JUST IN TIME

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The Advertising Standards Agency has given young Ed Miliband a red face by ruling that two government adverts using nursery rhymes exaggerated the threat posed to Britain by 'global warming'. This newsworthy story was reported in the Sunday papers:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/7440664/Government-rebuked-over-global-warming-nursery-rhyme-adverts.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7061162.ece
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The BBC held off on the story for a few days before launching a series of defensive manoeuvres.
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Catch while you can Justin Webb's Today discussion with Torin Douglas (6.43am)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/b006qj9z/console
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Justin here spins the story to put Labour in the least embarrassing light possible: "So just in a few words Torin, this is sort of a score draw, isn't it, between the government and those who complained? Some of the adverts passed and a couple, on almost a technicality, not." Torin replied, "I think you're right on that. Yep."
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Justin returned to the subject later, first closely questioning Guy Parker of the ASA then very gently interviewing Ed Miliband himself. http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8571000/8571728.stm
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Give Justin a Tory to interview and the interruptions will fly, but present him with a Labour Climate Change secretary and you'll hear very few interruptions (just one today). There were few questions and they were all bowled underarm.
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That belated BBC News website article on the story has already been relegated to the margins of the Science and Environment page. Look for 'Monkeys learn more from females' (actually much more my sort of story!) and go down two items: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/default.stm. It is also clinging precariously to the margins of the Politics Page after a short stay there too http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/default.stm).
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The links to other newspapers in the article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8571353.stm)
do not include either The Times or The Telegraph, which were running the story four days ago - doubtless for that very reason i.e. that they'd already covered it four days ago!! Fellow laggards like The Independent, however, do receive links. Mr Miliband's defence is quoted at length and his interview with Justin Webb is also linked too - though not the preceding interview with Mr Parker of the ASA for some (guessable) reason. One of the 'cleared' government ads is featured in full, so you can enjoy this public 'information' film at your own leisure!
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The BBC has grudgingly done its bit by covering the story (days late) and playing down its embarrassing aspects for Labour. Now it can move on and never mention it again.

NOT WAVING BUT DROWNING

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The Record Europe's main topic this week was 'Climate Change', specifically how the EU could speak with a common voice on the issue in the wake of all the acrimony at Copenhagen.
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Shirin Wheeler's introductory report (complete with icebergs, but thankfully no polar bears) featured just one 'talking head' - Sonja Meister of Friends of the Earth Europe. That's par for the course.
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The studio discussion featured five guests, only one of them a sceptic - Roger Helmer.
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Not unlike this post (!), things took a predictable path. Here are the stats:
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Length of time each guest got to speak
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Rebecca Harms (German Green) - 3 minutes 35 seconds
Dan Jorgensen (Danish Social Democrat) - 3 minutes 15 seconds
Sirpa Pletikainen (Finnish Centre Right) - 2 minutes 59 seconds
Chris Davies (British Lib Dem) - 2 minutes 28 seconds
Roger Helmer (British Conservative) - 2 minutes 20 seconds
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Despite that the only uses of the command 'Briefly!' by Shirin were directly at the sceptical Tory (twice)! (That's as it always is on this programme!)
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Interruption Coefficients
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Roger Helmer - 0.9
Sirpa Pletkainen - 0.8
Dan Jorgensen - 0.3
Rebecca Harms - 0.3
Chris Davies - 0
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So the centre-right comes of worse, yet again.
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The only politician to be contradicted by Shirin was Mr Helmer.
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When he argued that "everyone from the Maldives to China sees this as a way of getting money from the West", she interrupted to say "But I mean we've spoken to the prime minister of Tuvalu, who travelled all the way to Brussels to say that his island is drowning. And we've seen pictures of it! He's not making it up!" Her point is perhaps weakened by the fact that Tuvalu is a chain of islands, not a single island. Moreover, the rise in sea level around the nine islands is not, as she assumes, necessarily caused by 'global warming', even according to our old friend Wikipedia: "This concern is compounded by the effects of subsidence which causes the islands naturally to sink into the sea, and non-natural land use (such as farming) which causes soil compaction. And to further complicate matters, it has been difficult to accurately measure to what degree each of these causes is affecting the observed rise in sea level. Global warming may not be the primary cause for the rise in local measurements." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_in_Tuvalu. Mr Helmer was having none of it anyway, and discussed the case of the Maldives.
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Behind the Green lady was a window and through the window snow-flakes fell.
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DON'T LEAVE US AGAIN EDDIE!

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While Eddie's away the Quinns will play! Yesterday's PM, presented by leftie lassie Carolyn Quinn, was one of the worst I've heard for ages.
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It featured an extremely soft interview by BBC economics 'guru' Nils Blythe of Peter Mandelson in the wake of Brown's right-wing-bashing speech at the Policy Network conference. Three easy questions and no interruptions from Nils, lots of Brown-nosing and attacks on the Tories from Mandy.
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A report by Andrew Harding from Argentina on that country's posturing over the Falkland Islands saw Andy neglect to mention that Argentina's posturing (but beautiful) president is a socialist. Had the fair Cristina (pictured with all the inevitability of a Paxman sneer) been a right-winger you can bet your bottom peso he'd have thought it worth mentioning - especially as there was criticism of her from various Argentinians.
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The programme then mounted the green platform and spent what seemed like an eternity discussing a row between the government (represented by Lord Hunt) and an electricity generator that wants subsidies to transfer from coal to renewable 'biomass' energy. Green Party London Assembly member Darren Johnson stuck his oar in here. Carolyn's questions tended towards Darren's position while she was interviewing the Labour lord.
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The programme stayed on the same platform for a report by BBC science correspondent Palab Gosh on electric cars in America, and how they could save us from our gas-guzzling cars, which are "pouring carbon dioxide into the planet's atmosphere." He talked to a broccoli-juice drinking (no, honestly!) Californian couple who believe their solar-panel fitted sports car points the way to the future.
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HOT AIR BLOWS IN FROM THE LEFT

