LICENCE TO BE BIASED

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STOP THE PRESSES!

SHOCK NEWS!

LABOUR PLACEMAN STARMER

ATTACKS TORIES - AGAIN!

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The World at One today featured a fifteen-minute interview by Martha Kearney of Labour's Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer. Shaun Ley's introductory words - both at the start of the programme and before the interview - spotlighted Starmer's rejection of Conservative proposals to tighten the law to protect homeowners from prosecution when defending themselves against burglars, as did the news bulletin. The interview itself was a pretty soft one, with most time going to Starmer's thinking on assisted suicide and, to finish with, a few soft questions about how he's enjoying the job and how he's coping with a new child (giving him the chance to creep to the ladies that his DPP job is much easier than looking after children. Typical New Labour guff.) Martha did ask him a few pertinent questions about his left-wing past but they were hardly asked in a spirit of hostility. Indeed, warmth was the overall tone of the interview.
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The interview gets a write-up on the BBC News website. Here's where my real beef lies. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8432678.stm (I note in passing that the report uses the word 'Tories' three times (and one 'Tory' for good measure) but the correct term 'Conservatives' only once.) Despite the fact that the website report says 'In the wake of the Hussain case, Mr Grayling had insisted that the Tories were not promising a "licence to kill a burglar"' the BBC's sub-headline reads (without any obvious justification) 'Licence to kill'!
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The BBC website is a sick joke, to which I should (and will) pay more attention.