It seems the election season has already started with the BBC showing its colours early.
After the Conservative party have turne d the mendacious debate of "Labour investment versus Tory cuts" (now earnestly denied by Labour but on Hansard from June 17th for all to see) into one of the need for cuts, Lord Mandelson, who is supposed to be an unelected minister responsible for trade, but now looks as though he is running the whole show and speaking about the whole of government, is going to make a speech later today.
Fair enough you might say, he's quite entitled to do so, and if he wants to release it to the BBC, well fair enough, they could report the fact that he is going to make a speech.
But they don't, at 7:40 the Today programme on Radio 4 pretty much reads the executive summary about Labour wisdom (you must remember that, the policy of borrowing 28% of all the government expenditure) and Tory savagery. No right of reply for the Conservatives.
Then they bring on the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress, who for the benefit of our foreign readers is not only a supporter of the Labour Party, but collectively by far their biggest funders. No right of reply for the Conservatives.
And at 8:10 they wheel out Mandelson himself, after a slightly sceptical introduction from Nick Robinson, to allow the Trade Secretary to give the ten minute radio version of today's propaganda message.
Did we then get an alternative view from the Conservatives? No, it's cut to a story about Dame Vera Lynn.
2 comments:
Kenneth Clarke was on shortly after Mandelson.
After Mandelson, 10 minutes of Vera Lynn and the news headlines.
The point is that Mandelson refuses to be juxtaposed with an opposition politician who might tear his arguments to shreds.
And the BBC is happy to comply, preceding the Mandelson interview with news headlines about a speech that hasn't actually happened and a reaction from the TUC before Mandelson has spoken.
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