Mobilisation on a big scale

Well, today's People's Vote March in London certainly didn't reach or surpass the required 17.4 million mark. Nor did it equal the 2003 anti-Iraq war demonstration which saw between 750,000 and 2 million people take to the capital's street (to achieve nothing), nor the pro-fox hunting Countryside Alliance march of 2002 which saw some 400,000 people marching in London (also achieving nothing). Still, Ben Wright's report on tonight's early evening news bulletin on BBC One (which led with the story) began like this:

This was a mobilisation on a big scale, by people who had come to the capital from across the country, many of them hoping Brexit can be stopped. Two years on from the referendum to leave the EU, the march organisers said more than 100,000 people turned up to demand another vote on the final Brexit deal. 

We heard from several protestors, plus David Lammy and Anna Soubry. A less-than-impressed member of the public viewing the march was also included and Dr Liam Fox was quoted later. 

If you're wondering, the other march did get a brief mention right at the end:

In another part of Westminster there was a smaller demonstration in support of Brexit, clashing protests that proved again how divisive the decision to leave the EU remains.

Opinions

Watching BBC Breakfast this morning (as I really didn't fancy listening to Today today), I kept seeing how they reported the 'The government must condemn the Daily Mail on behalf of the judges' clamour that has gripped the nation since Kirsty Wark first lifted her pitchfork against the Mail on Thursday night, and I was struck by just how openly BBC reporters are expressing their views on matters of controversy now. No 'some say this, and some say that' today.

BBC political reporter Ben Wright repeatedly called the headlines in the Mail, Telegraph, Express and Sun "extraordinary" [meaning it in a bad way], described the criticism of the papers as "unsurprising" [clearly meaning 'understandable'] and was emphatic that, in this case, "of course", the judges were "defending the constitution." He then gave an upbeat take on what the judges ruled and reported all the criticism of the government for not condemning the papers without giving 'the other side' of the argument. In his third appearance (at 9.04), he promptly dismissed the comments of Daily Mail columnist Stephen Glover - newly added to the programme's hourly report - as something "every lawyer in the country" would "all disagree with him". 

Ben's latest tweet on the subject, incidentally, re-tweets a link to a Mail-critical piece by ardently Remain-voting lawyer Schona Jolly:

Hearts v heads

And that Boris report from Ben Wright on tonight's BBC One early evening news bulletin ended with this take-away line:

The Leave campaign knows many big economic voices are sceptical of their case. But this referendum is about hearts as much as heads.

i.e. hearts = Leave, heads = Remain?

Panglossian

Gossiping about Boris and Dave on this morning's Today, BBC political correspondent Ben Wright told John Humphrys (14:53 in) that Boris had "painted, in an interview with Laura [Kuenssberg], this typically Panglossian picture of Britain outside the EU".

Now either Ben doesn't know what 'Panglossian' means...

...or else he's just made a very biased statement about Boris Johnson there.

Hopefully it's the former.