Got there in the end

 

Well, after all that, tonight's Last Night of the Proms was a roaring success, with Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory properly sung. 

And no EU flags fluttered either. 

I'm glad to see that most of the BBC critics I follow on Twitter enjoyed it too, and quite a few are thanking Tim Davie for reversing his predecessor's final, painful foot-in-mouth condescension to BBC wokery.  

Update: I couldn't agree more with Charlie in the comments that Radio 3 darling Errollyn Wallen's reworking of Parry's Jerusalem was the low point of the evening. The Sunday Times's Grant Tucker rather kindly calls it "surprisingly chaotic". Thankfully, the real thing came later, and was as wonderful as ever.

**** ** **** *** ***** and ****, *********! will be broadcast by the BBC after all. Sort of.

 

I might be wrong in how I'm reading this tonight, but I think the BBC has been clumsily canny in the way it's now - this very day - trying to have its cake and eat it over the Last Night of the Proms row. 

(No wonder such Blairite masters of spin like James Purnell thrive there. This could have come straight out of the Alastair Campbell/Peter Mandelson triangulation handbook.)

They may have been far, far too clever by half though.

A typically huffy statement today from the BBC listed the items in the Last Night, and it included Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory (and Jerusalem and Vaughan Williams's Lark Ascending).

The news even had the Defund the BBC campaign claiming a rare people's victory over the BBC. 

But, from what I'm reading, the people haven't won yet. 

It seems that the BBC aren't going to broadcast the words of Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory - the very thing their 'woke', barely-known female Finnish conductor apparently deplores - and that the orchestra will be playing, karaoke-style, without voices. 

I have my doubts about this though, as it would be very unusual for the (non-white, 'woke') South African soprano Golda Schultz (a singer unknown to Wikipedia, but the night's star singer) to be denied the opportunity to dazzle by singing Rule, Britannia!, but you never know with the BBC these days. 

Whether she sings it or not will, I think, be the deciding factor here. If she doesn't sing the famous singalong words, then the BBC will have sided with the 'woke' brigade. If she does sing them, then  the BBC will have chosen to resist the 1/10 of the population via a 'woke' black singer. 

I can't see a clear sign of which way they're going on this, so it bears watching. I'm still betting she doesn't sing it. 

And - despite my beloved Vaughan Williams and his (non-jingoistic) The Lark Ascending being on the programme (shall I predict now that the BBC presenters will push his socialism?) - Elgar has been ditched as the time-honoured master orchestrator of Parry's Jerusalem in favour of Errollyn Wallen. 

Who she, you might ask? Well, she's a black British composer probably best known for Mighty River, which "explores themes of slavery and freedom", a piece that features spiritual tunes in a pleasant, tonal, easy-listening, modern classical orchestral garb. Her music isn't off-putting (see her rather romantic and pretty cello concerto), so hopefully her orchestration of Jerusalem won't annoy too many people...

...which I'm guessing is precisely what the BBC is betting too. 

Which brings me back to a point I've made before...

Errollyn Wallen's music suddenly, this year, became ever-present on tick-box-fixated BBC Radio 3. (My lockdown WFH Radio 3 morning obsession led me to realise that.) I must admit I hadn't a clue who this Errollyn Wallen, whose music kept being pushed my way, was. It took me ages to Google her. Only then did I realise why BBC Radio 3 was so heavily pushing her. So I'm not in the least surprised that the tick-boxers at the BBC Proms dropped Elgar for Errollyn. If I'd any sense I should have bet on that three months ago. 

I suspect this story has further twists to come, but that's my take for now.

Update: And it has. 

As I was posting this, the BBC News website published a report tonight:

"Without lyrics".

So much for my doubts. Even the BBC confirms that the rumours are true. The BBC has surrendered to the 'woke' brigade. 

The words of Jerusalem will be sung but the words to Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory won't. Go figure!

They are trying to disguise it in their press releases, but even their own Twitter feed is being unhelpful to them. 

Further update: I'm seeing lots of credulous headlines along the lines of Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory WILL be played at Last Night Of The Proms, BBC confirms Land Of Hope And Glory and Rule Britannia tonight. That will please the BBC.

At least the folk at the Telegraph still have their brains switched on: Their headline reads BBC defies Government by announcing that Rule, Britannia will not be sung at Last Night of the Proms.

