Hard lines, Norman!

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

And, of course:

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: