Friday, January 15, 2010

The One Show's PPB On Behalf of the Labour Party


Nice to see the BBC's One Show doing the Labour Party's dirty work for it. Last night they showed a 5 minute film which might as well have been a Labour Party Political Broadcast. Click HERE and scroll in 14 mins 20 secs, and see what you think. They ask the question: Is David Cameron too much of a toff to be Prime Minister?

It seems I am not alone in thinking this went too far. There have been quite a few complaints on the BBC website. Each one that mentioned the film by Kaye Adams criticised it for being biased. The ubiquitous Kevin Maguire was interviewed, natch. The only people putting the opposite point of view were either stereotypes or there to be made fun of.

I hope that CCHQ willk be making a formal complaint.

UPDATE: Oh, and Kaye Adams, you're a hypocrite. In the film, she says she's a working class girl. The truth of the matter is that she went to a fee paying private girls school. Posh gob, or what? Is she fit to presenting a prolier-than-thou programme with a toff background like that? I think we should be told...

UPDATE: It turns out Kaye Adams lives in a £750,000 house in Glasgow and drives a £75,000 Porsche Cayenne. A working class girl, indeed. I just looked at her house on Google Earth. More like a mansion. That a toff might live in.

49 comments:

Libertarian said...

You looked a right twerp on the politics show. Defending the indefensible. Prepared to support Farage just so you can claim that the Tories, UKIP etc HAS to be in these groups. Wrong, as Sinclaire tried to tell you.

Then tweeting further disparaging rubbish. Anyone would think that Farage and Pearson and their UKIP mates were secret tories....oh hang on...

Anonymous said...

I have mixed feelings about whether or not to complain... it is wrong, but it's also absurd.

It's as useful as asking: "IWas John Prescott too much of yob to have been a MP?" and "Is David Milliband too much of a spineless ######## to lead a political party, let alone a country?"

Dame Davina Pancake said...

Hi Iain

Very well said - I spilt my cup of tea from the "green bottle" - and that doesn't happen without reason I can tell you. I have made a complaint to the BBC (well, as it was explained to me on probing, Capita - aaaaaghhh!!! Even the Beeb have outsourced to these a***hol*s).

Dame Davina Pancake. x

jennyblob said...

Why DC just calls the beeb bluff,tell sky and only sky that he will scrap the bbc tax and let them fend for themselves.The beeb will have to report it ,the beeb will have to justify the beeb,the man in the street will love it. A winner all round.The beeb cant make it worse than it is for DC,then the tories can say look how biased they are to us....

bnzss said...

The One Show. The Labour Party's Mouthpiece. All on the BBC.

Nightmare.

Anonymous said...

First they use the government budget, now the BBC! No wonder those bloody reds are so far ahead in the polls...

Oh. Wait...

mirthios said...

Anyone dumb enough to watch BBC television is unlikely to vote - probably unable to spell 'X' anyway.

Christian May said...

They pay David Tennant with our money, for 4 years, only for him to use the platform it gave him to make strong attacks against David Cameron, and now this. Typical, I'm afraid.

Still, I suppose we should be glad the One Show at least touches on politics rather than focussing all its time on funny shaped crisps and utterly pointless chit-chat with its own Z-listers...

mike slater said...

Ian, Thanks. I was so disgusted at the bias I rang the BBC to complain formally. I urge others to do the same

gordon-bennett said...

I wouldn't mind this sort of crap if they added something like ... "oh and by the way, Cameron got a First at Oxbridge and you don't get that just for coming from Eton".

Conand said...

Hello and welcome to The Shill Show. Today we'll be talking to Stalin's grandson about how wonderful his grandfather was. Then later on we'll be talking about mundane rubbish that you'll enjoy slightly less than the sound of fingernails on a blackboard. I think its time you switched channels.

Unknown said...

Stupid feature, but Kaye Adams came across as so ridiculous that I couldn't take it seriously.

And by showing a clip of Gordon Brown in the piece will remind viewers of what the ghastly alternative is to Cameron. So overall I didn't think it was too biased per se - more that the choice of the subject and the emphasis on Cameron was indicative of the thoughts of the producers of the show as a relevant topic.