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Today's World at One saw the return of Shaun Ley (after a long absence). With him came a deluge of left-liberal opinion.
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Eurostar's difficulties with the snow were discussed with Tunde Olatunji of the government's subsidy-supporting rail watchdog Passenger Focus and critical Labour MP Louise Ellman (I.C. of 0.3).
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MI5's robust defence of itself over allegations of collusion in torture was discussed with the government's terrorism tsar and Lib Dem lord Alex Carlile, who said exactly what you'd expect him to say (I.C. of 0).
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The row over elderly care (see previous post) was discussed with Dame Joan Bakewell, who Shaun said "was appointed by ministers to champion the interests of older people, but stresses she's independent of government". (The whole programme was full of people of whom that could also have been said!). Joan is, of course, about as left-liberal as left-liberals get. She attacked the Tory R.I.P. poster as "grotesque" and "an insult to everybody".
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The final slab of the programme turned to the issue of the 'recovery' and announced its intention of looking at the topic of growth areas for jobs over the coming months. On the day that the 0.5% growth figure came out I noted that both Michael Buchanon on the World at One and Jonty Bloom on The World Tonight concentrated on renewable energy companies, especially wind turbines, in their respective reports on the 'recovery'. The BBC's pushing of wind turbines is relentless. Today, when the topic re-surfaced (after going quiet for a while), guess what? Sometime-Tory-basher Ray Furlong trotted northwards to look at how wind-turbine companies could lead us out of recovery. We heard from various directors of various wind-turbine companies and just one other person..."Chris Goodall, writer, environmentalist and Green Party candidate for parliament."
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PAINTING IN GREEN AND RED

The BBC's left-liberal filter is generally found firmly in place on such programmes as From Our Own Correspondent and Crossing Continents, but also on the BBC News website. Here's an example. The BBC's James Painter reports from Costa Rica in a website article called Costa Rica - green and happy? Why Costa Rica scores well on the happiness index.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8498456.stm
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Mr Painter is enthusiastic about Costa Rica, which sounds a little like paradise on earth. Part of its appeal to him is its commitment to the Climate Change agenda (to which he himself is highly committed: "It was also the first developing country to state its aim of being carbon neutral (by 2021)." There's more though: "And then there's Costa Rica's reputation for being one of the happiest and greenest countries in the world. It regularly appears top - or near the top - of international surveys. It is usually the only developing country to do so." The international survey referred to in the article is the Happy Planet Index compiled by the left-wing, green New Economics Foundation (NEF) think tank and is calculated by combining "three key variables - what people say about their life satisfaction, their longevity and their ecological footprint." (You can read their unlikely list of happy and unhappy countries at http://www.happyplanetindex.org/).
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We hear from Ricardo Ulate, a climate change advisor to the country's social democrat government; that government's ambassador to the UK Pilar Saborio; Bishop Melvin Jimenez, a multinational-bashing eco-priest; and Juan Francisco Montealegre, who owns a construction company. All plug the green agenda at great length. Only at the end of the article are other factors considered: "Analysts say that Costa Ricans' apparent happiness could be down to a whole series of factors in addition to greenness: strong social networks of friends, families and neighbours; ubiquitous social and education programmes; and tolerance of social divisions and different opinions."
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James Painter's other BBC News website articles also strongly push this red-green agenda, with a similar homogeneity of opinions offered, from melting glaciers and sustainability in Bolivia http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8172981.stm to the damage climate change could inflict on Chile's wine-growing regions http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8058080.stm, as well as plenty of outright environmental advocacy, as in this piece on REDD - Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8399882.stm
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Journalisted provides a handy index of Painter's latest articles:
http://www.journalisted.com/james-painter?allarticles=yes
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PLANET'S WORST FRIEND

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The Today website introduces today's closing discussion in this way:
"Some scientists are questioning the environmental cost of owning a pet, saying that pet lovers have a higher carbon footprint than people without pets. There are an estimated 20m domestic cats and dogs in the UK. Dr John Barrett, research associate at the Stockholm Environment Institute, York University, and Tony Juniper, an environmental campaigner, consider the environmental impact of man's best friend." http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8501000/8501780.stm

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The professor from the green policy institute argues that fewer carnivorous pets (like the enemies of the planet pictured above) would significantly help reduce our 'carbon footprint', whereas Mr Juniper from the Green Party, who owns cats and dogs, disagrees (like a good nimby) and would rather deny us other pleasures instead and tax us more too - and who has a problem with the practice of keeping caged birds as pets.
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If only Andrew Neil rather than Sarah Montague had been in charge of this interview! Sarah never thought to challenge the underlying assumptions shared by both of her guests, and treated the topic as if it wasn't slightly absurd.

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FREI, BABY, FREI

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Matt Frei's diary could become compulsive reading, though for all the wrong reasons. I just thought I'd click at random on another article, Evangelical and environmental? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/world_news_america/8405108.stm
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The theme is 'Climate Change':
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"According to a BBC News/Harris Poll, the number of Americans who worry that carbon emissions are slowly heating our planet like a lobster pot has actually declined in the last eight years by 25%.
Despite Hurricane Katrina, which rang alarm bells about the connection between climate change and menacing weather, Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and a photo album of environmental horrors from melting ice caps to rising sea levels to receding glaciers (ha!), fewer Americans are convinced today that the planet is in peril because of human behaviour.
Global warming has cooled off alarmingly on the list of priorities."
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After dismissing 'Climategate' as a "brouhaha", Matty goes on to give us this peach of a paragraph - pure Matt Frei: "The evangelical movement is split between those conservative Christians who suspect that climate change is an evil secular plot, concocted by the devil, Al Gore and "the global government crowd" - in the words of Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher - and those who passionately believe that good Christians need to be good custodians of the planet." Can you guess which side Frei doesn't approve of?
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WATTS GOING ON?

