Scenes from this morning's 'Andrew Marr Show'

INTRODUCTION 

Andrew Marr: The Government, we are told, thinks the British public is misbehaving - we aren't doing enough to stop this second wave. Well, if that's true, apart from shouting louder, what more can ministers now do? Derbyshire Police have been collaring walkers carrying cups of peppermint tea in their hands. But to impose tougher measures across the country now, when everybody is already so fed up - well, that could be a risky step. And anyway, isn't this disobedience partly the result of months of mixed messages from ministers? 

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PAPER REVIEW

Andrew Marr: Meanwhile, Twitter has snipped [Donald Trump] off, and others are also coming off Twitter this morning we see from the front pages. 

Alison Phillips. editor, Daily Mirror: Yes, Trump will be coming off. He has been banned from Twitter. He is looking at alternative social media platforms. But the reality is none of those will have the impact that Twitter has. I think it is an interesting thing that him, and today we have also got Harry and Meghan saying they're also coming off Twitter. It's interesting. You've got two sorts of people, Trump and the Sussexes, who have both railed against mainstream media, and now they are finding that social media is not a very nice place for them. Maybe they were better with the mainstream media anyway? Although there's that sense that they cannot control it in the same way. 

Andrew Marr: Instead. Coming off Twitter is the new thing, Alex. Of course, a lot of people are trying to work out with all these social media platforms what they get back from them as well as what they put on. What are they getting back from it? It's very interesting that Harry and Meghan now feel they can conduct themselves as a kind of global brand, while ignoring these huge media platforms.

Alex Forsyth, BBC: Well, I have some sympathy with those views. We have all had our problems with social media in the past. What is interesting about this story, as you say, and exactly as Alison, the point made: Some people have turned away from the mainstream media because they didn't feel like it did them any favours and have encountered social media being equally unforgiving. We all know that social media, when it came to the Trump presidency, had a very specific role to play. The decision by Twitter today has opened up a whole debate around free speech and whether that was the right decision or not. But it does seems that some of the shine of social media has come off for quite a lot of people. 

Andrew Marr: Well, can I just say in relation to the mainstream media that the papers  are crammed with really interesting stories today. If you possibly can, either physically or online, read and buy a newspaper. And with that, so to the weather...

[ed -The mainstream media is evidently feeling very pleased with itself this weekend!]

First thoughts from the BBC

Just for the record, I thought I'd transcribe how Boris's remarks about the BBC licence fee were reported on the BBC News Channel this afternoon. The BBC's Alex Forsyth was the report given the task of extemporising off-the-cuff responses (to coin a phrase). Note the little touches of editorialising along the way:

2.25 pm

Well, this is a campaign which so far, from the Conservative perspective in particular, has been very tightly controlled, because they entered this campaign thinking that they were the frontrunners to win it and they didn't want to do anything to disrupt it. So, a big part of it has been about trying to keep it to the core message, a focus on Brexit, and that was the thrust of what the Prime Minister came out here to do, coming to Labour Leave-voting seats. But two things have come up which you might have said were slight unexpected. The first one, as you say, an announcement, or at least the suggestion, that Boris Johnson would consider in the future, if he were to be re-elected Prime Minister, of getting rid of the licence fee. He said it was something that had to be looked at and reconsidered, that perhaps it wasn't the right way to justify funding the BBC in the very long term. He said he didn't want to make up policy off-the-cuff but then he went on to suggest that perhaps this is something he might look at, and that isn't something we've heard in that way from the Prime Minister before. 

3.07 pm

But there have been two things that have come up which have distracted from that. The first, as you say, that off-the-cuff, if you like, suggested policy announcement that Boris Johnson would look at the licence fee, the the way the BBC is funded, in the future, where he to be re-elected. First time we've heard him go that far on that. 

4.13 pm

Yeah, you might have considered this to be unexpected. Boris Johnson during that press conference was asked a question by a member of staff who was working at the road haulage company that he was visiting, and this was a question about the licence fee. And Boris Johnson gave an answer which, as I say, wasn't pre-briefed. Nobody was expecting him to say it. But it certainly might not have been entirely unwelcome, because it is the kind of answer which may play well with the voters that Boris Johnson is trying to target. This is what he said when he was asked about the licence fee. [Clip of Boris Johnson]. So, that is the Prime Minister saying that he didn't want to talk about policy off-the-cuff and then seemingly doing just that. And so we've had two narratives emerging today which were not expected at the beginning when we thought the focus would continue to be on Brexit. One around the TV licence fee, which might not prove entirely unpopular with the people that Boris Johnson's trying to persuade,...

Least worst

At the time of writing there are over 12 jam-packed Google pages about the new Walled Off Hotel.  A brilliant propaganda coup for Banksy’s publicity officer. Does he have a publicity officer? 

On this occasion I have to report that the actual BBC was the least bad of a bad bunch because its report largely consists of those ghastly photos with captions, whereas the rest of the press obediently parrot the press release verbatim and at length. “The hotel with the worst view in the world” etcetera etcetera. 

The hotel is an amalgamation of Banksy’s dystopian (deliberately ugly) Dismaland  and assorted crass anti-Israel propaganda.  Completely one-sided, crude and inflammatory. 

Dispensing with even the most rudimentary attempt at wit or irony,  the famous BBC test-card is displayed; instead of those naughts and crosses, Banksy has chalked: “Free Palestine”.

The publicity for this  “hotel” is a masterpiece in PR. How on earth does he do it? Every news outlet in the entire planet and beyond has fallen for it.

Compared to Krishnan Guru Murthy’s oleaginous report on last night’s Channel Four news, the BBC’s restrained effort makes the BBC look like a beacon of impartiality. 

