"Propaganda in the guise of news"

Another week begins, and what better way to start it that with a bit of Charles Moore. This is from his latest Telegraph column:

The BBC is currently running, in its own news programmes, an occasional series about “fake news”. Its definition of fake news has a political stance of its own. The one I came across, by chance, one lunchtime was an extremely obscure piece about how, in the Philippines, propagandists were trying to gloss over the evils of the Right-wing Marcos regime in the 1980s. The programme-makers would not have dreamt of reporting the same about, say, Castro’s Cuba. 

The BBC itself constantly puts out propaganda in the guise of news. Take its huge increase in reporting of women’s cricket. Women’s cricket is a good thing. But would it, on its sporting merits, make the grade in the tight schedule of a general news programme? 

Being no cricket follower myself, I have checked with those who are. They recognise improvement in women’s cricket, and welcome the good people who are popularising the sport, but say the standard of play is, as one buff puts it, either “goodish public-school” or “minor county”. 

Yet the BBC bulletins often speak of “England’s cricketers” and mention only later that the item is about women players, as if the sexes were interchangeable. They are not, any more than our much-loved local point-to-point is in the same league as the Grand National. Fake news!

Exam Question

Maybe we're in old-fashioned exam question territory here, but just imagine for a moment that you're an eager Twitterer and have tweeted or re-tweeted just the following tweets over the past couple of days on the Brexit question. What views should be seen as being imputed from your (four) tweets and re-tweets by examinees? (4 marks).

Really?

Bradley from The Chase, getting lifted out of the...er...by Ms. Khan.

(If you're wondering why a Muslim female character constantly wears tight clothing and appears to be bisexual, well, the actress isn't a Muslim. (She's a Sikh). #justsaying)

Well, Russia and Ukraine look as if they might be about to go to war tonight and Herr "Jean-Claude" Juncker is doubtless, at this very moment, getting his resplendently-dressed servants to crack open yet another of his spare crates of wine (sparkling or otherwise) - one of the fifty dozen or more he's got stored behind his private toilet in the Brussels Egg - to celebrate the EU's glorious victory over Theresa's UK...

...but I know what you really want from ITBB tonight.

Yes, obviously, yet another post about Doctor Who.

Is Doctor Who a children's programme? Was it always a children's programme? Well, it felt like a children's programme tonight. 

But, ah, don't all the 'adult sexuality things' and all the 'PC things', such as King James I flirting with the black 21st Century lad, and all the feminist stuff, prove that Doctor Who is an adult programme too? 

(Rhetorical question?)

Probably not, if we believe what we read in the papers about some schools - even primary schools - ramming such things down the throats of children. 

Ergo, being the lead sellers of the very same spirit, why wouldn't a primetime BBC family show not try to promote such things?

Out of the mouths of #FBPEs and sucklings

All Greek to them

I've written before about how Mark Mardell gets lots of social media fan mail from (sometimes-anti-BBC) left-wingers and pro-EU types, and today has been no different in that respect:

One People's Vote marcher said "Thank goodness for Mark Mardell. He needs cloning & spreading around the channels". Another People's Vote supporter gave him a "Well done Mark - you did your best".

Unfortunately, other pro-EU types today spotted that Greek minister George Katrougkalos sounded rather German and that the German MEP Elmar Brok sounded rather Greek.

Yes, The World This Weekend had got the interviews mixed up, and didn't notice.

One pro-EU type even implied racism on the programme's part as a result: "Mark Mardell's piece tells you all you need to know about their arrogance. 'Some bloke with foreign accent'".

Ah well, Mark, even you can't please all of the pro-EU left-wingers all of the time!

It's the way 'e tells 'em

Meanwhile, a few minutes ago in a country far, far away, a senior BBC journalist was taking to Twitter to do his usual thing...yes, launching cracks about the US President Donald J. Trump:

From his comedy stylings, I suspect he's angling for an invite to appear on Saturday Night Live. He could play a sarcastic BBC reporter, but do it as Mr. Bean. I can see Jon making a very good Mr. Bean. 

What matters

The Mail on Sunday claims an exclusive today: that it was Theresa May herself, acting in opposition to both her Home Secretary (Sajid Javid) and Foreign Secretary (Jeremy Hunt), who actually blocked the asylum application from Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi "despite (the) UK playing host to hijackers, extremists and rapists". They say, via government "sources" (including "a senior Government source"), that Mrs May "is afraid allowing Mrs Bibi into the UK could annoy British Muslims ". 

The MoS's story is being called "credible" by Sunder Katwala of British Future. and yet, it isn't being taken up by the BBC, as far as I can see. Strikingly, for example, Andrew Marr didn't raise it with Jeremy Hunt this morning. 

As many across the political spectrum are saying, blocking asylum for a genuine refugee in order to avoid ‘stoking tensions’ among British Muslims would be a truly disgraceful act. ("Pure evil", some are calling it). 

Again then, we face the question of what matters to media outlets - i.e. that some things matter more than others.

