WHO'S LEFT OUT?

*
Dateline London's extreme left-liberal bias has thrown up the remarkable situation of having UK politics largely discussed by left-wingers. I've also noted before that the representative of the British press on the panel tends overwhelmingly to come from the Left (see my earlier list).
*
Would that change during the general election? Time for an update:
*
Well, week one (10/4) saw the appearance of New Labourite Steve Richards of The Independent. Week two (17/4) saw Conservative-supporting Janet Daley of The Sunday Telegraph (Janet was the first centre-right UK journalist on the show since 20/2!!!) Week three saw Michael White of The Guardian. Who was it this week? Yasmin Alibhai Brown of The Independent.ependent.
*
If they give us either Janet Daley or Ann Leslie once every six or seven weeks they seem to think they've done their bit for impartiality!!!
*
Instead of giving you a picture of any of these fine people, or even Gavin Esler, I will instead offer a photo of one of Yasmin's companions today, the far-left Portuguese writer Dr Eunice Goes. (I chose her completely at random of course).
*
Referring to the story of the week, Yasmin Alibhai Brown said the broadcasting of Gordon Brown's private views was "unfair" and said that "personally...there was something bigoted about how she was going on about immigration". The lovely Eunice thought that "the public at large are not too bothered" about the story. (Funny, they were talking about it where I work). At least the usually sound Saul Zadka of AI London was on hand to talk of Brown's "completely insincere" apology and the "contempt" Brown seems to have for such working class people. Henry Chu of the LA Times, one of the usual crop of liberal Americans (there has never been a Republican-supporting American journalist on this show since I began watching it a couple of weeks ago), backed Yasmin ("Everyone is entitled to their views in private.")
*
When the conversation turned to immigration, Mr Chu made reference to the "nasty" way the issue came up in 2005 but he was going too cautiously for Yasmin Alibhai Brown who, characteristically, leaped in hysterically to denounce the media for pandering to this talk of immigration as being a bad thing. Naturally, Eunice Goes agreed wholeheartedly and sung the praises of mass immigration. Gavin Esler intervened at this point to back up Eunice, saying "I've conducted some public meetings and ordinary members of the public have said precisely that, our health service could not exist without people who are migrants." When Saul raised the point that many people think immigration has been "excessive" and that the UK is a rare example of a country that doesn't know how many immigrants it has, he was leaped on by all and sundry, including the supposedly impartial host. Saul tried to continue but was shouted down by Yasmin Alibhai Brown. Gavin Esler did not ask her to let Saul speak. Eunice had a few angry goes at him too. Ah, the old rallying cry of the Left against the Right: "Shut up!!"
*
Incidentally, for regular viewer of Dateline (if there are any, other than me and Martin at B-BBC!), the role usually provided by French lefty Marc Roche was this week taken by Eunice Goes, who said "most of the Conservative MPs who will come to parliament on May 6th, they are not urbane, metropolitian guys like David Cameron. They are, most..many of them, climate change deniers, homophobes, xenophobes and supporters of the death penalty." Yasmin Alibhai Brown loved it and laughed uproariously. That's the quality of commentator they have on Dateline!
*
The late stages of the show brought attacks on Rupert Murdoch and the Murdoch Press. When Yasmin had finished her attack on them, she praised Sky News for not being partisan. Gavin Esler just couldn't stop himself from chipping in "They've not been Fox News in other words!". Cue liberal laughter. Well, I'm going to chip in too: "They've not been BBC News either then!"

M ROCHE, HE MAD!

