ROBIN LEFTIG

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As detailed previously, Radio 4's The World Tonight has a good claim to be the BBC current affairs programme with the most pronounced left-liberal bias. In the next few posts I will be working my way backwards through the week's programmes, starting with last night's edition.
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This was presented by Robin Lustig.

The 'Copenhagen' features at the start of the programme centred on an interview with leading AGW-advocate Ed Miliband of the Labour government. This unchallenging interview earned Robin an I.C. of 0, not surprisingly. Then Andrew Harding filed a report from Mali, whose tone may be guessed from Lustig's introduction: "Well, if you want an example of what international financial help can do to help poorer countries confront the effects of climate change take a look at Mali in West Africa".
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The left-wing bias though really kicked in later, when Lustig discussed the contrasting approaches of the governments of the U.K. and Ireland to the current economic crisis. "Now there were two distinct approaches to getting out of an economic mess on view this week. Don't cut public spending too much or too fast was the British approach. Ensure that you're well out of the recesssion before you start trying to reduce government debt. But in Ireland the government sees it differently. £31/2 billion of public spending cuts, pay cuts of between 5 and 15% for public sector workers, a 20% pay cut for the prime minister".
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To say the programme took sides would be an understatement. "Would it work on this side of the Irish Sea? Well not according to Jack O'Connor of the Irish trade union SIPTU." Mr O'Connor was a 'talking head' and talked for 38 seconds, praising the British Labour government and condemning the Irish government.
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What happened next? Robin followed him with these words: "And these Irish street cleaners weren't too impressed either". Cue the only other 'talking heads', who also condemned the Irish government's moves (for 45 seconds).
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Is all Irish opinion opposed to their government's moves? Do opinion polls in Ireland show this sort of total opposition to the measures announced by the Irish government? Are The World Tonight's talking heads really representative of Irish public opinion, or only of Irish left-wing opinion?
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A discussion followed. "I asked Kevin Daly, UK economist at Goldman Sachs, and the journalist and historian Francis Beckett." Beckett is a true left-winger. Lustig did not mention any of this of course, but he's a Guardian, Independent, New Statesman-sort of journalist and a 'tribal Labour' sort of historian, who loves the unions and loves to bash the bankers.
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Mr Daly said something intriguing - that a large majority of Irish voters back their government's strong measures, according to the opinion polls (they are "very popular", he said) . If true, that flies in the face of what the feature's introduction was implying and suggests The World Tonight was trying to spin us a fast one. That the Irish government's strategy might be closer to that of an incoming UK Conservative government hardly needs saying.