Lauragate (Episode 329)

Oh my! 

Following on from yesterday's snappily-titled post Laura K sees the Winter Solstice light after the Christmas election I see that the bit where I wrote "The extreme wing of the Remain movement on Twitter is not at all happy with her. To put it mildly. (And many of them are not putting it mildly)" marked only the early stages of yet another Twitter onslaught against the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg.

Jolyon Maughan QC is quoting BBC editorial guidelines at her. Pascal Jacquemain is calling her a "Boris Johnson fan" and a "proud employee of the Brexit Broadcasting Conservatives". Dr Louise Raw is pulling rank, "I’m a historian, @bbclaurak. And I have bad news for you". Another historian, Daniel Edwards, is complaining, "What history will actually condemn is journalists who did away impartiality and thoroughness at a time when they were so desperately needed". Richard Corbett MEP is fuming, "No, @bbclaurak, history will vindicate those who: questioned the lies on which Brexit was based, recalled that Leave broke campaign rules, argued that the public shld not be denied a say on the actual outcome that is so different to what was promised". And, yes, plenty of them are linking to The Express.

It's got so bad that the BBC's very own Robocop has been activated:

Emma Burnell: I ’ve had my criticisms of Laura K over this election. But she definitely didn’t say what the Express are reporting. I listened to the segment on Brexitcast. I understood what she was saying and as a remain campaigner I think it was actually fair and useful if uncomfortable.
Rob Burley: Yep. Laura’s analysis was cut short and ripped out of context by the Express. They fade the audio away as she moves on to ”legitimate reasons” of those who campaigned for a second referendum. Utterly brazen. Bizarre for people who normally hate the Express to take it as gospel.

Well, the Express's transcript was pretty accurate and - unlike their audio - included the bit about "legitimate reasons" (as you can see from my post yesterday), plus you can check the Brexitcast  segment for yourselves - from 43m25s here. The Express said: 

BBC's Kuenssberg says history will question Remainers who tried to 'undo Brexit'. The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg took a rare swipe at Remainers and MPs who spent three years trying to "undo" Brexit as she warned them that history will question their attempts to overturn the referendum vote.

Look again at what Laura said (in a new, improved ITBB transcript). Is what the Express said wrong? 

From a historical point of view, when people look back at this period and they look at the extent of the Labour defeat, was it Corbyn or Brexit, or all the rest of it, I think - first draft of history and all that - I think that people will look back and think, "Hang on a minute - people voted for something in 2016 and then lots of people in the political establishment in Westminster spent a lot of time trying to undo that. [Incredulously] What?"

In the 2016 referendum campain politicians on both sides, including the then-Prime Minister, stood on platforms and said things like, 'If you vote this way, this will happen. There will be no going back, this is not a vote where you get to have a second opinion'. 

And, lo and behold, now, three years later, people are scratching their heads in the Labour Party, and saying 'oh, do you think maybe it was a bit of problem that we were trying to undo something that people voted for?' 

But there are obviously legitimate reasons, perfectly legitimate to campaign for another referendum, but I always felt, covering it as a story, it's like 'People voted for that. It’s not your job then to undo it!' 

 And she's still right.

No mea culpa from Katya

• 3/10 Katya Adler: "The chances of getting a deal now, between now and the EU leader's summit is zero, let's be honest."
• 10/10 Chris Mason: "Katya, you were saying, last week I think it was, I may not be quoting you entirely verbatim, but the essence of it was you thought that there was a vanishingly small likelihood of a deal...It's still vanishingly small."
• 10/10 Katy Adler: "It's not going to happen." 

So, on last night's Brexitcast, did Katya & Co. do the decent thing and admit that they got it wrong? 

Of course not. 

Tonight...

I can't wait for the mea culpas from Katya & Co:

Meanwhile….

BBC announces Brexitcast — the hit explainer Brexit podcast turned TV show — going live for the first time tonight at 11:35pm on BBC One.

— Mark Di Stefano 🤙🏻 (@MarkDiStef) October 17, 2019

Mystic Katya

Fans of useless BBC punditry may especially relish this exchange from last week's Brexitcast on BBC One:

Chris Mason: Katya, you were saying, last week I think it was, I may not be quoting you entirely verbatim, but the essence of it was you thought that there was a vanishingly small likelihood of a deal. And for all of the noise and the talk of, you know, the clouds and now, maybe, a little ray of sunshine, it is still vanishingly unlikely in the current timeframe, isn't it? I mean, I know it's important to keep the diplomatic channels open and keep talking and regardless of what happens there are going to have to be conversations between Dublin and London and all that, but getting a deal so the UK can leave by the end of October, which is three weeks today, and the ratification that's necessary for that and all the rest of it, still seems vanishingly small. 

