And now for something completely different.
I've just been chatting with someone who does a lot of work with the BBC. He has a perspective on their situation which was certainly interesting.
I've just been chatting with someone who does a lot of work with the BBC. He has a perspective on their situation which was certainly interesting.
Essentially, the BBC are in an existential crisis. They know the government might end the licence fee. They know that Cummings won't even allow a minister to appear on Today because of their 'bias'.
And they know that Cummings and Johnson are hopping mad about Andrew Neil's ultimatum. That's the kind of people they're dealing with.
What's the result? Naturally, the BBC is completely compromised. It goes out of its way to please the government out of pure fear.
What's the result? Naturally, the BBC is completely compromised. It goes out of its way to please the government out of pure fear.
All sorts of biases - conscious and unconscious - are the result. And merely an intensification of a process which began in 2010, and got much worse when Cameron threatened the BBC with loss of its Royal Charter and made it pay for free TV licences for over-75s.
It was quite a fascinating chat. I'd say the chap I spoke with was probably about 75% right. It doesn't account for all of it, and there's just no excuse at all for any independent broadcaster refusing to report the facts out of fear. But his perspective rang very true overall.
We also spoke about Cummings himself. It is, of course, plain daft to regard him as some sort of genius. What he does is incredibly straightforward. Sick - sick to the very core - but straightforward.
The key point to understand with Cummings is this. Like Steve Bannon, he's a radical. Like Bannon, he's engaged in a war on anything he considers as 'the establishment'. The civil service, the 'liberal elite', the EU, the BBC.
Which is how, through dark advertising of course, he persuades working class voters that the Tories are somehow 'on their side'.
We're not up against a reasonable or rational person here. We're up against someone who'll stop at nothing, and doesn't care about the consequences.
We're not up against a reasonable or rational person here. We're up against someone who'll stop at nothing, and doesn't care about the consequences.
The huge irony is this. Remember all that stuff about John McDonnell wanting 'the overthrow of capitalism' and Labour being a threat to life as we know it?
It's Cummings and the Tories who are the wreckers here. It's him who wants to overthrow the establishment as he sees it.
It's Cummings and the Tories who are the wreckers here. It's him who wants to overthrow the establishment as he sees it.
None of which is new, I know. But it's still worth spelling it out. The British media, written and broadcast alike, has never had anyone like him to deal with before. He's dangerous. Enormously so.
cc: @carolecadwalla @peterjukes @OborneTweets @maitlis
cc: @carolecadwalla @peterjukes @OborneTweets @maitlis
