Media Bias – a letter from our Chairman

We cannot expect a fair debate in the run-up to the referendum as far as the media is concerned  – especially from the BBC. Our Chairman’s comments on the reporting of last Friday’s Grassroots Out meeting in London, sent to a number of newspapers,  illustrate all too well what we will be up against.

Sir,

On Friday 19 February I attended a very successful, enthusiastic rally, organised by the Grassroots Out campaign in the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre London. It was standing room only. The platform included speakers from across the political spectrum – Conservatives, Labour and UKIP, all committed to returning our country to democratic government. That, of course, means leaving the EU.

Yet all that people had heard from the media by Saturday morning was that some people had walked out when George Galloway addressed the meeting. The meeting was running well past its scheduled time and I was one of those who left – not because of Mr. Galloway but because I had a train to catch. Others did the same just before he spoke

I was able to hear his speech on the internet today and it was as rousing and inspiring as the rest. He paid tribute to Nigel Farage of UKIP and said that we would not have had the referendum without UKIP’s campaigning. Much as he disagreed with UKIP politically, they had a common interest in ending the bureaucratic tyranny of the rich man’s club of big company corporates, which is the EU. The platform also included the Rt. Hon. David Davis MP (Conservative), Kate Hoey MP (Labour), Peter Bone MP (Conservative), Tom Pursglove MP (Conservative), David Campbell Bannerman MEP (Conservative), John Boyd of CAEF – of the Labour and Trade Union Movement and others – all united in the cause of our country’s freedom.

George Galloway’s speech received a standing ovation – yet all my neighbour knew about the meeting on the following morning was that people had walked out!

The BBC is up to its tricks again. In the Seventies , they were under daily instruction from a high Foreign Office official, Sir Norman Reddaway, as to how the news concerning the “Common Market” should be presented. This was admitted in a BBC programme twenty five years later. One news presenter, Jack de Manio, did not toe the line. He was sacked and BBC programmes have been overwhelmingly Europhile ever since.

It was a strange inversion of function. The Foreign Office supposedly exists to represent our country abroad but, when it came to the EU, it represented that foreign power to us!

The BBC is probably so well-trained by now, like Pavlov’s dogs, as not to need a minder. But, as Lord Tebbit famously put it, “It’s called the Foreign Office because it works for foreigners”.

Yours faithfully

Edward Spalton.