“The BBC is highly selective with figures,” says ex-minister – We agree
Forthright words from a former Secretary of State, which we back with official facts
Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2023
The end must soon be nigh for this Bolshie body demanding on our money with legal menaces
On Friday (14 Apr 2023) the former Secretary of State Sir John Redwood MP strongly criticised the BBC’s Economics Editor Faisal Islam and a reporter called Noor Nanji for a report they produced which was carried many times on the BBC’s news channels.
Below we republish Sir John’s thoughts – with permission - followed by some official facts which back up his assertions. In our Observations below we then ask whether the time is now up for the BBC as an organisation which can demand money with legal force from everyone, whether they watch the BBC’s biased output or not.
Here is the BBC’s headline
© BBC 2023 - click to enlarge
"The BBC is highly selective with figures"
By the Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP, 14 Apr 2023
The IMF this week released a table of growth rates in GDP for the main economies of the world. It contained three years. The actual figures for 2022 and two forecast years, 2023 and 2024. The forecasts were changed from the previous forecasts for the same years, as they regularly do.
The BBC spent the day following the release running with the story that the UK is the poorest performing major economy according to the IMF. This was based on the IMF GDP forecasts for just 2023.
It was usually presented as fact or news, rather than as one of many forecasts for the upcoming year which might or might not be right. So-called experts were asked to comment on why we are the worst performing economy, not on the quality of the forecasts or why the forecasters thought that could happen. They were sometimes expressly asked if that was the result of Brexit.
The BBC could have led with the story that the IMF confirmed that the UK was the fastest growing economy in 2022 on the official figures, the only fact in the release. The UK’s growth rate of 4% compared with China 3%, USA 2.1%, Germany 1.8%, France 2.6% and Japan 1.1%. No expert was dragged on to be asked if that out-performance was “due to Brexit”.
They could have provided a more balanced account by saying the IMF’s 3 year figures combining actuals and estimates show the UK ahead of France, Germany and Japan but behind the USA and Italy. They could have asked experts to comment on how we could could be even closer to the US rate of growth and less like the German one.
The fact they did not choose to do so tells us the state of BBC economic commentary remains poor.
- The Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP, 14 Apr 2023
Sir John is absolutely right and here are the facts to prove it
On 11 February Facts4EU.Org published its research on the IMF and GDP growth. As the BBC seems to be unwilling to acknowledge the facts we will summarise the main points once again below. These completely vindicate Sir John Redwood’s comments and leave the BBC’s Economics Editor Faisal Islam, his colleague Noor Nanji, and the entire BBC with serious questions to answer.
Below is our headline of 11 February.
LATEST : Brexit Britain is fastest-growing G7 country for second year running
In our report we stated that the Bank of England, the OBR and the BBC were wrong again, as the UK did NOT enter recession in the final quarter of 2022. We continued : "Since Brexit, the UK has outperformed other major economies and busted Rejoiner myths... Yet again Brexit Britain’s economy grew in 2022 – by 4.0%, according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released yesterday. And yet again Brexit Britain beat all the other G7 countries – for the second year running."Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary
Brexit Britain’s economic growth compared with the rest of the G7, 2022
- United Kingdom : 4.0%
- Italy : 3.9%
- Canada : 3.6%
- France : 2.6%
- United States : 2.1%
- Germany : 1.9%
- Japan : 1.1%
[Source : Office for National Statistics, Q4 2022 report, released 10 Feb 2023, and subsequent report from the OECD on 21 Feb 2023.]
© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2023 - click to enlarge
And what was the BBC’s reaction?
Inevitably the BBC chose not to look on the bright side of life. Their headline was “UK economy avoids recession but not out of woods – Hunt”. Their first paragraph was : "The UK narrowly avoided falling into recession in 2022, new figures show, after the economy saw zero growth between October and December.” If the BBC had bothered to interrogate the actual data as Facts4EU.Org did, instead of parroting the ONS’s press release, they would have found that in Q4 the economy grew by 0.41% compared with Q4 2021. Only marginal growth, admittedly, but not 'zero'.
The BBC has a £3.7 BILLION budget this year
The UK’s Rejoiner-Globalists have received over £3.5m in foreign funding
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This BBC report was patently and demonstrably untrue
When it came to international comparisons, the BBC started in typical fashion : “A glance at the economic league table shows the UK is an economic laggard compared with the rest of the G7 club of rich economies.”
On 21 February Brexit Facts4EU.Org followed up our earlier report with a chart showing the UK's economic performance against the rest of the G7, over the previous seven years. Here it is.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary
UK growth compared to the G7 group of nations, 2016 – 2022
In the last seven years since the EU Referendum :-
- The UK beat the G7's average growth five out of seven times
- The UK beat Germany four times
- The UK beat France four times
- The UK beat Italy six times
- The UK came top in the two years since the UK exited the EU
[Source: Latest OECD official data.]
© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2023 - click to enlarge
Observations
Our own view is simple. The BBC is institutionally biased. The bias is now so deeply embedded in the psyche of those who work for the Corporation that it is highly unlikely anything can be done to turn this around. We say this with great sadness.
There is of course an even deeper problem which has been the training of young wannabe journalists. There clearly needs to be a radical overhaul of the UK’s journalism training schools. Heads must roll and new people brought in who believe that journalists report, they do not present their opinions. If trainee journalists wish to do the latter they need to build up considerable experience over many years and then become an independent ’commentator’. Alternatively they could simply go on Twitter and twit away to their hearts’ content, without a fact in sight. At least that wouldn’t cost the public £3.7 billion per year.
If journalism schools were overhauled this would also improve the poor quality on Sky News and ITN, who suffer from the same problem as the BBC. At the same time perhaps some major changes could be made at senior editorial level at the BBC.
To be clear, we do NOT expect the BBC to become a cheerleader for the United Kingdom, nor for the Government. What we DO expect is some semblance of understanding of the duty of impartiality. Instead we get relentless negativity and bias. In his understated style Sir John says "the state of BBC economic commentary remains poor." We would go further and say that it is wholly unacceptable.
We must get reports like this out there
Reports like the one above take far longer to research, write and produce than many people realise. If they were easy, readers would see other organisations also producing these daily. However, there’s little point in the Facts4EU.Org team working long hours, seven days-a-week, if we lack the resources to promote them effectively – to the public, to MPs, and to the media. This is where you come in, dear reader.
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[ Sources: Office for National Statistics | BBC ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Sun 16 Apr 2023
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