Sunday 3 March 2019

Top trumps (update)



Just a follow-up to an earlier post (which you may have to quickly skim to catch-up on first!)...

Sonia Poulton went on to react to the BBC's statements about her 'bumping' from today's The Big Questions. She clearly believes that the BBC isn't being honest here:
  • BBC quote: 'We talk to lots of people about potentially appearing on the programme...' This was no 'potential'. They even forgot to cancel the cab they booked for me. He was left at Manchester Piccadilly. I hope they remembered to cancel the hotel room. 
  • Quote: "BBC sources denied that a researcher had claimed guests were bumped off the programme if other guests complained." I would be happy to have a public conversation with the researcher involved, I've nothing to hide. She confirmed it happens. 
  • When she first approached me to appear, we had a research chat lasting about 20/30 mins including the issue of people being wrongly called transphobic for being gender critical and I said to her about Dr Nicola Williams [Spokeswoman for Fair Play For Women] being removed for Rachel McKinnon [transgender cycling champion] on BBC Five Live.
  • And she said 'yes it happens because the other guest will refuse to appear'. And I said - very clearly to her - that it was wrong and that was why this debate was being shut down and not heard. And she agreed. That conversation happened.
  • TBC: I'm happy there's at least one GC speaker on the show today. I know what took place and so do the people involved. I believe I was cancelled because of a concern about what I may say re: transgender children's charity, Mermaids and its impact on children & free speech.
Here's a list of the named contributors to today's programme:
Rabbi JOSH LEVY, Assembly of Reform Rabbis UK
Rabbi DOVID LEWIS, South Manchester Synagogue
Rt Rev STEPHEN LOWE, Former Bishop of Hulme
ALISON RUOFF, Vice President, Church Society
JAYNE OZANNE, General Synod
TAIWO ADEWUYI, Discussjesus.com
CAROLINE FARROW, Catholic Universe
AMELIA LEE, The Proud Trust LGBT Youth
Rev DANIEL VALENTINE, Anglican priest & lawyer
ANGELA EPSTEIN, journalist
SHELAGH McNERNEY, Battle of Ideas 2018
ROWAN ELLIS, YouTuber
DAMIAN FLANAGAN, Author & critic
Dr DWAYNE RYAN MENEZES, Human Security Centre
RIDDI VISWANATHAN, Diversity Officer, Manchester University Students' Union
Were any of these people the ones who allegedly refused to participate if Ms Poulton or right-wing Australian Helen Dale were on? 

(P.S. I grinned that those old Sunday morning BBC One discussion programme staples Bishop Stephen Lowe and Angela Epstein were both on. Clearly no one's successfully no-platformed them yet on the BBC!)

(P.P.S. It was a bit odd that the first Big Question, "Do faiths need to adapt to survive?", featured Jews, Christians and Hindus but no Muslims. Islam didn't get a mention).

1 comment:

  1. Re the first Big Q. ‘Do faiths need to adapt to survive?’

    Even the BBC knows that asking Islam to adapt is a waste of time. Its inbuilt ‘no exit’ / ‘no adaptation’ / ‘no modernisation’ clause is like a kind of a superinjunction.

    There were more than enough bizarre views expressed on TBQs already without adding more shouty people.

    Oh the irony of having a debate on free speech if those ‘no-platform’ accounts were to be believed.

    ReplyDelete

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