Bbc

Thursday

Peter Hoskin

The laughter will have hurt Griffin

From our UK edition

There's only one question that counts now that Question Time has been shown: did it do Nick Griffin and the BNP any good? It's a tough one to answer. To my eyes, at least, Griffin embarrassed himself in front of the cameras - he was given scant opportunity to gloss over his more unsavoury views; he looked terribly uncomfortable whenever the debate ran away from him; and the other panellists scored most of the major points. But we largely expected that anyway. Griffin was always going to come under heavy questioning, and he was never going to have many friends in the audience. Like Fraser, I fear that much of Griffin's job had been done before he appeared in front of the cameras.

Fraser Nelson

EXCLUSIVE: What was said in Question Time

From our UK edition

First question on the Second World War. Is it fair BNP hijacked Churchill? Straw says in the war Britain defeated a party based on race like the BNP. The BNP defines itself by race - that distinguishes it from every other party. All other parties have a moral compass. Nazism didn't and neither does the BNP. We only won the First and Second World War because we were joined by millions of black and Asian people. Applause. Griffin then counters by saying Churchill would have been in BNP. He described Churchill as Islamaphobic by today's standards. "The government is giving up on British freedom," said Griffin. An audience member says the BNP are an absolute disgrace. For just one minute think of the benefits black people people have brought to the UK. "You are trying to poison politics.

Fraser Nelson

Word from inside Question Time: Griffin “humiliated”

From our UK edition

The first results from Question Time are landing. An audience member has just told me that Griffin  was "humiliated by the whole panel". All of them "did well", I am told. And  Jack straw accused him of being the Dr Strangelove of UK politics: a fantasing conspiracy theorist.

Sunday

Rod Liddle

The BBC shoots itself in the foot

From our UK edition

There was a very good piece by my colleague Martin Ivens in last week’s Sunday Times which asked how the BBC had come to estrange politicians of every party, along with most of the country. Ever willing to help, the BBC provided a partial explanation last week with two decisions of particular stupidity and crassness. First it let slip that it was advertising for a newsreader over the age of fifty – a cringeworthy piece of tokenism motivated by a barrage of complaints that the corporation has been guilty of ageism. Such an advert would, of course, be discriminatory itself and would not remotely address the issue of ageism. There would just be one older-than-average newsreader, instead of none.

James Forsyth

Was Marr right to ask Brown that question?

From our UK edition

Andrew Marr asking Gordon Brown if he was on anti-depressants was a real surprise. When I first heard that Marr had put this question to Brown, I thought there was a possibility that Labour aides had let it be known that the Prime Minister would like the chance to shoot down these rumours. But Brown’s reaction, suggests he wasn’t expecting the question. One can see why Marr asked the question: if Brown was on anti-depressants that could affect his judgement then the public has a right to know. It wasn’t in the public interest, as Andrew Marr seemed to acknowledge in his interview with George Osborne, that the BBC sat on the story of Charles Kennedy’s drinking. Also, one can argue that once the rumour is out there it needs to be dealt with.

Thursday

Alex Massie

BBC Asks for Increased Subsidy Shocker!

From our UK edition

Unsurprisingly, the BBC wants the government to increase the number of sporting events that have to be shown on "free-to-air" [sic] television. But it's hard to see why there needs to be any list of "protected" sport on terrestial television in the first place, let alone why that list should be expanded. Here's the BBC's argument: The BBC insists the protected list should be retained and its submission argues that "to limit access to those willing and able to subscribe to pay-TV would threaten the fabric of our sporting and cultural nation".

Wednesday

Alex Massie

The BBC Tries to Catch-Up with its Audience

From our UK edition

Apparently the BBC is finally going to show The Wire. Hurrah. Previously it's only been available on FX in Britain. Well that's all fine and dandy. But it's not as though the series was a mystery. It debuted in 2002 and has received rave reviews form critics for at least the last three years. And yet no BBC (or Channel 4) executive thought to buy it before now? Strange. Rum too that the corporation should wait for much of its target audience to have already seen the show before deciding to screen it themselves. Just about anyone who has purchased the DVD box sets (all five series currently lie in the top 12 box set chart at Amazon.co.uk) is likely to have lent them to someone else who will in turn have introduced yet more people to the show.

Monday

Alex Massie

Annals of Punditry

From our UK edition

Lord knows, we all blunder from time to time. Still, this is pretty impressive: "Each year, in my last Economic View before Christmas, I try to shed some light on economic events of the previous 12 months by comparing what has actually happened with expectations published here in early January. This year, even more than usual, reading back through January's predictions has been a shock. Almost all have turned out to be wrong". Anatole Kaletsky, The Times, 18/12/06."My last article of every year looks back on the predictions I made in early January to shed some light on the economic and financial events of the previous 12 months. This tends to be a humbling experience, and this year it is even more so than usual." Anatole Kaletsky, The Times, 31/12/07.

Saturday

Alex Massie

Annals of Punditry | 7 June 2008

From our UK edition

Euro 2008 starts today and happily we're spared the agony of watching Scotland play. The BBC are doing their best to persuade us that even a tournament "without England" might be worth watching even though most sentient people appreciate that England's failure to qualify actually enhances the tournament, especially for the TV viewer who might have an increased chance of intelligent, astute, imaginative, perceptive TV coverage. Not so fast my friends! Here's the BBC's Gary Lineker explaining why he thinks Spain can win the tournament: It is open, but I am going for those perennial underachievers in Spain...the feeling is that [the] team chokes, but they have done well in sports like golf and motor racing where they have shown they have the bottle.

Monday

Alex Massie

Good Day in Paris

From our UK edition

The BBC: Paris protests mar Olympic relay This, naturally, is entirely incorrect. The problem would have been if there hadn't been any protestors. Still, the BBC, which is sending more than 400 staff to Beijing, is heavily invested in the Olympics and keeps insisting that London 2012 is something to be jolly proud of whereas much of the population wished the IOC had handed the games to Paris instead.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Joke of the Day

From our UK edition

This could be the most risible thing one's seen yet from this risible government: The Labour Party has accused the BBC of bias towards the Tories. An official complaint has been lodged, claiming Radio 4's Today programme has given David Cameron an easy ride in recent interviews. A senior party official accused the broadcaster of coming to a "special arrangement" with the Conservatives to avoid any "difficult questioning" of the Tory leader. But it's also further evidence of something else: Brown's goose is cooked. This is the sort of desperate floundering you associate with governments in their final, failing days. It's not the action of a ministry bursting with important new ideas. This sort of thing has a very 1996 sort of flavour doesn't it?

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Athens to their Rome for sure…

From our UK edition

Sure, Fox and CNN are almost unwatchable (I'm tempted to switch to Al-Jazeera English) but the good folk at The Economist remind one that the BBC is perhaps even worse: 9:10 : Katty Kay (yes, that's really her name), a BBC anchor, pronounced Hillary Clinton the victor in Tennessee: this was especially notable, says Katty, because Al Gore lost the state in 2000, so it was a relief to see a Democrat finally win. You know, in a Democratic primary, that's probably going to happen. Pretty much every time.