5 live pre-election frenzy

I love the idea of this. However, the actuality will be nothing like we would hope for. Because all the BBC presenters are so obviously pro-Labour and anti the rest. If you don't believe me, just have a listen to any interview held so far with anyone who is not from the Labour party.

I would wholeheartedly agree with Carrie.



Just by way of some examples of how you show your pro-Labour bias --



1. Have Labour ministers on continually to discuss government policy usually with no-one to balance, or an interest group who will not take Labour to task.

2. Voxpops weighted towards left-wing views particularly as a result of Manchestification, the north being far more positively disposed to the reds, and opinion being take on the streets in urban centres not across the country.

3. Partisan comments made on Twitter by the likes of Richard Bacon.

4. The choice of topics chosen to be discussed or avoided.

5. The relentless attacked on Michael Ashcroft and the silence over Lord Paul.

6. The fundamental lack of scrutiny applied to Gordon Brown's comments at Chilcott (see an excellent Channel 4 fact checking here: https://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/2010/03/10/brown-gets-defensive-about-budgets/%29

7. The curious spin the BBC places on the economy (witness this: UK Credit Rating Viewed As Safe https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8567682.stm vs this: https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601009&sid=a8c_1vtVGzD8)

8. Using comedians and comedy as a 'trojan horse' to spout left-wing bias. Comedy is subjective and open to interpretation and seemingly free from the same type of scrutinuty on the BBC. Mr Addison from 7Day Sunday for example is on record as saying --



"It's very difficult, if you were brought up as a child during Thatcher's period, to ever contemplate being a Tory. There is no way I can physically bring myself to vote Tory. That will stay with me till I die." -- https://www.politics.co.uk/interviews/culture-media-and-sport/interview-chris-addison-$1321521.htm



"My political leanings are decidedly liberal."

https://twitter.com/mrchrisaddison/status/7456388150



"I am fiercely pro-European. I would very much have liked to see this country join the Euro a few years back. Not least because it would greatly annoy the kind of people that I don't generally like." https://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/chrisaddison/



...and that's just for starters.

"I do remember... the corridors of Broadcasting House were strewn with empty champagne bottles. I'll always remember that"





Jane Garvey after the 1997 election.

Ah, you have a good memory Trifecta.



Here's truth radio: https://www.esnips.com/doc/185f0a00-06a2-4de7-af9c-5536bd84448b/2007-05-10-BBCs-Jane-Garvey-blows-the-gaff



Listen again to Jane Garvey telling it like it is.

My heart sinks at the thought of a politician's Fighting talk.



It sounds like something from the Thick of It, which in case nobody has heard about, actually featured an episode with Richard Bacon in it.

What a utopian scenario! What we wouldn't give for some balance! The reality will, of course, be nothing like as described.



Prosperosgirl - do you mean Richard Bacon? In an episode of The Thick of It? That he never mentions ever at all on his programme? That Richard Bacon? That episode? You know when the politcos are in his studio at 5 Live and he's hosting a phone-in? I think it may be that to which you are referring but am not sure as he never mentions being on it.



;-)

Bacon was on "The Thick Of It" ? He kept that one quiet.



I loved the way that they balanced the story of the enviromentalist cartoons being pulled with a quote by Ed Balls saying how they had won! News to me. Returning to TTOI, you can almost hear Malcolm Tucker whispering the lines into Balls head.

#1 - Well said, Carrie. You've only got recall VDs outside broadcast programmes during the conferences last year for a prime example.



I hear this morning that unemployment in England has miraculously plummetted. No mention of the figures for the sick list or overall economically inactive - I suspect that remains the same. Wouldn;t surprise me to find that no more people are in work, just a lot more people on different benefits this morning.



Call me a cynic but there might be an election coming...?

Thanks for the post, Jonathan - sounds like you've got some exciting plans! Can't wait to hear the programmes - I reckon 5 Live will really come into its own with this election.

Although they may have been a bit premature in laying in the champers this time, however...

Seems to me that the entire BBC staff spend most of their time in either meetings or on courses instead of giving listeners the quality radio it deserves but no longer does.A BBC producer lives a couple of doors away from me and she can vouch for that.

