Bingeing

Like Sue, I binged on politics this morning. It matters, it's fascinating, and it was still raining.

My ears, as ever, were listening out for bias and Paddy O'Connell's Broadcasting House decided to mock Andrea Leadsom for overusing the word 'clear'.

They had a dizzying montage of her saying 'clear' in their introduction and the 'feature proper' mocked her repeated use of 'clear' to the accompaniment of the kind of music I associate with late '50s/early '60s adverts showing women trying out soap powders.

Does she use 'clear' more than other politicians? I'm not at all clear about that. After all, the famous Jeremy Corbyn said 'clear' twice in his Marr interview today and the sainted Theresa May used the dread word three times in her last Marr interview.

Was this an example of some clever biased BBC type (who doesn't like her) spotting her using a word on a few occasions, finding it funny and then wangling it onto a receptive BH?

newspapers and Bingeingnewspapers

Like Sue, I binged on politics this morning. It matters, it's fascinating, and it was still raining.

My ears, as ever, were listening out for bias and Paddy O'Connell's Broadcasting House decided to mock Andrea Leadsom for overusing the word 'clear'.

They had a dizzying montage of her saying 'clear' in their introduction and the 'feature proper' mocked her repeated use of 'clear' to the accompaniment of the kind of music I associate with late '50s/early '60s adverts showing women trying out soap powders.

Does she use 'clear' more than other politicians? I'm not at all clear about that. After all, the famous Jeremy Corbyn said 'clear' twice in his Marr interview today and the sainted Theresa May used the dread word three times in her last Marr interview.

Was this an example of some clever biased BBC type (who doesn't like her) spotting her using a word on a few occasions, finding it funny and then wangling it onto a receptive BH?

Still (much to at least one of our readers' disgust), I have kept crediting Paddy for raising his game, impartiality-wise, in recent years (after his appallingly biased early years), and I'll give him a bit more credit here too - if not for the above!

The programme had been repeatedly pushing both the 'politics is too much for us at the moment' and the 'everyone's feeling down' memes this morning, and Paddy pushed them again during the paper review (and his reviewers followed suit).

Then (like in an old cartoon) a light bulb very clearly switched on inside his head and Paddy began saying that he was pushing this because even some of those who voted Leave were now feeling anxiety because of uncertainty over when Article 50 would be activated. He then pledged to find and put on air people (Leave types presumably) who are still feeling happy. I hope he does.

Meanwhile, over on BBC One...

The Andrew Marr programme's paper review sandwiched poor Tim Loughton MP between former Labour advisor Ayesha Hazarika and CNN's highly-opinionated (and rude) chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour. 

Mr Loughton is, as you'll doubtless already know, leading Andrea Leadsom's campaign. Ayesha and Christiane aren't fans of Mrs. Leadsom. I bet you can guess what happened? (Poor Tim.)

The picture the programme's website uses to illustrate the programme will give you a flavour of it:

Later came (i) David Davis (on (a) to call for Tony Blair's head and (b) to back Theresa May), (ii) leading Leave/UKIP supporter Arron Banks (backing Mrs. Leadsom) and, finally, (iii) the famous Jeremy Corbyn (backing himself).

On how Andrew Marr dealt with David Davis over Theresa v Andrea, I'll just quote the questions he asked:

Now, you clashed with Theresa May a bit in the old days over civil liberties and other things.

You�re now backing her campaign. We�ve talked a lot about Andrea Leadsom, she�s a fresh face and so forth. Do you think that she is fit to be a British prime minister?

So people talk about the glass cliff, not the glass ceiling. But you take a women into a really difficult position and there�s a cliff and you push her off it. 

And you think she�s just a bit lacking in experience?

I was expecting fireworks with Arron Banks but they never came. Both sides treated each other with cautious respect. Andrew, inevitably, raised the issue of the 'worst poster ever', but he didn't make anywhere near as much of it as, I suspect, Evan Davis or James O'Brien would have done:

Andrew Marr: I guess, if there was one moment or poster which crystallised people�s worries about the Brexit side of the argument it was that Breaking Point poster with the migrants leading up, and Nigel Farage. Do you regret that in any way?

Arron Banks: I wasn�t really involved in that. That was a UKIP matter.

Andrew Marr: Did you think it was a mistake?

Arron Banks: I didn�t think it was a mistake. I think that in terms of the referendum it was very much the economy versus immigration, and I think it put immigration right at the forefront of people�s thoughts. I thought it was not a mistake at all.

As for Jeremy Corbyn, well, I don't think it was a 'toughie' (to put it mildly) but JC took exception to AM's line of questioning from the word go:

Andrew Marr: Now all this started with reaction to the Brexit vote, so a very, very straight forward question if I may to start with. Which way did you vote in that referendum yourself?

