My days – or rather nights – of sitting through the wee hours until daybreak watching election results unfold are more or less over. I prefer a good night’s sleep and then sit back and enjoy the analysis of who won what, why and where.
And so for England’s council elections I opted for a good night’s sleep and woke to listen to the BBC Today programme on Radio Four. It was obvious from snatched conversations as I whizzed around getting ready for the day that Labour must have had a bad night.
Switching on BBC TV, the analysis was similar and so I went on to the BBC’s website to try and check the statistics. Not one of the mainstream media, including the BBC, picked up on the real story of the day … UKIP had sunk without trace bar three seats.
I then ventured into Twitterland and discovered through journalist, political analyst and commentator Owen Jones, that far from suffering a humiliating defeat, Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour had recorded its biggest win in London since 1971 and gained 77 additional council seats throughout England.
Despite this success, the BBC headlines and other mainstream journalists were continuing to babble that there was “no clear winner”! No wonder the print industry is in such a rapid decline when nonsense like this is churned out to the public which is far more sophisticated these days and can check for themselves online who won what.
One wag ridiculed UKIP but said at least the party had retained its safest seat … the one on BBC’s Question Time panel! Very funny, all the more titivating because it’s true.
The BBC used to be the gold standard of British journalism but its political coverage falls far short from what many of us have come to expect. It is quite clear the BBC is anti-Corbyn but, even so, the public has a right to be given the facts even if the results don’t match some folks’ expectations.
Journalist Owen Jones tweeted:
Labour won its best result in London, and the Tories their worst result, since 1971, and this is being spun somehow as a defeat. Amazing. @PeoplesMomentum played a huge role in delivering the best result for 47 years – which is why so many Tories are now frothing all over twitter
Many others echoed Jones’ frustration and I must admit I was a tad annoyed as well. After a good night’s sleep I didn’t expect to have to work so hard to find out how well Labour had performed in England.
However the BBC throughout the day continued to wheel out disaffected Blairites, anti-Corbynistas and any one else who would say that a major inquiry was needed to find out why Labour had performed so poorly. What these fools don’t understand is that the general public has had a gutful of propaganda and spin which is why plain-speaking Jeremy Corbyn is so loved and revered by the many and not the few!
As most of my followers know, I live in Scotland which is another nation on which the BBC tries to pour scorn and hogwash when it comes to the issue of independence. I don’t think the BBC has actually thought this one through clearly since Corbyn is against Scottish Independence.
Quite how the BBC will muddle through the next independence referendum (yes, folks, it IS coming) I’m not entirely sure.
Even so the BBC and other mainstream media need to up their game otherwise we will all switch off. Thank goodness independent outlets like WTX News are around to deliver the unbridled facts and stats.
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