YOU AIN'T HEARD NOTHING LIKE THE FLIGHTY QUINN

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I've fumed many times before about Radio 4's Westminster Hour. The levels of bias to be found on this programme sometimes make even the Today programme seem like a model of impartiality in comparison.
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Carolyn Quinn 's handling of last night's politics panel was par for the course - odious!
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She began by making mischief for the Conservative panelist Ed Vaizey over his 'SamCam votes Labour' blunder. Then she got serious and began making mischief for the Conservatives in general, beginning the discussion proper with this question: "Now look, let's talk about the poster campaign tomorrow though Ed, Conservatives using their substantial election warchest, aren't they, with a poster war, really going for the jugular with a highly personalised attack on Gordon Brown?"
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I fumed about Carolyn pursuing this line of attack before. Labour have been engaging in savage personal attacks on David Cameron and George Osborne for years without being on the receiving end of such accusations from Carolyn Quinn.
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Ed Vaizey responded by denying it was 'highly personalised' and said the poster campaign is about Brown's record not Brown's personality - as indeed it is.
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Carolyn wasn't to be dissuaded and decided to plough on, asking Labour's excellent Tom Harris (and the words 'Labour' and 'excellent' don't often go together!) "Tom, what are you going to do to fight back when you see the Conservatives tearing lumps out of the prime minister?" Disappointingly for her, Tom replied "I wouldn't actually say that this is necessarily a personal attack on Gordon. Actually I kind of agree with what Ed has just been saying, that these are policy issues they're raising...But overall I don't think it's a personal attack but I don't think it's going to be particularly effective."
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Carolyn Quinn still wasn't going to be dissuaded and decided to plough on again, outrageously, asking"Matthew, do you think the public likes it what it gets personal like this?" Nothing was going to stop her from smearing the Tories!!
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This time she got the answer she wanted from the more-Labour-than-Labour Lib Dem treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott - a man who often has nice things to say about Labour and always has harsh things to say about the Conservatives. Oakeshott took the moral highground, calling the Conservatives 'sneaky', railing against 'punch-and-judy politics' and calling for a more positive campaign. When all this humbuggery had ended, Carolyn Quinn turned back to Ed Vaizey and asked in an incredulous tone "Ed, I thought initially that David Cameron wanted a positive campaign?" As I say, nothing was going to stop her.

Thankfully, both Ed and Tom then cracked up with laughter at Lord Oakeshott's expense. They know, as do I, that Oakeshott - that arch-baiter of Lord Ashcroft and the Tories - is a 'punch-and-judy' man to the core and that his prissy remarks were just pure humbug. They pointed that out, of course (humorously), not Carolyn Quinn. She was only interested in making mischief for the Tories.
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Ed then defended the Conservative strategy again.
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If you still remain to be convinced that Carolyn Quinn is one of the BBC's most biased presenters just read what she said next, to Tom Harris: "You've got this...you don't think it's a personalised
campaign. People will think it is a change of tack and a personalised campaign against Gordon Brown." Isn't that outrageous bias?

Now she did then go on to say "...but Labour want to focus the attention back on George Osborne, don't they? Don't they see George Osborne as the weak link?" You could say that after all that has gone before this is a belated attempt to restore an ounce of balance, making a link to a forthcoming 'highly personalised' attack by Labour (and you can bet that Labour's really will be a 'highly personalised' attack!). But note that she didn't explicitly make that point and that she, instead, asked about Labour's perceptions of George Osborne, inviting an attack from Tom Harris.
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When Tom, repeating in the process that he thought the Conservative posters were 'negative' but not 'personal', then talked of the 'unrelentingly positive' Labour campaign of 1997. Instead of countering this, Carolyn chipped in supportively "'Britain deserves better', wasn't that the slogan?" Tom then proceeded, as you would expect, to attack George Osborne (not too harshly though).
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When the issue of tonight's Channel 4 debate between Darling, Osborne and Cable came up, Ed Vaizey began to criticise Labour's record, saying "Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown sold our gold at the bottom of the market." This is one of the great under-reported scandals of this government. What did Carolyn Quinn interject here, with mock weariness? "Oh you're not going back to the gold sale again!!" Yes Carolyn, let's always go back to the gold sale again. She then tried to stop him continuing the point and when he continued on a different point barracked him again.
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Carolyn then went on to quote praise for Alistair Darling and later for Vince Cable. No praise for George Osborne of course ever passed her lips.
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She is something else.