Mayday (3)

Dancing Queen

Yet another exchange from this morning's Andrew Marr show, this time starring Bjorn from Abba, against accompanied by a heckle:

Andrew Marr: That was ABBA at their finest, and we always like having rock and pop musicians on the show, particularly when they have intervened in our national political life, as you have. Let's take a look at this: (Clip of Theresa May jiving to Dancing Queen). Did you see that at the time? 

Bjorn: I saw it, yes I did, it made the news, even in Sweden. 

Andrew Marr: What did you think? 

Bjorn: Like Tony Blair was saying, I think she was very brave in doing that. 

Andrew Marr: She's taking the Mickey out of herself basically. 

Bjorn: It is kind of touching. It's a lady with not a lot of rhythm in her, braving and doing something like that. I was kind of touch, actually. 

Andrew Marr: I was talking to Benny, your colleague, a little while ago and he was saying he was very upset about Brexit. He felt personally hurt and upset about Britain leaving the EU. I wondered if you feel the same.

Bjorn: That was my initial feeling too, like a friend not wanting to be your friend any more. But we have come a long way since then, and I have come to realise that Britain will always be Britain, whatever happens. 

Far-left Pete may be wrong about Andrew being a "Tory shill" but, my goodness, Our Andy really did seem to going out of his way to be nice about Our Theresa this morning. Maybe Robbie Gibb should hire him to come to Downing Street at least once a day and act as Official Flatterer to the Prime Minister, so as to keep up Mrs May's morale during the difficult days to come?

Mayday (2)

He's back: sincere face, 'trust me' hand gesture

Two more exchanges from this morning's Andrew Marr, starring everyone's favourite living former UK prime minister, accompanied by a couple of heckles:

Tony Blair: The curious thing is people say, well, look, if you have another referendum you are going to divide the country. It's the opposite, and I'll tell you why...
Andrew Marr: I want to come directly onto that, because the first referendum was an incredibly divisive moment for the country. Everyone got very,very angry. One MP was killed as a result. People got incredibly inflamed. And if you go back and you run it all again for month after month after month, don't you look at the prospect of that with some horror, what it would do, dividing families, dividing communities, dividing the country?

Andrew Marr: You are one, I think, of four living people who have done Theresa May's job. I just wonder, putting the politics to one side, what you make of her at the moment? Every day she gets up and is assailed again by criticisms from every single side, it may feel slightly familiar, goes into the House of Commons for a crucial vote, there's cabinet revolts back behind her. What do you make of her performance, as a practising politician looking at another?
Tony Blair: As a person I have a lot of respect for it. I think she has shown resilience, I think she's shown a degree of courage in standing up and getting on, and she's a decent person frankly surrounded by a lot of pretty unreasonable ones. The trouble is, the problem is, having said all of that, the deal's dodo. So this is the difficulty that she has. But in personal terms, you know, I've done the job, I know how difficult it is, I really respect the fact that she manages to stand up and get on with it. I think that's a great capability, a great characteristic...
Andrew Marr: A stand-up woman, yeah.
Tony Blair: Yes, I think she is. This is not a personal thing. Personally, actually, I can see a lot to admire in the way she handles herself. It is that literally this is the destiny of our country, and it is the wrong decision for our country. This is why we have to resolve it finally through the people.

Mayday

So it's Mayday Day today, and the Andrew Marr show is duly extending itself. To mark the occasion, here's a round-up of Andrew's thoughts, as expressed during the paper review this morning...

Andrew Marr: Camilla, this letter, which is kind of unique, I think, I don't remember the Prime Minister writing ever an open letter to the people of Britain like this. 

Andrew Marr: For a Remain campaigner back in the day she sounds very, very Brexity.

Andrew Marr: It's like a mad computer game, isn't it? She gets over one hurdle, jumps over one bridge, there's another explosion, and then she turns a corner and there's more people shooting at her. 

Andrew Marr: Let's return to the papers. In terms of the pro-Brexit sentiment, there is one key text I think in today's papers, which is Martin Howe QC in the Sunday Telegraph... 

Andrew Marr: I find it very hard to work out whether the government had actually conceded anything real over Gibraltar or not. I don't know if anybody has a view on that. 

Andrew Pierce: Not sure. She says 'I'll stick with Gibraltar to the end'...

Andrew Marr: Very forcibly.

Andrew Marr: And everybody from both sides is saying...I mean, part of the problem is everyone is saying we can tweak it this way or tweak it that way. As of this morning, it's too late to tweak it. It's been signed off.

Andrew Pierce: And it was Nick Bowles, the Tory MP, he wrote it in the Mail actually, arguing for a Norway-style solution. 

Andrew Marr: It is becoming more popular.

Andrew Marr: Rachel, lots of other political stories related to this. A lot of people are still hoping for another referendum on that. There's a very interesting story in one of the papers about talks between the so-called People's Vote campaign, and the Labour leadership, because Jeremy Corbyn has always been very, very cautious about this new referendum idea. He's looking to all the pro-leave Labour supporters in the north, I suspect. 