If you want accurate and balanced reporting the BBC would be the last news outlet I would turn too....anyone heard Victoria Derbyshires programme ? I'm not a Tory but I heard Derbyshire interview George Osborne and the poor chap couldn't get a word in edgeways.I was interested in his policies but as he was constantly interupted and talked over by Vicky, I was non the wiser.If presenters are not going to let politicians even explain their policies in detail it is hardly worth them coming on the BBC.



I read on another thread about a listener giving up on the celebrity obsessed 5live and I can assure you that I have done the very same.Classic FM is now my preference for radio listening,it may not be news but at least they talk to you as though you have some intelligence.



Good luck with ' oh so exciting ' election coverage Jonathan.

"I was interested in his policies but as he was constantly interrupted and talked over by Vicky, I was non the wiser"



On another occasion she will be saying something about how no-one knows what they stand for or what their policies are!

The presenters don't even give politicians a chance to answer the first question before they lunge in with another.It''s appalling and patronizing radio of the worst kind.It's more about the blessed presenters than about those who are about to get elected.I'm not surprised many are just finding alternative listening.If the BBC and 5live won't change ,then I will.

Speaking of an impending election, it's not just the BBC getting into a "frenzy." Observe that the unemployment figures released the other day to show how great Labour is were just that; a ploy. Looking into the ONS figures closely and ignoring the selectvie Downing Street press release we see that figures released to show that the number of people unemployed in the UK has fallen and show a jobless rate of 7.8% with total unemployment standing at 2.45 million for the three months to January aren't quite telling the truth, suggesting unemployment is down 33,000 on the figure for the previous three months.



A quick look at the ONS data reveals the smoke and mirrors. The number of people in work actually fell in the quarter, by 54,000 to 28.86 million. So how is it that both the number of people in work and the number of people out of work fell, did we miss a plague, a famine, a third world war? - for only a massive reduction in the population could cause this, surely?



Well, no, actually - the ONS has the answer; "unemployment and employment were both falling because of a rising number of people being classed as economically inactive. This category includes students and those on long-term sick leave, as well as those who have stopped looking for a job."



Ah, so that's it, unemployment has fallen because people have stopped looking for a job. Heavens above!!! Are people really so thick as to fall for this government guff?



Long-term unemployment, covering those out of work for more than a year, rose by 61,000 to 687,000 a massive quarterly rise of almost 10%!



The inactivity rate was 21.5 per cent and there were 8.16 million working age inactive people.



The employment rate for the three months to January 2010 was 72.2 per cent. The rate is down 0.3 on the quarter and it has not been lower since the three months to November 1996.



The number of inactive people of working age increased by 149,000 over the quarter to reach a record high of 8.16 million. I had assumed earlier that this 8.16 million included the unemployed but it appears it does not - they are a further 2.45 million, making a total of 10.61 million people of working age who are without work.



The number of people in public sector employment was 6.10 million in December 2009, up 7,000 from September 2009. The number of people in private sector employment was 22.76 million, down 61,000 from September 2009.



When Theresa May challenged Jim Night on the Daily Politics about the 8.16 million inactive people of working age he implied they are mostly students. They are not. This figure includes only 2.31 million students which, although the highest figure since comparable records began, is only a little over a quarter of the total of economically inactive (which doesn't include the "officially" unemployed).



The lesson is, with this government, at least; always read the small print.

//Victoria will be tackling subjects like immigration, crime and the economy - with studio audiences (if you want to be with her, email).....//



Are you sure she can handle anything harder than daft human interest stories these days?

Remember her efforts during conference season last year, Zelly?

I try to blank out bad memories Tempus.

Don't we all...?!!!

I know it's only the Sun, but there is a page today on the BBC anti-Tory bias (election) emerging at the BBC. No mention of the anti-everyone else bias but I guess it's a start.

Good spot Carrie.



You only need to look at the excellent fact checking series that Channel 4 News is doing in the lead up to the election to see how bad the balance at the BBC is.



Ric Bailey, the Chief Political Adviser needs to have a look at the output lately, it's getting much much more partisan.

Here's the article online... https://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2898713/Sun-unearths-alarming-smears-against-Tories-by-state-owned-BBC.html

Brown was blathering on about Ashcroft again at PMQs. So were the Beeb. No mention of Lord Paul, though. Also, apparently Blair has earned £20m since leaving Downing Street and I'd love to know how much UK tax he's paid on it. Or how much Brown intends to pay on his income when he leaves Downing Street in a couple of months. Yesterday it emerged that all the correspondence and paperwork relating to Ashcroft was copied to Downing Street at the time and they were fully aware of what was going on, right the way up to Blair. Labour think they've got a good hook here but it's getting a bit boring now - their own party is full of fiddlers just as bad, what with Lord Paul and those that claimed for non-existent mortgages, "flipped" expressly to evade CGT and so on.

Given today's stories in the Sunday Times, I guess the proof of 5's coverage of political stories will be in how much airtime they devote to the lobbying story in comparison to how much they and other BBC news stations have spent on covering the Ashcroft affair.

Yes, I noticed Miss Silverton was mentioning Ashcroft this morning, again. You'd think they'd wind their necks in now that it's been revealed that No.10 was copied in on the whole deal and knew all about it, all the way up to Blair. Then there's Lord Paul and eight or so other major Labour donors who enjoy the same breaks as Ashcroft. Not a squeak about them from the Beeb, though. As to the lobbying affair - kind of makes "cash for questions" look like small potatoes, doesn't it?



Whiter than white, they said. Yeah - right...

Ah, Ms Silverton... her programme is a model in bias... following the Ashcroft mentions...



Today she was enthuastically championed Labour "achievements" during the Week in Westminster section while for balance we were offered Labour Party mandarin and former PM spin doctor Lance Price, nicely complemented by two pro-Labour txt submissions, the only handpicked audience contributions aired.

Spot on Propsperosgirl (comment no. 23) and the comments following on.



Came on here to make a similar observation.



It's beyond a joke - how can the Beeb trumpet its impartiality; its quest to report fairly etc etc when, as far as I can ascertain; this cash for influence scandal perpetrated by Hewitt, Hoon and Byers gets barely a mention? I switched on 5 Live a few minutes back wondering whether the phone-in would have it as its subject - no. Then Victoria Derbyshire pops in to announce what her programme will be discussing (another post in itself) and no - it's a double whammy of promoting Boy George's new single (disguised as a touchy feely Celeb interview).



I can't help wondering in my cynical way whether if the cash for influence bods were for example Tory Ministers (shadow ministers) if the same silence/ non-interest would have been applied? Somehow I don't think so.

Lance Price on the BBC yet again ?

He obviously has good connections and surely now must be a permanent fixture on the BBC gravy train.He must be employed in that department called ' Stating the bl**din' obvious '.

I won't mind but along with the many the BBC draw on to give an ' informed opinion ' he has absolutely nothing to add or say .

World at One has taken it more seriously.



Where is Adrian? Anyone know?

Adrian emailed me today (in response to my complaint about the ridiculous partisanship on show during the Silverton show yesterday) to say he is away for the first half of this week.



I'll share his response when I get it next week as Lance Price, Kate Silverton et. al. have been mentioned here.

I wonder when AVK is going to get round to answering your questions, Ryan. When was it you listed them? February? And when are we going to get AVK's 'new year' update?

Good question DaPonte! It was 8 February... but don't forget they were questions we all asked, I just summaried them. And they've been languishing since November 20 2009.



Thanks for asking about our questions. I think it's important we don't forget about them.



But, the person who's supposed to be getting them answered is "our" blogs editor, Mr Bowbrick, and it seems he has other priorities then blogs for some reason, remember last week he said; "These days I mostly lurk in Radio 4 studios with my instant camera" -- https://twitter.com/bowbrick/status/10520552306



At least he's honest.

Nice to see that 5Live have sent they've sent the big persanality, Richard Bacon, to the marginal electorate of North Tyneside, with a knife-edge majority of 15,000 on a paltry 61% of the share of vote in 2005, to hear what people think there of Labour's budget. Hmm, I wonder what they'll think.

I can predict Bacon's show, but I am deeply worried about Gabby presenting the Budget. Fortunately, Radio Four has a Budget special on from midday, for two hours.



Mind you, as they have dumbed down everything, maybe more less bright and articulate people will listen to how the Budget will affect them, in words of one or two syllables, presented in that way by Gabby and George.

The only problem with moving away from R5 for PMQs/Bodgit coverage is you then lose John Pienaar, who is really very good at explaining things and, despite working for the BBC, is quite even-handed in his typically excellent analysis.

Fresh from the hear the views of the good people of the North East (remembering North Tyneside is Labours, with a knife-edge majority of 15,000 on a paltry 61% of the share of vote in 2005) we now have a delightful picture of St Vince Cable and John Pienaar and Peter Allen on the home page of the blog.



Wouldn't it have been less partisan today to send the big personality to a truly marginal constituency for the afternoon and on the blog have photographic representation here of either the Chancellor delivering the budget (justifiable in journalistic terms) or the Darling, Osborne and Cable.



Only one major party seems to be missing out here. Hmm.

"Only one major party seems to be missing out here. Hmm."



M'yes but as they are likely to form the next government and have indicated reducing the amount of champers the BBC is able to lay in in anticipation of the next Labour victory (far off, surely, given the long memories we have?) it's hardly surprising, is it...?!!!

Labour must be delighted. After yesterday's budget with all the comments regarding an election budget, rural issues with fuel duty, Conservative observations about hidden costs to ordinary working people and the hint of huge restructuring and cuts to government jobs, Nicky Campbell's phone in is about the rise in duty on cider. It will be important to some people, but there are wider issues surely to discuss, particularly as Campbell keeps linking it to rural issues. Perhaps the remit should have been widened to look more comprehensively at how rural communities were affected.



Even Campbell seems a little embarrassed by this and keeps trying to tell us it is about binge drinking etc, but is this really the phone in we need after a budget?



Campbell mentioned that a Facebook protest group had been started - are producers of these programmes now just reacting to whatever seems most popular on Facebook?

I caught a little of Richard Bacons unusual Budget programme yesterday.It was broadcast from some university with most of the student audience whooping it up as if they were at a tv game show.



Btw I was not at all impressed by David Camerons extremely poor, inexperienced and undignified Budget reply yesterday.I loathe some of what this government has done but Cameron just shouting, ranting with cheap laughs ain't going to win my vote.I thought he just got so worked up he totally lost it, not the mark of a statesman.No wonder the opinion polls are narrowing.I think he has blown the tory election chances.Him and Gideon don't inspire me with any confidence and I'm neutral regarding politics.

"Perhaps the remit should have been widened to look more comprehensively at how rural communities were affected."



As a rural dweller who lives near a small business cider press I can assure you that every budget set by a metropolitan elitist such as we constantly find appointed Chancellor is always bad for the rural economy, prospects, jobs and the rest. Put fuel up? Fine - but then you put the pinch on farmers and the prices in our shops go up due to higher delivery costs and people struggle to get about. By all means, price us out of our cars but put affordable public transport in its place. Hell - just give us public transport, full stop.

"I was not at all impressed by David Camerons extremely poor, inexperienced and undignified Budget reply yesterday."



I thought Cleggy and him did quite a good job of pointing out some of the small print glosed over by Darkling, and of cutting him and Brown off if not at the knees then certainly at the ankles.

Cameron coming across as a Mister Angry figure never has played well with voters.For the first time I thought how immature he sounded and he was the one who wanted the end to punch and judy politics.It's Cameron and Osbornes fault that they are losing support.They are not coming over at all well.

He sounded like someone thoroughly fed up with the lies, spin and obfuscation, not to mention the mismanagement of the country, to me. In other words, exactly like 95% of the rest of the populace.

Thats exactly my point and the Tories problem.They thought this election was a shoe in.They have become totally complacent .If you think 95% of people are fed up and that Labour are so bad, then you have to think why is the tories opinion poll lead crumbling away to nothing ? It is not enough just to have the support of Murdoch and the Sun newspaper,voters are far too sophisticated and educated for all that shenanigans now.

Because they can't get elected in Scotland and, despite most of the north switching their council from red to blue last year, they've not much hope in the north, either. The core vote will either stay at home, vote Labour out of some misguided union-inspired working class loyalty or do what they did at the local elections and go to the BNP, UKIP or anyone else that says what they want to hear.

//on March 25th, Eleanor Oldroyd will be discussing the main issues facing English sport//



When will she will be discussing the main issues facing Scottish, Welsh and Northern sport?

What's sport got to do with the election, frenzy or otherwise? Actually, you might have a point, there - the way the moan-in has gone of late you could be forgiven for thinking it has everything to do with it!