Jeremy Corbyn: Remain. I�m surprised you even ask the question.

Andrew Marr: Well I asked it because quite a lot of people around you suggested that you had never been a supporter.

Jeremy Corbyn: Nobody ever suggested I was going to do anything other than vote Remain, and I think you�re very well aware of that.

Despite that, the Bearded One generally seemed very relaxed, chipper even, throughout.  

And an even-more-heavily-bearded individual appeared at the end - the lead singer of Miracle Legion, a group I'd never heard of before (and who sound agreeably REM-like to me): 

newspapers and Miscellaneous observationsnewspapers

There�s a bit of a �grateful for small mercies� flavour to some of the responses to Shami�s antisemitism report. John Mann and Jonathan Arkush both seemed reasonably satisfied with it. 

We�ll have to see how Keith Vaz and his merry men handle it tomorrow.

Incidentally, Ed Stourton began the interview by mentioning the death of Elie Wiesel.

The BBC�s obit was respectful, but the early morning reports of his death on radio 4 bulletins - not so much. For some reason they shoehorned something about Wiesel�s critics (who doubted the enormity of the Holocaust) into the report  Work experience guys on night duty I suspect.

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Did you read Fraser Nelson�s review of Andrew Marr�s interview with Andrea Leadsom? 

He called it a �scratchy job interview� (I wonder if Speccie writers make up their own headlines) I didn�t think it was scratchy at all - at least any scratchiness came from the direction of the interviewer rather than the interviewee. 

This business of trying to destroy �Leave� people by bashing them over the head with a wet Nigel Farage is beginning to grate. The media has managed to toxify Nigel Farage so that letting slip the merest whiff of agreement with anything he�s ever said or done is to commit virtual suicide by association. The very mention of �That Poster� is enough to trigger sufficient unsafety to reach outer space. My god. It�s almost like �Settlements� 

Mention �Settlements� and you�re finished.  Poleaxed by misdirected outrage.

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My constituency MP, minister for DEFRA, has come out in favour of Michael Gove. Good for him. 

The media has been really mean to Gove, amplifying the back-stabbing label for all it�s worth. I actually believe his version of how events panned out with Boris.  As Gove says, Boris could have stood if he really wanted to. The downside of it all is that it reveals a lack of judgment on Gove�s part - or at least a prolonged case of hope triumphing over experience.

I think the media despises honesty whenever they suspect an MP is suffering from it. They want their MPs to be back-stabbing, ruthless and robotic. I don�t know why. That�s my honest opinion and, for now, I�m sticking to it.

newspapers and A marker for 'Marr'newspapers

Continuing with the Andrew Marr theme for a little longer...

In fairness to the Corbynistas, I think Len McCluskey was given quite a tough grilling by Andrew Marr this morning and that, in contrast, Lord Kinnock, repeating his plea for Jeremy Corbyn to go, was given an extremely easy ride. 

And (forgetting about the Corbynistas now) the Andrea Leadsom's interview was tough too. 

It began with a bang by quoting something she said three years saying that Brexit would be economically disastrous - clearly following the lead of the pro-Remain, pro-Theresa May Mail on Sunday whose absurdly OTT headline 'Hypocrite!' was an explicit attack on Mrs. Leadsom. Mrs. Leadsom's reply was that, having lead a major piece of research into the EU, the evidence of the EU's failings and unreformability had changed her mind. 

Now if Andrew Marr is to avoid accusations of being an 'Establishment tool', his next interview with Theresa May had better be a very tough one. 

Her own "low-key" behaviour during the referendum debate is open to a similar line of questioning to that which Andrew Marr gave Michael Gove. Was she playing a Machiavellian game?

Plus there are all those question raised by that devastating critique of Mrs. May's record by Jonathan Foreman - the piece pulled by the Telegraph allegedly after pressure from supporters of the Home Secretary.

If Andrew Marr goes soft on her and doesn't hammer away at these kind of concerns then charges of being an 'Establishment tool' might start to stick (even more).

newspapers and Birnam Wood comes to a BBC studionewspapers

Andrew Marr: "My voice is in my sword; thou bloodier villain than terms can give out"

Did you see Andrew Marr's extraordinary interview with Michael Gove? 

A reporter from Buzzfeed did and then tweeted, "I can't remember a more brutal Marr interview. #Gove".

I can't remember a more brutal one either.

Looking at the immediate reaction, admirers of Mr. Gove were appalled while enemies (and former admirers) of Mr. Gove were delighted. 

There have been lots of unkind references in recent days to Mr. Gove being Macbeth, with his wife Sarah cast as Lady Macbeth, Boris as Banquo and David Cameron as King Duncan. 