Andrew Marr: They may be quite shrewdly aware of the very, very large number of Labour voters, particularly in the north and the Midlands, who are pro-Brexit. 

Andrew Marr: In all of these shenanigans, people are falling out with each other and shouting over each other but there's a rather sweet story in The Sunday Times about a rapprochement. (Peter Mandelson and Seamus Milne).

“Nobody likes a braggart, do they?”

Libby the Purves

Former Radio 4 presenter Libby Purves has been talking to the Radio Times and giving the BBC both barrels over its “self-congratulatory” self-promotion of its own programmes and services. Here are some quotes from the piece:

“The BBC’s coverage of its own navel has increased tenfold.” 

“There’s a fine line between civil, informative announcements and needy self-congratulation.” 

(On the marketing campaign surrounding the launch of the BBC’s new radio app, Sounds:) “It’s a smartphone app, not a Moon landing! It does pretty much what iPlayer Radio did, only with an intrusive ‘personal’ algorithm that scans your ‘listening habits’ and thinks it knows you.”  

“A new Doctor Who is greeted like a Nobel Prize announcement: Strictly is like a Cup final, and a bit of forgettable fiction like Bodyguard sparks chin-stroking discussion on Today, for all the world as if something in the real world had happened.” 

“Of course, popular culture is worth covering. But if it’s always your own contribution, it feels naff. So does the endless cross-trailing on television, nipping minutes out of actual programmes.”  

“How loud can you bang your own drum before it gets undignified? Might we not expect a gentle throat-clearing modesty, and – in news programmes – a decorous sense that the world does not revolve around Broadcasting House? Nobody likes a braggart, do they?” 

I agree with Libby. 

“A slightly intimidating head girl”

Fiona the Bruce

The Sunday Times has a short biography of Fiona Bruce to mark her coming accession to the Dimbleby throne on Question Time. Who knew she's spent time at the Greenham Common peace camp? And how did she come to get a job at the BBC? Well, apparently, it's a case of 'it's not what you know but who you know':

Fiona Bruce was born in Singapore, where her father had worked his way up from postboy to regional managing director at Unilever. She went to school in southeast London and then to Oxford, where she spent time at the Greenham Common peace camp and was rather “chippy”. As she once recalled: “I met someone with a title on my first day, Baronet von Something, and I thought: who are these people who have just waltzed into Oxford? I don’t want to hang out with these people.” 

So it’s piquant that she partly owes her success to her social connections. Frustrated with her early career in, first, management consultancy and then advertising, she met Tim Gardam, then editor of Panorama, at a wedding. He offered her a job and her journey to Question Time had begun.

Dishing Mishal

Mishal Husain no less

Sunday mornings just wouldn't be right without a bit of Rod Liddle in The Sunday Times. Here he is having a pop at Hillary...and Mishal Husain:

Let’s pillory Hillary

BBC Radio 4’s Today has been running a series about brilliant women who were unjustly eclipsed by their stupid male partners. On Thursday it was the Clintons, with the humourless Mishal Husain lamenting Bill’s fame and Hillary’s relative anonymity. Isn’t that because Bill served two terms as president while Hillary’s greatest achievement was in persuading half of America to vote for a certifiable lunatic in preference to her? And isn’t it more likely that Hillary won the nomination precisely because of her husband’s name? I look forward to Today’s investigation into women and ethnic minorities who have been over-promoted for reasons of social engineering. But I won’t hold my breath.

Not angels but angles?

Aaah, aw, this is nice. Theresa and Jean-Claude are, according to the BBC News website's lead story, smiling. "Theresa May meets top EU officials in Brussels as Spain withdraws its objections to the deal", says the BBC blurb.

Sky New, however,  isn't presenting things in such glowing terms. It's lead story has the headline May denies 'caving in' as Spain claims victory on Gibraltar. 

Are we in media 'angles' territory with the BBC and Sky here? I think we are. 

Tingling with anticipation

Add an extra streak of bacon, another egg, one more sausage, a second hash brown, an optional mushroom, a black pudding (obviously - and such a thing should be on your place in the first place, regardless), though feel free, with my blessing, to skip the extra fried tomato (I hate tomatoes, even fried ones), because, yes, oh yes, rejoice, rejoice!, there's an elongated Andrew Marr show tomorrow. 

And don't deliberately sleep in to avoid it either, or you'll disappoint Rob: 

Hmm, what to make of that, O fellow bias watchers? 

Well, for starters, it looks as if there's Bjorn from Abba, but where's Benny? #bbcantiBennybias. 

And, worse, why neither of the Abba women? #bbcmisogyny 

But, on political matters, we've got: Arlene Foster, Camilla Tominey, Andrew Pierce, Jeremy Hunt, Tony Blair, Rachel Shabi and Richard Burgon, with Damon Albarn (of Blur fame) making anti-Brexit noises. 