Katya Adler: I think if Harrison the Brexit baby forgives me, we are really in a situation where nobody wants to be left holding the baby. Nobody wants to be the one that says it's not going to happen. But it's not going to happen. Maybe, maybe, there is a 0.0000-0.3% chance that it will happen.  

Chris Mason: It was 0.2 this morning!  

Katya Adler: But nobody, nobody, nobody wants to be the one to say it. 

So two of the BBC's very own top Brexit brains were repeatedly telling each other - and us - only last Thursday that "there was a vanishingly small likelihood of a deal", with Katya Adler going so far as to put a figure of 0.0-0.3% per cent on its likelihood.

Just one week later....

Indeed, on the previous week's episode Katya had said (to murmurs of agreement from the fellow BBC Brexitcasters):

The current proposals on the table are not acceptable to the EU, full stop. Let's be honest about that. The chances of getting a deal now, between now and the EU leader's summit is zero, let's be honest. 

Can Chris and Katya ever be taken seriously again?

P.S. Here's Laura Kuenssberg on 8 October's BBC One News at Six being slightly more cautious:

Politics has been strange in the last two years. Never say never. A deal is not completely and entirely off the table in time. But it seems vanishingly unlikely that we are actually going to get into that position with the time left. It is only a matter of days since the Prime Minister put his new proposals on the table in Brussels and quite clearly they are simply not changing hearts and minds and they are simply not on course to be able to get to a conclusion. 

...somehow...somehow...

Katya Adler, making a point

Talking of Brexitcast...

You may recall, earlier in the week, that The Spectator's James Forsyth received a long message from 'a contact' in Downing Street and that he general assumption is that the 'contact' is Dominic Cummings. 

One part of it read:

• We will make clear privately and publicly that countries which oppose delay will go the front of the queue for future cooperation — cooperation on things both within and outside EU competences. Those who support  delay will go to the bottom of the queue. Supporting delay will be seen by this government as hostile interference in domestic politics, and over half of the public will agree with us. 

This was the subject of one of last night's contributions from BBC Europe editor Katya Adler, who charactised the above as 'a rant' - though it doesn't read like one to me - before proceding to report what an EU diplomat had told her in response. Here, to my mind, she went beyond merely reporting what that diplomat said, instead, backed up his points with her own choice of language. See if you agree:

• But I'll tell you what doesn't go down very well in the EU is also feeling that they're being threatened. So the other anonymous briefing that came out, apart from the phone call between Boris Johnson and Angela Merkel, was basically what appeared to be a rant and the suspicion is that it was from Dominic Cummings, the special adviser to the Prime Minister, but it sounded very angry and it sounded very threatening like, you know, if it comes tasking the EU for an extension then somehow those EU countries that voted in favour of the extension, this anonymous briefing said, would somehow be punished by the UK. The EU reacts so badly to something like that because also what are you going to do to those individual countries? Rather than make them think "Oh, we must sign up to this deal". I mean, one diplomat put it to me, this deal as it stands, Boris Johnson's proposals, particularly this customs area that we're talking about, just does not work for the EU. So the threat that they should go for it, and also this implication after a general election it could be an even harder line Conservative Government that wouldn't even offer this proposal, so, you know, this diplomat was saying, "This doesn't work for us so why would we say yes to this in case there is something that works for us even less?"

Nocturnal Twitterings III

Aaron Bastani: Brexitcast is the worst political television the BBC has made. The idea that 4 people of same age, with same views, from the same circles re-hashing news when very little has actually happened - and in an ‘insidery’ political gossip way - is illustrative of BBC’s problems. 

Rob Burley: Getting close to a million viewers at 11:35pm. We'll wear your bad review Aaron. 

Aaron Bastani: It’s called a publicly funded monopoly Rob. The BBC has 70% of tv and radio news market. Well done!!! 

Seymour: And therein lies the problem Rob, the BBC should be far above chasing viewing figures. 

Rob Burley: The idea that a TV version of a podcast in which 4 people sit in a radio studio, wearing headphones chatting, is ratings chasing is pretty hilarious. But it does get good numbers because it's brilliantly produced and has four journos at the top of their game.

"I haven’t slept in fünfzehn jahren"

The Brexitcast cast

I must admit that I've never listened to the BBC's Brexitcast podcast but it apparently goes something like this: