Tag Archives: media
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Labour NEC discussion on the anti-Semitism Code of Conduct
As someone who was actually there during the Labour NEC discussion on anti-Semitism earlier this week, I can say that much of the reporting on it bears no resemblance to the reality of what actually happened.
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LBC Radio Interview – 27th August 2018
Radio Interview with LBC’s Matt Stadlen on Brexit, the People’s Vote campaign and Labour’s evolving policy position. (8 minutes long.)
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LOSING control of our money, borders, laws and trade
Brexit supporters are organised and disciplined in their constantly repeated sound-bites. Almost every day you can hear the mantra “Take back control of our money, borders, laws and trade”. Constant repetition of this line is aimed at it becoming a commonplace, something that is accepted without discussion. Yet the assertion is false.
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Brexit supporting press in a panic
Interesting that, today, there are simultaneous attacks on me in the Telegraph, the Sun and the Express, all about amendments I tabled weeks ago to a draft report by Liberal MEP Verhofstadt in the Constitutional Affairs committee of the European Parliament. It’s clearly a concerted effort, especially as they all give the same distorted view […]
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Associate Citizenship
I spoke to LBC’s Clive Bull about the proposal from Mr Charles Goerens, one of Luxembourg’s MEPs, for associate citizenship of the EU for nationals of a former Member State.
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Press coverage of EU referendum
I was a panellist at an event reviewing the way the printed media reported on the EU referendum campaign.
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The EU doesn’t need to make things difficult
As the European Union prepares for Brexit negotiations, and the realities of Brexit become clearer to the UK, many seem to have realised that negotiations are not going to be the walkover promised by the Leave campaign. Brexit supporters are already trying to pin the blame on European leaders, with the Telegraph claiming that EU […]
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Put an EU expert in your pocket
From today, you can download and install my free mobile app, Doorstep EU, on both Apple and Android devices. Doorstep EU is very much more than just a copy of my website. It includes up-to-the-minute, detailed analysis of British EU media coverage — both explaining the background to each story, and assessing its reliability with […]
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Equality or truth – what do we want from the Beeb?
Sir Bill Cash MP is one of Westminster’s most prominent old-school anti-Europeans. Last week, he once again led the European Scrutiny Committee in one of his favourite activities: accusing the BBC of institutional pro-European bias. To be fair, the BBC’s director-general acquitted himself well under cross-examination: Lord Hall said the duty to ensure balanced, impartial […]
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Made in Leeds
I was interested to see that a new local TV station, Made In Leeds, has set up shop not too far from my constituency office. Any media outlet that can offer a genuinely independent, local perspective is very welcome. But when local TV stations have popped up in Yorkshire at various times over the past […]
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Je suis Charlie
There are at least three ways in which horrific events such as yesterday’s can affect even those of us who weren’t directly involved. The first is the simplest: we are shocked by the recognition of what it was, a horrific moral outrage. The cold-blooded murder of innocent civilians is always deplorable, but how much more […]
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How to complain
Paola Buonadonna at British Influence has posted a useful guide on how to challenge bias on BBC, ITV and Sky News. The point of complaining is not to gripe or let off steam. Complaints by people interested in a fair and accurate representation of European issues can affect the tone of the broadcast debate. The […]
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Pope speaks of grace, UK media misses the point
The trajectory of eurosceptic commentary during and after yesterday’s address to Parliament by Pope Francis was truly a wonder to behold. Flicking through UKIP MEPs’ Twitter feeds from yesterday is illuminating in itself. When the Pope arrived at Parliament, he was introduced to the leaders of all the political groups. Cue lots of excitable tweets […]
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Setting the record straight on hearings
It’s great that there’s been some media interest — even in the UK — in the cross-examinations of candidate European commissioners which are happening this week and next in the European Parliament. Among a lot of surprisingly accurate coverage, one less plausible claim is also rearing its head. This is the suggestion that these hearings […]
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Weasels, wikis and the Beeb
A rather dubious claim has crept into quite a few recent BBC articles on the process for appointing the new European Commission: The Commission is seen as the most powerful EU institution, as it drafts EU laws, ensures compliance with EU treaties and negotiates far-reaching trade deals with international partners. “The most powerful EU institution”? […]
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Suck it up, Henry
A lot of dust has been kicked up in the last couple of days about new Europe-wide rules on hoovers. As usual, things are not quite what the media is making them out to be. The European Commission does a nice job of laying out the facts about the new measures, which are (surprise!) somewhat […]
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Are British MEPs usually outvoted?
I sent this letter to the editor of the Telegraph today. Sir, The eurosceptic pressure group ‘Business for Britain’ has attempted to unpick the voting record of ‘the British’ in the European Parliament (How British MEPs are outvoted time and again in Brussels, 1 September). Sadly, their analysis is full of holes. First there’s the […]
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Welcome back to the playground
The arrival of new and old MEPs in Strasbourg for the first European Parliament session has been described as feeling like the first week of a new school year — with new pupils (sorry, Members) getting lost, sorting out who gets which room (sorry, office), finding out who will be in which class (sorry, committee) […]
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Observing the media scene
Before taking my seat next week in the European Parliament, I was yesterday in the press room at the European Council meeting in Brussels on behalf of E!Sharp magazine, a respected journal on European affairs. It’s always instructive to witness how the media scene operates at such ‘summits’. Apart from the BBC, which has its own […]
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Will British media fall for Cameron’s spin?
Downing Street spin doctors have always had an easy time creating their own version of what happens at European summits. A combination of lobby journalists with little understanding of the EU, some compliant allies in the press, and not wanting facts to get in the way of a good story, usually combine to ensure that a […]
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This is not neutrality
The BBC is supposed to be unbiased. But its patently biased coverage of the European and local elections of May this year was more like Fox News. It gave a huge and undeserved boost to Nigel Farage, providing a prominent figurehead and rallying-point for his supporters, extending his apparent credibility way beyond what it deserved, and constantly providing […]
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Choosing the Commission president
One of the innovations of this European election is that the major political party groupings in Europe have each announced in advance of the elections who their preferred candidate is for the next President of the European Commission. This has been encouraged by the latest set of reforms to the EU democratic system. These mean that, […]
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Challenging lies and scare stories
The launch of UKIP’s European election campaign in Sheffield has given rise to many comments, not least because of the poster and billboard campaign they unveiled. Most politicians are prone to exaggeration, but they normally shy away from blatant lies. Not so with UKIP. They seem to be of the same school as Joseph Goebbels: […]
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We were never hoodwinked
One of the most frequently repeated lies about Europe is to say that, when we joined the EU, ‘we were told we were only joining a free-trade area’ and ‘no-one told us that it was more than that’. The eurosceptic strategy here is to try to undermine the national debate that took place in the […]
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Clegg v Farage, round 2
This evening sees the second installment of Nick Clegg’s debate with Nigel Farage on the subject of Europe. Once again, I’ll be live-tweeting the debate as it happens. You can follow my tweets on Twitter, or follow the hashtag #europedebate for the whole conversation. There’s been an interesting discussion since last week’s radio debate on whether […]
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Clegg v Farage, round 1
How will Clegg fare against Farage today? Attention to detail on European matters has never been Clegg’s strongpoint, and Farage will throw loads of clichés at him which need sound factual knowledge to rebut. If he can do so, fine (though he will also start with the handicap of his unpopular coalition tag). Farage is […]