Camilla Tominey, appearing on this week's 'This Week'

That's a reasonable spread: four right-leaning; four left-leaning (though two of them far-left, none of them far-right); some pro-Brexit, some anti-Brexit.

(What's with the two far-left guests though, eh?)

Who will Andrew insult this week though?

Fingers crossed for Rachel or Richard. Tony has the hide of an armed-plated rhinoceros hiding in a tank, so nothing will bother him. And Andrew is only ever bothered about Iraq when it comes to bothering Tony.

Extremist backer of mass-murderous 20th Century totalitarian ideology become BBC regular. What larks!

Sometimes BBC banners go askew, to simply hilarious effect. 

For example - coming up shortly. Stay with us (as they say on the BBC News Channel) - here's self-declared communist Ash Sarkar:...

...(despite Communism killing over 100 million people over the previous century - a statistic that speaks of over one hundred million individual tragedies.

It's like Ash herself had been murdered for political, class or religious reasons, or intentionally starved to death, or starved to death though policy errors or torture, not just once, or a hundred times, or a thousand times, or 100 thousand times, or a million times, or 10 million times, but over 100 million times.

To be fair, I suspect she really wouldn't enjoy dying that many times, even for the Corbyn cause).

So, you may ask, who's this Ash? Well, she's a new regular on the BBC from the extreme alt-left website Norovirus.Media:

Oddly, I've not seen the likes of Samira Ahmed protesting furiously about such a fringe extremist being 'normalised' by the BBC.

As you'll all doubtless be well aware, the whole hilarious mess-up arose here because the lead singer from Wheatus - who, m'lud, I'm informed by my learned friend, Mr Rees-Mogg QC, had a hit in 2000, rather charmingly, one thinks, entitled Teenage Dirtbag (though a dirtbag, I'm informed, is not a superior brand of vacuum cleaner) - was up next.

And that banner just happened to appear above the face of Norovirus's early-middle-aged, extreme-left, communist, BBC regular Ash. 

How we all laughed.

I, being a fan of free speech, am glad that Ash seems to have become 'Our Ash' at the BBC. There's nothing nicer than listening to barely-thinking apologists for the most mass-murderous ideology in human history chewing the cud on BBC politics programmes, being glamorous and getting away with it because they're (fairly) young, female, BAME and (very) left-wing.

Ticks, ticks and ticks for the BBC, no doubt.

What though if you're white, working class, non-racist, male, not glamorous, hard-to-place politically, but - to the annoyance of 'them' - not keen on Islam or heavy levels of disruptive mass migration? 

Do you get a regular spot on the BBC? 

No. You don't.

You really, really don't - despite you not supporting any murderous 20th Century ideologies. 

Funny old world, isn't it, BBC-wise?

Meanwhile, in Israel...

Meanwhile, I've been glancing at the BBC News website's front page today and all day long so far (literally, as I first saw it around midnight last night), this has been a lead headline story for the BBC:

"A year-long BBC investigation", eh? (My poor, overactive eyebrows are turning all 'Fiona Bruce' again). 

Given the extinction-skirting scarcity of good news stories about Israel on the BBC News website, who's surprised that the BBC would make this bad news story such a prominent piece on its news website home page?

It rather reeks of malice.

Thanksgiving

Anthony Zurcher fans (and this blog is where most of us congregate) will surely appreciate this very rare non-point-scoring post-Thanksgiving tweet:

For those of you outside the US, today is the day after Thanksgiving, when those who aren’t working like crazy in retail are shopping, hanging out with family or watching sports. It’s a time when news stories go to die.

Ah, but look at it in context. All is not what it seems:

Oh Anthony, couldn't you spare us the 'Peas and Carrots' of your purely impartial BBC partisan point-scoring for just one day?

Obviously not. Gobble, gobble.

Another November Open Thread

As there doesn't seem to be very much going on news-wise at the moment, here's a brand new Open Thread instead. Thank you as ever for your comments.

Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble

A lady who favours BBC Radio 4, for some reason

One of the things I like about The Spectator is its range of opinion. 

I mean, yes, I'd probably prefer James Delingpole to do the Radio reviews each week rather than Kate Chisholm, but I like reading drippingly-pro-BBC Kate too. 

And whilst reading her today I came across this: 

I wonder what Michelle Obama, the former First Lady who remade that role in her own image, would make of Hannah’s attempts on The Archers to embody the 2018 version of an empowered, liberated woman? Does Obama secretly listen in to Ambridge each night? Has she been impressed by the soap’s attempt, via Hannah, to address the #MeToo movement? Does that explain why she blessed Radio 4 (rather than an online audio provider) with the great coup of reading herself from her new autobiography, Becoming?

Now, I don't listen to The Archers myself but I know at least one of you does. So, did you spot the very BBC "attempt, via Hannah, to address the #MeToo movement"?  (On the flipping Archers?)

(And if I know the BBC, you'll probably have found it very hard NOT to spot it, as it will almost certainly have been laid on with an American-tractor-sized trowel.) 

