Evan Davis confirms BBC is not interested in accusations of Bias. We comment
There is alleged bias and there is real bias. The room packed with a certain type of voter is an extreme version of alleged bias the subtly of the nuanced comment a milder and harder to support version of alleged bias. The policy of basing local constituency hustings on who is likely to form a government or the number of candidates a party is fielding nationally is real bias at a constituency level where the law rightly accepts all candidates are of equal merit. This is why the Post Office has to deliver one leaflet free of charge for all candidates and the democratic services team of the local council treats all candidates with equal respect…even independent ones. But this level of objectivity seems not to apply to the BBC where it is blatant and at constituency level, we think illegal bias. You simply can’t as a publicly funded body decide who to air and who not to! But the BBC does and when challenged at production team level the response can be patronising and disheartening.
Everyone accepts the political ‘system is rigged’ but until we stood in this election it was not clear how aspects of that ‘rigging’ worked. One way it happens is that broadcasters and the media try and shoehorn diverse opinions into a creaky binary 18th-century political system complete with big binary parties of left and right and an electoral system, the first past the post system, that benefits binary politics. The ‘mother of all parliaments’ has given birth to systems like this all over the western world. No wonder from Trump to Corbyn the claim is made that the system fails the people. In the Anglo-Saxon sphere the, parliamentary system is a major contributor to the people’s democratic deficit. Here in the Uk, the BBC contributes too, by gaming their coverage in favour of the main parties and locking out new entrants to politics at constituency level. Add to this the Lobbying by Unions, big business and a picture emerge of a system which was not designed to work in the public’s interest but in the interest of the state and its wealthy supporters. The problem is that unlike in the 18th century where the ordinary person was illiterate had no vote and did not pay taxes now the people have all three! The system needs to change. This election more than any other is likely to see two party politics reinstated and that is bad for democracy and public anger.
Reform of the system is needed but in the case of the BBC this is not just Bias it is in our view an illegal rigging of the system and is one reason why we need a Blue Revolution.
