New Year bubbles

Birds of a feather

As discussed on the Open Thread, the earth hath bubbles, as the water has. And these are of them...

Last night's Newsnight - the last of the year and, in its telling, also the last of the decade - perfectly encapsulates the BBC problem. 

On the very day that the British Parliament gave preliminary approval to the E.U. Withdrawal Plan so that we leave the EU on 31 January, Newsnight's discussion of it was stacked 2:1 in favour of Remain voters who remain deeply gloomy about Brexit - Jenni Russell and Sir Peter Westmacott - wtih only Conservative activist Shabnam Nasimi being positive about Brexit.

When Iain Dale wrote the other day, "When the BBC puts together panels for its shows, for example, it is rare they contain a majority of Brexiteers. Many is the time I have been outnumbered two or even three to one", Newsnight was doubtless a programme he had in mind. 

There was never any excuse for this kind of thing before the election and there's even less excuse for it now.

Similarly, if you are going to review the past decade and invite five people on to do so, any impartial broadcaster would seek a broad range of people with diverse and interesting views not, as Newsnight did last night, invite in five metropolitan, politically liberal-to-left people (Nihal, Emma Dabiri, Safraz Manzoor, Andrew Doyle and Ruth Pitt) .

It just proves the truth of the headline of that Iain Dale article: 'The BBC is trapped in a Remainer London bubble of its own making'. It needs popping.