'Right' to Strike?

This week those of us with enough time on our hands will get to see David Cameron make his first speech to the Conservative Party conference since becoming Prime Minister.

We nearly missed out on this TV gold due to the latest threat of industrial action when three unions at the BBC voted to cause a media blackout at the time of Cameron's speech.

Whether a conference blackout would have truly filled our screens with darkness or with repeats of Homes Under the Hammer was not made clear.

Whatever would have been on no doubt viewers will be wishing the BBC had carried out its threat after a few minutes of hearing more talk of how cuts were needed and we should just take our medicine without complaining.

The action was called off after Auntie tabled an improved pension offer to the various unions involved.

Not everyone at the Beeb was keen on taking strike action with several high profile figures, including Jeremy Paxman, speaking out against it.

Union bigwig Ian Pollock was not amused. Pollock accused the Paxman cartel of being undemocratic as the union had voted in favour of the strike. He delightfully described them as working with 'loathsome enemies in Fleet Street' (who could he mean?)

What Pollock fails to understand is that democracy does not end with the union. The BBC has a wholly different democratic role to fill than any other media outlet.

No other news organisation maintains such a veneer of impartiality. This neutral stance is seen as a corner stone of the BBC and is the first thing mentioned in their online editorial guidelines.

That you can rely on Auntie for neutrality means you can scrutinize the countries leaders without having to worry about whether you're being manipulated. This makes the BBC the only true upholders of the 'fourth estate' role and has often been held up as the main justification for the licence fee even when the entertainment schedule doesn't.

This impartiality has often been called in to question with people of all political inclinations occasionally making accusations of bias. (I'm not going to put a link in for this, there are too many examples. Giving just one might seem biased....)

These attacks leave this reputation so fragile just the appearance of prejudice could destroy it forever.

Pollock said that the Tories weren't being targeted deliberately they just happened to be the first big event after what he called the 'long-winded niceties of calling strikes".

Pollock is again missing the point. When walking the tightrope of neutrality appearances mean a lot. If only a few people share the view expressed in Paxman and co.'s letter that blacking out Cameron's speech seems 'unduly partisan' the BBC's reputation is weakened and gives ammunition to its 'loathsome enemies'.

Free Speech Ain't Free After All

So, free speech. Corner stone of liberal democracy, basic human right, blah, blah, blah.

Being a fully signed up member of the free speech fan club (swearing allowed) I have been quite shocked by the fuss made over Nick Griffin's appearance on Question Time.

After all, are our politicians really so lacking in confidence that they don't have faith in themselves to defeat him in open debate?

I know that morale is supposedly low in the Commons at the moment but surely that's because now they have to pay for their own au pairs, not because they have lost the ability to win an argument.

Should you ever be inclined to listen to the goings on in the house (you poor thing) argue is all they seem to do.

Though I have often suspected that they are just making noise and waving order papers around rather than actually using words.

We send soldiers off to fight for 'democracy' in all sorts of remote parts of the world so you'd think that our glorious leaders would relish the chance to show people what's so great about it.

If we're all so worried about Nasty Nick's Blackshirts shouldn't we take every opportunity we can to publicly expose his views?

But wait! There are political points to be scored! What fun! Peter Hain certainly seems to think so....

Or perhaps it's the BBC that politico's have got a problem with. After the expenses scandal MP's have been picking up every stick they can find and beating Auntie with it. Give it a rest. Do your job.

Of course Nick Griffin is repugnant. Of course he's a racist. Of course no one should vote for him. Win the argument. It's not that hard.

Speaking to people like this might be unpleasant but that is the price of free speech. Pay up.