Last Night Blues (and Yellows)

I started to watch the second half - the climax - of The Last Night of the Proms on BBC One tonight. 

As soon as the cameras turned to the audience, I saw a sea of EU flags from the Prommers, and - this year - the BBC's cameras weren't shy about zooming in on them.

Waitrose must have been quiet in London tonight.

Meanwhile...

Gone, it seems, are the days when the BBC-One-broadcast second half included heavyweight classical pieces or - pace Sir John Drummond's infamous introduction of Sir Harrison Birtwistle's panic-inducing Panic - anything daring. 

No, it was 'approachable' fare all the way, featuring operetta (starring the can-can) and songs from the musicals before the usual horn-tooting, hand-clapping jollity of Henry Woods's routine sea-shanty fantasia arrived...

...and then, being the modern BBC, it was straight onto an inclusive tour of the UK nations, featuring - I kid you not - choirs in Scotland, with maximum lack of originality, singing The Skye Coach Song ('Speed bonnie coach like a haggis on the wing') and choirs in Northern Ireland, even less imaginatively, singing The London Derriere ('O Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes urgently need an engineer. Call Gerry and Martin's now. Or else'). 

I probably should have stayed to see Rule Britannia, Land of Hope and Glory, Jerusalem and the National Anthem, but that was enough BBC broadcasting and EU flag waving for me tonight. 

In between came yapping with diverse guests. 

(Sorry Katie. I know you're great but, oh, for the days of Richard Baker! Why can't the BBC just introduce the music and shut up?

I probably should have watched the first half on BBC Two. I spy Manuel de Falla and his Three-Cornered Hat on its menu. I do like Manuel de Falla. Hope the BBC didn't ruin it for him by letting in Steve Bray - the Stop Brexit guy permanently protesting outside Westminster - and allowing him to wear a three-cornered blue-top hat with a yellow band while chanting 'Stop Brexit!' in Spanish!

Identity politics and the BBC Proms

One of the major politico-cultural divides today, across our wonderful, largely blue planet, is that between proponents of identity politics and those opposed to identity politics.

The BBC, being massively 'socially liberal' in outlook, has gone full torpedoes ahead in tandem with the identity politics crowd, even to the extent that BBC Programme after BBC programme (pace Rob Burley) now proudly proclaims that they're going for 50/50 'gender' balance, and the BBC has recently openly advertised for BAME-only candidates for certain jobs.

I've had very little contact with the BBC's output over the past couple of weeks but on the rare occasions when I did listen to or watch their programmes I've heard a few of their linking, between-programme adverts for other BBC programmes and noticed, with renewed force, just how obsessively the BBC now pushes the identity politics angle.

Even the moon landing anniversary programme plugs I (incidentally) heard included an agenda-pushing race angle.

A re-dawning, newly-acute awareness of the BBC's 'woke', socially liberal, would-be-down-with-the-kids identity politics obsession can, of course, inflame a contrary, identity-politics-averse-yet-oddly-identity-politics-obsessed counter-reformatory tendency. That's definitely 'a thing'.

Thus, I worried myself about that after watching last night's First Night of the Proms, broadcast live on BBC Two before being shunted off to the outskirts of BBC Four for its second half.

I was determined to watch it because Janacek's glorious Glagolitic Mass is one of my (putative) eight Desert Island Discs and it was the climax of the concert.

So what to make of the fact that BBC TV had a glamorous not-too-old female presenter (no Miriam O'Reilly her!), a beautiful youngish female 'rising star' conductor (straight out of Countryfile central casting), an opening premiere by a glamorous young female composer (insufficiently famous as to not even merit her own Wikipedia entry), and commentary by a glamorous not-too-old female publisher? 

The mid-concert chat included a young, hip white man prepared to play the hipster goat and dance on national TV and a young, hip black man who immediately spouted the usual tropes about the glories of 'diversity' while sitting alongside the returning glamorous white not-too-old female publisher. 

(And these three, the BBC presenter announced, are to be regulars throughout the BBC's broadcast of the season.)

And, oh yes, the BBC broadcast last night inevitably wasn't in the slightest bit shy about promoting the fact that the female First Night conductor tonight was the first female conductor to conduct the First Night.

And nor has been the BBC News website: Conductor Karina Canellakis makes Proms history with stirring First Night has been its headline, focusing on the fact that "Karina Canellakis has made history, as the first woman to conduct the First Night of the BBC Proms.

Very BBC!

