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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to think public service broadcasters would do well to stop ridiculing anyone with even vaguely leftwing economic ideas?

57 replies

SweetBeadieRussell · 28/09/2010 14:08

Since Ed Miliband became leader of the labour party the problem seems to be getting worse.

I can't switch on the Radio or TV without hearing 'unbiased'publicly funded broadcasters repeating endlessly 'And of course the press are already calling him 'Red Ed'' (Really? Well as i don't read the tabloids I would have been blissfully unaware of the fact if you hadn't just repeated it eight times during the Today programme!)

and 'Of course what he can't start doing is just opposing the spending cuts' or 'Is Ed Miliband going to lead Labour on a Lurch to the Left?' 'Is he in danger of driving away mainstream voters?' John Humphreys, i'm looking at you in particular.

I feel like yelling 'I'm a mainstream voter and i'd gladly vote for him, if only he'd promise to sell off the publicly owned banks now, while there's a profit to be made for us, and cover the bulk of the budget deficit that way, instead of selling off my dc's education to the highest bidder as the coalition insists!'

Last night took the biscuit, I couldn't even sit through 5 minutes of 'What's The Point of the Unions?' on Channel 4 - all grainy hidden cameras and 'Bob Crow and the unions have the power to hold the country to ransom through strikes, this is utterly undemocratic etc' Yes, like the utterly undemocratic banks held our country to ransom, and they weren't even doing it to demand fair pay, or rights for workers or anything remotely principled, why aren't you piping the scary music in their direction?

We may as well let Rupert Murdoch and his son get their way and force the BBC and C4 to be sold off because as far as I can see they're already setting the entire agenda.

Socialist principles are now publicly derided from every corner, whether or not the organisation deriding them was set up under those very socialist priniciples or not. Any debate about economic ideas must be conducted within such narrow principles in order to avoid being laughed off the airwaves it's almost not worth having.

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SweetBeadieRussell · 28/09/2010 14:49

yes ewc but i have heard absolutely no mention of the presumably hundreds of thousands of us who hold the opposite view, that's why it seems unbalanced to me

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SweetBeadieRussell · 28/09/2010 14:50

unless those people are referred to as 'the unions' of course!

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SweetBeadieRussell · 28/09/2010 14:50

swc I mean. sorry, baby on lap!

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RamblingRosa · 28/09/2010 14:55

I agree SweetBeadie. Drives me mad. The Dispatches programme last night was just the worst kind of biased union-bashing tripe.

I find it all really depressing. Ed's so far from red it's not funny!

I wish John McDonnell had stood and got in. That wouldn't have given them something to get their knickers in a twist about Grin

SweetBeadieRussell · 28/09/2010 14:59

thanks RamblingRosa - wasn't it just? It reminded me of that old Simpsons episode where Homer's accused of groping the babysitter's arse 'No! Mr Crow!' cue a thunderclap and zoom in on his menacing eyes...

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BarmyArmy · 28/09/2010 15:14

SBR - I agree with you that Labour should veer to the left, for it will then suffer the same fate that the Tories did when they veered to the right.

Elections are won/lost on the centre ground, give or take a bit.

I loathe Labour and everything it stands for, so welcome this apparent leftward lurch!

Grin
BeenBeta · 28/09/2010 15:16

Did anyone notice the IMF and debt rating agencies endorsing the Coalition plan to cut public spending this last week?

That is what really matters now. Not what is on TV or what a powerless opposition leader has to say.

smallwhitecat · 28/09/2010 15:18

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BarmyArmy · 28/09/2010 15:28

SWC - very noble of you...alas, the likes of Ed Balls and Mandelson would happily slit the throats if their own kind if they thought there were votes in it.

Don't afford them any leeway whatever - when you have your boot on your enemy's throat, you keep it there.

smallwhitecat · 28/09/2010 15:33

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SweetBeadieRussell · 28/09/2010 15:38

Barmyarmy - why do you loathe labour so much? i'm genuinely interested, as i'm against what Labour has become in recent years but not the party as was. As i'm naturally left-leaning economically and in some respects socially, i like trying to understand those who instinctively gravitate towards the right.

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SweetBeadieRussell · 28/09/2010 15:41

swc - what is it about EM that leads you to believe opposition under his lead won't be healthy or rational?

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SweetBeadieRussell · 28/09/2010 15:48

and why the 'boot at the enemy's throat' metaphor? what exactly is it that woolly liberals such as myself have done to deserve such agression?

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BarmyArmy · 28/09/2010 17:02

SBR - I value liberty and consider the Left (and/or Labour) to be an enemy thereof.

The Left's peddling of the concept of relative poverty is a dangerous one.

It hates marriage and prefers single parents and/or transient relationships.

It treats people according to the boxes that they tick, rather than seeing them as individuals.

huddspur · 28/09/2010 20:20

Labour need to learn that you cannot keep borrowing money and racking up debt. The Government has severly over spent in the last 7 or 8 years and now the coalition government must severly cut public spending in order to protect the countrys credit rating and credibility on the markets.
Although I believe their aims were benevolent the continued spending of money you don't have is a recipe for disaster and we will now have to endure some of the largest cuts in the countrys history. You cannot run a prosperous and sustainable economy with a budget deficit of around 12% of GDP.

tethersend · 28/09/2010 20:34

I have been really disappointed by the BBC's acceptance of the cuts without debate. All discussions I have seen have centred around what should be cut, taking as a given that they are necessary- plenty of people question that 'fact'. Whether your political leanings are to the right or the left, surely it's important to discuss this issue?

And Panorama has turned into Newsround and seems to serve the sole purpose of paving the way for punitive legislation. Or perhaps that's just me.

perfumedlife · 28/09/2010 20:40

Are you kidding me? Until Saturday, the BBC has been utterly against everything tory for years. It's staffed by labour fanatics and has not been unbiased against the Tories for at least ten years.

Pleasant change I say Smile

huddspur · 28/09/2010 20:57

tethersend I don't think I've heard anyone say that there shouldn't be any cuts although there has been some argument over the timing of them and the speed at which the deficit should be reduced. No economist I've heard has said you can carry on with a deficit at the level of ours

tethersend · 28/09/2010 21:00

Well exactly, huddspur- you should have heard people question the need for cuts; even if you think they are talking rubbish. Where was the debate?

huddspur · 28/09/2010 21:03

I don't think you will hear an argument over the need for cuts tethersend as there is a strong consensus across all partys and from all economists that public spending must be reduced as it is currently at an unsustainable level. The only argument to be had if whether to start this year or next.

tethersend · 28/09/2010 21:07

Well, there have been arguments about the extent of the cuts- Will Hutton for example (although published pre-budget), yet none of this thinking seems to have made its way to the BBC.

The fact that we are not hearing an argument over the need for cuts -however misguided- is precisely what worries me.

LookToWindward · 28/09/2010 21:11

I think it's getting the media spotlight as good old left wing socialism ("Old" clause 4 Labour and so on) as a political force in this country is effectively dead.

Given that EM was only elected in on the strength of the union block vote I think the suggestion that EM may take the party to the left (and therefore pretty much unelectable) is a fair one...

Oh, and I personally don't blame Labour for the economic downturn. I do blame them for basing their spending on more and more unrealistic growth forecasts in an attempt to buy public sector votes.

I also blame them for being the most authoritarian government in living memory. I voted Tory purely on the strength of their pledges to civil liberties. Now there's something I never thought I'd hear myself saying...

tethersend · 28/09/2010 21:14

Oooh, it's not just me

RamblingRosa · 29/09/2010 08:41

Excellent article tethersend. Thanks for that.

SweetBeadieRussell · 29/09/2010 10:08

That's spot on, Tethersend. Social proof is exactly what is going on here; because we are constantly being told cuts are unavoidable and 'everyone agrees' meaningful debate is bypassed

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