The BBC is facing fresh accusations of bias after claims that Nigel Farage has been banned from appearing on Desert Island Discs. The Mail has the story:
A new biography claims the Reform UK leader will never be invited on to the prestigious Radio 4 show as his presence would make woke Corporation staff feel “unsafe”.
Producers are also said to fear a backlash from other potential guests, who may boycott the programme if it gave the populist politician a platform.
Last night, Mr Farage told the Mail on Sunday: “I have come to expect nothing less from the BBC – their blatant bias has been obvious for years.
“The BBC will have a rude awakening under a Reform government”. …
Reports of the ban come in a forthcoming biography of the Reform leader written by former Tory Deputy Chairman Lord Ashcroft.
He quotes a BBC source as saying that Mr Farage “has effectively been blacklisted” from the show, which has run for 84 years and was once named the greatest radio programme of all time. …
The source said: “Farage is regarded instinctively by many BBC staff as unacceptable. At least half the staff would think Radio 4 had become an ‘unsafe space’ if he was on Desert Island Discs.
“Nothing would be written down, it’s just classic liberal-Left BBC.
“It’s impossible to state quite how snobbish it is, especially on this kind of programme where political bias goes unrecognised.
“I also think they’re worried that if Farage went on, other potential guests might start a boycott.” …
Both Sir Keir Starmer and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch have appeared on the programme, which has shown no qualms about inviting figures from the hard Left.
Matt Brittin, who succeeded Tim Davie as the BBC’s Director-General earlier this month, has reportedly described one of his main challenges as trying to “Reform-proof” the BBC – making sure any future government cannot change the way the broadcaster operates.
Worth reading in full.
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Well done Beeb, the book (film?) title “How to lose friends and alienate people” springs to mind.
If they can’t deal with people they disagree with, maybe they shouldn’t have gone into journalism.
Desert Island Discs? I expect the BBC don’t want phone calls “…and leave him there.”
I’d like to know how the BBC’s woke staff define the term “unsafe”. Are their minds so fragile that hearing words from someone who disagrees with their politics will make them ill?
And it’s not as if any of this programme’s guests use it as a political soapbox anyway. They just want to deny him any airtime of any kind.
I don’t think they get it. The more stories like this, the more people will go out and actively seek to understand why the Beeb thinks he’s so bad and maybe convert to his way of thinking, or at least listen to what he has to say.
No publicity is bad publicity.
Better stated as all publicity is good publicity. Although Nicola Sturgeon might not agree.
Is there is something fishy about Sturgeon?
How extremely odd of the BBC.
Surely they are the first people who want Nigel Farage on a deserted Island?
If Queer Stalin and Rachel from Accounts have their way, that deserted Island could be the UK.
Hey Nige, don’t forget to turn off the lights when you leave too.
What’s that you say? Ed Minibrain has beaten you to it?
The lefty Establishment at the BBC knows that Farage would come across as interesting, sociable, likeable and relatable.
They know that I’m a Celebrity gave him the opportunity to reach a part of the electorate who were unaware of him or had resisted him, believing the lefty propaganda.
They’re determined not to repeat the opportunity.
There is nothing impartial about the British Pravda.
I would not trust them to make it a total stitch up – you know splice together different bits so it appears that Farage worships Hitler for example.
To hide that some BBC types worship Stalin – [the current Queer one or the original one]?
There IS something wrong with the DS site. I have to repeatedly login on my iPhone and now DS is telling me I have forgotten my password when using my laptop. Oh no I hadn’t.
We should be able to dismiss the rantings of Matt Brittin but sadly we cannot. Just like Milliband, the old guard hope to embed laws, protocols and procedures as well as even more loyal left leaning globalists so the task of a Reform government would be very difficult. It is the task of Danny Kruger and others to prepare the way to thwart their schemes.
I recommend that the initial legislation Reform puts before Parliament should contain a good/bad leaver clause. Anyone found to have acted in the ways Milliband and Brittin say they will will be treated as hostile and their departure from office will be with prejudice. No more tax payer funded appointments, the equivalent of a Royal Commission to examine them with the possibility of life long bans from the electoral lists and any public office.
