Paul Marks marvels how the insidious bias of the BBC can even mislead a hardened sceptic like him!
Even people who think they are cynical about what they see and hear from the BB. can still be fooled by it. I give as an example myself.
On Monday the 5th of August I watched and listened to the B.B.C. report that there had been the worst one month decline in manufacturing industry since “Mrs Thatcher in 1979” (cue film of Mrs Thatcher).
“Yes [I thought to myself] Mrs Thatcher was very unwise to accept the pay rises that the Labour government had promised to end the winter of discontent – if only Mrs T. had ripped up those agreements on coming to power (on the grounds that the Conservatives had not signed them) and had taken on the unions at once (when the people were strongly against the unions) then the line could have been held on government spending and taxes need not have gone through the roof [as they did in the first years of Mrs Thatcher’s government] and the recession would not have been worse here than it was in other nations”.
Then in the small print of the newspapers today I read that the month in 1979 that was being referred to was January (Mrs Thatcher was, of course, elected in May) . The BBC fooled me totally.
Paul Marks