Well, Andrew Marr seemed to be playing the part of Macduff this morning. His opening words to Mr. Gove could have been, "Turn, hell-hound, turn" and, after the plug for Sunday Morning Live, he might very well have re-entered with Macgove's head.

Of course, the maddest cybernats and Corbynistas weren't having any of it. Here's one example of their kind of tweet this morning: 

Gove getting loads of time to spout his propaganda.  But McCluskey got a load of hassle   #Marr

Anyone watching that interview who still thinks Michael Gove got "loads of time to spout his propaganda" needs to seriously stop smoking whatever they've been smoking. 

This was a sustained assault on Mr. Gove's character and judgement by Andrew Marr and Andrew reacted to Mr. Gove's justifications with expressions of deep scepticism. Very little time was spent on Michael Gove's policy platform.

This counterblast to the usual Twitter crowd says it all:

If Marr had just grilled Corbyn like he did Gove, there'd be 100 petitions for his (Marr's) resignation by now complaining of BBC bias #marr

newspapers and John Simpson sounds offnewspapers

This week's New Statesman is a post-referendum 'special edition'. 

Among its contributors are three senior BBC journalists/presenters - Andrew Marr, Nicky Campbell and John Simpson. 

Andrew Marr's piece - "How a monumental establishment cock-up led to our biggest act of democracy" - is an expansion of his 'editorial' on last week's Marr programme. He even quotes Chesterton's poem containing the famous lines, "For we are the people of England, that never have spoken yet." The 'new' thing here is his latest prediction for where we're heading politically:

My guess is that parliamentary chaos and an overwhelming sense of drift at the centre of politics will propel us into an election later this year or early next year. If so, that will mean that, tactically, the Brexiteers, who don�t want to trigger Article 50 just yet, must do so before the people are asked for their view again. [He seems to be presuming that the people are likely to give a different answer]. 

And, of course, if it turns out that George Osborne�s blood-curdling warnings about jobs and investment turn out to be even half accurate, then those same cheerful gentlemen will have many personal apologies to make to people who do lose their jobs, or see prices rise and their pensions fall. There is plenty of anger still to come.

Nicky Campbell's piece shamelessly sings the BBC's own praises. He claims that everyone at Radio 5 Live wasn't remotely surprised by the result of the referendum. Why? Because of what's been happening during phone-ins. Up until 23 June, the fervour was coming from the Leave side. After 23 June the other side became fervent too. The Radio 5 debates have been great. "We pride ourselves on reaching far beyond the confines of metropolitan England," he says. (Self-praise is no praise, Nicky). 

Both Andrew Marr and Nicky Campbell are careful not to sound like the kind of BBC types that 'people like us' are meant to imagine. John Simpson - that great, veteran 'voice of the BBC' - doesn't give such concerns even a moment's consideration and it's not hard to guess how he voted in the EU referendum.

I think I need to quote at some length here (though it's only a fairly small part of a long piece): 

Forty-one years later, the sheer nastiness and mendacity of the 2016 campaign was, by contrast, stunning. So was the careless way many people wandered into the voting booths to vote on the entire future of their country. �Oh yes, I voted Leave,� a specialist at a big NHS hospital told me. �Well, I couldn�t make my mind up, it was all so complicated, so I plumped for No because I thought it�d make life more interesting.�

An opinion poll carried out immediately after the result was announced indicated that seven out of ten Leave voters hadn�t thought the referendum mattered very much. In comparison to 1975, we seemed to sleepwalk our way to a decision that could have the utmost consequences for the lives and prosperity of our children and our children�s children. �I hate the f***ing old people of this country for what they�ve done,� an engineering student at a notably gloomy street party in Oxford said to me afterwards. Another explained in some detail how the funding of six graduate students he knew would be cut off almost immediately. All of them, he said, would now apply to US universities for jobs there.

We didn�t appear unduly shaken by the murder of a young and immensely promising MP by someone apparently stirred up by the issue. �Britain first� or �Put Britain first�, he is alleged to have shouted as he shot and stabbed Jo Cox to death. To him, it seems, she was a traitor for wanting to remain in Europe.

In the two centuries since 1812, only eight MPs have been murdered � six of them by Irish republican fanatics, one by a lunatic. Jo Cox seems to have been the first MP to be killed for personal, reasoned views. Did this change the campaign? A week later, she seemed almost to have been forgotten. When the news of his victory came through, Nigel Farage had put the memory of her murder aside to such an extent that he could say the referendum result was a revolution achieved �without a shot being fired�. He apologised later, but perhaps it showed how far from the forefront of his mind the atrocity had been.

We know where such views 'come from', politically-speaking, don't we? They come from a standpoint similar to that of Mr. Simpson's near lookalike, Lord Chris Patten. They also come from a standpoint that many if not most of Andrew Marr, Nicky Campbell and John Simpson's BBC colleagues are likely to share. 