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Also on Newsnight, I see that Susan Watts's report on the IPCC's latest blunders featured among its talking heads one Mike Hulme, labelled only as 'Professor of Environmental Sciences'. I wondered where he was professor at, as Newsnight generally mentions an academic's place of work. It certainly did with the other academics in the piece, namely 'Professor Gwyn Prins, LSE' and 'Bob Ward, LSE'. Could it be that Newsnight merely forgot to mention this useful bit of information about one of its key witnesses for the defence? What raises suspicions, however, is that that is transpires that Prof. Hulme works at the scandal-hit University of East Anglia (of 'Climategate' notoriety). Maybe Newsnight didn't forget at all. Maybe they chose to 'forget', so as not to tarnish the non-sceptical professor by association. Aha!!
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TODAY TODAY

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This morning's Today programme was noticeably left-liberal in its orientation again.
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At 7.09 John Humphrys discussed British social attitudes with sociologist Alison Park of the National Centre for Social Research. The results show that "Britain has become more liberal over the last 25 years with greater tolerance of homosexuality and co-habitation. The report also found that for the first time in 20 years more people identify themselves as Conservative and not Labour supporters." John Humphrys chose to focus the interview on the former (especially attitudes towards homosexuality) rather than the latter, though not before Alison had chose as examples of the "recent swing more towards the right" the fact that "people have become less sympathetic towards the poor, less accepting of the need to reduce inequality between rich and poor." That this lady is also a Fabian is hardly surprising.
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The greater tolerance towards homosexuality was discussed with another left-winger, high tribal Labour MEP Michael Cashman, former Eastenders actor and gay rights campaigner (I.C. of 0.5 for John Humphrys), though here he was joined by former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie.

The issue of climate change (meaning 'global warming') was dominant. There were plenty of weasel words over the IPCC's discredited claims over the alleged melting glaciers of the Himalayas from Professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele of the IPCC at 7.12. He claimed (counter-intuitively) that the scandal "could increase the credibility of the IPCC." That was not strong enough however for the Today programme's website who ignore the "could" in the professor's statement and go not just for dead certainty but also for a completely unwarranted use of the past tense: "Professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, vice chair of the IPCC, told Sarah Montague that the IPCC had gained credibility from its ability to admit its mistakes and argued that the other claims in the report were "very strong"." That is not what he said.
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This issue was revisited later in the programme (8.53) with an environment campaigner and a leading climate sceptic. Only joking! Of course there was no 'climate sceptic'! Instead we had Mike Hulme, professor of climate change at the University of East Anglia, and a highly intolerant Tony Juniper, climate change campaigner and former director of Friends of the Earth (and a Green Party parliamentary candidate). Both backed the IPCC. The discussion was presided over by John Humphrys. (Would that Andrew Neil had been in charge of it instead!!)

(Even this wasn't enough, so we had a report from Tom Fielden (at 8.44) on 'ocean acidification', "an issue biologists have dubbed the "elephant in the corner" of the climate change debate", according to the Today programme's website.)
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Assisted suicide was discussed (at 7.16) by Sarah Montague with a Labour peer, Lord Joffe, "who has campaigned for a long time to get the law on assisted suicide changed" - of course in favour of a more liberal approach (I.C. of 0.3)
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Mark Mardell reported on the rise of the Tea Party movement in America (at 7.23). The 'elephant in the room' in American politics is no longer being ignored (as it no longer can be ignored, even by the most dogged Democrat supporter at the BBC). This being Mark Mardell a totally straight, totally unbiased report was out of the question. He asked a Tea Party-goer this deeply loaded question: "How much is it a movement of 'the people' or how much is it a movement of largely white, largely quite well off people?" Are there strong grounds for that allegation, or is it just a smear?
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EXTRA: Please have a read of the wonderful David Preiser's comments on this on the Biased BBC website: http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/2010/01/open-thread_23.html#comments
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Who's "not helping the talks today" in Northern Ireland, according to Nick Robinson (at 8.20)? The Conservatives and their 'secret talks' with the UUP and DUP, that's who! Robinson reported on the suspicions and 'anger' of Labour and their allies the SDLP (and the Alliance Party) at David Cameron, with Sarah Montague pushing those suspicions even further forward. You can bank on old Nick to act as a faithful mouthpiece for Downing Street. For some good sense on this, please red Benedict Brogan: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/benedictbrogan/100023701/david-cameron-is-a-unionist-remember/
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All in a morning's work at the Today programme.

THE NORMAN YOKE

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I was not especially impressed by Norman Smith (standing in for Carolyn Quinn) on Westminster Hour. (Laura Kuenssberg was much better.) He was reviewing a survey of the Top 20 political priorities of Conservative prospective parliamentary candidates with Tim Montgomerie of ConservativeHome.
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At the bottom of the survey, as Tim pointed out, comes "reducing Britain's carbon footprint". Norman Smith referred to this in his introduction, but he didn't say "reducing Britain's carbon footprint". He said, "On the plus side looking after the NHS is near the top, at number four - but on the glum side, saving the planet comes at the bottom of their list of priorities." 'Saving the planet'! (I think we know where he's coming from on the great man-made global warming debate).
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There's a world of difference in tone (and effect on the listener) between saying that Tory candidates don't think that "reducing Britain's carbon footprint" is a top priority and saying that "saving the planet" isn't important. The former merely makes them sound lukewarm on 'global warming', whereas the latter makes them sound like Bond villains!!

