The news that Chris Mason is to the next permanent presenter of Any Questions? has gone down pretty well.
Understandably so. He's a likable chap.
[Chris Mason] is a mildly irreverent, self-deprecating and congenial character, as well as being an experienced and highly competent political broadcaster. However . . . Yorkshire-born Mason has a peely-wally complexion and white privilege enabled him to attend a high-performing grammar school followed by Cambridge University. For the past 39 years Mason’s preferred pronouns have been he/his/him and this unapologetic patriarch appears unwilling to join the inordinate number of BBC employees who identify as transgender. The cisgender man is married – but to a woman, for heaven’s sake!
Yet despite ticking none of the Corporation’s crucial boxes, somehow Chris Mason has landed the prestigious role as host of Any Questions? How on earth did the BBC’s diversity auditors approve the appointment of this white-privileged, heteronormative man?
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Yes, how indeed? Probably because, when all's said and done, despite or perhaps because of the good-humoured persona, he has being doing sterling service on the Remain Front, helping the BBC in persuading ordinary folk to believe that there will be mass chaos and misery in event of no deal, that the so called "second referendum" is an acceptable policy option, and that Boris is an inveterate liar (unlike all those honest politicians of principle like Soubry, Grieve, Starmer, Thornberry, Swinson and the rest).
ReplyDeleteI used to confuse him with Chris Morris, whom no one can accuse of being cuddly and likeable, but essentially that was because there wasn't any difference in their message.
The answer to Gary Oliver must be that he's the token appointee. There must be the occasional one, even at the BBC.
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