My review? 

Well, The First Night began with a world premiere - a quarter-of-an-hour choral/orchestral work about the 1969 moon landing by Zosha Di Castri.

I think posterity will agree with me in saying that, for all its and the BBC's efforts, it tried to amount to much but (alas) didn't amount to much.

Then came an underwhelming performance of Dvorak's lovely symphonic poem taming of a grim Grimm-like folk tale, The Golden Spinning Wheel. 

And finally, to redeem it all, a thoroughly passable performance of that magical, magnificent, muscular atheist Janacek mass.

But, returning to the original point of this rambling post, should such obvious BBC identity politics politicking, tick-boxing underpinning matter as far as the BBC's broadcasting of classical music goes?

Answers on a postcard please to Lord Hall.  Or to us below.

Weekend Ramble (II)

What else?

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John Simpson is aghast again:

He didn't link to precisely what he was aghast about so, naturally, I Googled, and I'm guessing he read about it in the Guardian. They published a piece about it some three days before JS's tweet, and they were aghast too.

Weirdly, the Guardian didn't note that this "hate-filled" NRA video was posted three months ago. (It's been on YouTube since 10 April). 

When I read JS's tweet I (naturally?) assumed it was a piece threatening the NY Times with violence, what with the NRA being a gun lobby. What else could provoke such an extreme reaction from the BBC man?

But then I watched the video, as you can too, and - as I suspect you'll agree, having done so - that JS, the BBC's World Affairs Editor, was swallowing a Guardian angle hook, line and sinker without engaging either his ears or his brain. 

Seriously, please watch the video and then re-read JS's tweet. What did the NRA lady, Dana Loesch, threaten to do to the NY Times?  She 'threatened' that the NRA would "fisk" the NY Times, "laser focus" on their journalism.

And, yes, that's it! That really is all she 'threatened'.

(Maybe JS doesn't know what 'fisk' means? Maybe he thinks it means 'shoot'?)

Is John Simpson losing the plot? 

I hate to keep criticising him, given all of the brave work he's done for the BBC over the years and his obvious fundamental decency, but he does seem to be going seriously off the impartiality/credibility rails at the moment. 

He probably should have kept off Twitter. It's doing his reputation no good whatsoever.

******

David, in the last/present open thread (well, the one with the ducklings), pointed to a fascinating Proms-related story - one that I've also been following closely over the last few days after listening to the Prom in question.

Our friends at the BBC presented us with a concert containing two pieces. In the second half came the annual performance of Beethoven's glorious Ninth Symphony, which - partly due to a pro-EU stunt earlier in this Proms season but mainly due to post-referendum mania - has recently become far too entwined with its offshoot, the EU anthem (a fit of madness that will hopefully pass very soon). And in the first half came the European premiere of Sir James MacMillan's European Requiem. 

Many people saw that programme, put two and two together and made five. 

Sir James is an admirer of European culture not the EU. And both Sir James and his good friend Damian Thompson at the Spectator have made it very clear that this piece was not an anti-Brexit piece. It's a piece by a Catholic composer about the common European tradition of writing requiems, strongly tinged with elegiac concerns about the fate of European civilisation.  

The BBC appears to have been at the forefront of those putting two and two together and making five. 

Damian was not wrong in describing the BBC's presentation on the night. Sir James, being interviewed by the BBC presenter, kept having to insist it wasn't a Brexit-related requiem and the presenter rode the applause at the end by saying ‘as a young man James MacMillan had a lot to say politically and his work was rather politically engaged but over time that has rather changed’ - which Damian notes is "nonsense". James MacMillan has simply moved from being a politically-engaged left-winger in his youth [much favoured by the BBC] to being a politically-engaged right-winger in his middle years.

But the BBC can’t get its head round the notion of an internationally renowned composer who believes, as MacMillan does, that Europe needs defending from ‘the self-hating, elitist Left’ and ‘the incoming Islamofascist Right’. So it doesn’t try. 

The headline to Damian's Spectator piece sums up his piece very well:

The BBC Proms broadcast a piece of gloriously subversive new music – without realising it.

I suspect that's true.

And it was a superb piece too, which I've been listening too again and again in recent days, enjoying it ever more and more with every listen. 

The interval of the concert was a discussion about Europe between two BBC 'new generation thinkers' who weren't fans of Brexit (being "turfed out" of "Europe") - something that will only have added to the impression that the BBC intended this as a pro-EU blast of the trumpet (featuring lots of actual trumpets).