*
Well, after weeks of anti-Tory British j0urnalists on Dateline London, today we finally got a Conservative supporter, Janet Daley. At last there was someone to put the Conservative case to the world.
*
She had to face the usual bunch of lefties though, including liberal American Stryker Maguire of Newsweek and the programme's most venomous anti-Tory regular Marc Roche of Le Monde. She also had to face Gavin Esler, who brought up a gaffe by David Cameron: "Let me just pick you up on one point about David Cameron. He did make a gaffe, talking about China as a potential nuclear threat. That was a mistake." Janet said he probably meant North Korea and that it wasn't a big gaffe on a nuclear scale! Esler wasn't going to let it drop: "But isn't the point that we're going to have two more debates, the next one is going to be on foreign policy, and this is something you can bet Gordon Brown is going to say, you know, 'Or are you still going to fight with China?'?"
*
Also, M Roche (who was only last on two weeks ago), having already indulged in one of his trademark extreme tirades against the 'very unsavoury' 'toxic' Tories and their 'fascist' allies, soon found himself offered the chance to launch a second tirade against them by Esler (who knows exactly what Roche thinks on this subject, and knew exactly what he was going to say and how he was going to say it - as do I, as I've previously written about their previous discussions on this very subject in early posts) "How is, within the Elysee and within the French political system, how is David Cameron viewed by those of the political Right, who should be his political soulmates?" "Horreur, it's a horreur!" began Roche's inevitable rant, with the 'xenophobes' and 'holocaust deniers' now joining the 'fascists' in his description of the allies of the 'nasty' Tories. Hopefully viewers will just regard him as a pantomime clown.
*
Brown was not in Gavin Esler's sights.

OH NO, NOT STEVE RICHARDS!

*
Back on another hobby horse here: Dateline London with Gavin Esler.
*
Almost every week there is a journalist from a British paper. So far this year only three have been from the Centre-Right, all the rest from the Left. Here's that list again:

2/1 Peter Oborne
9/1 Michael White
16/1 Isabel Hilton
23/1 Yasmin Alibhai Brown
30/1 David Aaronovitch
6/2 Polly Toynbee
13/2 Janet Daley
20/2 Ann Leslie
27/2 Ned Temko
6/3 (Dubai edition)
13/3 Yasmin Alibhai Brown
20/3 Adam Raphael
27/3 Isabel Hilton
3/4 Jahann Hari
*
That was the state of play as of last week.
*
So who was this week's representative from 'Fleet Street'? Who's next on the list?
*
10/4 Steve Richards (Labour loyalist from The Independent)
*
Is there no beginning to the BBC's impartiality?

LEFTLINE LONDON

*
How has Gavin Esler's Dateline London been getting on these days?
*
Though it faces the world, it also faces election-ready Britain. This week it again discussed the Conservative Party and, as so often, the British voice on the panel was a voice from the Left - Jahann Hari of The Independent. Also on were another left-winger Marc Roche, the Tory-baiting French journalist from Le Monde, and one of the programme's many liberal Americans Michael Goldfarb. Finally, there was the CBC reporter Laura Lynch. Except for Laura, who, though unquestionably liberal, mostly spoke like a careful reporter thoughout, it was just another hot-house left-liberal gathering.
*
First up for discussion though was the Catholic Church with Hari letting rip at "Ratzinger" (aka The Pope) and Goldbarb complaining that "every time there's some burst of progress in human emancipation...the political part of the Catholic Church acts as a drag on that. It pulls people back. It's a deeply conservative force in the most malign sense of what 'conservative' means". Then Roche let rip at this "very conservative" pope. Even Gavin Esler felt a twinge of conscience (or heard alarm bells ringing) here that this was all a bit too much, feeling obliged to say (after another of Hari's outbursts - he wants the pope arrested for crimes against humanity. Yes seriously!) "I'm conscious that people watching this who are believing Catholics will say 'Here are four secular journalists talking about this...". Hari leaped in and ranted again against "Ratzinger" and Esler did not complete his thought or return to it.
*
Then attention turned from one malign conservative force to another - the Conservative Party. Esler's first question on the subject, concerning their tax 'goodie' on national insurance (as he put it), went to arch Tory-basher Jahann Hari. Laura Lynch then got loud approving laughter for saying that she doubts the British public "is in love with the idea of taking their advice from business leaders." What a comment! Why the hell not take advice from business leaders? Give or take some bankers (a very, very small proportion of businessmen), they have done nothing wrong. They do much that is right. I'd prefer to listen to them than to this crowd of reality-averse lefties.
*
At least the cosy consensus ruptured for a while over Ireland as Hari (who wanted to believe that Ireland is not coming out of recovery and that its strong economic medicine is not working) and Roche (who says it is and it is, and that you Brits don't want to accept it because they're Irish) clashed. Business as usual swiftly returned. Hari babbled that the business leaders backed the Tories this week because they will be financially better off personally as a result. They are "very rich and very selfish". Roche bashed the "Anglo-Saxon model" again, as he always does, and then bashed the "nasty Tory anti-Europeans who sit with the horrible people in the European parliament, the extreme right. They are the toxic party." Cue delight from Hari and the rest.
*
The last topic was Obama and Afghanistan. By then I'd lost the will to live and switched off.
*
Since I began recording the programme's guest-list here are the Brits from British newspapers chosen to appear have been (with appropriate colour-coding). Things used to be bad, which is why I started listing the guests, they then improved perhaps coincidentally when I used to text them every week to complain (before I started blogging), then they have got worse again:
*