As for the lovely Michelle having "blessed Radio 4", well, I suspect Radio 4 laid verbal rose-scented red carpets in front of her mouth to entice it to move so eloquently on their behalf  for the Book of the Week spot. 

And maybe she just read all those many, many, many lovely BBC articles about her over the years and, thus, developed a soft spot for the very friendly BBC.

If so, I'm guessing Melania won't be quite so personally motivated to say 'yes' in years to come.

Saturday Bonus Transcripts

Posted below are two transcripts - one prepared by my own loving hand, the other by the diligent hands of Andrew and David at News-watch. I thought it might interest you to read them, and compare and contrast them. 

Gerard Batten v Nigel Farage

Transcript of BBC Radio 4, ‘The World at One’, Interview with Gerard Batten, 23 November 2018, 1.34pm

MARK MARDELL: Gerard Batten is the leader of UKIP who made that appointment. Earlier, I spoke to him and asked him what he thought of Tommy Robinson.

GERARD BATTEN: What do I think of him? Well, I mean, I think he's very courageous. He's very brave in what he does. He stands up for these victims of industrialised sexual abuse, and by and large, I think he does positive things.

MM: He once said, "I'd personally send out every adult male Muslim that's come into the EU over the past 12 months back tomorrow if I could". Do you agree with that?

GB: I don't know where he said. I've never seen that quote. I certainly wouldn't agree with him, and I don't think he'd take that view now. Lots of people say things in their youth which they then regret and retract from later. As I say, I've no idea whether that quote is true or not. I'll have to ask him about that. But that's certainly not his view now.

MM: He once stood in front of a Manchester suburb and said, "Inside these are enemy combatants. In these houses, in these houses. are enemy combatants who want to kill you, maim you and destroy you." 

GB: Well, if he was referring to some of the terrorists who live in those places they certainly know that to be true, don't we, because we've had so many instances of it? That is not to say, and I'm sure he didn't mean that and I certainly would never cast that aspersion that that is true of all Muslims, not at all.

MM: You know his background, and what does his appointment signal about the party. the party you lead?

GB: Well, I'm asked Tommy to be a personal special adviser. He is not a member of the party, doesn't need to be, and he is going to help me organise this Brexit Betrayal Rally on 9 December...

MM: (interrupting) But what signal does it send?

GB: What it signals to a lot of people out there is that they can come and support us. We want, I want, to build a mass movement that appeals to ordinary working class people. Membership has been going up under my leadership, money has been coming in. We want to send a signal out that we want ordinary decent working class people who are fed up with what's happening in this country over Brexit,, over other things, and to come and join us and help us...

MM: (interrupting) The sort of people who in the past supported the English Defence League? Those sort of people?

GB: Well, we all know that in our party we have prescribed list and you cannot become a member of our party if you were formerly a BNP on National Front or EDL -  although the EDL never had members, so it would be a bit difficult to prove who they were. We vet people who come in...

MM: (interrupting) Do you want the sort of people who supported their policies, their ideas, to join you?

GB: I want people who are patriotic, who believe in this country, who want to leave the European Union and who want to live under their own constitution, their own laws and their own political system...

MM: (interrupting)  Are racists welcome?

GB: No, they're not, and they never have been and they never will be.

MM: You see, Nigel Farage said this morning that it goes against everything that he tried to do in the party, that he wants to talk about Islam, wants to talk about immigration, but it's a non-racist party, and what you've done blows a hole in all of that.

GB: No, it doesn't, and I'm amazed that Nigel is so concerned about this party now. He's done nothing to support UKIP in the last two years...

MM: (interrupting) But deal with the point.

GB: He has said that he will give 100% of his effort to Leave Means Leave, which is a cross-party organisation...

MM: (interrupting) Yes, but deal with his point.

GB: ... which leaves 0% for UKIP. And this is not taking the party in a wrong direction because he knows me, and he's known me for 26 years, he knows what kind of person I am.

MM: Something has happened, hasn't it? I mean, one of the MEP's who's quit the party recently said that you become 'a vehicle of hate'.

GB: Oh, that's nonsense. And who was that by the way?

MM: Bill Etheridge.

GB: Well, yeah, I wouldn't rate Bill's opinions about very much very highly I must say...

MM: (interrupting) Well, he was a UKIP MEP.

GB: Well, he wasn't one of my spokesman because I didn't rate him highly enough to give him that job.

MM: You've welcomed in an anti-feminist online activist who repeatedly used the N-word. Do you welcome...? 

GB: Well, you're probably referring to our internet warrior people that have come on recently. Add we believe in free speech. If he said that he's not using it against those people. He's re-quoting something I guess. And we actually believe in free speech. That doesn't mean to say that we don't approach...that we approve of everything that people say because we don't. But a lot of people out there feel that free speech is being eroded and that people have a right to say things within the law.

MM: Have you taken the party in a new direction, further towards what some people would label the extremes?