The BBC is a strange old beast at times.

******

Musical joke (courtesy of Les Dawson): "I toyed with the idea of playing Ravel's Pavane pour une infante defunte but I couldn't remember if it's a tune or a Latin prescription for piles".

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It is very easy hereabouts (but not here, I hope!) to slip into the habit of mentioning (in passing) some piece of fine BBC reporting which goes against the bias we expect from the BBC and then instantly shrugging it off by mockingly saying (or implying) that such reporting is so untypical of the BBC as to make the BBC even more guilty than it already was!

Radio 4's The World at One has pursued a UK public relations company over four editions this week for helping Jacob Zuma play the 'anti-white race card' in South Africa. The company has now apologised, and BBC reporter Manveen Rana merits the credit for reporting that and for pursuing it so vigorously.

A BBC online report can be read about it here.

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I'm still listening to Tweet of the Day. (As a slightly obsessive bird-lover, how could I not?). It's a while since I've blogged about it though (for some strange reason).

Alas, it's gone all celebrity-based recently. Less natural history, more personal (celebrity) anecdote.

(A parable for the BBC as a whole?)

That said, Olympic gold-medal-winning rower Alex Gregory's tale of Sparky, his childhood pet - a female house sparrow he rescued and took care of - warmed the cockles of my heart.

She loved scrambled egg, and couldn't get enough of it. She quickly learned to fly and flew into the trees but would always come when her name was called and land on Alex's shoulder. But then, sinking heart!, a story all too familiar to lovers of garden birds, two years later, one day, she didn't reply to his call. And never did again. Deep sigh. 

It's one of the joys of this year that I've not seen as many sparrows in my garden for years. They've done well.

******

That said, we're all doomed. Or at least many of us, possibly even Sparky's descendants.

Why? Well, according to the main report about the story on BBC News website this morning, extreme weather - the result of climate change - really has it in for us. We're going to die in our hundreds of thousands by the end of this century, every year.

The funny thing about this is the photos the BBC chose to accompany its article. They made me laugh, especially the final one.

Writing this piece I returned to that article in order to list the photos, but one of them had gone.

Yes, one of the BBC's photos is missing!

The picture of low levels of water in the River Po remains. The picture of flooding in Southern Germany remains. The picture of woodland fires in Southern France remains.

Now, yes, all of these might be signs of climate change or might just be occasional weather events. We'd probably need to know how regular or irregular all three of the above are to properly judge.

Regardless of that, the final picture is one I'm struggling to remember, given that the BBC got rid of it - even though it was the one that made me laugh out loud because it seemed so OTT. It contained lots of ice and was somewhere far from the Poles.

Did anyone else see it? Does anyone remember exactly what it depicted? (Oh, how I wish I'd 'snipped' the image at the time! And how I wish my memory was sharper!).

Update: I'm pretty sure it was a snow-and-ice bound Alpine resort. 

More Random Thoughts

It's proving very difficult to focus on BBC bias at the moment. The time for posting is proving harder and harder to find, and without the time to do proper research it feels as if I'm dipping in - and I really don't like just dipping in. I like nailing things down, with hundreds and hundreds of nails and twenty varieties of hammer. I feel that only when you listen to every edition of a BBC programmes (like Mark Mardell's The World This Weekend or Dateline London) do you get to appreciate that it is possible to work out how BBC bias actually functions and, with enough time and energy, to prove it.

I've proved it (beyond doubt) to my own satisfaction and, maybe, to yours but why don't I feel that I've proved it beyond anyone's reasonable satisfaction. Why? Because I haven't systematised it enough probably. Timings for every Brexit-related segment showing the massive disparity I know there's been (on both The World This Weekend and Dateline London) between the time given for pro-Brexit voices and anti-Brexit voices would help. Listing every question put would also help. And, yes, counting interruptions would help too. As would focusing analytically on the words used. Anything else? 

Is nailing things down as tightly as possible actually necessary though? Why shouldn't just 'dipping in', saying it how you see it, be enough? Doing so might make more of an impact than timing and counting?

Answer (after blinding flash!): There's room for both. If only there were time for both. Or time for anything really.