20/6 Polly Toynbee
27/6 Yasmin Alibhai Brown
4/7 Janet Daley
11/7 Isabel Hilton
18/7 Ned Temko
25/7 Steve Richards
1/8 Adam Raphael
8/8 Ann Leslie
15/8 Yasmin Alibhai Brown
22/8 Janet Daley
29/8 Bruce Anderson
5/9 Ned Temko
12/9 Michael White
19/9 Michael Gove
26/9 Polly Toynbee
3/10 (no programme)
10/1o Jahann Hari
17/10 Steve Richards
24/10 Ann Leslie
31/10 (Dubai edition)
7/11 Janet Daley
14/11 Adam Raphael
21/11 Yasmin Alibhai Brown
28/11 Isabel Hilton
5/12 (Washington edition)
12/12 Janet Daley
19/12 David Aaronovitch
26/12 Polly Toynbee
2/1 Peter Oborne
9/1 Michael White
16/1 Isabel Hilton
23/1 Yasmin Alibhai Brown
30/1 David Aaronovitch
6/2 Polly Toynbee
13/2 Janet Daley
20/2 Ann Leslie
27/2 Ned Temko
6/3 (Dubai edition)
13/3 Yasmin Alibhai Brown
20/3 Adam Raphael
27/3 Isabel Hilton
3/4 Jahann Hari
*
And that's just the Brits (or anglicized North Americans, like Janet and Ned)! There is always a large left-wing majority on any panel. So far this year no panel has featured more than one centre-right guest at a time (usually set against three left-wingers and Gavin Esler), and the majority have had no right-of-centre guest at all.
*
Dateline London is a rare glimpse for many of us living in the UK into the output of BBC World. It doesn't bode well at all.

TURNING OFF AT THE THIRD LEFT

*

I gave up on watching Dateline London with Gavin Esler yesterday within about 5 minutes. It was becoming far too annoying.

*

The three topics up for discussion were going to be:

*

- Why is it going wrong for the Conservatives?

- Israel and the Palestinians

- What would a Conservative government mean for the EU?

*

That's a lot about the Conservatives, isn't it? So, you might have expected a Conservative-supporting British journalist to have been one of the programme's guests. Well, it didn't quite turn out that way.

*

The guests were stacked towards the Left (as ever), with only the wise German journalist Thomas Kielinger representing right-of-centre opinion. The others were:

*

Michael Goldfarb, one of the programme's seemingly endless supply of liberal Americans

Mina al Oraibi, a left-wing Middle Eastern journalist

Yasmin Alibhai Brown, that excitable left-winger from The Independent

*

Oh yes, the barely coherent rantings of Yasmin Alibhai Brown were to the fore, flinging denunciations at the Tories!