Norman Smith is positively Crick-like in his use of the word 'Tory' at the expense of the word 'Conservative'. He was at it throughout the programme. This is a 'tell', as cod-psychologists like to say.
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Here's another example of Norman Smith's apparent anti-Tory bias from another blog:
http://www.horgan.co.uk/2009/11/bbcs-norman-smith-holds-his-hands-up.html
And an example of Norman's seeming pro-Labour bias from another:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/davidhughes/100003341/the-bbc-just-loves-ian-gibson/
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BIAS AT EVERY TURN ON 'THE WORLD TONIGHT'

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2010 has not brought a lessening of left-liberal bias on The World Tonight if the first programme of the year is going to be typical. This was breathtaking at times. This is going to need some spelling out!!
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BLACKWATER AND THE LEFT
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First up for discussion was the case of the Blackwater security guards accused by the Iraqis of the unprovoked killing of civilians. A U.S. judge has ruled against prosecution and the Iraqi government is not happy about it. After hearing from the Iraqis and from Mark Hulkower, lawyer from the defence team, presenter Felicity Evans sought academic advice and turned to "David Cole, Professor of Law at Georgetown University." Professor David D. Cole is very much a World Tonight-kind of American academic, as he also functions as legal affairs correspondent for the self-described "flagship of the the left", The Nation (not that Felicity mentioned any of that, preferring to let us think that he was a non-partisan expert.) After Professor Cole, Felicity then turned to "Ruth Tanner, director of campaigns and policy at War On Want". I thought, very naively, that War On Want was just a well-known anti-poverty charity but it turns out that it's also a left-wing campaign group on a wide range of left-wing issues. Felicity said that it "has campaigned for stronger rules governing the actions of private security companies in places like Iraq." Ruth Tanner herself raged against "the privatisation of war" and "corporate mercenaries" and wanted all private security companies banned from all sensitive areas of the world.
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A LOT OF LEFT-WINGERS CALL FOR AN END TO THE ANGLO-SAXON MODEL

Next came a section on sustainable economic growth, which took the form of a guest-report. Felicity said, "We asked Andrew Simms, the author of 'Ecological Debt' and the co-author of 'The New Economics' for his ideas on a sustainable approach to economic prosperity and personal happiness." It's very rare for The World Tonight to grant anyone such a privilege. Andrew Simms of the New Economics Foundation (and frequent contributor to The Guardian and The New Statesman) was however granted nearly 10 minutes to report for the programme and make his left-wing case!! I'll give you a strong flavour of it.
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Simms began thus: "I'm on a cold London street and it's very early in the morning. I'm just about to meet possibly the greatest authority on the fate of the planet. It's Dr Rajendra Pachauri. He's the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and I want to ask him what he thinks of the Western life style with its television sets the size of swimming pools and its gas-guzzling urban 4-wheel drive cars." Dr Pachauri attacked our 'vulgarity' and said 'we need to stop' such levels of consumption. "So here's the problem, " Simms continued. "We've become obsessed with growth, competitiveness and consuming more stuff as an end in itself. Some at least, like Adair Turner, head of both the Financial Services Authority and the official climate change committee, are beginning to ask questions." Baron Turner (proponent, of course, of the Tobin Tax) wants 'government intervention' to tackle the issue.
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Simms 'Consumerism Bad, Citizenship Good' principle soon received further support: "According to academic Richard Wilkinson so-called "broken Britain" (as well as calling this Conservative phrase "so-called" he also said "broken Britain" in such a way as to show his disavowal of it) can be explained by the consumerism and unhappiness that walk hand in hand with the extreme inequality of aggressively competitive Anglo-Saxon economics." Professor Wilkinson is a co-founder of the Equality Trust.A change towards frugality is going to be hard on a personal level, as Simms had confirmed by his final talking head, Larry Elliott, economics editor of (guess where?) The Guardian.
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LEFT-WING PERSPECTIVES ON YEMEN
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The third part of the programme discussed Yemen with academic Ginny Hill, who has been on countless programmes over recent weeks. She is the BBC's 'woman who knows' on the subject. They almost always go to her (though yesterdays PM with Carolyn Quinn went to Keith Vaz MP instead!! He chairs a cross-party group on Yemen, obviously. What pie doesn't that man have a finger in?) Of course, Ginny also occasionally contributes to The Guardian as well, and al-Jezeera. For another (similar) point of view Felicity then turned to a Labour MP, Mike Foster, international development minister.
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FELICITY EVANS BATS FOR THE LABOUR GOVERNMENT
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After this barrage of left-liberal hot air, the final topic, economic forecasting, broke free from this Guardian-soaked world and gave us David Smith, economics editor of The Sunday Times (now there's a man and a newspaper you don't hear much from on the BBC!!), and the man he nominated economic forecaster of the year, Peter Warburton of Economic Perspectives. Even here, however, the Beeb's left-liberal bias was far from absent. Felicity Evans introduced the piece with these telling words: "The economist and liberal thinker J.K. Galbraith once said that the only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable." (J.K. Galbraith, most beloved economist of all left-thinking people! That's fair enough though, as it's a good quote.) Where Felicity showed bias was in her examples of errant forecasting in 2009 - the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyor 's underestimate of the rise in house prices and the Chartered Instituate of Personnel and Development's forecast overestimate of the rise in unemployment. Why pick those two examples? Because they show that the economy is doing better than forecast. And who does suggesting that help? The Labour government, of course. David Smith's first example, however, was the Treasury's wild underestimate of how much the economy would shrink in 2009 (1% they said, whereas it was nearer 5%). Why didn't Felicity Evans use that example herself? Because that wouldn't have reflected well on the Labour government? She ignored the point and, in her next question, steered the conversation back onto the lower-than-expected unemployment figures. Why? To help save the Labour government's blushes? Why else?
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Even by the biased standards of The World Tonight this was quite an edition to start the year with!!
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AM I (ROGER) HEARING THAT RIGHT?