Plato said...

Crikey Iain, I don't watch TV but had a look and it's appalling.

I could play Bingo with all the perjorative references about Tories - toffs, silver spoons, winged-collars and on and on.

The One Show blog is full of complaints - add yours too

Observer said...

The thing I like about the BBC is that everyone complains about bias, not matter what ''side'' they are on.

That proves to me that they are actually pretty even handed.

I'm an SNP voter BTW. They are biased against us too.

Unknown said...

Kaye Adams makes no secret of the fat that she is a Labour supporter. She often says this when she is on the Wright stuff.

wild said...

The vast majority of middle class Lefties work in the public sector. The broadcasting arms of the public sector is hardly going to be an advocate of the notion that people should have the freedom to opt out of subsidising them.

I bet that every single one of the regular Leftie commentators on your website lives off the taxpayer - with the exception of course of those who are directly employed by the Labour Party.

A Guardian reader is is essentially a parasite.

The more powerful the Leftist elite the worse the society. In extreme cases (such as the USSR & China & Korea & Zimbabwe) tax the general population actually starved to death while the Leftist elite troughed like pigs.

cynical academic said...

Friday afternon, put the kettle on and look at the RSS feeds for a break and 5 minutes later a damascene moment. It wasn't really the bias that changed my mind about the licence fee but the rubbish journalism in the first 2 minutes. "Privately educated millionaire burble next prime minister". That would be the winner of the last 3 elections then, one Tony Blair. It was just nonsense, scrapping the licence fee and BBC1 could not make TV in this country any worse. The fact that this was authorised for broadcast means that the BBC is already in the gutter. Twits.

Tom said...

That's a bit of a silly remark about David Tennant. That said someone needs to arrange him a visit to the Centre of Social Justice so he can see how ridiculously obscene his comments really were.

golden_balls said...

Did you see question time last night iain did you think DD kept the debate in good order. Did he favour certain speakers over others. Was he fair ?

Don't whinge or whine about it because it might just show you can't take criticism or any negative story.

Paul Halsall said...

The question " Is David Cameron too much of a toff to be Prime Minister?" seems fair enough to me.

In some respects the fact that the man benefitted from generations of inherited privilege can make him more personable that striving meritocrats (who are convinced they "earned" their position).

But whether personableness will produce a a good PM is open to question, especially given the historic willingness of conservatives to preserve privilege for those who already have it.

Unknown said...

I say to Cameron, and you guys, not to get played by Brown and Labour's negativity. Let them sneer, and let them hang themselves at the election.

Let Labour, and the BBC, expose themsleves for the morons they are by this Marxist propaganda.

Cogito Dexter said...

I'd never watch The One Show out of choice. Not since Adrian Chiles fronted a football show and, on camera, egged on a cameraman to zoom into a woman spectator's breasts, seemingly for his own fun and kicks.

I used to be fairly blasé about the BBC's bias - I didn't really notice it much, but it's been getting more and more in-your-face lately.

I barely watch anything on the TV any more - it's almost all dross, so I'd thoroughly welcome the scrapping of the licence fee. As digital TVs become more and more widespread, within 2 years or so we'll all have either TVs or decoders with a viewing card slot if we choose to use it to subscribe to the BBC if it goes down that route...

Make the BBC justify itself commercially: Doctor Who alone must bring in hundreds of millions worldwide...

http://cogitodexter.wordpress.com

Unsworth said...

The One Show has considerable form. Remember the disgusting Jo Brand mouthing off about Thatcher? Actively encouraged by that cretin Chiles. Take a look at the 'guest' list over the past year or so. That's remarkably revealing.

Still, it's entertainment innit?

Only if you're effing brain-dead.

Money Saving Tips said...

The One Show editor can reached here

doug.carnegie@bbc.co.uk

Max Atkinson said...

Looking at the universities attended by the next generation of Labour leadership candidates, the party (and/or the BBC) ought surely to think twice about playing the 'Toff' card:

Balls: Oxford
Burnham: Cambridge
Miliband (D): Oxford
Miliband (E): Oxford (samecollege as brother David!)