Speaking of politics, VDs just announced that Gordon's going to be brought to us live to tell us how much he's going to clamp down on unfettered immigration. Given that it was only a few months ago insiders were crawling out from under their stones to reveal just how it has been part of Labours insane social engineering/destruction project fro the last thirteen years to encourage the world's waifs, strays and criminals to pour through our farcical border controls one can only assume that this is another bit of electioneering.



Labour have already stated that, for their manifesto at least, an election promise is no promise at all, and even went to court to establish that point in law so, despite not being able to believe what any politician says, we all know we absolutely cannot believe anything a Labour politician says. We had His Toniness in full yesterday, we've got Jack Straw on now and will have an uninterrupted Gordon later. It looks more and more that R5L is one long party political broadcast on behalf of the Labour party. Has the BBC given up any and all pretence of impartiality now...?

VD does appear to be giving the Minister an easy time this morning.......

Yes - the way she chopped off the caller asking about sentencing to bring in another caller because the first caller was putting Straw on an awkward spot was quite telling. She's also just told the Labour voter who called in that Brown is okay and made all the right decisions during the banking crisis. However, this ignores the fact that there was only a banking crisis because of the loosely regulated playground they were given to run riot in - a loose regulation regime put in place by, you guessed it, Gordon Brown. There was also the crazy glut of cheap n' easy credit and the culture of have now, pay later (if possible) that was encouraged and facilitated by, you guessed it, Gordon Brown.



Five more years of that inept mismanagement the nation can well do without.

Gordon's on now talking about skills gaps needing to be filled by migrants. Well, we've got two and half million unemployed, a few million more who have simply given up looking for work and millions more "economically inactive," which includes students. If we've skills gaps, why are we not giving these jobs to our own unemployed, training them to fill the gaps and encouraging these economically inactive students to train and learn in areas where we have these gaps so that they might be economically active on graduation instead of sitting on benefits wondering what use their Mickey Mouse degree in pebble polishing or media studies is and was it really worth the debt after all...?

Yes, Gordon - there may well be a million Britons living and working in the EU but that's just it - they're WORKING, not going to ponce off the benefits system in other EU countries. And for the million Britons abroad in the EU, how many millions of other EU are here, working or otherwise...?

The government have no idea just who is in this country working or otherwise.

The SNP were talking about how a hung parliament would get them more say as a "Celtic cabal" in Westminster. Er, you can stuff off, Mr. Salmond and Co. - we down here south of the border, even some Scottish people I know, have had enough of the West Lothian question foisting unwanted, unnecessary and ill-conceived England-only legislation on us that wouldn't get past first reading without unaffected Scottish MPs shoring up the government line.

Brown's just been banging on about how the Tories will take us back to the '80s. Well, we won't have the union antics if we are taken back because the law doesn't let them anymore. In the '80s you could find a police officer - and quite often it was on the street. In the '80s there was a bull to be taken by the horns in the shape of the last Labour mess. Oh, hang on - yep; looks more and more like we are going to have to go back to the '80s (only without the shoulder pads and dreadful hair)!!



;-)

Great job Victoria, enjoying this enormously.

There has rightly been plenty of good reporting on the first debate. Clegg can't complain about it anyway. I wonder whether anyone agrees that the national overuse of Facebook, twitter, blogging and the rest of new media to keep in touch will actually create election interest burn out rather than keeping people engaged and keen. I got the distinct impression yesterday via radio that plenty of people are just a bit fed up already, and surely that must be partly down to twitter overkill? Won't that just turn people off voting if it carries on? Maybe or maybe not.

"We're going to great lengths to make sure our coverage is as balanced and accurate as possible, but we hope it will be fun and engaging too. Do let us have your feedback once we're underway."



then you find discover this --



Labour candidate is BBC bias complaints judge, see: https://order-order.com/2010/04/19/labour-candidate-is-bbc-bias-complaints-judge/



Hmm.

You couldn't make it up.



He obviously has been on the Facebook course anyway.

"I wonder whether anyone agrees that the national overuse of Facebook, twitter, blogging and the rest of new media to keep in touch will actually create election interest burn out"



The Electoral Commission must be doing their collective nut over Twtter, Faceberk, et al when you consider that the BBC used to lock all the messageboards for twenty-four hours before any sort of election to ensure that posts and comments didn't break electioneering laws.

Further examples of the famous 5Live impartiality this morning: https://bit.ly/d2Q3PP