Right standing.

If you have the time, please take a listen to Generation Right (Radio 4, 8.00pm). 

I expected the worst (and said as much), but I'll now happily eat my words. This was an absolute pleasure to listen to from start to finish, fascinating and - especially gratifying - scrupulously fair too.

All credit then to the BBC's Declan Harvey [who I bashed the other day for an injudicious anti-UKIP tweet], Vicky Spratt and Lewis Goodall for making such a fabulous, unbiased programme. It can be done. 

Generation Right explored and gave voice to the political views of 'Generation Y' - i.e. today's under-30s - and to their supporters and critics. 

It found that they are, generally-speaking, right-wing on economic matters and liberal on social issues. They believe in individual freedom and personal responsibility, and are noticeably less starry-eyed about the NHS and the Welfare State, especially as regards benefits spending, than earlier generations. They aren't inclined to believe in left-wing concepts like redistribution either.

Polling evidence suggests that this rightward drift is general across the UK population but that Generation Y is leading the trend. 

We heard from many of these sensible young right-leaning people in the course of the programme. We also heard from one unhappy young Labour activist, standing out gamely against the right-turning tide. Plus we heard the Spectator's Fraser Nelson and Toby Young rejoicing in the good sense of Generation Y and (garlic at the ready!) Yasmin Alibhai-Brown moaning that they are "a frightfully spoiled generation" (and, deliciously, being confronted with a couple of young women who didn't reckon much to her whinging about them!). Could we ask for anything more from the BBC?

Now, it's very clear that this right-wing trend among young people doesn't mean that they are automatically going to be Conservative voters. Their mix of views is not being bet by any of the main parties, and the Conservatives remain more unfashionable than Labour - even after Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband. Still, the programme argued, the message of Generation Right is a far more worrying one for the British Left than for the British Right. [UKIP, take note!]

Despite the exemplary mix of opinions on Generation Right and the admirably unbiased presentation of the programme's findings by its presenter and producers, the left-wing part of the Twittersphere are going mad tonight about its findings. They are not happy and some are reaching for the pills.

Well, to quote a voice from Generation X, 'Ha, ha!'

Update: A right-wing Generation Y-er responds to Yasmin Alibhai-Brown here.

Further Update: For a very different take on his programme please read Kenneth at Biased BBC.

He says this programme "oozed with alarm and worry" over the findings and was far from impartial. He claims Generation Right promoted the idea that Generation Y are self-centred and that the BBC used the programme to say that Generation Y's rightwards leanings are a bad thing. 

"Forget about Romanians, I wouldn't want to live next door to this #UKIP women"

Alan at Biased BBC has spotted an upcoming programme on Radio 4 [next Monday, 8.00pm] called Generation Right. The blurb trailing the programme reads:

It's a commonplace thought that the young start their lives as idealistic left-wingers, only to become more conservative with age. But are today's twenty-somethings going to debunk that as a myth? Extensive polling shows that in many respects, young people now are to the political right of their parents and grandparents when they were young. Their attitudes often appear characterised by a suspicion of collectivism and a greater scepticism towards the state.
This programme explores the reasons for this generational shift and its implications. It looks at the possible suggested causes, from the impact of policies which have reduced the level of support young people receive from the state, media coverage of the benefits system, the general decline in collectivist norms since the late 1970s, the rise of the consumer culture, to the role of social media which put the life and social interactions of the individual at the centre of everything.
Declan Harvey, a reporter on Newsbeat, and a team of young journalists examine the implications and ask what it might mean for the welfare state and the political landscape in the future.

Alan says that this reads as if the programme makers seen the the apparent generational rightwards shift as a bad thing - and the loaded language of the second paragraph certainly suggests that.

Still, we've not heard the programme yet, so is Alan premature to say...?:

In all seriousness the BBC has completely lost the plot.  This is a highly political programme that insults, denigrates and maligns those with right wing views, treating them as if they are a problem.

What editor thought this might be a good idea in the run up to an election to be pumping out what amounts to left wing propaganda berating these young people for not taking the same line as the sanctimonious and self-righteous worthies of the BBC?

Well, I suppose that depends on "Declan Harvey, a reporter on Newsbeat" and his team of young journalists.

Talking about Declan, he's on Twitter (surprise, surprise!). He was watching BBC One's Question Time on 29 May - the one featuring Tory David Willetts, Labour's Margaret Curran, UKIP's  Louise Bours and Piers Morgan, and felt impelled to tweet this:

Forget about Romanians, I wouldn't want to live next door to this #UKIP women. #bbcqt
— Declan Harvey (@NewsDeclan) May 29, 2014

I think Alan could be right after all.