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Yolande Knell

There have been some horrible events in and around Israel in recent days. I've seen some of the BBC reports. One from Alan Johnston - back (to my surprise) as a BBC Middle East editor a decade after his kidnapping by Palestinian terrorists (prompting claims of Stockholm syndrome after his release) - showed violence from Palestinian rioters in Jerusalem and the Israeli response. It contrasted sharply with Yolande Knell's much-broadcast and very gimmicky report which used only images of the Israeli authorities responding (to something) with skunk water, stun grenades, etc, and Yolande (twice, because of the gimmicky repetition) fleeing from their tear gas. No violence was shown from the Palestinians. It was as if Israeli was just using force for no good reason.

The most gruesome event there in recent days has been the murder of members of the Salomon family eating a Sabbath meal in celebration of their newborn grandson in the Israeli settlement of Halamish. The teenage terrorist knocked on their door, they opened it, he began stabbing them, murdering the grandfather, his daughter and son, and injuring the grandmother. The grandchildren were rescued. Not untypically, the human details of the Israeli family and their story, including their names, haven't been included in the BBC's online report of the attack.

This sort of thing raises serious questions about BBC reporting, doesn't it?

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Meanwhile, down the road in Tel Aviv, Radiohead - ignoring Ken Loach and all manner of other BDS campaigners - performed their longest concert for years this past week. Thom Yorke was typically gnomic but (just as typically) left no doubts about where he stood. "A lot was said about this, but in the end we played some music", he said. (And Radiohead will be back in Israel next year). The BBC's write-up, Radiohead defy critics to play Israel, began like this:

The rest of the article wasn't so bad though.

As Israelis say to all those terrorists who keep trying to slaughter them, "This is what you'll get/This is what you'll get/This is what you'll get/When you mess with us"...

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And talking of musicians, Daniel Barenboim's anti-Brexit speech at the Proms has drawn a lot of flak, most incisively from Douglas Murray at The Spectator. We know that the BBC were aware in advance of an earlier pro-EU bit of point-scoring by pianist Igor Levit and allowed it to go ahead, so what did they know about Mr. Barenboim's pro-EU speech in advance? What did they say to him about it? And what's coming next? And who's doing the Last Night this years? Maestro Guy Verhofstadt? 

Mr B's two concerts - Sibelius, Birtwistle and Elgar (both symphonies) - were excellent though. I even ended up re-listening to the Birtwistle three times. 

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Radio 4's Dead Ringers is provoking some comment this series. There's no doubt, from Twitter, as to which new 'character' has been its main talking point. It's chirpy "Brexit Bulldog" David Davis, whose negotiations skills usually end up in his death. (He even ended up in Hell last week). The cartoonish nature of the Brexit Bulldog's self-delusions and self-induced disasters are hard not to laugh at. It's proving popular because it's essentially an old-fashioned comedy routine (despite being put to an anti-Brexit purpose). Is it effective satire? Well, it may be 'fake news' but it might still make Mr Davis a laughing stock with Radio 4 listeners, however representative (or unrepresentative) they are - though I (with hope in my heart) credit many of them with the ability to differentiate Mr Davis from his Dead Ringer caricature. 

That said, Dead Ringers is also presenting us with an impersonation of John McDonnell - another of its new regular characters - and making him out to be a mentally unhinged Marxist who is trying (and failing) to appear cuddly. His every attempt to talk about his allotment turns into a murderous Maoist diatribe against the bourgeoisie. 

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I'm still, of course, keeping up with Dateline London. I noted the way centre-right commentator Alex Deane (quite superb as ever) was introduced as a "Conservative commentator" while far-left commentator (and Corbyn fan) Rachel Shabi was introduced as a "Middle East expert". That was very flattering to Rachel. If she's really a Middle East expert then I'm hoping to be called 'an expert in loop quantum gravity' some time soon. "Middle East expert" my posterior!

Est Europa nunc unita

The Guardian has a gleeful write-up of pianist Igor Levit's pro-EU encore after his performance of Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto at the First Night of the Proms last night. 

Mr Levit, sporting an EU pin throughout, returned to play part of Liszt's transcription of the 'Ode to Joy' from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony - aka 'the EU anthem' - with added improvisations of his own. 

He was making a point.

According to the Guardian, Mr Levit "sneaked" it in:

The BBC News website's own account, however  - headlined 'EU anthem played at Proms' first night' - makes it clear that Igor Levit did not 'sneak' it in at all. He had the BBC's consent in advance to do so:

What next? Nigel Kennedy improvising variations on 'Oh, Jeremy Corbyn!' after a performance of Khrennikov's First Violin Concerto while sporting a 'Jez We Can' pin? 

