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| Norman and friend |
Just following up a point from Monkey Brains on the Open Thread about how the BBC talks of "hardline Brexiteers" but very rarely of "hardline Remainers" ....
A survey of BBC Radio 4's output so far this month (using TV Eyes) reveals 23 uses of "hardline" in connection to groups of people and Brexit - and, yes, all of them refer to pro-Brexit people and none to anti-Brexit people.
The 23 uses here specifically refer to BBC reporters, presenters and newsreaders using the term themselves. It doesn't include non-BBC guests or quotes from newspapers. So it's all authentic BBC usage.
Here are the phrases used, and the number of times they've been used:
hardline Brexiteers - 12
hardline Tory Brexiteers - 3
hardline Eurosceptics - 2
hardline pro-Brexit members of Mrs May's Conservative party - 2
Mrs May's hardline Brexit critics - 1
hardline Leavers - 1
hardline Brexit supporters within the Conservative party - 1
Conservative hardline Eurosceptic Brexiteers - 1
hardline Remainers (and variants) - 0
As for the people using those phrases, one was Steve Richards, whilst presenting The Week at Westminster. He presents a BBC programme but isn't a BBC journalist, of course. The others, however, are. And here's their roll call:
Norman Smith - 9
John Pienaar- 5
Nick Robinson - 2
BBC newsreaders - 2
Justin Webb - 1
Razia Iqbal - 1
Luke Jones - 1
Paul Moss - 1
That Our Norm is the most hardline BBC journalist here doesn't surprise me one bit. He's always been a particularly hardline BBC hardliner when it comes to slinging labels around.
Update: With thanks to Peter, here's Terence Trent D'Arby's famed 1980s album in its latest re-issue:
Update: With thanks to Peter, here's Terence Trent D'Arby's famed 1980s album in its latest re-issue:
