Is there ever a good time for Justin Webb? A man so far up his own arse he can taste his hair gel when he coughs.
From Chickyog on Twitter. Prog Gold of course made its opinion of Justin Webb clear as long ago as 2006.
BBC Bias
Tories succesfully bully BBC – again
The BBC have dropped a Panorma investigation into Lord Ashcroft’s tax dodging ways, according to
The Guardian:
Intense pressure from Conservative officials helped to force the BBC to quietly drop a lengthy investigation into Lord Ashcroft, the party’s billionaire backer and deputy chairman. Panorama, the corporation’s current affairs programme, was expected to focus on Ashcroft’s business empire and his use of offshore entities.
Letters and personal interventions by senior Conservatives have increased pressure on programme makers, according to insiders. There is now little prospect of the investigation being broadcast before the general election.
The disclosure follows previous claims that the programme was shelved for legal reasons. The delay will please David Cameron but will cause concern that the BBC has been silenced in the runup to the general election. The Tories are anxious to suppress more publicity about Ashcroft’s affairs after the outcry over the billionaire’s belated revelation that he was not domiciled in the UK for tax purposes, and so paid no tax on overseas assets.
The spin on this is that it would be unfair of the BBC to pay attention to these charges on the eve of an election, but the truth can never be unfair. As anybody who isn’t a Tory hack can see, it’s actually much more unfair to the voter to cover up the truth of these allegations and make the Tories seem more principled and less grasping than they actually are. The BBC however is instituationally incapable of doing anything but cower in the face of sustained pressure and is here actively hindered by its chapter and culture of strict impartiality, which is sensitive to charges of being unfair.
I must represent poison in my diet. It is just another food, after all.
Michael Rosen presents the best put argument yet on the folly of allowing the BNP to appear on Question Time
The BBC also has a requirement to represent different ‘communities’ and to be itself diverse. It is also clear it cannot do this if it represents the BNP for the simple reason that the BNP wants to eliminate different ‘communities’ and diversity. Griffin has made it clear that he wants to whiten the BBC itself – with his comments about the black Friar Tuck on ‘Robin Hood’ for example and his booklet on Jews in the BBC. In other words there comes a point where total diversity breaks down. And that’s when there is a political party that wants to use the BBC in order to smash the very polity that is putting that party on air. It would be as if, I, believing in principle I should eat a variety of foods, also on that principle knowingly drink poison. ‘Ah well,’ I say to myself ‘I must represent poison in my diet. It is just another food, after all.’
No platorm for the BNP
You can’t “expose” the BNP on Question Time:
There is also no prospect of such a programme resulting in the BNP’s being ‘exposed’. It is said that since most BNP members can’t put together a coherent argument, they will easily be shown up and ridiculed. But they do not need coherent arguments. Most guests on Question Time do not have coherent arguments. It is a programme, like Have I Got News For You, or Mock the Week, in which the key is to have a good line at the right time. It is carefully choreographed and practised. What the BNP need, therefore, is carefully phrased incitements, presented in a plausible manner. The fascists have demonstrated on the streets and in previous media appearances that they are capable of this much. Even if they were as dumb as an American Idol contestant, there would still be no chance of their being ‘exposed’. The important things that would require exposure – the matter of the BNP’s record, its ideological lineage, the violence and criminality of its members, etc. – are points that require time, patience and evidence to explain. None of those assets are available on a panel quiz show.
Quite
The Beeb says any legally constituted political party is entitled to have its ideas discussed. The BNP’s sole idea is that the country should be run entirely on racial lines. So Question Time for the BBC: what the hell are you playing at that this should be entertained as a subject for discussion?
The BNP is not nor ever will be a normal party and the BBC should stop pretending it is. The BNP wants to ethnically cleanse the UK. This is not something that needs to be legitimised. And no, this is no an infringement of their freedom of speech:
The final faulty assumption, the one that is least convincing in my view, is that depriving the BNP of a platform constitutes an abridgment of their ‘free speech’. By no understanding of free speech that I am aware of is any person obliged to share a platform with a fascist organisation, or to offer one to its spokespersons. In fact, in recognition of the demonstrable threat that the far right poses to even minimal democratic norms of free expression, we actually have an obligation to frustrate the BNP, to obstruct their growth, prevent them from organising, and so on. But the ‘No Platform’ policy doesn’t even go that far: it clearly just asks people not to assist the BNP. It is only good manners.