Tacked on at the end of most reports was something about encouraging “dialogue”. Those aren’t entirely my own scare-quotes so I don’t think I’m the only one who sees this as an afterthought, a last-minute attempt at damage limitation.  

You’d have to be even more dumb that your average sucker-for-this-kind-of-stunt if you believe this self-indulgent agitprop had anything to do with encouraging dialogue. Well, not the kind of dialogue that this is meant to imply.

Banksy is the Roger Waters of the “art” world. An even more overrated version. To paraphrase what someone once said of Stephen Fry (and someone else said of Aldous Huxley) “Banksy” is a politically and visually illiterate person’s idea of a cutting-edge visual/political satirist.

"Right-wing views"

I probably need your advice on this one. What do you make of this?:

There was a curious moment on BBC One's News at Six - which led with Paul Nuttall's election as leader of UKIP - when the BBC's reporter, Alex Forsyth, said this of the new UKIP leader: 

The former history lecturer grew up in Liverpool. He's been a UKIP MEP for the North-West as well as the party's deputy leader. And he holds some right-wing views. He's a climate change sceptic who's tough on crime.

Is being "a climate change sceptic" a "right-wing view"? (Aren't such views held more generally?) Or is that just how the BBC regards 'climate change scepticism' (and 'right-wingers')?

Wrongly claimed

Tonight's BBC One evening news bulletin began with the following headline:

Referendum battle lines are drawn over the Health Service and the chances of Turkey joining the EU. With controversy over what future migration levels might be David Cameron clashes with one of his own ministers on whether Britain could veto Turkish membership. The head of NHS England says the Health Service would be effected in a UK exit caused an economic slowdown. We'll be exploring the latest arguments from the two sides, with less than five weeks to go.

The bulletin (courtesy of BBC reporter Alex Forsyth) quickly - and explicitly - ruled who was right and who was wrong over that Turkey 'controversy': 

Sitting on Europe's south-east flank, Turkey's now at the centre of this referendum battle. Its role in tackling the migrant crisis has renewed talk of it joining the EU, and that's allowed those who want the UK to leave to raise questions about immigration and security. Like this minister [Penny Mordaunt] who today wrongly claimed the UK had no power to stop Turkey joining.

So put that in your pipe and smoke it, Penny! (according to the BBC).

We then got clips of Dave and Boris both saying (in the past) that Turkey should join the EU.

Then Alex did a 'Reality Check' for us. She 'made it clear' that Turkey wasn't going to be joining the EU any time soon. And blog favourite Prof. Anand Menon (the one who did that massively pro-EU series on the EU for The World at One) then duly appeared as Alex's 'talking head' to say (correctly) that the UK has traditionally been Turkey's biggest cheerleader as regards its entry into the EU and to emphasise the point that it's not "anywhere near becoming an EU member". And Alex then capped that by saying of Turkey's prospective EU membership, "It is in fact [emphasis hers] some way off..." (BBC message reinforcement on overdrive, I think, here!)

So relax about Turkey! (And don't, whatever you do, mention that Turkey has already been granted free visa access to the EU as part of the panicky EU-Turkey migrant deal!)

And then it was onto Steven Simons warnings of the dangers to the NHS from a Brexit.

The bulletin gave Mr Simons' warning (on the Marr show), then featured a clip (from a week ago) of Bank of England governor Mark Carney saying leaving the EU would result in a recession. Ellie Price of the BBC said that Mr Simons (unlike those Leave campaigners) took Mr Carney's warnings "very seriously" and cited his own warning about 130,000 EU NHS workers quitting the NHS in the wake of a Brexit. Ellie called his intervention "highly significant" and "highly political" - and "highly unwelcome" for some. She then, for illustration of the last point, featured a brief clip of Lord Owen (of David Owen fame) huffily making an unpleasant personal attack on Mr Simons (accusing him of making "a very considerable mess of" running the NHS). Then came a clip of a Vote Leave campaign video and its "claim" that leaving the EU would relieve pressure on service and free up extra resources with that famous £350 million a week figure - at which the BBC's Ellie said; 

That's a figure Remain campaigners point out is inaccurate when you factor in the rebate Britain receives for its EU contributions.

Ellie then ended with a 'they say this, they say that' thing, oh so impartially.

Now if that's impartial, then I'm one of Boris's bananas.

Get Corbyn

It was interesting watching the early evening news bulletin on BBC One last night to see how they reported Sadiq Khan's inauguration as Mayor of London in Southwark Cathedral. They had three main angles on it: (1) that fact that the first Muslim mayor of a major European capital was "celebrating diversity" throughout his swearing-in; (2) the  criticism of the tone of the Conservatives campaign and, above all, (3) the absence of Jeremy Corbyn. 

Almost one minute of the less-than-two-and-a-half-minutes-long report was spent on the latter question, ending with BBC reporter Alex Forsyth saying:

It's undoubtedly a boost for Labour in another disappointing set of election results. But the fact that the new London mayor has distanced himself from Jeremy Corbyn means there's a limit to the credit the Labour leader can take for this victory. For now it belongs to the new face of London.

 Then it was back to the studio where Alex Forsyth discussed the same matter with newsreader Kate Silverton. The burning question on Kate's lips was, "How big a surprise was it that Jeremy Corbyn then wasn't there today?" Alex said it was "unusual" and "read into that what you will". She said "it raises questions" about How Sadiq Khan and Jeremy Corbyn will work together.  Then it was back briefly to the "growing criticism" of Zak Goldsmith's campaign.. The question there is whether it will damage to the Conservatives' appeal to ethnic minority groups.

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Incidentally, given that people weren't suppose to talk about Sadiq Khan's Muslim faith during the election, isn't it astonishing how much the BBC is mentioning his Muslim faith now? They've gone from barely mentioning it to never shutting up about it within the space of 24 hours.