Elliot Bulmer is a…
Constitutional scholar, constitutional design advisor, author of ‘A Model Constitution for Scotland’.
Anti BBC Bias demonstration.
“Many are concerned about the behaviour of the BBC in relation to the allegedly biased and distorted depiction of the Leader of the Opposition.
My argument, as is often the case, is that these acts are symptomatic of something deeper – a failure of rules, institutions, and governance structures to promote integrity, transparency and fairness.
Let’s look at the BBC’s governance structure:
1. Its Royal Charter is issued by the Government, and can be written and re-written at will.
2. Its Board is appointed by the Tory Government, and several of the Governors have links to the Tory party.
3. It is overseen by a parliamentary committee with a Tory majority.
4. Its budget is set by Parliament, in which there is a Tory-DUP majority.
5. Because we don’t have any constitutional principles to uphold, in the form of an explicit written constitution, matters such as respect for the Leader of the Opposition depend purely on conventions that the Government can choose to apply or not according to their whim.
Given this structure and these rules, it should not surprise us that the BBC acts as it does. Its foundation being ill-constituted, its conduct is predictably ill-judged.
It would be more of a miracle if, despite this set up, the BBC managed to maintain impartiality.
