As mentioned here last time, I complained to the BBC about “the endless slavish and unquestioning coverage” given to Nigel Farage and Reform UK.

Now the BBC has got back to me. Or, rather, to myself and every other similarly displeased person. To us all has been sent a dollop of corporate dung-speak from which there rises an unpleasant smell. I have attached the reply to the end of my last blog.

Short version (with a slick of added cynicism): we are right, you are wrong, and while we’re happy to hear what you have to stay, you’re still wrong and we all love Nigel round here.

Two points the BBC makes seem worth raising here.

First point. The BBC says the coverage is right because Reform UK has been “making the political weather”.

Well, it’s making the political weather because you keep puffing a gale up its sorry arse. Many elements contribute to the political weather, but the BBC endlessly banging on about one party above all others must be the biggest factor.

Also, ‘political weather’ is just lazy shorthand for Nigel Farage making a lot of noise and the BBC reporting every belligerent bellow, usually without accompanying analysis into the aforementioned noise.

Second point: “We give careful consideration to ensuring any story concerning Mr Farage and Reform UK are given proportionate and appropriate coverage on our networks and online.”

And yet other parties hardly get a look in. Oh, apart from the Labour government, which frequently is given a kicking by the weaselly Chris Mason, political editor (apparently).

The BBC has traditionally been considered left-wing by those on the right, and right-wing by those on the left. Sadly, as the corporation now appears to be run by right-wingers that argument has surely been settled.

But whatever view you take, it would be healthier if politicians of all persuasions had no influence on the BBC. For self-serving reasons, Boris Johnson felt the BBC was too left-wing, so he ‘fixed’ that – in part creating the one-sided BBC we now have.

As most media in this country is right-wing, the BBC should be neutral to balance the scales, rather than acting like a second cousin to the Daily Telegraph.

Incidentally, the BBC seemed less keen on reporting how Nigel Farage was taken down a peg or two in the US where he’d gone to plead for help with “the really awful authoritarian situation the UK has sunk into” on free speech. For his troubles he was called a ‘Putin-loving free speech impostor’ during a congressional hearing.

Breaking off for a moment to bang my head on the nearest brick wall (ouch!), that’ll be the US as run by a dictatorial president (“Maybe people like dictators”) who wants to control the universities, the media, the museums, history, the arts, who sends troops into Democrat-run cities to ‘solve’ crime problems that don’t exist, who has masked thugs arresting people on the street, and bundling them away.

Yeah, sure, but we’re the ones with an “authoritarian situation”.

Farage took time off from Parliament to badmouth Britain in this way. He’s the strangest patriot you ever did meet, but then his only true loyalty is to himself.

Oh, and this country is so authoritarian that an opposition politician can be paid a fortune to appear on a TV station where he is free to spout whatever rubbish he likes (with a favourable tax arrangement, too, reportedly).

Ouch! I’ve just banged my head again.

 

I WAS sorry to see the resignation of Angela Rayner, mainly because, whether you like her or not, she is an authentic Labour politician with a true story to tell.

The Guardian editorial on her departure contains the curious observation that: “If a minister takes the hit early and with contrition, they may be able to rebuild their career once public anger cools”.

Well, maybe – but the embers of that ‘public anger’ were mostly blown on by the Daily Telegraph, which incidentally now calls Nigel Farage “Britain’s next prime minister” at every mention.

Sadly, the posh boy element of the media hate what Rayner represents as a working-class woman who rose from a tough background in Stockport to become deputy prime minister. She had been held to standards that never attached to Tory ministers of recent times, as shown in this reminder here.

But I don’t understand why she didn’t seek official advice on whether she needed to pay more stamp duty. Worth adding, though, that her personal situation is quite complicated thanks to a previous family home being made into a trust for her disabled son. And that flat she bought in Hove is said to be the only property she owns.

 

IT MUST be time for a coffee after all that. Although not from Costa, as buckets of vaguely coffee-tainted milkshake are not to my taste. Something stronger, please.

According to a report in the Observer last weekend, Costa Coffee is underperforming against the artisan coffee shops popping up all over the place.

I always favour local coffee shops over the big brands, especially as in York there are so many good ones to choose from.

Anyway, Costa is owned by Coca-Cola, which shelled out £3.9bn for the dubious privilege in 2018. According to that Observer story, the company’s chief executive reportedly told analysts that Costa “had not quite delivered” and was “not where we wanted it to be from an investment hypothesis point of view”.

I have read that statement more than once and can find no possible meaning, even after an extra coffee.

Incidentally, should you spurn Costa in favour of Starbucks, it’s worth knowing that CEO Brian Niccol made “6,666 times more than the company’s median employee in 2024”. The figure is as quoted by Professor Robert Reich at Berkeley.

That’s Starbucks crossed off the list, too.