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George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, made some remarks about immigration this week (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8442662.stm). They were discussed on today's The Daily Politics by presenter Jo Coburn, Fraser Nelson of The Spectator and Kevin Maguire of The Daily Mirror. Fraser Nelson thought Carey's remarks were brilliant, while Kevin Maguire was much less keen. Least keen of all was Jo Coburn, and she couldn't hide her disapproval.
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"I suppose one of the other points was this idea Lord Carey said, immigrants should have an understanding of the country's Christian heritage", she began. I'm sure many viewers thought "And quite right too!" - indeed, surely everyone who lives in the United Kingdom should know about its history (regardless of their own religious beliefs, or lack of them), just as anyone who emigrates to Morocco or Pakistan should have an understanding of their Muslim heritage. An uncontroversial idea then? Well, not according to Jo Coburn: "I mean that was quite a controversial thing to say" - and the way she said 'quite' suggests she really thought it was a 'very' controversial thing to say, and not in a good way.
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When Fraser said that, in order to beat back the BNP, "we need more people to be saying that in mainstream politics", Jo (whose expression strongly suggested disagreement) interrupted, and asked Kevin Maguire "Is it? I mean, is it helpful to say something like that?".
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Maguire brought up all the politicians - from Mrs Thatcher to David Blunkett - who'd used the BBC's bogey-word 'swamped'. Fraser Nelson seized on this to further his argument: "That's the only reason the BNP have got almost a million votes in this country, because people won't say words like 'swamped' now in the way that Thatcher did in the 1970s" (when she successfully beat back the National Front.) Jo Coburn did not look pleased at all, swinging the conversation back to Maguire with "But that is inflammatory language, isn't it? It's not the sort of thing you expect to hear from politicians, and should it be?" Maguire agreed.
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Good blog Craig.
ReplyDeleteKeep it up.
TPO
Thank you TPO
ReplyDeleteTPO
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen you on B-BBC for a while. I have been following Craig's blog for some weeks now and there is some great stuff here, so please join the party !
Hi Grant
ReplyDeleteWhen B-BBC changed to its new format I had a couple of attempts at logging in without success.
I'm still an avid follower of it and now I've found Craig's I'll be following this too.
Living in Canada now, my viewing of the BBC has dwindled to almost zero so I haven't really got that much to say about it
regards TPO
TPO
ReplyDeleteYes, the new B-BBC format is very annoying and the number of posts have dwindled.
I rather like the idea of Canada, but I hear that the tentacles of political correctness have spread even there.
I find that, when I am out of the UK, I don't actually give it much thought !
Grant
ReplyDeleteI live in Alberta now. The province has had a Conservative government for the last 39 years. We have the lowest GST of all provinces and regular tax rebates. As I'm typing this I'm sitting in my kitchen looking at the Rocky Mountains having just experienced another fabulous sunrise.
Have had a look at the morning papers online and come up with this from The Mail:
"The BBC smears a devout Roman Catholic European...no surprise"
http://synonblog.dailymail.co.uk/2010/01/the-bbc.html
TPO