*

I sat through Mr Goldfarb's attacks on George Osborne with complete equanimity, but when the lovely Mina (pictured) began denouncing the Conservatives for being about 'spin' and then said that Labour were far less involved with 'spin' I reached for the off switch!!

BUT TO BE FAIR...

*
Ah, Janet Daley was this week's Brit on Dateline London. The Left's long run is broken, probably for one week only.
*
Also atrocious Abdul Bari Atwan, whose ignorance of anything outside the Middle East shows up week after week, notched up yet another appearance (despite that ignorance), extending his substantial lead as the programme's 'most invited guest'. He attacked Israel. He always attacks Israel. It's a wonder he hasn't accused Israel of being behind the hacking of the e-mails at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit! (Still, at least he didn't accuse Israel of harvesting organs in Haiti. He left that to an even bigger extremist.)
*
Gavin's 'to be fairs' were much in evidence. When he's calling for fairness, it's usually a call for fairness to someone on the Left. One 'to be fair' today was a typical 'but to be fair to Obama' (before going on to praise the president for some 'sophisticated' strategy or other) but another was directed at Greece's socialist government: "But to be fair to the new Greek government, they didn't create this mess. They inherited a huge mess..." Now, as you will doubtless have read, heard and seen in recent days, Greece's self-induced economic catastrophe has been building for decades, with governments of all stripes building up disaster by refusing to do their duty and take on the communist trade unions and all the other vested interests and create the space for a clean, vibrant market economy and a responsible society to thrive. That doesn't sway Gavin Esler away from his instinctive solidarity-with-the-Left, so he'll 'be fair' to PASOK and heap all the blame on the outgoing conservative New Democracy government. All Greek governments have inherited a mess and handed the mess on to their successors. This mess just happens to be a MASSIVE mess, but it's a MASSIVE mess that is simply the sum of all the preceding messes - including, of course, the biggest mess-up of all, which saw an unsuitable country being allowed to join the European common currency for purely political reasons).
*
Gavin also, in all sincerity, called businessman and philanthropist Warren Buffett "the great Warren Buffett". Now, what's the betting Mr Buffett's strong backing for Barack Obama helped warm Gav's enthusiasm for him?
*

WHICH LEFTIE SHALL WE INVITE ON THIS WEEK GAVIN?

*
Left-wing Polly Toynbee of The Guardian was the Brit on today's Dateline panel. Last week it was New Labour-loving David Aaronovitch of The Times. The week before it was left-winger Yasmin Alibhai Brown of The Independent. Previously, it was far-left Isabel Hilton of The Guardian. The week before that it was snooty leftie Sir Michael White of The Guardian. Only when we get back to 2nd January do we find a right-winger, Peter Oborne of The Daily Mail. And on it goes...the last edition of 2009 featured Polly Toynbee again, preceded by David Aaronovitch again. On 12/12 we find a second right-winger, Janet Daley of The Sunday Telegraph. And then Isabel Hilton, preceded by Yasmin Alibhai Brown again...and on and on...
*
So of the last 11 editions of Dateline to feature a Brit (and all but one Washington-based special have), 9 have been left-wingers and only 2 right-wingers.
*
As Dateline regularly discusses British politics, this matters.
*
That's clear Beeb bias in action.
*

