And another thing…

THE BBC, eh? Damn bunch of lefty liberal bleedin’ hearts. In my day they would have had all that beaten out of them by a dose of national service, hanging’s too good for them, etc, etc… As most right-wing bloggers might say.

But here’s a screengrab of the website of Tina Stowell, the Beeb’s Head of Corporate Affairs:

Notice anything odd about it? The tree-shaped logo, perhaps? Look familiar?

The right-wing blogs don’t often mention that the Head of Corporate Affairs at the Beeb is not only a wannabe Tory candidate, but still has a live website proclaiming her love of all things Cameron. Interestingly, a search at the Biased BBC site for Tina Stowell’s name produces this result:

The Head of Corporate Affairs is the figurehead who represents the public face of the corporation to businesses and other outside organisations, including MPs.

And you know something? I don’t have a problem with this. I would much prefer to know the  politics of someone I’m dealing with because at least you know where they’re coming from. She wants to become an MP? Good for her! I hope she gets a nomination and then is soundly beaten by her Labour opponent.

But there will be those, understandably, with some qualms about someone in such an important and influential position in the BBC maintaining such an ostentatiously public position on politics, particularly in the run-up to the general election when the output of the BBC and other broadcasters will come under intense scrutiny by all the parties.

So the question I would pose to all the right-whingers who constantly moan about BBC bias is, inevitably: would you be as relaxed about a Labour aspirant occupying this job?

I suspect this is another of John Rentoul’s “Questions to which the answer is no”.

JUSTIN Webb is coming home to the UK after seven years as the BBC’s America correspondent.

I’ve found Justin’s despatches from the Land of the Free/Home of the Brave compulsive and illuminating and I will miss them. He reveals a genuine love of the place while not pulling his punches in reporting America’s often sordid and irrational underbelly, acknowledging them as an indispensable part of what makes America America.

His latest book, Have a Nice Day, was reviewed on this blog here.

You can read his valedictory thoughts on his adopted home and his return to Blighty here.

I RECORDED a four-minute “diary” on the last week for BBC Radio Scotland yesterday. You can listen to it here. It starts 23 minutes in.

I ADMIT it – I’m not a morning person. The experience of having to get up at almost any time is one from which it takes me some time to recover.

So when the alarm went off at 6.20 this morning I was pretty appalled – until I remembered I was due on the Today programme less than an hour later.

My plan was clear: head into Millbank (where lie the BBC’s Westminster studios) at a quarter to seven, have my chat with Jim Naughtie then walk across the road for breakfast in the tearoom. That would give me an opportunity to start rehearsing my PMQ for later today (yes, I’m going to have another go – the third successive week).

All well and good.

Then, at 6.35, just as I was about to choose a shirt and tie, my mobile rang. Probably the Beeb confirming I was still coming in, I assumed. At first I could hardly make out the voice at the other end of the line – the radio was blaring out the Today programme and I had to turn the volume down so I could hear. “I’m sorry about this, Tom, but…” Oh, FFS, as we say round these parts. “Okay,” I cut across the caller, rather curtly. “Thanks.” As I hung up, I gazed longingly at my my comfortable, still warm bed. I couldn’t, could I…? No, I reflected, sadly. I was up and there was no going back.

The programme’s packed, my caller had said. It’s at moments like this one is reminded just where back benchers rank in the grand scheme of things. But they’ll regret this snub, oh yes, revenge shall be mine.

I turned the radio back up just in time to hear a report of a vote coming up later today in the Commons on a Tory proposal to freeze the TV licence fee.

A-haa….

YEARS ago I had the privilege of leading the PR campaign to promote the the construction of the M77 motorway through the south side of Glasgow.

The anti-roads lot were well organised and had a lot of friends in the media, as became evident by one infamous incident: the media were only too willing to cover the confrontation between the contractors and the professional full-time protesters who would regularly climb trees targeted for felling to make way for the road. During one particularly determined push by the construction company to make some progress, the trees immediately filled with protesters. One of the protesters was late, however, and arrived at the scene in a car owned by a press photographer! The protester jumped out of the vehicle and immediately chained himself to the trunk of a tree (as you do) while his chauffeur started snapping pictures of his former passenger — pictures which found their way onto the next day’s front page.

I was reminded of this sordid little incident when I saw coverage of today’s House of Commons protest on the BBC News website.

In case you can’t read the caption to the picture, it reads: “The protesters glued around the statue: Pic supplied to the BBC by Climate Rush.”

“Pic supplied by Climate Rush”? So the people organising the protest took their own pics and the BBC used them? Fair enough, you might say — it’s a legitimate story and the Beeb presumably wouldn’t have been allowed to take their own pictures. But talk about enabling! Got an illegal protest planned? Got a cause which is so much more important than the right of others to get in and out of the Commons because, like, we’ve watched An Inconvenient Truth, like, eight times now, yeah? Well, call the BBC and get your own self-commissioned pictures on one of the most popular websites in the world! No media scrutiny, no objective analysis, just good old publicity. Unfortunately, we can’t return your pictures, but we will give a prize for each one we show… oh, hang on — that was Vision On, wasn’t it?

I just think the BBC should be more careful about giving creepy little outfits like Climate Rush such an easy ride. I mean, I know none of my readers would ever dream of questioning the BBC’s impartiality, but things can change…

LITERALLY millions of incensed licence payers jammed the BBC switchboard yesterday after foul-mouthed billionaire presenter Jonathan Ross made his latest tasteless gaffe.

Nearly two-thirds of the world’s population gasped in horror as spoiled fop-and-a-dandy Ross confessed he had not watched the Queen’s address to the nation on Christmas Day!

“I slept all the way through it, I must admit,” he smirked during his Saturday morning Radio 2 show. The lisping lothario also offended viewers with more foul-mouthed abuse, remarking flippantly that he didn’t “give a damn” about whether Eastenders or Coronation Street is the most popular soap on the box.

One pensioner listener could barely speak through her anger. Ena Sharples (99) of Weatherfield, near Manchester, said: “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! He slept through Her Majesty’s speech! He might as well have called for her to be beheaded! And this is what I’m paying my licence fee for? Disgusting! He should be sacked right away. And given a right good kicking.”

Another listener, 120-year-old retired army general, Sir Edward Ponsonby-Sachs, fumed: “This chap should be taken out and flogged, simple as that. To think that my licence fee is used entirely to pay for this traitor’s salary so that he can spend his days making filthy phone calls to members of the Royal Family makes my blood boil.”

Ross compounded his crimes earlier today when, he saw reporters going methodically through his dustbin outside his plush, expensive London home paid for by TV licence payers, he angrily blasted: “Look, would you mind leaving me alone? I’m a bit tired.”

The BBC Board of Governors was today expected to issue a statement about Ross’s behaviour. A spokesman for the BBC said: “I’m sorry, what’s your question? I’m not following you.” 

(Hat-tip to The Daily Mail.)

I DON’T understand the BBC’s decision not to broadcast the Disaster Emergency Committee’s (DEC) appeal for Gaza. 

But I agree with Andy Burnham’s comments that broadcasters must be independent and free from political interference. Depending on its wording, I will support Richard Burden’s Early Day Motion (EDM) on the subject, but counter-intuitively, I hope that the EDM itself has no effect; if the BBC are to change their minds (and I hope they do) it must be because they are persuaded of the arguments, and not for any other reason. If they were seen to bow to pressure from MPs and other parts of the media, it would be a disaster for the Beeb’s reputation.

Similarly, if the BBC decide that their original decision should stand, then stand it must, whatever phone calls ministers may make to the chairman of the Board of Trustees or the Director General, or however many EDMs are laid in parliament on the subject.

The demonstration and occupation by the Stop The War Coalition at the BBC’s Glasgow headquarters actually makes it harder for objective editorial decisions to be made: do we really want to institute a new editorial system at the nation’s most prestigious broadcaster, whereby the loudest, most aggressive and persistent protesters always have their way?

I APPEARED this week on BBC’s Today in Parliament, offering my insight into the political situation over the past year. If you have absolutely nothing else to do, and there’s nothing left on your Sky+ box worth watching, and you haven’t yet bought this month’s Viz, you might want to listen to it. The interview with me, the Tory MP Mark Field and Susan Kramer of the LibDems, starts about half way through.

Are you sure there’s nothing on ITV3?

[audio http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/tip/tip_20081127-2359b.mp3]

DOCTOR Who fans among you (and I know there are many) will find this fascinating.

The BBC have just published some never-before seen photos and documents relating to the very earliest days of the series – some of them dating from before the first episode was even filmed. Well worth a perusal.

A rare picture of the first Doctor, played by William Hartnell

HEATHROW’S third runway – or lack of it – is in the news again, and as a strong supporter I was asked to lend a back bencher’s perspective to the BBC’s The Daily Politics.

I recorded it at BBC Scotland’s cavernous headquarters at Atlantic Quay in Govan. It was only after the interview was over that the producer offered to do it all over again – this time with a poppy in my lapel. I had one with me but I had left it in the car.

Unfortunately I was a bit pressed for time so I couldn’t. But I was annoyed at myself. I take the Poppy Appeal seriously; as a rule, I don’t ever wear anything in my lapel, with the poppy being one of only two exceptions (the other is my Union flag/Stars and Stripes badge which I usually only wear on US election day and whever I visit the States).

So let me take this opportunity to apologise in advance for the absence of my poppy. I know many people think it’s important that public figures should wear a poppy on all occasions at this time of year. And they’re right.

Anyway, if you’re at all interested, my interview will be broadcast as part of The Daily Politics this lunchtime.