BBC’S GLASTO LABOUR LOVE-IN
‘Mobilise in every community’
THE BBC has been accused of producing ‘ left- wing propaganda’ with its coverage of Jeremy Corbyn’s appearance at the Glastonbury Festival.
He became the first opposition leader to speak from one of the event’s stages when he addressed tens of thousands from the Pyramid Stage on Saturday.
After his 15-minute speech, BBC Radio One’s Twitter account posted that the Labour leader had ‘aced’ it – before the comment was swiftly deleted.
There was also a segment on Radio 4’s PM show on Saturday dedicated to a discussion about Mr Corbyn’s speech. It came after BBC Radio 6 Music reporter Gemma Cairney told Radio 4’s Today programme that Mr Corbyn’s performance would be ‘brilliant’.
Last night critics claimed the BBC had ditched any pretence of impartiality. Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: ‘Glastonbury and the BBC think there is one more push and they can get their man into No 10.
‘If the BBC feel Labour are potentially close to power, any semblance of impartiality can be disregarded because with the Left, the ends always justify the means.’
Yesterday the festival, broadcast across the BBC, gave a stage to shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who called on Labour supporters to ‘demoralise and divide’ Tories. The veteran Labour MP was given a rapturous welcome by a 1,000strong crowd packed into the Left Field Tent to hear him on the final day of the festival.
Mr McDonnell told them: ‘Never underestimate the ability of the Tories to keep their grip on power by whatever means.
‘But I tell you, be ready for it any day because we are going to try to not just defeat them in parliament but we have got to mobilise in every community to demoralise, divide them and force them to the electorate, force them into democracy. And once we get that democratic vote, we’ll mobilise and this time we’ll have a majority.’
Mr McDonnell spoke at the festival as part of a debate titled Is Democracy Broken?, chaired by Guardian journalist John Harris, alongside Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley, Momentum activist Rachel Godfrey Wood and economist Faiza Shaheen.
On Saturday Mr Corbyn was introduced on the Pyramid Stage by festival founder Michael Eavis. Mr Corbyn spoke about the need to help the ‘povertystricken’ in society as he addressed tens of thousands of music fans, who had each paid £238 for a full weekend ticket.
After the speech the BBC Radio 1 account wrote on Twitter, ‘When you ace the chorus’, with a picture of Mr Corbyn on the Pyramid Stage. The tweet was deleted shortly after. Radio 4 also devoted a segment of its Saturday PM show to Mr Corbyn, in which a guest described his appearance as bigger than previous headliners Beyonce and Bruce Springsteen.
Music journalist Peter Paphides, who has produced documentaries for BBC radio, said: ‘The crowd I saw was, by a comfortable margin, the biggest Glastonbury audience I’ve ever seen.’
PM presenter Shaun Ley added: ‘They weren’t just standing there waiting for the next act to come on... He didn’t have to sing or play anything and he still got a reaction.’
On Friday Miss Cairney, 32, a reporter covering the event for BBC Radio 6 Music, had told Radio 4’s Today of the Labour leader’s visit: ‘I think it’s going to be brilliant... He might stay on and maybe whop out a few rap lyrics.’
Tory MP Philip Hollobone said: ‘The BBC is riddled with Leftwing bias from the Today programme downwards.’
AFTER the multiple shocks of the election result, terrorist atrocities and the Grenfell Tower fire, the Westminster rumour mill was in overdrive at the weekend, with talk of Tory plots to depose Theresa May.
Some whispered of a pact to install Chancellor Philip Hammond as an interim leader, on a ‘ dream ticket’ with Brexit Secretary David Davis as his deputy.
Others predicted Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson might have another shot at the top job (though, for what his protestations are worth, he has ruled himself out of the running until at least 2019).
Others again were said to be hatching plans to ‘ skip a generation’ and install a younger MP as leader. It was even suggested that 45-year-old Priti Patel might fancy her chances of the premiership – a rumour the ambitious International Development Secretary repeatedly failed to deny when challenged by ITV’s Robert Peston.
The Mail says enough! At this vital juncture in our history, the very last thing the country or the Conservative Party needs is yet more political upheaval.
This paper accepts that Mrs May ran a dismally lacklustre election campaign, in which her effort to boost her party’s majority backfired spectacularly.
It is also unquestionable that she lacks the superficial slickness of a Cameron or Blair, often seeming ill at ease on TV.
But never forget that under her leadership, the Tories have just won the second highest number of votes ever polled by any party – with a higher share of the total than any since Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide.
Meanwhile, what Mrs May lacks in acting skills she more than makes up for in solid experience at the Home Office and No 10, the two toughest jobs in government.
Add her unwavering determination to enforce the people’s will over Brexit, and it is impossible to see a better qualified candidate for the vital task in hand.
Indeed, Mr Davis spoke the stark truth yesterday when he said a leadership challenge would be ‘ catastrophic’ for negotiations with the EU, warning plotters: ‘Don’t be so self-indulgent.’
Which brings us to perhaps the most compelling reason why this is no time for a leadership challenge. The fact is that the inevitable infighting would risk tearing the Conservative Party apart, thus increasing the unthinkable likelihood of handing power to the terrorist-friendly, economically illiterate, neo-Marxist Jeremy Corbyn.
Yesterday, we were given further frightening glimpses of what that alternative would entail as Labour plucked yet more billions from its magic money tree, revealing plans to scrap the £23,000 benefits cap, while Mr Corbyn’s hard-Left supporters vowed to deselect moderate MPs. Meanwhile, the ranting Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell stepped up his provocative rhetoric, accusing politicians of ‘murdering’ the victims of Grenfell Tower as he pursued his campaign to incite a workers’ revolution.
If Tories know what is good for themselves – and the country – they will drop their self-indulgent plotting and rally with all speed behind Mrs May. APROPOS Mr Corbyn, how can the BBC justify its fawning coverage of his appearance at Glastonbury, where he turned the rock festival (tickets £238, ‘glamping’ tents up to £14,000) into a Labour Party rally? Since its admirably balanced coverage of the EU referendum campaign, has the Corporation entirely forgotten its duty of impartiality? THIS paper is frankly baffled that the Archbishop of Canterbury has seen fit to weigh into the Brexit debate, with a selfparodying demand for a commission of Leavers and Remainers to find a middle way, neither in nor out of the EU. In a country that often seems in moral meltdown, shouldn’t he be turning his mind instead to giving the spiritual leadership for which he was appointed?