Nor are leading Lib Dems much different:

Clegg: Cambridge
Cable: Cambridge
Huhne: Oxford

Conand said...

On the next programme:

Is Alistair Darling too much of a toff to be Chancellor of The Exchequer?


Don't bet on it.

John said...

I think that remark "Marxist propaganda" is a very good answer to it. If it was repeated over and over I think it could stick.
It would remind people of Michael Foot, and CND.
"Same old Labour still are left wing"

wild said...

"The thing I like about the BBC is that everyone complains about bias, not matter what ''side'' they are on..That proves to me that they are actually pretty even handed."

The people who make that argument are almost invariably on the Left. I wonder why?

"I'm an SNP voter...They are biased against us."

Make up your mind!

strapworld said...

Iain, weel said.

With the news that the vile man McBride, was used in an internal BBC seminar alongside, so I read, Nick Robinson. I also read that Mandleson was there.

Then you go to Question Time last evening. If that audience was representative of the population then I am a Dutchman. Bits of kids making inane comments in support of Labour, plus yet another left wing foreign 'commedienne'? telling us how it is.

Then your blog on The One Show which I did not see.-I stopped watching after their disgraceful treatment of Carol Thatcher!

The BBC have obviously decided that they will continue playing the Labour Party tune up until the day the election is called. Then, by law they have to be 'impartial!

I hope David 'The BBC is a National Treasure' Cameron will fire an appropiate broadside to the overpaid and incompetent Director General advising him to sort his news operation out or he will do it if and when he is Prime Minister!

wild said...

"The question "Is David Cameron too much of a toff to be Prime Minister?" seems fair enough to me...given the historic willingness of conservatives to preserve privilege for those who already have it."

The "establishment" in the UK for at least the last 50 years has been generally Leftist - as you know full well.

To use your Marxist baby speak, they seek to preserve their "privileges" just as ardently as your fox hunting toffs ever did, all in the name of the people don't you know.

Gordon Brown said...

Speaking as someone who went to a Public School more expensive than Eton, I consider David Cameron practically on the breadline...... ;-)

But seriously, how long is this boring debate going to go on for? I think there was a similar debate on this on your blog Iain a few weeks back?

I honestly believe that many of these critical articles are based on envy. On the one hand they say that he is in a privileged position because of his background but if they had been lucky enough to go there themselves, they would keep quiet.

If you are against private education, then campaign on it as a political issue to remove their charitable status but don't get involved on a personal level.

It's like saying that someone is a Toff just because they once had treatment in a private hospital. No, they aren't, they just made that choice with their money!

Bird said...

Chiles has form on Labour bias.
He's the creep who shopped Carole Thatcher for making a politically incorrect remark in the Green Room.
By the way, if he's a good guy, why does he wear a stocking mask?

John said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sttc3FAPTkc&feature=PlayList&p=42D25E010AD657D5&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=32

Watch this and make your own mind up.

golden_balls said...

Having now watched the program.

How sensitive you public school boys are.

Your reaction will only spur Labour onto more class comparison between Toff DC and Labour.

DC is posh i'm sure people won't hold that against him. Don't make a mountain out of a mole hill.

Observer said...

wild - do you have an irony bypass?

The point I am making is that people from all sections of the political spectrum think that the BBC are biased against them.

That rather goes in their favour in my eyes.

Observer said...

I don't think people are worried that Cameron is a toff. It's just that there are so many of them, with the same background, on the Tory front bench that you would have to be a blithering idiot not to see a clique.

Just like in the Labour Party.

Andrew said...

I suppose everyone knows that Gordon Brown was born in a PRIVATE nursing home in Glasgow?
At a time when children in the same city were being born in despicable slums, there is no doubt that he was privileged.
The slum children if they had met him would no doubt have regarded him as a toff.
You think BBC London is biased? New Labour (BBC Scotland Branch)is way ahead.
wv=undies

wild said...

Observer, it is called a "contradiction". You seem to have a poor grasp of the English language. I guessing you did not go to Eton.

By the way if you are a cabinet minister you are ipso facto a member of the ruling elite. Personally I find the fact that Cameron was educated at Eton (one of the best schools in the country) a point in his favour. Then again I am not consumed by envy.

