I see Richard Bacon is trying to whip up some anger among his Twitter followers over the fact that most of the new cabinet are privately educated white men. That would be the same Richard Bacon - white male - who went to Worksop College (current fees £5,015 - £7,400 per term). His boss at Radio Five Live - Adrian Van Klaveren, white male - was also educated at an independent school (Bristol Grammar), as were the following white male Five Live presenters - Nicky Campbell (Edinburgh Academy), Peter Allen (Brentwood), Stephen Nolan (Royal Belfast Academical Institution), Chris Addison (Manchester Grammar), Andy Zaltzman (Tonbridge), John Inverdale (Clifton College), Simon Mayo (Solihull), and Mark Kermode (Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School). There's probably more, but you get the idea. Anyone catch John Humphyrs "interview" with Andrew Lansley this morning on Today? Here it is if you didn't. The sneering patronising and hectoring tone is what we can now expect each time a member of the new Government is interviewed. The Labour attack dogs are located in Broadcasting House. Any idea of balanced neutrality is shot to pieces - the bit at the very end in particular is worth a listen.Question Time 13th May 2010
>> THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2010
For those playing the Buzzword Bingo, we'll be invoking the "BBC Spoiling Agenda rules update of 2010" which means that all attempts to sow discord amongst the new allies win double points. Mentions of Europe are wild, I agree with Nick places you in Nidd for a turn and players who score PR, Inheritance Tax and Trident in a straight line win a ticket to one of Richard Black's nosebleed-inducingly utterly fair and impartial conferences. Overall game winners receive two tickets and a complimentary sick-bucket.
TheEye and David Mosque are determined to ignore the opinions of their supporters and continue in a Moderating Coalition for a fixed term, which will begin at 10:30pm and finish when This Week ends - or when 55% of Parliament votes to dissolve the liveblog.Stones Thrown In R5L Glass House
And the BBC's online article "Why has Eton produced so many prime ministers?" quotes Old Etonian Nick Fraser, author of the book "The Importance of Being Eton". Strangely, there's no mention of Mr Fraser's day job - editor of the BBC's Storyville documentary series.
Update. Just remembered another one - Radio Five Live's racing correspondentCornelius Lysaght went to Eton.ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK.....
WHEN INTERVIEWS GO WRONG...
"Mosab Hassan Yousef is the eldest son of a senior Hamas commander. He was arrested by Shin Bet and beaten by three of their agents. He points out that this is not Shin Bet or Israeli policy, but the actions of individual agents who hate Palestinians. He has converted to Christianity and now works to save lives - Israeli or Palestinian. If that means informing on Hamas or Fatah operations he will do it. He blames the war not of Israelis or Palestinians but on ideology - specifically the Koran.
He was presumably asked onto Hardtalk on account of a book he has written. Zeinab Badawi persistently interrupted him, and tried to divert him from points he wanted to make to issues which she considered more important. Badawi is from a Muslim background, though whether she is a practising Muslim is not known to me. It was obvious that Yousef's criticism of Palestinians and Islam were getting under her skin. That Yousef should hold up a Koran at the end and blame it for the whole Israel/Palestine conflict must have shot a dagger through her multicultural spleen. Watch for yourself."
Thursday, 13 May 2010
The first post-election Question Time comes London.
On the panel tonight are Lord Heseltine and Simon Hughes for the Liberals, Lord Falconer for Labour, Melanie Phillips for all those who mistakenly thought they were voting for a right-of-centre government last week, and Mehdi Hasan, who may or may not be an 83 year old ghazal singer from Karachi.
A biased bbc reader writes...
Posts
