MANIFEST(O)LY BIASED

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A comparison of how the BBC's live election blog covered Labour's manifesto launch yesterday and the Conservatives' manifesto launch today reveals that prior to Labour's launch there were no criticisms of Labour's plans from 'outside' groups, only non-judgemental foretastes from the BBC's Iain Watson. Before the Conservatives' launch though came this:
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0956: Shortly before the Conservative manifesto launch, a lobby group representing many of London's biggest employers has criticised the party's plans on immigration. Chief executive of London First Baroness Valentine says she's "very concerned" a cap on skilled non-European Union workers would undermine the capital's competitiveness.
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Similarly, during the blog's coverage of Labour's launch there were no negative opinions from outside, but during the reporting of today's Conservative launch we got this:
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1148: Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley pledges to give power back to doctors and nurses - again if they accept the Conservative invitation to take it, of course - and to "revitalise" the NHS for the future. But just before he spoke, health think tank the King's Fund criticised the Tory
proposal to stop the forced closure of accident and emergency, and maternity wards. New chief executive Prof Chris Ham says: "You can understand why politicians want to reassure the public about access to services, but the evidence is clear. There are long-term trends affecting all parts of the NHS that mean some services are concentrated in fewer hospitals."
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Mr Ham has been all over the BBC in recent days (as commentors on the Biased BBC blog have noted), criticising the Conservatives and praising what Labour has done for the NHS. A little research suggests why:
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Chris Ham joined HSMC in 1992 and was Director between 1993 and 2000 when he was seconded to work in the Department of Health's Strategy Unit. He became Director of the Strategy Unit in 2001 and worked with Ministers on the development of health policy and the reform of the NHS.
http://www.hsmc.bham.ac.uk/staff/Ham.shtml
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He's hardly going to criticise reforms he helped Labour devise!
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All the speeches made at the Labour launch were described in straight, business like terms. There's nothing like this from today: *
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1128: William Hague, with his singular intonation, kicks off the Tories' launch before handing over to shadow chancellor George Osborne, complete with blue tie.
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"Singular intonation" indeed! (That said, it's a phrase I think I could be re-cycling the next time I refer to Neil Kinnock!
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Also, during the coverage of Labour's launch no BBC reporter tweeted anything that could do them any harm. Ah but today, just before David Cameron was about to speak, there was a twitter that has a point it wants to make:
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1153: The Conservative manifesto is already available for download from the party website. The BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones has run it through the Wordle website and turned into an image. It appears the major themes are: People, Government, New and Change. The word Cut is there - quite small, and squeezed between Change and New.
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For any Shakespeare fans out there, the difference in treatment here can be compared to Labour being getting the chance to make an uninterrupted soliloquy while all the Conservatives were given was a speech peppered with asides from hostile characters.
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