GB: Well, no. I'm taking the party in a new direction, which is I want to make it a mass movement. I want us to be the party that represents ordinary working people, the unemployed who'd like a job if they could get one, and small business owners. I want a party for ordinary people.

Nigel Farage v Justin Webb

Transcript of BBC Radio 4, ‘Today’, Interview with Nigel Farage, 23 November 2018, 7.10am

JUSTIN WEBB: The news that the UKIP leader, Gerard Batten has appointed Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who uses the name Tommy Robinson as his advisor on rape gangs and prison reform is being greeted by some with a shrug – a sense that that was anyway the direction that UKIP was travelling in, but by others with either outrage, because Tommy Robinson is regarded by them as a thug, or with concern about UKIP’s ability to influence people in the mainstream of British politics. Among those who've expressed concerns in the past about UKIP flirting with the far-right is the former leader Nigel Farage and Mr Farage is on the line. Morning to you. 

NIGEL FARAGE: Good morning. 

JW: What do you say to Gerard Batten about this appointment?

NF: Well I'm appalled. I mean the NEC of the party voted overwhelmingly last week not to have a ballot of members to let the man potentially join the party, but Gerard Batten’s got this sort of fixation with Tommy Robinson and discussing Islam and dragging UKIP into a direction of effectively being a sort of street activist party, right at the moment when we have a betrayal of Brexit going on by both the Conservative and Labour parties, where UKIP’s potential reach out amongst the electorate is the highest it's ever been. This narrows it down. It goes against all the things I did as leader, to say we will talk about immigration, we will talk about the extreme forms of Islam, but we'll do it as a non-racist, non-sectarian party. This blows a hole in all of that. 

JW: Does it blow a hole to the extent that it kills UKIP?

NF: Well I haven't given up yet. I will be writing to the National Executive Committee of the party today, urging that we have a vote of no confidence in Gerard Batten as leader, that we get rid of him. I'll be meeting the UKIP MEPs, those that haven't already resigned, in Brussels on Wednesday next week. We’re going to have one last go at getting rid of somebody who as leader is dragging us in a shameful direction. And even worse . . . 

JW: (interrupting) And if he stays on, let me just ask you this, if he stays on will you resign?

NF: Well, why should I? I mean I've been, you know, I was a founder member of it. I've been there right from the very start. 

JW: Well, I suppose because I mean the answer to that would be because it has moved in the direction you've just described . . . 

NF: Well . . . 

JW: . . .  and doesn't represent you anymore?

NF: Well, it’s moving in that direction because the leader’s taking it there. He doesn't have the support of the party to do this. Even a poll of party members shows that his issues are very low down on our list of priorities. So no, I'm going to fight try and save it, but if it continues in this direction electorally it is finished. 

JW: Of course, there are people who’ll be listening and saying, ‘Come on, this is just hypocrisy from Nigel Farage because he started UKIP down this path,’ and people remember that Breaking Point poster during the referendum campaign et cetera et cetera, the use of ‘the other’, the use of a fear of strangers to whip up support . . . 

NF: (speaking over) Well . . . 

JW: . . . actually that was you. And the difference between you and Ukip might be now that they don't do it so subtly but you still did it?

NF: No I wanted to talk about real issues, issues that politicians are afraid of, issues about uncontrolled mass immigration, illegal immigration, the growth of terrorism across Europe, the huge mistakes that the EU made people coming across the Mediterranean . . . 

JW: (speaking over) But you had posters with Syrian refugees, you were never really (word unclear due to speaking over)

NF: (speaking over) How do  you know they were Syrian refugees? And why were they refugees when almost every single one of them was a young male between 18 and 30 years old? Hardly any of them would ever have qualified as refugees. And I wanted to have these conversations, but to do so from a political party that did it from a non-racist . . . 

JW: (speaking over) But that’s the point, isn’t it? It’s the conversation that leads to this and it leads to appointment of Tommy Robinson?

NF: (speaking over) Well if you don’t have this . . . if you don't have this conversation, you don't get parties like UKIP doing well, you don't get referendums happening in the country and then the far right does exist. If I've got one real achievement in British politics is that I did pretty much single-handedly kill off the BNP. 

JW: Hmm. You said at the beginning that you didn't approve of what Gerard Batten was doing, you want him to step down as leader, does that mean you're going to step up again?

NF: Oh that . . . this is not about me. This is about UKIP being a sane electoral vehicle and even worse than that. What Batten and Robinson are now planning is a Brexit march in London on the 9th of December. They've decided they want to put Tommy Robertson up there as a big player in the Brexit debate too and that's . . .  and that is far more important than UKIP. That will damage the Leave cause in this country. So from every single aspect it's time we got rid of Gerard Batten and reclaimed the party. 

JW: Do you . . . a final one on Brexit, do you fear another referendum? Because you've sort of flirted with the idea of having one, haven’t you?