In my view the remaining problem is the HoL. Nigel gives the impression of supreme relaxation about it but I suspect he and Danny know the… Read more »
“Matt Brittin, who succeeded Tim Davie as the BBC’s Director-General earlier this month, has reportedly described one of his main challenges as trying to “Reform-proof” the BBC – making sure any future government cannot change the way the broadcaster operates.”
Not sure what he can possibly mean. In the U.K., Parliament is sovereign. With a majority in the Commons and the Lords it can make or change or repeal any law.
So now they want proportional representation to make sure the Right don’t get a working majority.
I think they should invite Nick Griffin, Dan Wootton, Tommy Robinson, Rhun ap Iorwerth, Gavin Robinson, Jim Allister & Leo Kearse. 🙂
And Andrew Bridgen, Lawrence Fox & Rupert Lowe.
edit
Someone I know said she will leave the country if Farage becomes PM. He’s a most innocuous man, I think you have to be bonkers to feel “unsafe” – unless they are worried about their jobs.
My aunt, who lives in Richmond, Virginia, US, said she would emigrate to Europe if Trump won the election.
That was before the first time he won.
Yep, she’s still there, quietly indignant and stuck up. And she is a chemistry teacher, educated at Imperial College, London. Yep, she is jabbed and probably still believes it’s a pandemic.
I was unlucky enough to see a clip from a podcast in which Harrison Ford and Woody Harrelson were talking about the current political situation in the US and making reference to “brownshirts”.
She won’t be missed.
Defund the BBC, then who the (new) BBC invite on a program is a commercial matter.
Ahh, but the anti-whitists and anglophobes at the BBC have a lot to be anxious about.
I wonder if they’d feel less unsafe if they had a Sikh wearing a visible blade on his person in the office with them, like this psycho in the photo. Words vs sharp, pointy weapons in your face on a daily basis…it’s a tough one. 🤔 Nigel is clearly the bigger concern in this scenario. 🤦♀️ And when you stop and think about it, there’s loads of occupations you wouldn’t be able to do if you insisted on carrying a knife with you at all times: policeman, lifeguard, doctor, nurse, airline pilot and cabin crew….This is why I don’t buy this tripe that they’re apparently obliged to wear it when in reality they’d have to part with it any time they want to board a plane to go on holiday. They surely wouldn’t be allowed to keep it in their hand luggage either;
”Astonishingly, Henry Nowak’s murderer would walk around the office of the accountancy firm he worked at openly wearing a large dagger. Imagine you walked into an office and a white accountant was walking around with a large deadly weapon. You would call the police immediately. Instead, his employers declared him their “brightest young talent”. This is the… Read more »
But if the police contact you to say a credible death threat has been made against you (on religious grounds), and they can’t protect you, it would be illegal for you to carry a dagger to defend your life against a real risk.
It’s obvious to anyone that the knife he has there is too large to be within the religious exemption given to Sikhs.
How could that behaviour ever be acceptable?
Yes, the kirpan is meant to be a dagger, whereas the thing in the photo might even be the murder weapon because it was said to be an 8ins ”ceremonial sword”. Which does beg the question: why on earth is he taking that to work and which dipshit gave him permission to do so?
Isn’t it funny that none of us had any sort of issues with Sikhs wearing their kirpans before this awful murder but now the injustice of them being exempt from carrying a blade on religious grounds, while women can’t even carry pepper spray for self-defense, has brought all of this into the spotlight?
I didn’t have a problem with them before but I strongly feel it should be one rule for all, now we know that whichever group you belong to, all it takes is one person to go rogue and commit an atrocity then it brings the entire group into disrepute. I also read that only baptized Sikhs are supposed to carry the kirpan, so it’s not all of them anyway. Where’s the problem with just leaving the damn things in the house?
The Jury series 1 2002 currently viewable on ITVX raised this very issue which has been ignored until now. One rule for all, no unauthorised offensive weapons; not hard.
What was the ceremony he was wearing the “ceremonial sword” to attend? And at that time of night? What was his mother and brother doing there? Has any of that been explained? I have also seen video of him brandishing a full size sword whilst wearing some kind of Sikh dress during a road rage altercation. So like the younger Pakistani Muslim brother in the Manchester airport police attack he has form for being a violent thug.
I wonder how safe they’d feel if someone with dark skin and a large rucksack or knife walked into the building and started shouting Allahu Akbar.
Good, I hope they do.
Entirely deserved and their own fault.