I'm not very well today and off work - which is why I haven't been blogging - but I was so infuriated by a blatant piece of BBC propaganda that I've been moved to get out of my sick bed (OK, off the sofa) to comment on it.
It was on the BBC 1 o'clock news and the lead item was regarding the rate of inflation jumping to 3%. Two things struck me about the item. First of all was the way the BBC took the opportunity for a bit of Tory bashing - highest rate for 11 years they said (in other words, since the Tories were last in power). Then they referenced the time when Lawson was Chancellor and highlighted the rate of inflation back then - 10.9% I believe they said it was (it may have been for one month, but I doubt that the rate of inflation was that high over any prolonged period). Finally they referred back to 1979 - when Maggie Thatcher was in power, they said - and the rate of inflation of 29%.
What they didn't do at any time during this piece was point out that the rampant level of inflation in 1979 was inherited by Thatcher from the Labour administration and that during the Tory years the rate of inflation fell steadily to the point where it was running at around 3% and falling. The BBC were only too keen to point out how it had remained steady during Labour's reign - but did not consider it worth mentioning that the only reason for that - and it is the only reason - was the reforms and management of the Thatcher and, to a lesser extent, Major administration.
The failure of the BBC to point out the difference between the economic mess inherited by Thatcher and the steady affluence inherited by Gordon Brown as Chancellor demonstrates the complete lack of balance and impartiality of the BBC.
The second thing that annoyed me about the piece was the failure of the BBC to reveal the fact that the Labour government changed the way that inflation was measured - using what they call the Consumer Price Index rather than the Retail Price Index. The headline inflation rate they always refer to now is the CPI - but the RPI is always higher than the CPI. If you look at the ONS site here you will see that the RPI is currently running at 4.4% (and rising rapidly). The BBC economics editor, Evan Davies, even referred to the inflation rate as being based on the RPI - which it most certainly is not.
The whole piece was done in a such a way as to either knock the Conservatives or play down Labour's economic bungling and fiddling. The BBC is utterly incapable of being impartial - it is institutionally socialist and biased. As such it is no longer able to fulfil it's Charter and has no right to further public funding.
5 comments:
Hmmm... "politically correct"... I can see that you're a bigot then.
Quite frankly if you think that Blair is too "left wing" you must have a screw loose. Blair has ended thousands of innocent lives in his war, crushed the poor, driven down wages and ended democracy in the Labour party. What more do you want?! Oh YEAH - the right to bash gays as well!
So you think that being "politically correct" automatically disqualifies you from being a bigot? Apprently not.
Now, tell me where in this post I did I mention Blair being left wing?
Nowhere. I said the BBC was institutionally socialist and biased. If you think I'm right then say so - if not then tell me why you think it isn't. Don't come on here and make things up about me wanting to "bash gays".
Since you brought it up, Blair is left wing - only he is the sort of left winger that the left try to disassociate themselves with. You think because he starts wars or crushes the poor or destroys democracy he isn't left wing? LOL - what planet are you from? Ever heard of the Soviet Union? Stalin? No? How about Communist China? Mao? Ring any bells yet? In the hundred years or so since socialist doctrine became a reality rather than the imaginings of idealists like Marx it has been responsible for more deaths than anything else in that time - even Hitler - done more to destroy democracy in more nations than it's worth counting and generally been a disaster for the poor (that's if you consider being dead a disaster - I expect for millions that it came as something of a relief after years in the gulags).
Blair is centralist, statist and a believer in the doctrine that more government control and planning is the answer to everything. Except it isn't, because - as Hayek tried to warn us - the ultimate destination of centralist, planned socialism is totalitarianism - and that is just where we are headed under Blair (and the EU)
Hayek wrote that long before we were aware of just how true it was - it wasn't with hindsight that he predicted what would happen in the Soviet Union and China - it was foresight.
I don't care that you cling to your misguided views that socialism can work. It can't, it hasn't and it never will. However, you're still welcome to post your views and I will happily allow them - no matter how wrong I think they are. I'll probably hit back with a counter argument, but that's my perogative.
But I do care about people coming on here just to spout abuse at me. Your post reveals to everyone who the true "bigot" is - which is why I shall leave it up there for all to see.
People like you remind me why I write this blog.
So endeth the lesson.
Hope you fell better.
I mean't feel
Hello, Drew.
If you're wondering if I feel better for answering anonymous's (aren't they always) comment, then I have to say no - not really.
I find it depressing that socialists still close their eyes to what has been done in the name of their idealogy, but what is even worse is the way they think they occupy some sort of moral high ground even though, for so many of them, their idea of a riposte is to launch ad-hominen attacks on people they disagree with and slur them with their favourite labels - racist, xenophobe, homophobe, sexist or, as in this case "gay basher" and "bigot".
Thanks for your concern, anyway.
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