Labour befuddled as Beeb mauling fails to materialise
AS JOHN WHITTINGDALE unveiled his plans for the BBC, Labour MPs looked on in shock. This was extraordinary. They couldn’t believe what they were hearing.
The Culture Secretary wasn’t destroying the BBC after all. Now what were they going to rant about?
Maria Eagle, Mr Whittingdale’s opposite number, scrabbled around for something to criticise.
“The fact that most of his wilder proposals appear to have been watered down or dumped or delayed by the Government,” she cried gamely, “is a reflection of his diminishing influence and lack of clout!” Having come to attack Mr Whittingdale for wrecking the BBC, she was instead attacking him for not wrecking it.
Barry Sheerman (Lab, Huddersfield) wasn’t giving up that easily. He decided that Mr Whittingdale was indeed wrecking the BBC – but in an exceptionally subtle way that had yet to be detected, even by Mr Sheerman himself.
“I believe this is going to be a dark day for the BBC!” yelped Mr Sheerman, neglecting in his fury to supply a single reason why. “This is going to be a champagne night for Rupert Murdoch!” Mr Sheerman is angry. Now he just needs to work out what he’s angry about.
Speaking for the SNP, John Nicolson (East Dunbartonshire) said that “at its best” the BBC was “unsurpassed”, although “we have had our disagreements”.
Presumably he was thinking of the time during the independence referendum when Alex Salmond expressed support for an anti-BBC protest by Scottish nationalists, who wielded banners emblazoned with messages such as “Why is the BBC Killing Democracy” and “Sack Nick ‘The Liar’ Robinson, a Totally Corrupt Journalist These Days Typical of the British Biased Corporation”.
Yesterday, however, the BBC faced accusations of bias from a different source: Peter Lilley (Con, Hitchin & Harpenden). If the BBC was to “encourage diversity”, he declared, it must do more to reflect the views of “the greatest oppressed minority in this country”. Because “the greatest oppressed minority in this country”, he explained, was “Conservatives”.
It was a pity Mr Lilley didn’t speak for longer, because it would have been interesting to hear him expound on this view. He could have spoken, perhaps, about the glass ceiling that, throughout this nation’s history, has prevented Conservatives from securing top jobs in business, politics, newspapers and the clergy. He could
Having come to attack Mr Whittingdale for wrecking the BBC, she instead attacked him for not wrecking it
have demanded to know when Conservatives would be admitted to the Garrick, or White’s, or Eton. And he could have asked, voice quivering with passion, whether we will ever see a Conservative rise to the office of prime minister.
I would have loved to hear that speech. And I very much hope that, on behalf of the nation’s greatest oppressed minority, he will be courageous enough to give it.
“I have a dream! A dream that Conservatives’ children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their school ties, but by the contents of their trust funds!”