OFF THE RAILS

I invite you to compare the treatment afforded to Justine Greening here with that given to Maria Eagle here on the topic of improving the rail network. Now I am no fan of LibDem Greening but I thought she was harried and bullied during her interview whereas the not so  lovely but very left Maria was allowed to snipe and attack the Coalition in unhurried splendour. By the way, the irony of John Humphrys having a go at the Rail Network because of taxpayer provided subsidy amused me. £3.5BN a year, John, forced from everyone with a TV?  Plank in your own eye…..

THE RELENTLESS DRUMBEAT

Day in Day Out, some within the BBC produce a relentless drumbeat to accompany the narrative that the Coalition is wrong in everything that it does. Take these consecutive items ran on Today this morning. First up is the a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)  which claims that the government’s public sector pension reforms are unlikely to save money in the long term. It looks like we just have keep finding the unaffordable. Then comes the item that the government’s plans for NHS reforms have damaged and destabilised services. So, leave the dysfunctional NHS alone. This monotonous criticism of everything that the Government tries to do must be joy to Labour but hardly the mark of a balanced broadcaster.

PRESSURE DROP

There was an interesting story on the news this morning about the best way to diagnose people to see if they suffer from high blood pressure.

A quarter of patients may find visiting a GP stressful, leading to misdiagnosis and being given drugs they do not need.Patients in England and Wales will be offered extra checks using a mobile device that records blood pressure over 24 hours, says the watchdog NICE.

The BBC response? Can this be afforded because of the dreaded (but imaginary) cuts?

COALITION WARS

The BBC is salivating at the tension created by the vote on Tuition Fees that comes later today. Listen to Nick “Mr Impartial” Robinson fantasising about how there might yet be a revolution in the Commons to stop the vote going through. I find it entertaining that the BBC consistently ignores the fact that it was Labour that introduced Tuition Fees, that is was Labour that opened up the floodgates of students tumbling into University so creating an inevitable funding crisis, and that it is Labour that now preens as gross hypocrites. But no debate on that.

ON THE STREETS

Don’t know if anyone else watched Newsnight but it’s almost as if the BBC are annoyed that the UK trade unions have not taken to the same level of street violence as we see in France. Quite remarkable, and running close to incitement to riot. Did you see it?  

SAVAGE CUTS AND POOR MEMORIES

You would think that all good Guardianistas would have better memories. On “Today” this morning, Justin Webb got stuck into Nick Clegg with the repeated attack line that he had changed his mind on what was needed to fix the economy. As a Biased BBC reader reports… 

Britain needs ‘savage’ cuts, says Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.

Patrick Wintour and Allegra Stratton The Guardian, Saturday 19 September 2009

LOOKING FOR SPLITS

You should listen to this interview with Lord Howard which took place this morning on the BBC. I think he handled it very well when it became clear that Sarah Montague had only one real agenda item – to get him to attack Ken Clarke. You could feel his exasperation at the way in which he was being constantly invited to condemn Clarke and the fact that he actually praised the specific initiative clearly irritated Montague. Well played, Lord Howard! The BBC, Montague included, seem unable to comprehend that crime falls when you lack up criminals.

SAINT VINCE VS THE OBAMESSIAH

I bet the BBC agonised over this one. In essence they had to choose between Vince Cable (previous BBC icon before he entered the wicked coalition) and Obama (perma-BBC icon) over the issue of State support for scientific R&D. Cable, sensibly, has pronounced that funds should be directed towards R&D excellence which has practical transfer. The BBC contrasts this with Obama’s extension of tax cuts on business R&D. BBC were quite strident in their opposition to the Cable model whilst implicitly supportive of the Obama model. But being the BBC means never being able to say the whole truth so they left out the tax rises on business that Obama is also introducing. Not quite the story put across by the BBC.

COALITION TO BRING BACK CHIMNEY SWEEPS?

With the electorate having engendered the wrath of the BBC for daring to throw out Labour. it’s only natural that every story be taken and given a twist that puts the knife into the evil Coalition. And so it is that on an item on an exhibition of life in the Victorian workhouses, there is the suggestion that “in a way” this is what the Coalition is proposing bringing back. Next week – Cameron to send kids up chimneys?

NOT ALL LIB DEMS ARE EQUAL!

I am far from being a fan of the Coalition government (being way too blue in tooth and claw, so to speak) but you have to give credit where it is due and so the fact that it has hung together for a 100 days and tackled some big issues is commendable. But, obviously, the BBC is not going to happy about any of this. It wanted a coalition but one built on the political left, as we covered in these pages back then, What it got was not what it wanted and so it, like Labour, has gone into opposition mode. That means it will give extra spotlight on those who seek to see the Coalition unravel, be they Conservative, Labour or Lib-Dem. This explains the weight it has given to the warbling of Simon Hughes this morning. It explains the attention given to Ming the Mindless yesterday. The idea is to cause a split within Lib-Dem ranks that can then detonate into the actual Coalition. Labour is the broadcasting arm of Labour. And we fund it.