BBC’s Project Sneer won’t dampen joy of our new freedom
ANEW era of freedom has begun for Britain. We have just witnessed history in the making. The start of the new year heralds a momentous change in our governance, as Parliamentary democracy replaces rule by the European Union.
Yet the epic, uplifting nature of the event was lost on large parts of the media. Stuck in the groove of their doom- laden, anti- Brexit narrative, still infused with their worship of Brussels’s power, they either mocked the advent of independence or treated it in the kind of funereal tones usually reserved for a national crisis. The whole approach was one of grievance mixed with grief, and sarcasm matched with sadness.
In this orgy of carping, there was no room for celebration at the return of national sovereignty. Instead, the news channels moaned about Britain’s presumed isolation, the end of our ties with the EU and the supposed threats to our economy. It was a “moment for trepidation”, declared Sky News from Downing Street, while the BBC spoke portentously of “midnight in Brussels” to the chimes of Big Ben.
Some disproportionate attention has been given in recent days to the end of Britain’s participation in the Erasmus European student exchange programme.
SINCE the Government will continue to fund overseas study through the new Alan Turing initiative, named after the code- breaking genius, this is a minor controversy concocted by the metropolitan elite to suit their pro- EU propaganda.
Yet, in a mood of despair, the BBC News Channel interviewed a tearful female student who was questioned sympathetically about the “difficult” impact of Brexit alongside Covid.
Even worse, the news stations harped on about the impending chaos at our ports because of the post- Brexit border checks, even though only 7.5 per cent of our GDP involves exports. News bulletins were filled with talk of extra bureaucracy and burdens on businesses. One on Radio 4 led with a gloomy report on the looming problems on the border between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
But as so often with antiBrexit scaremongering, the predictions turned out to be hollow. On New Year’s Day, traffic ran freely across both the Irish Sea and the Channel.
At Dover, just three lorries were turned back because their drivers did not have the right paperwork. The absence of any queues in Kent prompted one Turkish driver to state, “It all seems OK now. I have not heard anyone have issues so far.”
France’s busy port of Calais appeared to cope smoothly with the new arrangements. Its director, Jean- Marc Puissesseau, said: “A lot of people think Brexit means bottlenecks at the border. It is not true.”
Anti- Brexit hysteria peaked on the festive airwaves in BBC’s comedy output, where Project Fear gave way to Project Sneer.
THE Mash Report, in which left- wing ideology serves as a substitute for humour, described Nigel Farage as “a sack of meat brought to life by a witch’s curse” and predicted Britain would soon physically leave the continent of Europe by “strapping rockets under the country to blast off into space”.
Frankie Boyle, in his New World Order TV show, claimed that the process of Brexit was “like finding cancer has spread to the walls of your house”.
Such abuse fails to recognise that the EU itself, in all its gran
diosity, is a ripe subject for satire. Its directive on the marketing of hazelnuts contains more words than the Lord’s Prayer.
With some of the comedy, the only laughable feature was the timing. On the pre- recorded Christmas Special of the BBC impressions show Dead Ringers, Boris Johnson was savagely lambasted for failing to reach a Brexit deal, when he had achieved just such an objective.
That error is all too typical of deranged Europhilia. Faith in the creed of European integration tends to warp judgments. At the moment of Brexit, TV presenter Dan Snow mournfully tweeted that “75 years after history’s bloodiest war”, a generation of survivors “tried to prevent a future war by building institutions to curb assertions of national sovereignty”.
But it is absurd to pretend that the restoration of British democracy is a threat to peace. Indeed, the real engine of instability is the EU itself, with its quest to build a federal empire.
Ever since the 2016 referendum, the pro- EU brigade have been wrong about Brexit. Their warnings about a no- deal scenario were as false as their predictions of a recession after the vote. This New Year, in their arrogant contempt for 17.4 million Leave voters, they got it wrong again.
‘ There was no celebration for the return of national sovereignty’