NF: Well, I’ve said, over a year ago, that we have to face up to the possibility that it could happen, and that's because our parliamentary system can't cope with Brexit. Most of our MPs don't agree with Brexit. And I would say it's now 50/50 whether we're going to get a suspension of Article 50 that could well lead to it. 

JW: (speaking over) And do you fear it?

NF: I don’t fear it, but I think for our democracy it would be a dreadful thing. But if it, if it happens, if we have to fight that battle again, we'll win it again. 

JW: Nigel Farage, thank you. 

Broadly landing in the right place

This week's Saturday transcript also comes from the BBC's Newswatch and introduces us to a thrilling new variant on the time-honoured BBC editors' catchphrase "I think we got it about right".  (Even Brucie never wore out a catchphrase so much). 

Paul Royall, editor of the BBC's News at Six and News at Ten, here rejects all criticism in the usual BBC way but then, just before the end, concedes "Occasionally, we're not perfect". (Given that he'd previously been pretty much saying they are perfect, that's quite something!)

And then comes the fresh variant on the BBC editors' catchphrase: 

...but I'd really argue that if you look at it in the round, if you look at everything we're doing, we have sort of broadly landed in the right place.

So a big ITBB welcome then please for "I think we broadly landed in the right place".

Samira Ahmed: To discuss all this I'm joined by Paul Royall, editor of the BBC's News at Six and News at Ten. Do you think the BBC has explained all it should have been explaining about the draft agreement? 

Paul Royall: I think we have. I mean, I do appreciate the frustrations with some of the audience and we sort of empathise with that because Brexit is a difficult story. But you used a couple of good examples in your introduction there - Reality Check, Ask This as well - which are attempts to explain and explore what's within Brexit and what are in these declarations and agreements. If you look at Thursday night's Ten O'Clock News this week, for example, when we had the draft political declaration - that's the second document- , Huw Edwards spent a minute at the top of the programme taking the audience through the main headlines from that document. John Pienaar in his first report, which was based around Westminster, but very early in the report he did what we call 'a piece to camera' where he underlined those key points and also give a brief assessment of where they stand politically. And then again, after that piece, Katya Adler took us through the documents from Brussels, looking at is from a UK-EU perspective. 

Samira Ahmed: What people felt though overall about BBC coverage over these last few days is that the BBC seems far more obsessed with the personality politics and the career prospects of individual MPs and gave that far too much attention. Whatever else you did. 

Paul Royall: I would disagree. I think, of course, we understand there's a tension between reporting what some people might regard as the Punch and Judy politics of Westminster and explaining what are in these critical documents, which are about the future and the shape of the UK and how it runs itself. But at the same time, they were high-profile resignations. The Brexit Secretary, the person who has latterly been negotiating this, stuff resigned. That is a serious political story. They were other Cabinet resignations and other ministerial resignations, and we have to reports that. There was also then a move by some of the Conservative Brexiteer group to announce that they were sending in letters of no confidence in the Prime Minister and there was clearly a story around would there be enough of those to create a vote of no-confidence in the Prime Minister. I wouldn't say though that the coverage was tilted too far in that direction. 

Samira Ahmed: Well, if you take the issue about the speculation of a vote of no confidence, viewers feel there was a lot of breathless excitement from BBC journalists speculating about whether there might be enough to trigger a vote of no-confidence. Jacob Rees Mogg was on the air a lot. But actually it didn't materialise. It hasn't materialised yet. Did you fall for the hype? 

Paul Royall: I don't think we did fall for the hype because I don't think the coverage was breathless in the sense that we took people through all the events on that...it was quite a momentous day in Westminster. Obviously so far, with the vote of no-confidence and what Jacob Rees-Mogg did, that hasn't materialised, but I think we reported it as best we could with the knowledge we had and the expertise and insight we had about what was going on at Westminster. 

Samira Ahmed: Paul, you'll know this is an issue viewers are really concerned about with the BBC's political coverage. They feel again and again that BBC News gets far too excited and devotes far too much airtime to the personalities and to speculating about the personalities instead of concentrating on informing the audience about what the policies actually are. And on Brexit, it matters more than ever. 

Paul Royall: It does matter more than ever, and that's why we've taken a lot of steps. We ask ourselves that question every day in terms of before we hear the argument or the row that might be going on,  Are we explaining what they are talking about? And the last couple of weeks that has really been at the fore, it really has, otherwise the coverage makes no sense. Occasionally, we're covering what's going on in Westminster and it might be around the arguments over someone's career or who's in and who's out. Occasionally, we're not perfect, we may get dragged a bit in that direction but I'd really argue that if you look at it in the round, if you look at everything we're doing, we have sort of broadly landed in the right place. 

Samira Ahmed: Paul Royall, thank you very much, 

A Modest Letter

I think this is going to have to go under the "...and any other matters that take our fancy" part of the blog, as it's not BBC-bias-related. It's just a letter sent today by one Conservative MP to another Conservative MP and it made me laugh. In fact as satirical letters go, its artistry is almost on a par with C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters: 

(As they say on all good blogs, click to enlarge.)