John Simpson surely is 'the voice of the BBC'.

newspapers and Andy's Final Thoughtnewspapers

Sticking with the Marr programme, I was heartened that the news bulletin noted the anniversary of the Islamist slaughter of 38 tourists - including 30 British tourists - in the Tunisian resort of Sousse but, disturbingly, the bulletin avoided any mention of Islamism.

It merely described the terrorist atrocity as being an event where "a lone gunman went on a rampage".

Is the BBC retreating on reporting that story honestly too?

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Andrew Marr then teamed up with Andrew Neil to deliver a striking joint 'op-ed' on the EU referendum (prior to the paper review).

Neither said anything that hasn't been said elsewhere a thousand times already, but both - especially Andrew Marr - delivered it with feeling, as if it was 'something worth listening to'.

So let's listen to what Andrew Marr said...

His main point was that Britain is "deeply divided" and "not one country". There's a "yawning gap", he said, between "the posher, better-educated, richer" parts of the UK and "the huge swathes of post-industrial, ex-mining and struggling fishing and agricultural Britain".

So much, so gloomy.

Today's campaigners aren't to blame, he continued. We've been declining for the last 50 years. "Under our last 5 prime ministers we became a shopping nation" (thus, by counting back, locating the problem as starting under Mrs Thatcher). London prospered but the political and media class ignored "industrial Wales, the Black Country and struggling coastal towns", which became "ever poorer, ever more desolate".

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(Thank God he didn't mention Morecambe by name when talking of "struggling coastal towns"! 

We're, of course, not struggling in the slightest here in Morecambe, and not remotely desparate. We're on the rise again. 

Please, please, PLEASE come and visit us. I beg you, on bended knees, PLEASE!

We've got lots of excellent new restaurants, a lovely upgraded promenade and stone jetty, the relaunched Art Deco Midland Hotel (as featured in ITV's Poirot), some provocative rusty modernist architecture, a splash park to delight the kids (near to where Blobby Land used to be), new play areas to delight the older kids, several tattoo parlours, the Eric Morecambe statue (on a par with the Angel of the North and Nelson's Column), lots and lots of car parks, a Brexit-supporting Wetherspoons named in honour of Eric Morecambe, and spectacular views - from many angles - of Morecambe Bay, the Lakeland hills and the Pennines. What's not to love?

Mr Marr should holiday here in Morecambe. 

And so should Polly Toynbee, if she can even bear to tear herself away from her beloved Tuscany. I'd happily let her call me a bigot. I'd even buy her an �8.50 ham-and-pineapple pizza at Frankie and Benny's to make her feel as if she was back at home in her former Italian villa).

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Mr Marr then talked of the "waves of migration and globalised culture" that "washed among us, eroding our sense of self". The change of "colour and language" left "older people bemused and cut off", he said.

The influx of "eager, white, hard-working" East Europeans "alarmed" the poor parts of the country. The "self-confidently multi-ethnic, liberal, urban class" was "having such a good time they barely noticed".

He went on: "London spoke a lot but didn't listen. Well, it's heard now. This has been the rebellion of the diminished against the cocky, the ignored against the shapers of modern times, and the struggling against the strutting."

His concluding passage, delivered with a rhetoric flourish, said: "We are still today a lucky country, able to fashion our own future and with a wonderful history. But we are also divided, full of bad feelings and in choppy seas, still searching around for a rudder."

******

I might have been brainwashed by BBC bias here, but I can't find much to disagree with there...

...though the language suggests a typical 'liberal' struggling to be 'honest' in the face of a massive 'shock'. 

And the polls have long suggested that concerns about mass immigration extend well beyond "older people". 

Plus, naturally, I thought he was describing his own circle - including much of the BBC - in his description of the "cocky", "liberal" urban class, and wished he'd admitted as much.

But you probably can't have everything, can you? (Can you?)

newspapers and Unusual things on 'Marr', and that 'Sunday Express' lead story about Turkey and the EUnewspapers

This morning's Andrew Marr programme did a couple of unusual things during its paper review: 

The clip mentioned in the second tweet there was of Boris a few years back saying that Turkey should be let into the EU and that it's not right that they should be excluded, especially just because they are Muslims.

Both of those things did happen and both of them are unusual. 

Somewhat more usual, however, was Andrew Marr doing a spot of impromptu editorialising and describing the Sunday Express's take on the possibility of huge numbers of Turks moving through the EU to the UK as "much more extreme".

That same headline really isn't getting 'a good press' from the BBC today. Roger Johnson on BBC Breakfast earlier felt the need to add "Of course Turkey is some way to joining the EU yet" after reading it out, and BBC Middle East correspondent Quentin Somerville gave it the full BBC Twitter treatment (albeit pithily), echoing the head of CAABU: