WILL 'ALWAYS HAVE WORK AT THE BBC' HUTTON AND CO.

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Back into the Tardis again for a trip back to Wednesday's Newsnight.
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As has been pointed out here and elsewhere, the BBC's unique take on the latest set of economic figures (which even The Guardian didn't put a positive spin on) led to this generally favourable introduction from Gavin Esler: "The unemployment rate actually fell a little in the last month and even better news the percentage of British people out of work is lower than that in other relatively wealthy countries in the Eurozone, but the number claiming benefits has gone up to the highest since Labour came to power in 1997."
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The BBC's obsession with left-wing think tanks was much in evidence in what followed. A report by Terry Stiastny (pictured, with friend) not only featured Dr Anna Coote of the red-green New Economics Foundation but also Ian Brinkley of The Work Foundation (formerly chief economist of the TUC from 1996-2006). Then, as if one Leftie from The Work Foundation wasn't enough, on came the omnipresent Will Hutton from The Work Foundation, to discuss the matter with Esler and James Caan of Dragon's Den. As ever, neither think tank was labelled as 'left-wing' by the BBC.
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When Mr Caan interjected a note of realism into all the Panglossian, pro-Labour (and anti-Tory) guff flowing from the mouth of Mr Hutton, saying "I think we're making too much out of these statistics. When you actually look at the statistics , we've only had a drop of 3000. When you've got a workforce of 20 million let's not get too carried away. I think when you're looking at temp...", Esler interrupted to say "It's better than going up though, isn't it, which we all agree?" Many of Esler's questions came from this same 'things are getting better' perspective.
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