THE NORMAN YOKE

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I was not especially impressed by Norman Smith (standing in for Carolyn Quinn) on Westminster Hour. (Laura Kuenssberg was much better.) He was reviewing a survey of the Top 20 political priorities of Conservative prospective parliamentary candidates with Tim Montgomerie of ConservativeHome.
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At the bottom of the survey, as Tim pointed out, comes "reducing Britain's carbon footprint". Norman Smith referred to this in his introduction, but he didn't say "reducing Britain's carbon footprint". He said, "On the plus side looking after the NHS is near the top, at number four - but on the glum side, saving the planet comes at the bottom of their list of priorities." 'Saving the planet'! (I think we know where he's coming from on the great man-made global warming debate).
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There's a world of difference in tone (and effect on the listener) between saying that Tory candidates don't think that "reducing Britain's carbon footprint" is a top priority and saying that "saving the planet" isn't important. The former merely makes them sound lukewarm on 'global warming', whereas the latter makes them sound like Bond villains!!

Norman Smith is positively Crick-like in his use of the word 'Tory' at the expense of the word 'Conservative'. He was at it throughout the programme. This is a 'tell', as cod-psychologists like to say.
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Here's another example of Norman Smith's apparent anti-Tory bias from another blog:
http://www.horgan.co.uk/2009/11/bbcs-norman-smith-holds-his-hands-up.html
And an example of Norman's seeming pro-Labour bias from another:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/davidhughes/100003341/the-bbc-just-loves-ian-gibson/
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