Another armchair report on the BBC, by Graham Smith

Tuesday 3rd October 2006.
BBC TV news at 6:00pm

Those of you who were among the 2,000 people said to be queuing outside in pouring rain for conference passes at some point over the past few days will no doubt have little or no sympathy with my relatively brief wait this evening. There was I at the stroke of six o'clock, pen and pad in hand, sitting in a comfortable armchair alongside a conveniently placed small table on which resided a cup of inviting beverage and a slice of my wife's mouth-watering fruitcake tantalisingly accompanied by a small piece of Red Leicester cheese.

Twenty-one minutes later, your increasingly somnambulant armchair reporter was gazing at his empty cup, and the accompanying plate on which a small scattering of crumbs could now barely be discerned, attempting to calculate how long the kettle would take to boil again when the newsreader's voice mentioned a phrase that he had longed to hear. Indeed a phrase that brought his mind back to a state of alertness comparable with the way cartoon characters eyes shoot out of their heads on long stalks. That phrase was "and at the Conservative Party Conference today..."

And so, for the third day running, BBC TV attempted fruitlessly to stir up a row over lack of firm Conservative commitment to a tax-cutting policy. They reported Shadow Chancellor George Osborne resisting calls for tax promises from Lord Tebbit and Edward Leigh MP, saying he would not write the Budget for 2009 now. This non-story is getting a bit long in the tooth and further lazy reporting saw Ceefax rerunning highlights of David Cameron's conference speech from the weekend.

However I continue to be encouraged by what is coming out of conference and the BBC TV report included some good clips. For example, the commitment to rebalance taxes to support families whilst providing particular help to single parents and George Osborne's clear statement of intent that lower taxes extend the space of freedom in our society and help people to take greater social responsibility over their own lives, and the lives of others:

"Surely we must have learnt from three election defeats this simple truth? We must win the argument on the economy.

We will never do that if people believe our tax policy comes at the expense of their public services. That will not happen.

"We will share the proceeds of growth between the lower taxes this country needs and the increases in spending on public services every government should provide.

"And we will never ever win the argument on tax - or anything else for that matter - if people fear for one moment that we might endanger the stability of the economy."

Meanwhile elsewhere in Britain:

• a 23 year old policeman from West Yorkshire has been crowned Mr Gay UK after beating 24 rivals to win the title;
• a glut of natural gas supplies in Britain has seen wholesale prices collapse and left traders having to pay for it to be taken off their hands; and
• Boris Johnson MP has sought to defuse the growing row over parental choice in school dinners by praising a millionaire chef saying, "Jamie Oliver is a national saint."

Comments

[malcolm]

Agree with your view of BBC coverage Graham.They are desperately trying to create a row that isn't there. Even the BBC didn't stoop so low as to try and make capital out of Osbornes reply to Mary Anne Seigharts' autism comment for which they do deserve a little credit. As for the Times...words fail me.

[James Hellyer]

The BBC gave ample coverage to Osborne's autism gaffe on Ceefax (where I only looked after they'd mentioned it on last night's ten o'clock news).

[Ben]

Just watched the BBC news at 10 and they are still flogging the story about tax cuts!

Also trying to expose the Tories new allies in the European Parliment as hard right loonies out in Czech Republic, combined with getting Blair onto Newsround/Blue Peter during our conference just highlights how the BBC has an obvious bias against the Conservatives.

[James Maskell]

A local Labour Councillor has blogged about the tax issue and relating it to the Tories...its so desperate its funny!

[RodS]

The BBC are increasingly predictable in advancing their own agenda and a travesty of Public Service Broadcasting.

I wish I had the courage to withold my licence fee - I gave it a good go last year but chickened out when the threatening phone calls started.

On Breakfast TV this morning they had a short interview with David Cameron and tagged on the end a question about Tesco's profits. David was careful to say that they were a great British company but there were concerns about supermarket payments to farmers and the decline of small shops. This was followed by an interview with Terry Leahey Tesco's MD who was told that the leader of the Conservatives was attacking his company. Leahey was too cute to fall for that and made an avuncular reply. Later on in the programme BBC took a clip of Cameron out of context and a clip of Leahey out of context and anyone watching would have thought that there was an all out row between them. Our licence fee continues to fund a left leaning propaganda machine.