BBC Radio 4, PM program: shocked at Evan Davis

[HillyHollyShandy]

I can’t post a link but it is available on BBC Sounds - on 5/5/26 in the PM program from about 44 minutes in, Evan Davis is interviewing Labour peer Lord Mann about the recent violence against Jews. Mann is just saying how the majority in the country , particularly organisations on the left, have been silent about antisemitism and the growing acts of violence against Jews, when Davis says: “Is there a risk though that the more salience you give this, the more we talk about it, the danger is you escalate it. I suppose it’s how you just de-escalate and make this less of an issue so that zealots aren’t getting so hit up by it. It’s what you do to kind of just lower the temperature.”

Really?! This not a teenager’s temper tantrum that might be best ignored, this is people being stabbed on the street. So disappointed in Davis . That anyone could suggest this is deeply disturbing. And makes me wonder about his instincts as mine are to shout from the rooftops that something must be done to fix this.

So he's saying we should stop talking about racism in case it makes the racists more agitated?

Yes exactly!

Here’s a link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002vycr. It’s from 39:16 onwards. I’m just listening to it now.

He does the same thing with trans activists as well, insinuating that women need to #BeKind and not provoke them.

These activists and attitudes allegedly hounded Davis’s own boss Fran Unsworth out of her job.

‘BBC News boss: I was driven out by trans activism
Fran Unsworth says she was bullied by gender ideologues employed by corporation’

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/16/bbc-news-boss-fran-unsworth-driven-out-by-trans-activism/

The BBC has a lot of deep-rooted problems.

The whole section is from 39:16 to 46:06.

ED starts making the points at 43:50 that, if more salience is given to antisemitism, more attention will be put on the zealots. By zealots, I think he meant antisemites. He’s really struggling to choose the right words here.

Lord Mann, the interviewee, rejected this,
saying what he termed as a quieter ostracisation of Jewish people has been going on for a long while and we’re now seeing consequence of this. He said there has to be public response of outrage to this, because silence hasn’t worked. I totally agree.

I can’t see the problem here. I think Lord Mann did really well to explain exactly how we should respond.

Evan Davies personifies all which has gone wrong with Labour and the left.

Working class white people are boring and distasteful to London luvvie sensibilities.

He is more interested in supporting men in frocks and islam than anyone and anything else.

He and his friends sit at their dinner parties congratulating themselves on their enlightenment and virtue whilst their wealth and privilege ensure they never actually experience even a tenth of the problems which affect the majority of people.

The truth is inconvenient to their views and so needs to be downplayed.

This is exactly why awful Reform is flourishing. They do exactly what Trump does, target voters who feel ignored, pretend to be on their side and provide scapegoats on whom to focus all their justified anger.

Sadly, it works.

Labour needs to remember it's roots and understand that you can't sneer at people's concerns and still expect their support.

I am a lifelong labour voter and I despair.

None of your post has anything to do with the point of this thread or the OP.

Well I think it does.
But each to her own.

Have you mentioned antisemitism anywhere?

Why can't you post a link. It's easy

Have not listened but it’s clear Davies struggled to avoid bias.

and I feel that is a major problem!

it makes sense what he says though

I agree with you 100%

There was a joke on the Friday night comedy programme about the new trans (Tamil student - you couldn’t make it up) MSP in Scotland having JKR as a constituent and a light cheer from the audience. He was a list candidate so not actually voted for. But the BBC is too left and London Centric - I love many of the radio 4programmes but if it goes it goes.

How do you know so much above Evan Davies? what evidence do you have?

How do you mean?

Well it kind of does because it's left wing people who are the anti-Semites right now. Which doesn't sit well with Evan so he wants people to shut up about it. Which leaves working class voters (who are not in general left wing or not the correct sort of left wing) without a voice. So.... Reform.

Not all leftwingers are antisemitic. And there are plenty of antisemitic right wingers (Nigel Farage, Nick Fuentes, Marjorie Taylor Greene…)

Why does it not sit well with Evan Davis and why would he want to shut up about it? Are you suggesting he too is an antisemite?

How does it leave working class voters without a voice?! There are lots of working class leftwingers and lots of working class antisemites!

Also… Reform are antisemitic. Nigel Farage is a confirmed antisemite, according to the media reports on his behaviour at school.

The terms anti-Semitic, transphobic, right-wing, left-wing, anti-Muslim , Islamophobic are terms we really need to get rid of
if I see a woman head to toe in black with only her eyes showing,I am a little bit, Islamophobic. if a see 6ft trans woman in a girls football team I am a little bit transphobic, if I see west bank Israelis attacking Palestinians I am a little bit anti-Semitic if I hear MPs saying we need to spend more on benefits I am right wing, if I hear we should protect pensioners over everyone else I am a little bit left wing

these words mean nothing really as they are too general and we should explain ourselves properly and stop using them - that includes you BBC