did a good impression of someone in command of her brief for a while, but there have been too many howlers to take her seriously.]
On a frivolous note, there have been occasions when she's been barely in command of her 'briefs' - like the time she was flown out to Washington to interview Anthony Scaramucci, Trump's short-lived White House Director of Communications. See YouTube 11".24' Emily Maitlis Anthony Scaramucci. Her body language is fascinating!
DeletePS It's had 3/4 million views - probably by BBC staff.
DeleteI remember it well. Where was her "me tooism" as he inappropriately touched her?
Delete