Ah, I can relate it to the BBC after all, as I see that ITV News has the story of John Hayes as one of its top news stories - indeed, ITV's angle is this very letter: Shock knighthood for Tory Eurosceptic John Hayes sparks croynism row and extraordinarily mocking letter from fellow MP. 

And Sky News has it as a top story too: Brexit row: 'Utter c**k' slur as eurosceptic Tory MP awarded knighthood.

The BBC News website's homepage is presently steering clear of the whole thing.

A satisfied customer

Now, of course, Samira's Newswatch does occasionally feature some praise for the BBC, including one this week concerning the famous Chris Morris and his 'Reality Check'. 

Jenny Budden: Having Chris Morris' Reality Check this morning was a godsend. I hope as the process goes on, especially if there is a second referendum, that the BBC keeps doing this, so we are all informed of the facts. Thank you. 

I think I know where she's coming from, and why she might well approve of Chris Morris' Reality Check!

Andrew didn't intend anything more

Continuing with Newswatch...

And Andrew Marr got it in the neck for his "Don't try and patronise me" outburst at Shami Chakrabarti on last Sunday's Andrew Marr show. Apparently "many" people had objected to his behaviour. Including Patrick Edwards: 

I think she was going to go on to explain that as a democrat she accepted the will of the people and would therefore support Britain leaving the EU. Before she could say all of this, Andrew Marr interrupted her saying, "don't patronise me, I'm as much of a democrat as you are". He said it in such an aggressive tone, I was shocked. You could see Baroness Chakrabarti was really taken aback too but, somehow, she recovered her composure and the interview carried on. My feeling is that Marr would never have spoken to her in this way if she'd been a man. Any man would have punched him or walked off the set. Hopefully, Andrew will reflect that he went too far and apologise for his outburst on this Sunday's show. In this era of #MeToo and calls for gender equality, I think he was way offbeam.

Now, I have to say that though I'm a man I would not have punched him or walked off the set, despite Patrick's confident assertion that "any man" would have done such things.

Still, will there be an apology? Well, Samira said "there was no apology from BBC News when we asked them for their response". (Well, blow me down with a wren's feather!)

This was the BBC's statement (short and not-so-sweet I'd say!):

Andrew didn't intend anything more than robust questioning and contacted Shami Chakrabarti afterwards to make this clear.  

Hmm.

Ruddy Hooligans!

Norman, looking hard

Credit to Samira's Newswatch this week for featuring a couple of complaints about hardline BBC labeller Norman Smith. 

The background was that Newsnight's Nick Watt had asked Jacob Rees-Mogg about the ERG-led attempt on Mrs May's premiership,  "Doesn't it has more of the Dad's Army feel about it?", and Mr Rees-Mogg had replied in his deadpan way, "I always admired Captain Mainwaring". On Thursday's News at One, however, Norman Smith said: 

Hope will be, no it's not going to win over the hard-Brexiteers, the Dad's Army Brigade, but there may be enough in this to get some of those middle-ground Brexiteers on board to back the government.

...and that drew criticism:

Chris Oldershaw: How dare your political 'guru' use the offensive expression 'Dad's Army Brigade' to describe people who want a clean break from the EU? 

Phil Carr: Pretty derogatory language - or do you want to nudge listeners in a certain direction?

Girls on Top

Maybe it's an omen for the BBC, like the last raven leaving the Tower of London, but it seems that one of the two crown jewels of BBC political presentation, Question Time, is slipping out of the hands of The Dimbleby Family. 

I was expecting that David's son - the one who famously went to Eton with Jacob Rees-Mogg - would eventually succeed to the chair. But alas no. 

It appears, instead, as if Fake or Fortune's Fiona Bruce is taking over.

That raised my eyebrows so much that I even began to look a little like Fiona after a particularly exciting antique is put in front of her. What's going on? Where's the nepotism? 

Despite claims from disreputable sources (Observer journalists probably) that she's actually a descendent of Robert the Bruce, the sister of Sir Ken Bruce and the daughter of Sir Bruce Forsyth, it turns out that she's got the job (if she has got it) entirely through her own merits - oh, and, of course, for being a woman (as no man was ever going to be given the job by the BBC at the moment). . 

Apparently, she "impressed BBC bosses with her handling of the audition audience" and "bosses are thought to want a presenter who can appeal to mainstream viewers who may be turned off by the show’s often fractious tone".

So well done Fiona! And you didn't even apply to have your surname changed to 'Dimbleby' by deed poll, as the same disreputable sources suggested the very ambitious Emily Maitlis was seriously considering doing.

Meanwhile, Our Emily is said to being handed the chief presenter role at Newsnight following the departure of the much-loved Evan. Given that she's already pretty much been doing that for weeks, Fiona Bruce's eyebrows are unlikely to rise much further at such news. Emily will then be the new Paxman, able to berate Brexiters, snap at Trump supporters and dismiss democracy as she pleases.