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Given that The Only Rightwinger in the BBC Village Andrew Neil is such a force to be reckoned with on The Daily Politics, he is properly balanced by his various left-wing co-presenters. The show's producers clearly don't think that is enough though. There has been an interesting cast-list so far this year, with built-in left-wing majorities on most editions:
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5/1 Main guest: John Gaunt of The Sun
Stephen Timms (Lab)
Danny Alexander (LD)
Grant Shapps (Con)
6/1 Main guests: Lord Strathclyde (Con); Chris Byrant (Lab)
Will Hutton, Work Foundation*
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7/1 Main guest: Polly Toynbee of The Guardian
Tony McNulty (Lab)
Nadine Dorries (Con)
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8/1 Main guests: Kevin McGuire of the Mirror; Fraser Nelson of the Spectator
Ken Livingstone (Lab)
Joanne Cash (Con)
Karen Jennings (Lab)
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11/11 Main guest: David Hill (former spin doctor, Lab)
Danny Alexander (LD)
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12/11 Main guest: Alex Salmond (SNP)
Arlene Foster (DUP)
Alex Massey (SF)
Margaret Beckett (Lab)
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13/11 Main guests: Peter Hain (Lab); Charles Kennedy (LD)
Dr Hilary Jones, TV doctor
David Buik, market analyst
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14/11 Main guest: Greg Dyke (ex-BBC boss)
Don Foster (LD)
Bill Bailey (comedian)
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So far this is only a tendency. As for whether it becomes a militant one or not only time will tell.
I don't know if there is any way of finding out from the BBC or the Conservative party whether Conservatives are not being invited or are being invited and not accepting.
ReplyDeleteIt would then be possible to establish where the blame lies.
Naturally, the first assumption would be with the BBC.
The 13/11 DP I watched and was indeed Conservative-free. Although the excellent Nigel Farage appeared briefly at the end, Andrew Neil pretending to ask some tough questions on the Lisbon Treaty, but you just felt his heart wasn't in it.
PS On the same DP, Andrew Neil gave Hain a hard time about the Governments failure to prepare for the hard winter , saying " I am on record as predicting it months ago, but then I don't take any notice of Met Office forecasts ".
ReplyDeleteIt was classic !
I wonder if Andrew is too big a beast to be sacked ?
It is quite funny watching his, always female, always lefty, co-presenters faces when he is making points which they must disagree with. They just sit there with a sort of rictus grin- and- bear it look.
All great sport ! Just wish they would drop the damn mug !
Jo Coburns's face during that grilling of Peter Hain was a particular pleasure to watch!
ReplyDeleteOne of those Tory-free zones certainly was down to the Conservatives refusing to put up a Treasury spokesman. The BBC usually say if a party refuses to put someone up, so I suspect that this was the exception that proved the rule.