Observer said...

You think BBC London is biased? New Labour (BBC Scotland Branch)is way ahead.
------------
You see? Andrew illustrates my argument.

In Scotland it's called by many the EBC - the English Broadcasting Corporation.

Now you couldn't find two more diametrically opposing views than the English Tory and the Scottish Nat (I should know I am one of the latter, although I am actually a separatist).

And yet they both accuse the BBC of bias!

Unsworth said...

golden balls:

"How sensitive you public school boys are."

Does this buffoon know who he's talking of/to?

Who is this 'you'? Or is this the usual wild assumption?

wild said...

"they both accuse the BBC of bias"

It does not follow that because two people, with two very different political views, believe that the BBC is biased, that the BBC is therefore politically balanced.

The BBC ethos is social democrat not nationalist socialist. They believe in redistributing wealth into the pockets of Guardian readers, and are almost as much against people on the far left waving nationalist flags in working class areas as they are against "Tories" i.e. in Northern Irish Terms they are pro-SDLP and almost as anti-Sinn Fein as they are anti-Unionist.

Observer said...

Observer, it is called a "contradiction".
------------------
Irony bypass successful then!

I bet you got it off the NHS.

God bless us socialists, look what we have done for you.

Jimmy said...

"I bet that every single one of the regular Leftie commentators on your website lives off the taxpayer - with the exception of course of those who are directly employed by the Labour Party."

How much?

wild said...

"I bet that every single one of the regular Leftie commentators on your website lives off the taxpayer - with the exception of course of those who are directly employed by the Labour Party."

How much?

By the amount you get in your taxpayer funded pension each year obviously.

Number 7 said...

Personally, I don't have a problem with bias at the BBC - with one proviso:-

If the Liebore Party want their own TV Channel, no problem. However, would they please pay for it out of party funds instead of from the current system of poll tax.

golden_balls said...

Unsworth

after your outburst the other night

"Just speak for yourself. I really would prefer not be associated with your ravings.

I thought i was put on your ignore list lol

or is it only certain topics you care to debate.

Reading the comments everyone has gone ott regarding this program.

Graeme said...

Complain *about the BBC, certainly, but not *to the BBC. Only in the rarest of circumstances will the BBC ever find against itself, and then, only in the most grudging of terms, because its been dragged out of them over a long period of time.

The reason for such comprehensive left bias at the BBC is very simple. It is in the hands of subversives. It has been for so long, and they are so entrenched, that only a purge by Parliament will restore its once glorious impartiality that did Britain such proud throughout the world as a nation of integrity.

Instead of complaining to the BBC complain to your MP (if they're worth it, if not MP's liable to sit up and take action) and demand the Parliamentary action necessary to restore BBC impartiality. It is a threat to democracy itself. In a revolution, the first thing the revolutionaries do is take over the broadcast stations. They've taken over the BBC without firing a shot.

Be sure to copy in the BBC, certainly, that way they can't say they never get complaints, but make sure you stress how you have made a complaint elsewhere as you have no confidence in the BBC's integrity.

I remember in the late 90's I was in correspondence with a TODAY programme producer (David Irvine if memory serves right)about bias and he claimed they get as many complaints about pro-Tory bias as Labour. Thinking this somewhat improbable, I asked him to give me a breakdown of the figures. He claimed they "didn't have the resources" to do this. I suggested they employ a YTS trainee to put the pro-labour and pro-tory bias complaints into separate piles and count them, and copied the Rt Hon Peter Lilley MP into this request. He asked the BBC to be copied into the reply. It never came.

The sort of bias in the One Show comes because these people have utter contempt for democracy. Subversives like these should be excluded from the BBC. Think of it as a 'depravadisation' programme.

Unknown said...

Iain, when will the Tories finally admit the BBC must be smashed? It should be broken up and sold off or burnt down. I don't care which, but it must be totally destroyed.

Unknown said...

Much the same thing happened on the Daily Politics some weeks back - Brian Cox on 'Tory Party toffs' and the choice of being ruled by an 'elite'. Same time and money given over to prejudiced and vitriolic left-wingers to bash the Conservatives.