LANSLEYS TO THE SLAUGHTER AGAIN

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This lunchtime's Politics Show saw a real ding-dong that set Andrew Lansley for the Conservatives against Labour's Andy Burnham, Lib Dem Norman Lamb and presenter Jon Sopel. The issue was elderly care and Mr Lansley was ganged up on in a way that Conservative spokesmen seem to being ganged up on by the Lib-Lab pact and the BBC these days on a pretty regular basis. Andrew Lansley tried to give as good as he got, talking over everyone else in a clear attempt to stay afloat. He didn't win through though. Sopel's interruption coefficients here were 0.7 for Mr Burnham (5 interruptions), 0.8 for Mr Lamb (2 interruptions), and 2.1 for Mr Lansley (13 interruptions).
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This bust-up is reported on the BBC News website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8514762.stm
Here our biased Beeboid friends treat us to their highly partial take on the encounter. The views of Andy Burnham come first, then Norman Lamb and, thirdly, Andrew Lansley. Direct quotes from all three are given. Those of Mr Lamb are the most bountiful, followed by Mr Burnham with Mr Lansley predictably lagging in third place. The story is, thus, shaped for maximum anti-Tory effect.
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The language of the piece shows that it was written by an anti-Tory Beeboid: "But Mr Lansley admitted the "RIP" poster about Labour's plans had been based on a story in the Guardian newspaper, which had been denied by the government." (Fancy the BBC disrespecting its ideological soulmate The Guardian!)
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The article also features this passage, which scores a genuine bullseye against the Conservatives and suggests that its writer is not merely anti-Tory but also a Labour supporter: "And Shadow Education Secretary Michael Gove has also weighed in, with a personal attack on Andy Burnham. Mr Gove, who is two years younger than the health secretary and has been an MP for less time, told BBC One's Andrew Marr programme Mr Burnham was a "young politician, idealistic, but he has a lot to learn." That is the sort of thing I'd have liked to have written about Andy Burnham! Kudos to the Labour-supporting Beeboid for writing it! No kudos to the Labour-supporting Beeboid, however, for the anti-Tory bias of the report as a whole, as the BBC is supposed to be impartial!
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