ESLER DOESN'T QUITE GET IT

*
Opening question from Gavin Esler on today's Dateline: London: "First of all, why is he (Barack Obama) in so much trouble, because people outside the United States don't quite get this, I think?"
Well if all they'd been listening to (over the last couple of years) is the BBC, it would be hardly surprising they don't 'get it'. The Beeb's coverage of Barack Obama has been almost completely favourable, at times nearing adulation.
* '
There's an excellent take on the BBC's inability to 'quite get it' from DB on the Biased BBC website, prompted by an article by John Lloyd: http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/2010/01/john-lloyd-on-bbc-obama-bias.html. DB links to this excellent article by Brian Micklethwait, which was provoked by an Obama love-in on Kirsty Wark's new Review programme: http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/2010/01/bbc_thoughts_an.html. Brian points out, along the way, the sheer lack of competence in Kirsty's interviewing technique (something I've noted here before): "My third impression was that the chairing of this discussion was incompetent to the point of being ridiculous. Kirsty Wark should be giving a real talking-to. She was far too keen on joining in the discussion with her own opinions, instead of ensuring that all the other people present refrained from all talking at once." 'Far too keen on joining in the discussion with her own opinions' reminds me of Gavin Esler himself, though he is a far more competent interviewer than Kirsty Wark.
*

C'EST LA VIE!

*
Today's Dateline panel consisted of left-wing French journalist Agnes Poirier of La Vie (pictured!); Isabel Hilton, even-further-left-wing journalist/broadcaster (chinadialogue/The Guardian/Observer/openDemocracy.net (etc)); so-far-left-he-could-soon-come-out-the-other-side-as-extreme-right Abdel Bari Atwan of Al Quds (yet again); and Tom Fenton, a veteran American broadcaster who worked for CBS News. A typical panel then.
*
Bankers were duly bashed and Obama duly praised. Agnes had a go at Sarkozy, laissez-faire and Boris Johnson. Isabel also had a dig at Boris, and savaged U.S. foreign policy throughout history. Atwan slagged off U.S. foreign policy, and even condemned them over their response to the hellish situation in Haiti. He was, though, with Obama on domestic policy and the bankers ("I'm really with Obama on these steps", he said.) Mr Fenton agreed, calling Obama's latest action on bankers' bonuses"a very clever move by the president."
**
As ever, presenter Gavin Esler couldn't resist commentating as well as presenting. He said that the one-off tax on bankers' bonuses may be "self-defeating" but it was "somehow satisfying" - and with that he folded his arms and laughed with satisfaction. How many times do I have to tell you Gavin, keep your opinions to yourself!!
*

ANOTHER DATELINE

*

Saturday on this blog means Dateline: London with Gavin Esler. Today's panel discussed the failed coup against Gordon Brown (some laughter at the expense of Hoon and Hewitt) before going on to slag off the Conservative Party (as usual). Then, discussing US intelligence in the wake of the failed Christmas Day massacre, they all defended and/or praised Barack Obama & condemned Rumsfeld and the Bush administration (including, naturally, the supposedly impartial presenter Gavin Esler). Finally, Dubai was up for discussion - and here, for the first time, there was disagreement among the panel. One of the lefties (pragmatic Sir Michael White of The Guardian) was characteristically majestic in his indifference to the plight of the poor S.E. Asian workers exploited by the Gulf pharoahs in their bid to build their new megatower - a plight characteristically brought up by one of the other lefties, the far-left Portuguese writer and broadcaster Eunice Goes (one of Gavin's regular cast of Eurobabes, who - for some reason! - is pictured above), who, after waxing righteous on the subject, was not impressed (being a very ideological lady) by Sir Mike's laxity on the issue. Michael Goldfarb of globalpost.com was on Eunice's side. The final guest, veteran Egyptian journalist Abdellah Homouda, edged his bets. He was the only one, during the section on the Conservatives, to balance his criticism of the Tories with criticism of Labour.

*

Week in week out, the left-liberal bias keeps on coming. For instance, there had never yet been (in the couple of years that I've been watching) a single American contributor who could be said to come from the Right side of American politics. And there have been lots of American contributors. And there have been many editions which have excluded anyone from the right-of-political-centre completely. There has never been an edition (in the period that I've been watching) that did not have at least two left-of-centre guests on it (and usually there are three, sometimes four). The programme is in severe need of being refreshed.

