I don’t normally write two blogs in one day but I find myself compelled to respond to a couple of things on B(ritish)BC’s Spotlight programme last night.
1. The personal stories from the early days of our NE stateen came largely from unionist people. It is of course important that such voices were heard. But the many examples of the murder of nationalists during the same period were given minimal room. Anyone looking at the programme would have had no problem in who should be awarded a white hat and who a black one.
2. Even more important: those opinion polls which the B(ritish)BC conducted on contemporary thinking about NIE and a reunited Ireland. Take this one from the B(ritish) BC website today, reporting on its own programe:
“In NI, 49% of people said if there was a border poll today they would vote to remain in the UK, with 43% backing a united Ireland and 8% undecided.”
Why do the B(ritish)BC insist on posing questions thus phrased? Maybe because they’re the B(ritish)BC. What am I talking about?
The word “today” in “if there was a border poll today”.
First of all, this is obvious fantasy: there will not be a border poll today. And if there were, a lot of sensible people, myself included, would be opposed to it. We all know now – too late – what a con-trick the Brexit referendum was. People literally didn’t know what they were voting for. So who would want to make the same mistake with a border poll? Why didn’t the B(ritish)BC ask about the desirability of a border poll within the next five years? Perhaps because they knew they mightn’t get the answer they wanted.
A week or two ago, I put up a short video where an American academic shredded a question from a B(ritish)BC Newsnight journalist, because it was framed in a similarly deceptive way. Everyone, but especially nationalists and republicans, should be on high alert for more such loaded questions in the coming weeks and months.
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