BURKAS IN BELGIUM AND BERKS AT THE BBC

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In a move hailed by UKIP, a Belgian parliamentary committee has called for the banning of the burka in public places.
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The BBC's take on this provides an insight into their thinking on this sort of subject and another example of bias by labelling: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8597142.stm
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Here's the passage that particularly caught my eye:

Denis Ducarme, from the Belgian centre-right Reformist
Movement that proposed the bill, said he was "proud that Belgium would be the
first country in Europe which dares to legislate on this sensitive matter".

What puzzles me is that by calling the Reformist Movement "centre-right" readers might take it to be the Belgian equivalent of either UKIP or the Conservative Party. It's no such thing. It's a liberal party and sits with Chris Huhne's party in the European parliament, being - like the Lib Dems - a member of Liberal International.
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So this policy was proposed by the Belgian (Walloon) equivalent of the Liberal Democrats yet the BBC seems reluctant to mention that. Why?
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Indeed all five parties in the current coalition government back the move. They are:
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- The Flemish Christian Democrats (CD & V)
- The Walloon Christian Democrats (CdH)
- The Flemish Liberals (VLD)
- The Walloon Liberals (MR)
- The Walloon Socialists (PS)
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And who are the Walloon Socialists allied to in the European parliament? Denis MacShane and the Labour Party of course.
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Why did the BBC article not make it plain that this proposed measure has widespread support across the Belgian political spectrum? Why only mention the 'centre-right' proponents of the ban?
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UPDATE Looking through the online newspapers is intriguing here (in a nerdy sort of way).
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Here's the Telegraph, not downplaying the cross-party nature of the support and correctly identifying the 'liberal' identity of the Reformist Movement:

The unanimous decision by senior home affairs legislators, with the support of Belgium's main political parties, has paved the way for a full Belgian parliament vote on a ban to be held in three weeks.
Denis Ducarme, a Belgian MP for the liberal Reformist Movement party that
drafted the ban, predicted that legislation would receive full parliamentary
backing on April 22.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/7541430/Belgium-could-be-first-country-to-ban-the-burka.html

The Times also reports that "Belgium's main parties are united behind the move and the influential home affairs committee voted for it unanimously today," though it joins the BBC in labeling the Reformist movement as 'centre-right'. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7083103.ece
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Curiously though The Daily Mail places Mr Ducarme correctly as a 'liberal' but positions him somewhere quite different on the political spectrum:

"Left-wing MP Denis Ducarme left no doubt the rules were targeting-Muslim extremists. The French- speaking liberals who have proposed the law argue that an inability to identify people presents a security risk and that the veil is a ‘walking prison’ for women." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1262545/Belgium-set-European-country-ban-burka.html#ixzz0jmqY78ZN

Wikipedia suggests that the party of Mr Ducarme has been drifting leftwards in recent years, under the influence of social liberal Dirk Verhofstadt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformist_Movement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Verhofstadt
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ESLER DONS THE BURQA

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The likely French action against wearing the burqa was discussed on last night's Newsnight by Gavin Esler with his left-wing Dateline friend Agnes Poirier, a gobby, jargon-spouting Muslim student (but quite a looker!) and Lord Pearson of UKIP.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/newsnight
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As you would expect with Gavin Esler he was not neutral in the debate. Very far from it. When the Muslim lass wasn't interrupting (or talking over) Lord Pearson, he was! 10 questions and 7 interruptions came in fast succession, resulting in a very high interruption coefficient of 2.8. (If the pretty student hadn't been talking over Lord Pearson so much this I.C. would doubtless have been even higher, as Gavin would have been able to interrupt even more himself!).
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JON SOPEL MAKES A BURQA OF HIMSELF

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UKIP's call for the banning of the burqa was bound to lead the BBC to attack it. Today's The Politics Show was staged so that UKIP's case, as presented by Nigel Farage, would be bombarded from all sides.
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The section began with a report from a burqa-clad woman, Rehana Sidat. She made the case for being allowed to wear the burqa. It was her choice, she said. She feels comfortable in it. (As I'm sure do members of the Ku Klux Klan in their spacious white robes and hoods).
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Next came Jon Sopel's interview with Mr Farage, but Nigel was not alone. With him was Salma Yaqoob of Respect. Sopel treated Salma with a great deal of respect, not interrupting her once. Not so with Nigel Farage, who was interrupted 6 times (I.C. of 1.1). Moreover, Sopey asked Salma just 2 questions, whilst asking Nigel 15 questions. Amusingly, two of those questions began with the statements "No, Nigel Farage, let me put a point to you here" and "Nigel Farage, let me put a question to you." Nigel let Jon Sopel put 15 points/questions to him!!
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During the interview, a highly animated Sopel returned to the agenda he was pushing so aggressively in a previous edition of the programme (please see http://beebbiascraig.blogspot.com/2009/11/ukip-get-full-sopel-treatment.html), trying to tar UKIP with the BNP brush: "This isn't playing to the BNP is it?", he asked, after angling after that point with his previous question.
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Later Jon Sopel asked Ed Balls about the matter. You won't be surprised to hear that Balls launched a vicious little attack on UKIP as a result. As the BBC News website reports it 'But Schools Secretary Ed Balls said it was "not British" to tell people what to wear in the street (oh, the Ku Klux Klan will be delighted to hear that too!), and accused UKIP of indulging in "unpleasant politics"' (well, he'd know all about that, wouldn't he?).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8464124.stm
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POINTS OF CONTENTION

The government's plan to expand the Australian-style points system to encompass qualification for British citizenship was discussed on this morning's 'Today' programme.

It's funny how the BBC fixes on certain aspects of a story and hammers away at them at the expense of everything else. A Home Office source, quoted in the 'News of the World', says that an example of point-losing 'bad behaviour' (in Alan Johnson's phrase) would be the behaviour of those Islamic bigots who hurled abuse at soldiers during their homecoming parades.

Quite why did Sarah Montague think the 'free speech' of such people was worth four questions out of a total of nine to immigration minister Phil Woolas? Woolas himself was forced to say, "Let's not get hung up on one issue".

Sarah's Guardianesque mindset (or should that, these days, be simply Beeboid mindset) made her final question almost inevitable: "Isn't there a danger that...you would end up only allowing white, Christian possibly, middle-class, professional people into the country, and anyone who falls outside that..." (adopting a silly voice) "...oooh, you're not quite...". Mr Woolas interrupted this drivel, and rightly so.

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Earlier Norman Smith (BBC correspondent) discussed the issue with Ms. Montague and was as delicate as Sarah herself about the identity of these "anti-war protesters", calling the potential 'free speech' victims "those who took part in anti-war protest or that sort of thing". Do you mean Muslim extremists by any chance Norman?

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The BBC has a habit of avoiding the 'M' word whenever negative images of the 'M' community or potential members of that community are involved in a story.