*

NEW YEAR THOUGHTS ON GAVIN ESLER'S 'DATELINE'

*
Today's Dateline: London with Gavin Esler was looking ahead to 2010. The cast list today, however, was - with one exception - very much the same as 2009: the extremist Abdel Barri Atwan (who seems to support our Lib Dems!); Anglo-Saxon-baiting Marc Roche of Le Monde, Gavin's American chum Stryker Maguire of Newsweek; &, for a small fig-leaf of political balance, Peter Oborne of The Daily Mail.
*
Before I started this blog I used to sent texts to the BBC News channel week in week out moaning about the fact that there were 4 lefties on the panel (as there quite often were). In the second half of 2009, there was a marked improvement on this score, though the tilt to the Left most weeks (as this week) remains.
*
I have kept a note of all the guests featured on the programme since early June (I like keeping lists, as you will have noticed!) and it will not surprise any of you who also watch Dateline regularly that Atwan (the spelling of whose name changes every so often!) is the most frequently invited guest, appearing 9 times since early June. For those who don't know him well, here are some of his best-known pronouncements:

"If the Iranian missiles strike Israel – by Allah, I will go to Trafalgar
Square, and dance with delight if the Iranian missiles strike Israel."
"The
events of 11 September will be remembered as the end of the US empire. This is
because all empires collapse when they pursue the arrogance of power."
Saddam Hussein "will go to the gallows with his head held high,
because he built a strong united Iraq without sectarianism."

As ever, Gavin Esler treated him with friendly respect, frequently agreeing with him ("Yes, that's true", and that sort of thing).
*
Maguire has been on 6 times and Roche 4 times. This was Peter Oborne's first appearance; indeed, so unusual was it that Esler stumbled over his name during his introduction! Moreover Gavin Esler and Stryker Maguire were at it again, completing each others' sentences. (I have noted this before.) They should get a room.
*
As you would expect with such a line-up the debate on the coming British general election was not a balanced one. In fairness Stryker Maguire was (as ever on this subject) non-committal. Not so Atwan and Roche, who strongly assaulted the Conservatives and strongly praised Gordon Brown. Peter Oborne was on hand though to do battle with them. I'll give you a flavour of some of this:
*
Roche: "The Conservatives are not see from a European point of view as acceptable, because they side in the European parliament with negationists, with racists, they are against Europe, there is also this feeling of the nasty party coming back (the nasty party is already here, it's in power, and it's called Labour), the background of their leader, this upper class thing, it's back to the ancien regime."
*
When Peter Oborne picked Roche up on his facts, & starting pointing out that Alistair Darling also went to private school, Gavin Esler stepped in to change the subject: "Let's move on a little bit...". He didn't move things on during Roche's attacks on George Osborne though.
*
Atwan: "I don't want them to have an open mandate, like the previous Thatcher government for example, or even John Major's government."
*
Here's a further revealing exchange. Having heard Roche hint at this Esler (doubtless with his fingers crossed) fished for an echo of his own pro-Labour question - and got what he wanted. Interesting.
*
Esler: "Do you think if there's not a double dip, if Gordon Brown can go to the country saying, 'Look, the banks are starting to pay us back, unemployment is going down' - and there are actually some reasonable figures from his perspective -, do you think he's in with a chance of..."
Roche: "Yes, because the economy is what makes elections."
Esler: "Interesting."
Atwan: "I think he has a chance. I think he's managed the financial crisis pretty well and this is to his asset. The man actually conducted the whole business in a brilliant way." (Earth to Atwan, Earth to Atwan!)
*
Peter Oborne finally restored some sanity to this mad-house: "The factual analysis there is simply wrong!" That's par for the course Peter for the usual suspects on Dateline: London!
*
This is a programme that is broadcast on BBC World as well as News 24. So the whole world can watch its weekly wallow in left-liberal opinion. That's a thought, isn't it?

