I’m just watching Newsnight and I have a little quiz for you. The following two political stories were covered. One story got headline treatment and was given three times as much attention as the other. Which story do you think the ever-so-neutral Mr Michael Crick got his teeth into? (Story 1) An unknown Tory official […]
Yesterday the BBC received a guarantee of future income that most commercial broadcasters would give their right arms for. Tory culture, media and sport spokesman Hugo Swire welcomed what he described as "a more realistic settlement" than the inflation-busting increase that the BBC had originally requested. He then went on to offer much comfort to […]
52.8% of listeners voted for repeal of the Hunting Act. 29.7% agreed with Dan Hannan’s recommendation of repealing the European Communities Act. The full result is here. This vote continues the excellent tradition of Today listeners upsetting the Today programme’s editors. However many times the Today programme changes the nature of its New Year competition […]
Yesterday Gordon Brown rightly put some pressure on the BBC to control its costs. Labour announced a below-inflation settlement for the Corporation. This may force Auntie Beeb to think twice before making an endless stream of ratings-chasing makeover programmes and awarding telephone number salaries to the likes of Jonathan Ross. The BBC had wanted year-on-year […]
At the end of David Cameron’s day – as recently recorded on his ‘One Day in History’ blog – he crashes in front of Newsnight with a cold beer. It’s just another indication of the importance of the BBC within Team Cameron’s thinking. At the recent Tory conference in Bournemouth Mr Cameron gave more than […]
The BBC – like the NHS and the United Nations – is an institution that it is dangerous for any politician to criticise but the Conservative Party is right to point out its faults. ConservativeHome recently welcomed George Osborne’s critique of the way the BBC crowds out competition and David Cameron’s complaint about Tim Westwood’s […]
This morning’s Sun has given a warm welcome to David Cameron’s attack on some of the hip-hop output of Radio 1’s Tim Westwood. Speaking yesterday, the Tory leader said: "I would say to Radio 1, do you realise that some of the stuff you play on Saturday nights encourages people to carry guns and knives?" […]
On last week’s ToryDiary, ConservativeHome welcomed David Cameron’s decision to include ‘big media’ in his commitment to stand up to big business. George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, has today developed Mr Cameron’s commitment in a speech to the International Media and Communications Summit in Oxford. The speech is reported in this morning’s Times, Sun and […]
ConservativeHome has consistently welcomed David Cameron’s commitment to stand up to big business. It was one of the "Ten reasons for supporting Project Cameron" that we published early last month: "Conservatives should be on the side of competitive markets – not a corporate state where big businesses collude with the government to create barriers to […]
Stephen Pollard is on the money with a terrific article in today’s Daily Mail (also on his blog). Mr Pollard notes how the BBC has virtually ignored the Prescott story despite the obvious public interest in how the Deputy Prime Minister has behaved. He records how Jeremy Paxman concluded Wednesday’s Newsnight by saying “This being […]
I enjoyed my Newsnight outing yesterday and it was good to see the BBC giving airtime for the Tory Party to be scrutinised from the right (or should I say from a conservative perspective?). The Today programme could take some notes from the team behind Mr Paxman and Ms Wark… There are all sorts of […]
Jim Naughtie didn’t quite say ‘yes please!’ when David Cameron asked if he could talk to a grateful and waiting nation about his plans for a National School Leaver programme but it was a very soft ball interview on this morning’s Today programme. David Cameron gave one of his polished performances – defining his ‘modern […]