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'Climategate' has been buried alive at the BBC & it's certainly back to business as usual at The World Tonight - though with an odd twist. Last night's edition featured a long closing section on the subject of global warming, beginning with a lengthy chat between BBC economics correspondent Jonty 'Tax and Spend' Bloom and Jonathan Porritt (no one at the Beeb asks him about his education at Eton and Oxford). Bloom sucked up to Porritt ("You came at this remarkably early"), invited him to join him in castigating the 'short-termism' of UK politicians, and wondered why, when the Thames is at such risk of severe flooding due to global warming, Westminster (which is on the river) is so inactive on the issue?
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On the Left-Right front, the following discussion (hosted by Roger Hearing) was unusual for the programme in featuring two right-of-centre panelists - historian Andrew Roberts and Europhile environmentalist Conservative MP John Gummer - as well as, much more typically, George Monbiot. (You wait days for a single right-of-centre guest to appear on The World Tonight, then two appear at once!). All, however, advocate action 'to tackle climate change', which (I presume) is why they were acceptable to the programme's left-liberal producers -and Mr Gummer wanted, not surprisingly for him, action at the EU level - which would make him doubly acceptable to them!
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Elsewhere, though, The World Tonight trod very familiar left-liberal pathways. On the execution of Mr Shaikh by the Communist Chinese, Roger Hearing talked first to a lady from the anti-death penalty organisation Reprieve Sally Rowan (director of their Death Penalty team), and then to the very-left-wing commentator/former World Tonight presenter Isabel Hilton of China dialogue (and the Guardian and Independent).
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The latest protests in Iran were then discussed with the man the BBC regularly chooses to discuss Iran with, Professor Ali Ansari of St Andrews University (and the Guardian, Independent, and New Statesman). Why not Amir Taheri? Why is he so rarely on the BBC? Is it 'cos he's a conservative?
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Next up for discussion was President Obama's reaction to the attempted Christmas mass-murder-on-board-a-plane by a Londonistan-educated Nigerian Muslim extremist. A bizarre BBC correspondent called Imtiaz Tyab called it a "Christmas Day scare", and contrasted the 'cool', 'calm' and 'very reassuring' way Mr Obama had handled it with the way the previous Bush administration might of handled it. (Ah, the BBC in America! You can always rely on them for biased reporting!)
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Finally, there was an interview with a lady from the Isle of Barra (Karen MacLean), who wants the government to step in and subsidize the air-link to the island, currently at risk.

THE ICE SPREADS AGAIN

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Radio 4's coverage of the Copenhagen conference this week has frozen out the global warming sceptics again. The slight thaw felt before the conference has vanished, and ice again covers all dissent.
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On Monday's The World At One Martha Kearney talked to Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping, Sudanese chief negotiator for the G77 countries. He's been quite a presence across the BBC in recent days. Has anybody heard anyone at the Beeb ask why the representative of an indicted war criminal, President al-Bashir of Sudan, should be allowed to assume the moral highground on anything? Martha certainly didn't. ("Thank you very much for explaining that to us", she said to him at the end of the interview - and she wasn't talking about genocide).
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Mr Di-Aping was back on The World Tonight last night, talking to Felicity Evans. She let the matter pass too. Also featured was Jeremy Leggett, a Greenpeace campaigner turned solar panel producer (though his Greenpeace connections were not mentioned). Others to appear on the programme so far this week have been Yvo de Boer, head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (14/12) and Bill Hare, who's "at Copenhagen to negotiate on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States", or so the programme told us (neglecting to mention that he's also a Greenpeace campaigner) (15/12).
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PM has wheeled on Newsnight's Susan Watts, & she's talked to Mithika Mwenda, a sloganising activist for the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance (16/12); Changhua Wu, of China's Climate Group; and Ed Markey, a liberal Democrat congressman (17/12).
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Back though to The World at One, & as well as the disturbing Mr Di-Aping we've heard from that gaggle of greenies and lefties I outlined yesterday (Sergio Serra, Ed Miliband and Bianca Jagger ) and today from the King of Climate Change himself Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - more about whom can be found via here: http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/2009/12/cru-falsified-russia-records.html#comments
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Protestors from the left/green side of the argument have also been heard from in droves.
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START THE DAY WITH A YAWN!

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This morning deadly dull edition of the Today programme featured another double-debate, this time between Polly Toynbee of The Guardian an ex-head of the Centre for Policy Studies Ruth Lea. The latter was on the end of a bad telephone line and kept apologising for not being able to hear - so all Sarah Montague 's interruptions went for nothing, as Ruth couldn't hear them! Polly got the first and the last word.
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Sarah Montague's interview with Labour's Douglas Alexander contained no interruptions.
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That's about as interesting as the programme got.
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'Anti-capitalist'/Green protesters in Copenhagen were heard from in a report from Tom Fielden. They were not challenged (except by the Danish police!!). John Humphrys later interviewed the Bolivian 'climate change' negotiator Angelica Navarro, without challenging her either.