ANOTHER DATE WITH THE LEFT

*
Was today's panel on 'Dateline: London' any more balanced than last week's?
*
Well, in place of Johann Hari of 'The Independent' we had the ubiquitous Steve Richards of 'The Independent'. (Have the programme's producers never heard of 'The Times'?). Mark that up as one for the Left.

Then there was this week's Eurobabe, Agnes Poirier of La vie, who also writes regularly for 'The Guardian'. Mark that up as two for the Left.
*
Then there was one of the programme's most regular of regulars, Abdul Bari Atwan of al Quds, a left-wing Palestinian known for his shocking anti-Israeli comments. (He was treated with the utmost respect, as usual, by Gavin Esler - despite, as the fourth guest showed, talking utter nonsense about Pakistan's Taleban). Mark that up as three for the Left.
*
Finally, that fourth guest, was Shahed Sadullah of Pakistan's The Daily Jang. I have always assumed (from all his other appearances) that he too was a man of the liberal Left, but he talked such good sense throughout the whole programme that he surely can't be!! So mark that up as three and a half for the Left!!
*
Finally, throw in Gavin Esler - and that's four and a half for the Left!!!
*

As for the show's discussion of MPs and their expenses, it was typical of what I've seen and heard in recent days. Poor bloody MPs! "They are really angry", said Gavin to Steve Richards, the Political Class's apologist-in-chief. "They have good cause to be angry", opined Steve, who (as he always does) stuck up for MPs with a vengeance, damning our 'hysteria' over the issue and sharply criticising Sir Thomas Legg (or as Richards sniffily - and unpleasantly - called him "someone called Sir Thomas Legg", and later "this figure".) When he mentioned how MPs outside London might not even get second home allowance, Gavin Esler joined him in commiserating with them: "And that is a financial burden. There's no question that's a financial pain." When Richards derisively brought up the popular idea that MPs should be housed in a "dormitory" or "youth hostel", Esler laughed and joined him in the derision: "..which some people would like, wearing hair-shirts and a prison uniform." Delightfully, Mr Sadullah said that Pakistan's MPs are housed in a hostel - and that it's a good idea! That put a cat among the pigeons! It is a good idea. Gavin Esler should keep his opinions to himself.
*
Incidentally, the lovely Agnes was in full agreement with Steve and Gavin: "It's gone too far now", she said, talking of "the tyranny of transparency" and going on to drivel "It's very dangerous for democracy. There is something slightly fascistic to go after them again." She also asked a rhetorical question, "Why should you not get a kit-kat on the taxpayers?". The answer, Agnes, is that you should pay for it out of your already more than adequate wages, that's why. Journalists, like politicians, seem to have a much more 'flexible' attitude to the morality of claiming expenses than most people who work in the private sector.
*
*
Returning to the theme of this morning's post, 'Dateline' also touched on the report from the Cambridge Primary Review, with Steve Richards describing it as "good" and Gavin Esler trotting out the case against early testing again, asserting: "Steve, I mean, some surveys have said that, of the developed countries, British children are among the unhappiest, or the unhappiest, and there is a problem." (He's certainly putting those surveys to some use!). Esler ended by saying, "We'll leave it there. I'm glad I don't have to do any more exams." As I've said before, if he wants to give his opinions, let him resign and go onto the programme as a guest. Given the sort of guests the producers usually invite onto it, I don't doubt he'd be a regular!

A DATE BUT NO DEBATE

*
Gavin Esler's 'Dateline: London' was, even by its standards, heavilly lilted to the Left this week.

