The BBC has been the bane of UKIP and the Eurosceptic movement generally for many years. Collectively they have a mentality that totally dismisses the idea that opposition to the EU has an logical and rational basis (you could heartlessly suggest that this narrow minded approach is an inevitable consequence of the BBC recruiting almost entirely from the Media pages of the Guardian newspaper).
During 2000 I participated in correspondence with the BBC complaints department over the fact that they never gave airtime to any true Eurosceptic. Despite the fact that by then MORI had asked the following question 25 times since 1977. 'If there were a referendum now on whether Britain should stay in or get out of the European Union, how would you vote?'and over the previous eight years the 'get out' figure had never dropped below 40%. All they ever did was put a mildly sceptical Tory against rabidly pro Europhiles. Their final answer, after a prolonged correspondence, was that they did not cover views from people who wanted to withdraw from the EU because 'is not something debated amongst the major political parties'. They did not find it even the least bit embarrassing that, as the public service broadcaster with a charter guaranteeing impartiality, they did not cover the views of 40+% of the population because these views are not getting debated elsewhere. Something most people would have thought would be a reason to devote more time to these views not less!
In 2004 I tried my luck with the BBC on the issue of why they gave such poor coverage to the North East Regional Assembly Election result. I sent a letter of complaint on the 11th November 2004. There were two parts to my complaint:
They portrayed the result as the end of regionalisation - when all it was just the end of a bit of cosmetic democratic window dressing - the issue of whether the Assembly would be elected or appointed
They devoted no coverage to the EU origins of the Regions.
(The full text of the letter is here )
Their initial response was a novel one. They said that complaints about their pro-EU bias were too general for a specific response so they would just pass the letter to 'BBC Information' (whoever they are - no name or address provided so follow up was going to be rather difficult). (see here for full response)
I wrote saying pointing out that I had made complaints about specific errors, requesting a response (full letter)
I then got a number of 'give us more detail' or 'we will get back to you' responses.. ( them , me, them , me ).
Then on 6th April (nearly 5 months after my complaint) I get a response. (here). Which basically confirms that they have no idea what they are talking about. 'there was no suggestion that existing assemblies were under threat - only that new ones were now unlikely to be established..' . .. err ... what new ones would these be then? In the Falklands? In the UK they have all been set up already and running for 5 years now.. Where have you been?
So I sent this letter pointing that out..
Received a final brush off letter 2nd June Inviting me to escalate the complaint to the Programme Complaints Committee of the BBC Governors
With this letter I did receive a copy of the Radio transcripts which I think proves the whole case - take a look yourself.
I escalated the complaint on the 9th June going over the issues again .. (also making a slightly tongue-in-cheek suggestion about how the BBC could perhaps have hidden the EU nature of Regionalisation if it really was a biased pro-EU organisation - i.e. it couldn't have found a better way than it has!).
I followed that up with a letter quoting from what John Prescott said in Parliament on the 8th November.
In answer to a question from Stuart Bell MP he said
'I can assure him that decentralisation and reform of local government will continue. The democratic point, albeit important, was only one part of modernisation and reform. '
and then he said
'We will continue to reform the local government structure. We will devolve more powers downwards by strengthening regional development agencies, regional government and assemblies. For the moment, that will have to be the way forward for the north-east.'
(http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmhansrd/cm041108/debtext/41108-13.htm)
You can see that it most clearly states, from the horses mouth, that the issue of elected assemblies was 'only one part' of the process and that the process of passing more powers to the undemocratic regions would continue. Something that is completely at odds with the BBC coverage and the responses from the BBC complaints department.
The Governors had their meeting on the 21st July and I received this response early September (somebody was on holiday so it was delayed). The good news is that they upheld one of the two main complaints and part upheld the general complaint about their lack of coverage of the EU origins of Regionalisation.
In return I have sent them this letter and a copy of Lindsay Jenkins's new book 'Disappearing Britain – The EU and the death of Local Government' (generously donated by Lindsay herself). Hopefully they will read it!
This book is a must read if you are interested in the Regionalisation issue - available from Amazon - price £14.99.