GAVIN SHOW HIS HAND YET AGAIN

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Today's Dateline London with Gavin Esler pitted the always-good-value right-winger Janet Daley against three left-wingers, the ghastly Abdel Bari Atwan, Obama-fan Greg Katz, and the BBC's favourite commentator on Pakistan, Shahed Sadullah (a left-winger with both charm and intelligence) - and, of course, Gavin Esler.
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Gavin Esler was up to his usual tricks, defending Barack Obama whenever needs called. Even his first question contained a nugget of praise for the Democratic president: "Barack Obama was humble when he collected his Nobel peace prize but he was clear that there is such a thing as a just war, necessary to preserve peace." OK.
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When Janet Daley said Obama's speech was aimed at the home market and aimed at "satisfying the lobby" that thought he was "dithering", Esler interrupted to say "And they were satisfied" before losing heart a little and adding (in a trailing-off fashion) "some of them, I mean..." (which Janet wisely picked up on).
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Gavin then got into this exchange with Greg Katz:
Esler: "Greg, should he have got it?"
Katz: "No, no..."
Esler: "He possibly thinks that, of course"
Of course Gavin. Barack is ever so 'umble.
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The four-against-one situation arose over the issue of the Iraq War, where all three of the other guests rounded on Janet Daley. Esler did not stick up for her (by playing devil's advocate on her behalf); instead he joined the attack: "But Greg was pointing out that many of us just bought it". Janet pointed out that he'd misunderstood her point - as he had. Fancy that, a liberal Beeboid not listening properly to one of his right-of-centre guests!
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Janet is also a 'climate change denier', in BBC parlance (of course, she's no such thing - she's a global warming sceptic). I must note here the little exchange between Gavin and his appalling friend Bari (Atwan) here. Esler, playing devil's advocate, said " There are some people who think that this whole climate change thing (no, Gav, man-made global warming thing!) is a way of transferring money from rich countries to poor countries" but as Atwan was beginning to reply Esler added, with a smile, "Palestine is not included in that." Sucking up to that odious extremist Atwan and socking it to the Israelis at the same - result Gavin!!
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Unusually Gavin Esler did interrupt Atwan at one stage, but only to defend Gordon Brown. Bari was attacking our prime minister for giving loads of money to the banks but not giving as much to poor countries, when Gavin interrupted with a laugh "Well, you could say without saving the banking system (just the banking system, surely the world?) there'd be no money for poor countries, no money for anything."
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After Janet had launched an assault on the hypothesis of man-made global warming Esler asked Mr Sadullah "As you know, the alternative view - and there is an alternative view! - by the supposedly majority of the scientists consulted by the U.N. is that countries like Bangladesh, for example, will really suffer because tides will rise, it's a low country, there'll be more storms. That's the beef." As Janet Daley commented, "Maybe."
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The final topic was bankers and their bonuses. Here Gavin Esler released his inner leftie and bashed away without even a show of balance (though not much coherence either): "Well that seems to me to be the interesting question. Do we expect bankers or is it that some of the bankers just don't get it or is it something that people will just give up banking and take up, you know, become street buskers if they don't get their huge bonuses?" (Well put!) "Well I understand this doesn't effect those who've got it written in their contract that they get a bonus, which is a lot of them" (Is it?) "...in Switzerland or something."
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MORE ON 'THE WORLD TONIGHT'

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Rounding up the remaining editions of The World Tonight this week, Monday's programme (hosted by Ritula Shah) was the best, if only because it featured a fine discussion on quangos between Sir Alistair Graham (that admirable ex-chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, and chair of Berwick Labour Party) and Mark Wallace of the (also admirable) Taxpayer's Alliance. The discussion was prefaced by BBC favourite, Professor Tony Travers of the Beeb's favourite academic institution, the L.S.E. (who said that quangos had "mushroomed...particularly since the 198os").
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Of course, there was also plenty about 'climate change' (as if it ever stays the same!), with two AGW-believers tussling over the effectiveness of carbon-trading. One, Bruce Duguid ("head of investor engagement at The Carbon Trust") , was in favour; the other, Chris Hope ( "an economist at the Judge Business School at Cambridge University" ), thought carbon-trading was merely "a first step" and wanted more direct taxes on emissions ( "'trade' is more of a dirty word than 'tax'", said Professor Hope.) A report from Brazil followed on the U.N.'s REDD programme (The United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries, to give it its very full title), during which only supporters of the scheme spoke. (Well, what's new there!). It's "not cheap", we were told. I bet.
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Tuesday's programme was presented by David Eades. It featured another such report, this time from Obama's Chicago, where Robin Lustig had flown to find out just how 'green' a city it really is. Again, everyone spoken to was in favour of 'doing something about climate change', though there was a lively debate about coal-fired power stations. Commissioner Suzanne Malec-McKenna (appointed by Democrat mayor Richard Daley) was grilled by Lustig (with two interruptions) over the issue, after he (and we) had heard from two green activists and a Democrat alderman (Joe Moore) who are involved in the campaign against the power stations. Lustig's report was preceded by an interview between David Eades and Peter Stott of the Met Office - and a leader author of the IPCC report (though that curiously was not mentioned), who was on to assure us that man-made global warming is real and thay world temperatures really are soaring despite this and despite that.
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The day's inhuman bombings in Baghdad prompted a BBC invite for a professor at Baghdad University who has been seconded to the the Beeb's favourite academic institution, the L.S.E. (His name sounded like Sahd Zavad). This chap, who with all possible respect I would label a 'nut', attacked the "failing" policy of the Iraqi government and "the occupying forces" and, when asked who was guilty of the bombings, said "Of course if I were a member of the government the easiest and ready-made accusation is Al-Qaeda and the Ba'ath Party members. But it's not the truth." Who did he blame then? "Members of the government are involved", he asserted. Anyone else? "Foreign elements...Israel, Iran." Ah yes, Israel! The nutty professor had earlier also said this: "this new character in Iraqi politics - the violent nature of the political differences between the political parties as well" . New? Well, he's Iraqi so he should know but...I seem to heard something about there being a long history of political violience and savage killings in the country even before Saddam Hussein got into power, and after Saddam Hussein got into power Iraq was, shall we say, not exactly free of political violence, was it? Just who was this professor? Was he a Ba'athist supporter?
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A preview of the Pre-Budget Report (due the following day) saw a report on "anxiety across the public sector" from Jonty Bloom. He visited a community college in Newquay - "a success story and it wants to stay that way." Jonty said, "It all adds up to a very successful system but it's not been cheap and...the headteacher worries about where the money is going to come from next year." *