The panelists were:

*

*****Annalisa Piras, of the left-wing L'espresso magazine

*****Eunice Goes, a left-wing Portuguese writer

*****Johann Hari, a leading left-winger at The Independent****

*****Stryker McGuire, Newsweek

The first topic up for discussion was David Cameron and the Conservatives. The comments, not unsurprisingly, were overwhelming negative. Hari's attacks were sustained and expected, but he was far from alone. Eunice Goes attacked the Tories and accused them of (O sin of sins!) "going back to Thatcherite solutions". Annalisa Piras agreed, saying "That's Thatcherism. That's not new." She also called Cameron's speech "poor in substance" and his European policy "painfully superficial" and "weird". McGuire called the policy "very, very naive" and claimed (wrongly, because I saw the speech and heard Cameron talk about it, albeit briefly) that "climate change was not even mentioned" (a moment in the conference coverage when the cameras turned to someone I think was Zak Goldsmith). Such unanimity of disapproval should surely have been anticipated by the programme's producers & a balancing voice from the centre-right provided.

Disgraceful!

When the focus turned to the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama, Esler asked Annalisa "Do you think it's right?" She replied, "I actually do." (Well, there's a surprise!) Eunice agreed, adding "It's an extraordinary vision he's brought". Stryker McGuire expressed no personal opinion, but Johann Hari dared to disagree and described himself as "more sceptical". He expressed some surprise at having to disagree "for once" with the his fellow leftists. He wasn't the only one who was surprised! But he came back on board to re-launch an attack on Henry Kissinger (accusing him of "mass murder"). This had previously been launched by Eunice Goes.

*

Disgraceful!

*

Another target they could all agree to hate was saved to the end, as Annalisa Piras was invited to attack Silvio Berlusconi - and did. Esler had asked her, "Why is he still prime minister of your country?" It was, of course, a "big mistake" that he was still there. Esler had mocked Berlusconi earlier in the programme and promised her a chance to attack him later! Will we ever get a pro-Berlusconi guest on the programme? Don't be silly!

&

Disgraceful!

*

DATELINE LEFT

Gavin Esler's 'Dateline London', broadcast on BBC News 24 and on BBC World, is - even by the BBC's standards - a highly biased programme.

It draws together voices from the world's media. The voices it draws upon, however, lean overwhelmingly to the Left.

Very, very occasionally there may be two voices from the Right to balance two from the Left, but far more often than not there is either only one voice or no voices from the Right to face a strong Left-wing majority. And don't forget that the programme is hosted by Gavin Esler. No-one could deny that he's another voice from the Left.

In the last 6 weeks, the guests from the British media have been drawn 5-1 from the Left:

20 June - Polly Toynbee (Guardian)

27 June - Yasmin Alibhai Brown (Independent)

4 July - Janet Daley (Sunday Telegraph)

11 July - Isabel Hilton (Guardian)

18 July - Ned Temko (Observer)

25 July - Steve Richards (Independent)

For a French perspective 'Dateline' always turns to la belle dame pictured above, Agnes Poirier. She has written for a plethora of left-wing newspapers, 'Liberation', the 'Guardian', the 'Independent' and the 'New Statesman'.

For an Italian perspective, it's Annalisa Piras of the left-wing 'L'espresso'.

For a Portuguese perspective, it's Eugene Goes. She contributes to the 'Independent'.

'Dateline' draws on a whole host of contributors from the United States. I have never heard one say anything good about George Bush, and rarely heard any criticism whatsoever of Obama.

The Middle Eastern contributors - the ghastly Abdul Bari Atwan of 'al Quds', Mustapha Karkouti (a Gulf writer and broadcaster) and Ali Bahaijoub of 'North-South Magazine' - are all anti-Israeli, anti-Western, leftist types, and the Pakistani guests are hardly any better.

The exceptions, such as the excellent Thomas Kielinger of Germany's 'Die Welt', are rare exceptions and feature far less regularly.

I will be keeping tabs from now on.

This week's edition featured the omnipresent Steve Richards and the lovely Agnes (so that's two writers for the 'Independent' on just one edition!), as well as John Fisher Burns, an English-born writer for the 'New York Times' (and newcomer to the show), who expressed sympathy and admiration for Gordon Brown, and Rauf Khalid, a Western-bashing booby (who Wikipedia tells us writes Kashmir-based patriotic plays!) from the Pakistan Institute of Cultural Studies.