Bias?

Last night we watched the film “Trumbo” a sort of bio-pic about the script-writer Dalton Trumbo and his struggle against the House Un-American Activities Committee. A very watchable film with a supposedly happy ending, although at considerable cost to the family of the award winning writer. It’s quite frightening to see how long that committee remained in existence, determinedly rooting out communist sympathisers. Even more frightening is that there are some who would like such a committee to exist nowadays. And more frightening still is the growing feeling that there are topics on which it is hard to express an opinion without a derogatory label being attached to you.

Modern times!

It’s enough to make you want to move away!

Years and years ago, when we were silly young things, some friends of ours mooted the idea that we should campaign for free rule for Lancashire. This was when Manchester was still part of Lancashire, before all the boundaries changed. Now I read that thousands have signed a petition calling for the north of England to be part of Scotland. The petition argues that northern English cities ‘feel far greater affinity with their Scottish counterparts than with ideologies of London-centric south’.

It was started by someone going by the pen-name of “Stu Dent”, who claims to be in Sheffield, and says:

“The needs and challenges of the north cannot be understood by the endless parade of old Etonions [sic] lining the front benches of the House of Commons. The north of England should join the newly independent Scotland and regain control over its own destiny. We, the people of the north, demand that in the event that Scotland becomes independent the border between England and the New Scotland be drawn along a line that runs between the river Dee and the mouth of the Humber.”

It’s been around since the Scottish referendum campaign but was put away when Scotland voted no. Now it’s been resurrected and has had over 12,000 signatures. I suppose “New Scotland” could be a solution of sorts for those who are wondering if they can now relocate to the old Scotland.

The Manchester Evening News has received the idea with great enthusiasm, coming up with a list of of reasons for and against Manchester joining Scotland. While the paper is likes the idea of a Caledonian-Mancunian cuisine mashup – “deep fried Bury black pudding anyone?” – and thinks the Loch Ness monster could enjoy a change of scenery by swimming in Heaton Park. But it doesn’t fancy swapping a good old Madchester rave for a ceilidh: “Gay Gordons? No, ta. We’ve got the Bez dance.”

Yesterday, trawling through posts on Facebook, I found something on BBC news about looking at accusations of bias in their reporting of the election campaigns. As this was on Facebook where it is difficult to copy the internet link, I copied a section directly:-

“While the BBC has long been a punchbag of right-wing publications such as The Sun and Daily Mail, there has been much more criticism from left-wing campaigners and centrist pro-Remain campaigners this election. BBC journalists based in London, an area with strong Labour support, reported finding it harder now that their friendship groups were increasingly critical of the corporation’s output. Many complained that they had come to dread discussing their jobs at family events or children’s parties because they would find themselves cornered and cross-examined on accusations of BBC bias. One regional BBC reporter said they had noticed many more members of the public refusing to talk to him, although it was unclear whether this was just part of a general anti-media reaction among the public. “It felt like BBC reputation has taken a bit of a hit and not just in the Twitter vacuum. Not that I think there is a bias of course. Just a series of errors have unfortunately fallen a similar way, which gives plenty of ammo.”

I almost felt sorry for them.

Having copied and pasted that bit, I went back to find a little more, something interesting about Laura Kuenssberg, for example. The post had disappeared. Now, I now that things can move fast but no amount of trawling around could find the article for me. Had somebody withdrawn it? Deleted it? Am I being a little paranoid?

Today Stormzy has been editing the Observer magazine. I am never sure how this works. How does someone who has no training in editing suddenly have the skills to make important decisions about content.? What it mostly seems to mean is that the magazine is focused on the celebrity concerned and he or she has to kind of sign off on layout and important stuff like font and colour.

Eva Wiseman was waxing very excited about his visit to the Observer headquarters. So apparently were lots of other Observer employees.

Then she wrote this: “He had forgotten how to write with a pen, he realised quickly - he hadn’t used one since he got his phone.” Now, I presume he has had a phone for quite a while. Has he really never had occasion to write any ideas down, ideas for his rapping, for example? Surely the phone screen is a but small for anything more than a shopping list. I am hoping this was an exaggeration! However, I know quite a lot of people who hardly ever actually write, physically, pen to paper, anything at all.