There was a rare interview with a Bush era state department official, Wayne White of the Iraq Intelligence Unit. David Eades interrupted him three times in less than three minutes. That rarely (if ever) happens with a Democrat on The World Tonight.
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PRE-BUDGET BIAS

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Wednesday's The World Tonight was the worst by far. Hosted by Ritula Shah, it focused mostly on the day's big story - Labour's shameless Pre-Budget Report. It was unquestionably biased towards Labour.
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First came a chat between Ritsy and BBC economics correspondent (and unabashed leftie) Jonty Bloom, during which Jonty gave the government a glowing review. The scary news that Labour will need to borrow an extra £178 billion this year alone "could have been a lot worse", according to Bloom. Mr Darling was "very generous to pensioners", and "the economy is not doing quite as badly". Bloom is openly hostile to raising the threshold on Inheritance tax (please see http://beebbiascraig.blogspot.com/2009/10/more-bloomin-bias.html for the details on this) and said of the freeze on Inheritance Tax announced in the P.B.R. "that'll effect people with big estates, the rich basically" . People with a house worth just over £300,000? Are such people all 'the rich'? This was a party political broadcast on behalf of the Labour Party. Another was to follow.
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The next commentator was Richard Murphy of the Tax Justice Network which, Ritula said, "lobbies for a more progressive taxation system". He was another leftie, who approved of the Inheritance tax freeze and thought the anti-banker legislation was a step in the right direction ("an attack on the disparity of wealth in our country"), though he wanted much more action against the rich. He got 1 minute 33 seconds.
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Next up was Dave Prentice of UNISON, who condemned proposed public sector pay cuts. He got 41 seconds.
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We did then get a banker - George Mathewson, formerly of R.B.S. - though he only got 12 seconds!
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Finally a bit of balance was restored with a debate between Labour-supporting pollster Peter Kellner and Anne McElvoy of the London Evening Standard.
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Jonty Bloom returned later with a second Labour Party political broadcast, advocating the need for more government spending on the UK's infrastructure. All of his four 'talking heads' agreed on the need for this.
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Ritula Shah's introduction to Bloom's report pretty much says it all: "Our economics correspondent Jonty Bloom now reports on the importance of government investment to the British economy". First up was Cross-Rail: "So it's just as well that the government is spending a small fortune on Cross-Rail", Bloom opined after talking to a chap who says "What's keeping us going is public sector spending." He then went to a school in Nottingham "transformed" thanks to the generosity of this glorious people's government (all hail the prime minister). "It's a huge undertaking, but better schools are only one of the things Britain will need in the coming years - new and faster rail links, better roads, broadband internet access, new power stations and massive amounts of money for green projects like wind farms are also needed." (As they used to say at school: "Discuss.") Again, Jonty Bloom strays from reporting into open advocacy.
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He ended by sounding a warning to the country against electing a Conservative government: "Our economic rivals around the world, but especially in Asia, are using this recession to increase intervention in their infrastructure, providing a tonic to their economies during the recession and making them better placed to compete with us when growth returns. What many in business fear is that in the rush to cut government spending and reduce borrowing we here will be doing the exact opposite."
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Alistair's cheque's in the post, Jonty.
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The programme also featured a report on the Palestinians. Of course it did.

ROBIN LEFTIG (2)

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Now back to Thursday's The World Tonight, again presented by Robin Lustig. This began by discussing the meeting of minds between President Sarkozy and Gordon Brown (because Gordon is now following Sarko's line on regulation). Who did Robin invite on to discuss the issue. "I asked the French MEP Sylvie Goulard should we now believe them when they say they agree?" Sylvie had a bit of a dig at Sarko and praised the EU. I've complained about this before (http://beebbiascraig.blogspot.com/2009/11/world-tonight.html). Again Lustig neglected to tell us where she stands politically. Like last time (4/11), he did not tell us that she is a French Liberal MEP. (She's also president of the ultra-Europhile French European Movement). This is 'bias by (not) labeling'. The other guest was centrist Financial Times foreign editor Gideon Rachman.
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An initiative by three U.S. senators on 'climate change' (ie. man-made global warming) was discussed with Rob Bradley of The World Resources Institute, "an environmental think-tank in Washington" and the BBC's environment(alist) correspondent Richard Black.
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The World Tonight is particularly obsessed about Israel and the Palestinians. The Egyptian government's moves against tunnels into Gaza, which Lustig helpfully reminded us is thought of by every single one of its 11/2 million inhabitants as "the world's biggest open-air prison", were discussed with one man, Chris Gunness of the UN agency UNRWA. You may recognise the name, as Chris was a former BBC correspondent. He regards Israel as an "occupying power."
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BOG-STANDARD 'NEWSNIGHT'

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Last night's Newsnight began with a report from Richard Watson on business students, mainly from South Asia, who are having a tough time of it here during the recession. The issue was discussed with just one guest - Keith Vaz, the Labour stool of the Home Affairs select committee (I.C. of 0 for Martha Kearney). The 'Foxy Knoxy' story followed, featuring an interview with her father, Curt Knox. This was preceded by a report from Peter Marshall, who's only talking head was this blog's old friend Annalisa Piras, the left-wing Italian journalist from L'espresso magazine (who appears regularly on Gavin Esler's liberal love-in, Dateline London). Finally came the obligatory 'climate change' report, with Christian Fraser trying to pretend that any major changes to the Nile Delta must be down to man-made global warming, and that 'something must be done'.
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A bog-standard edition of Newsnight then.

