I’m struck in chatting with British friends by how rare it is to find many in England currently rejoicing over the humiliation of the BBC. It’s not that the Beeb is well-loved; or that the criticisms aren’t valid. It’s that the Blair government has become extremely unpopular – and its vindication might actually intensify that. Here’s a typical email:
Everyone I have spoken to here who is not directly involved in politics (but who keeps a “watching brief” on events as they affect our daily lives) is horrified. We seem effectively to live in an elected dictatorship: over-reaching powers of Tony Blair without any check whatsoever; supine parliament (whose powers of scrutiny have been wrecked by said Prime Minister); pliant judiciary; and a commercial media hamstrung by regulation preventing any form of political partiality. The inquiry seems to have suddenly clarified the unease that a number of us here have felt deep down for some time.
The Hutton inquiry was a joke. Procedural lapses in the BBC news department were seized upon as examples of the worst sort of behaviour. But hardly a word was said about the fact the the Prime Minister held high-level meetings at 10 Downing Street on the two days before the MOD released Kelly’s name WITHOUT ANY MINUTES BEING TAKEN (at least, that is what we are told). None of those present at those meetings were ever questioned about this, shall we say, procedural lapse, and it remains the greyest area about the whole affair.
The damage of trust to such an institution as the BBC, is damage to the fabric of trust in Britain. It was threadbare last week: now it barely exists. A Guardian poll today shows that 30 percent of people regard the BBC to be more truthful than the government. only 10 percent believe the opposite. We cannot continue to have an active polity with such disgust and contempt swilling around: things will have to change or it will spill over into something nasty.
We’ve had the Hutton bomb-shell. The fallout has only just begun and may be far bigger than any of us realise. Now that you’ve got your sacrificial lambs, please think about those of us who actually have to live here and have suddenly found our country even less pleasant and comfortable to live in.
Worth pondering. Sometimes, American love of Blair reminds me of British fondness of Clinton in the 1990s. The closer you get to both men the more loathing you find. And vice versa. (There’s more feedback and criticism of yours truly on the Letters Page.)
The Dish 