That said, Igor Levit's performances of the Beethoven Third Piano Concerto and the big tune from the finale of the Ninth were so good that I'll let him off.

What's the difference between an English and Viennese waltz?

Stephen Pollard isn't impressed with the BBC over the Proms. The Times headline, The ‘Strictly Prom’ shows how craven the BBC has become, sums up his point. 

The BBC is proud of its role in sustaining the Proms. Yet just as the corporation’s primetime TV programming has lost almost all connection with Reithian principles of informing, educating and entertaining, so too its Proms have gone the same way. 

Take Strictly Come Dancing. It’s one thing that it dominates BBC One on a Saturday night, where one can try to justify it on the basis of popularity. But on July 21 the Royal Albert Hall will host the “Strictly Prom”. That’s the world’s leading classical music festival scavenging after cheap popularity with sequins and ballroom dancing. 

Or how about trying a prom in a Peckham car park? Maybe you’d like to try the Quincy Jones Prom, celebrating the pop producer. Or there’s the David Bowie Prom eight days later. Clearly Bowie was a huge cultural figure. But he had as much talent for classical music as I do. 

For Stephen Pollard, this is "craven, short-sighted and destructive":

If even the organisers of the Proms don’t have enough confidence in classical music to think it justifies itself, why should anyone else?

The BBC Proms website actually makes the Strictly Prom sound quite interesting though (well, to me anyhow):

Katie Derham dons her dance shoes and ball gown once more, joined by some of your favourite professionals from Strictly Come Dancing, who will whisk us from Vienna to Latin America and back in the company of the BBC Concert Orchestra and English National Ballet Music Director Gavin Sutherland. 

If you’ve ever wanted to know the difference between an English and Viennese waltz, or how classical composers have approached the Charleston and the tango, this is the Prom for you.

That last paragraph suggests those "Reithian principles of informing, educating and entertaining" might be in play after all.

Posturing Redacted

“A spokeswoman for the BBC said that Kennedy’s remarks would be cut from the television screening because they did not “fall within the editorial remit of the Proms as a classical music festival."She added: “The Proms is not an appropriate place to foster political statements.”

Quotes John Bingham in the Telegraph.

Which seems quite right and proper to me. But the row is being framed to look as if it’s only “Jews” who are making a big fuss about the BBC’s decision to cut the political posturing out of Nigel Kennedy’s prom when it’s re-broadcast on BBC3.

 This is like deja-don’t-view all over again - echoes of the BBC’s other uncharacteristically sensible decision highjacked by the anti-Israel mob  when they chose not to air the DEC Gaza appeal on the BBC.

This one is not just a matter of the BBC’s impartiality. This time it’s the proms, of which the BBC  is rightly proud, and the integrity of which it regards itself custodian. Does the BBC want to turn it into a platform for political or commercial posturing? No.

“Dermot Kehoe, chief executive of the British Israel Communications and Research Centre (Bicom) said: “The BBC is right to ensure that artists do not use their airwaves as a personal platform, whether for commercial or political purposes.”

“Another interested party,” I hear you say. Then there’s the way celebrities abuse their privileged status, which they are well aware automatically confers publicity and undeserved respect upon their random views. They are, after all, people admired for unrelated talents, be their opinions ill-informed and inflammatory or just plain daft.

“The BBC must protect its editorial integrity and impartiality. In this instance Nigel Kennedy's remarks were ill informed, untrue and inappropriate.”“Last night Kennedy’s manager, Terri Robson, signalled that she accepted the BBC’s decision to cut the comments – even though the violinist himself did not agree.She said: “Everyone in the music industry is aware that the proms television broadcast is a politics free zone as far as statements from the podium are concerned.”

So Nigel’s a loose cannon as far as his manager’s concerned. Well whaddya know.

The opinions of all those people who have jumped onto the Kennedy bandwagon - the usual clowns, some of whom seem positively unhinged, also have extra clout, being as ‘ow they’re also “Jews”.

The implication appears to be that it’s only Jews with their wicked lobbying who are objecting to the BBC ‘doing the right thing’, so their opinions can be discounted. In that case non-Jewish supporters of Israel and the testimonies of artists who perform there despite the death threats and vile hostility from haters, should count, in the eyes of the public, for much more.