THE WEEKLY DAILY POLITICS

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The Daily Politics is, as pointed out previously, the fairest of the BBC's leading current affairs programmes by some way, but it is not totally beyond reproach. Here's a short overview of the week.
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Monday featured Lord (Tim) Bell (Conservative) as its main guest (I.C. of 0.7 for Andrew Neil and Boris Johnson was given time to plead for more money for London (I.C. of 0.6 for Andrew Neil). Alex Salmond was interviewed (without interruption) for over 5 minutes by Anita Anand (I.C. of 0). Lib Dem tax policy was discussed with Lib Dem spokesman Jeremy Browne (I.C. of 1.3 for Andrew Neil) and Alex Henderson of Price Waters Henderson (who was critical).
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The main guest on Tuesday's programme was Sir Menzies Campbell. As ever, and even Andrew Neil is not immune from this, this partisan Liberal Democrat politician was treated with a degree of respect that is rare on the BBC, treated as if he is an 'independent' foreign affairs expert. His I.C.s were 0.2 for Andrew Neil (very low for this interviewer!) and 0 for the fair Anita, who said "We are very lucky to have Sir Ming Campbell with us in the studio." Would she say that about William Hague? Sir Ming was treated with respect not just during discussion of the war in Afghanistan but also during the interview with the newly-elected UKIP leader, Lord Pearson. Lord Pearson was not accorded the same respect, earning Andrew Neil an I.C. of 1.6. Andrew queried his 12,000-acre estate and his tax allowances and said "We haven't got much time" after far too short a time. (Well, create time then!) Andrew Neil may be a lovable rogue but he can be really chippy about 'privilege' sometimes. Lord Pearson remained cheerful throughout. Sir Ming was also accorded the maximum respect while mischief-making over David Cameron's plan for a Sovereignty Act during an interview with Conservative Mark Francois (I.C. of 0.8 for Andrew Neil). The last topic, on which Sir Ming talked unusual good sense, was what Anita Anand calls (putting on a funny voice) "elf and safety", and here Quentin Letts of The Daily Mail was the other guest (and as good value as ever). A Brownie-point there!
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Wednesday was Prime Minister's Questions day & this very often seems the worst day for any centre-right viewer to watch on the programme (perhaps because the producers load it that way, it being the most watched edition of the week). Still, even here both John Hutton (one of the most likable of the Labour crowd) and Andrew Lansley were interrupted at the same rate by both Andrew and Anita. However, the soon-to-be-installed first minister of Wales Carwyn Jones was accorded a free ride and there was a remarkable film from leftie actor Brian Cox, a man who was not keen on old Etonians or Tories ("There's a risk, a very serious risk, that we might have a Tory government next year, a government that comprises a bunch of old public school boys.") Coxie himself declared "I'm a Labour supporter" - and it showed! He'd also, in the past, produced a party political broadcast for the Labour Party. This was another!! Cox, chippy Andrew Neil, Anita and an amused John Hutton then ganged up on public-school educated Tory Andrew Lansley. What fun!
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Left-wing (but beautiful) Jo Coburn joined Andrew on Thursday to give Lib Dem economic spokesman Lord Oakeshott a free ride on bankers' pay, annoying Orla Guerin came on to talk about Pakistan and a chap she called "Obama bin Laden" (Ha ha ha!), and the main guest was interesting former chief government advisor Sir David King (interesting but left-wing, as he banged on about "rampant consumerism and greed" and "how important it is we examine Al-Queda's popularity among Islamic people in the region") Andrew Neil disapproves of the Afghan War, and takes no pains to hide the fact. This was made very clear again during his interview with anti-war Labour MP Kim Howells. This love-in scored an I.C. of 0, and Andrew ended it by saying "I have a feeling we're going to see you again quite soon." So do I!! Professor King then went head-to-head with 'sceptical environmentalist' Bjorn Lomberg on climate change.
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Yesterday, when Anita was home alone, entertaining ex-Conservative minister Gyles Brandreth (very funny on Mandelson and Brown) was on with joint-main-guest Bonnie Greer, a lady of the Left but an interesting one. Anita alone usually means bias and, though she wasn't particularly aggressive today, it is notable that her only significant interruption during the discussion on Labour's class-war tactics between sleazy Labour practitioner Steve McCabe and cute Conservative Justine Greening was against Justine, resulting in an I.C of 0.4 against McCabe and an I.C. of 0.8 against Justine. When the topic turned to drugs, specifically 'legal highs', the guests were Steve Rolles, Guardian-friendly head of drugs think-tank Transform and Lib Dem Chris Huhne. Mr Rolles was in favour, broadly-speaking, of the legalisation of all drugs (an idea that needs thinking about in my view) whereas I've still no idea where Mr Huhne stands (that's Lib Dems for you!). Bonnie was 'liberal' on the subject, and so (interestingly) was Gyles. So that was four people taking a 'liberal' stand on drugs. Hardly balanced is it? (And I say that while being 'liberal' myself on the subject). At least Anita (to her credit) essayed a little devil's advocacy in some of her questions. Naughty though was Beeboid Giles Dilnot' s sneer at "Lord Pearson of I-Own-Half-Of-Scotland". The BBC's disrespect for UKIP continues.
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