The latest ComRes Independent/Sunday Mirror online poll suggests that combined support for the two main pro-Brexit parties - the Conservatives and UKIP...
...- currently stands at 55%, while support for the two main anti-Brexit parties - Labour and the Lib Dems - has slipped to 36%. If Brexit voters are experiencing buyer's remorse, why are the Remain-supporting parties a whopping 19% behind in the polls?
Now, we all understand that polls need to be treated with caution, and that not every Conservative supporter wants Britain to leave the EU - but, similarly, not every Labour supporter (including, let's be frank, Jeremy Corbyn) wants to stay in the EU, and even some Lib Dems want out. So I think it's safe to assume (as other opinion polls have suggested) that the percentage of British voters in favour of leaving - at this stage of the phoney war, at least - has actually increased since last June. And it has done so despite an unrelenting propaganda battle waged by the BBC - the country's dominant news provider - against Brexit.
When the Today presenter, Nick Robinson, recently suggested that the BBC should no longer be expected to present balanced coverage of Brexit, I couldn't help agreeing with him (once I'd stopped laughing, of course). Because, if what's been shoved down out throats by the corporation for the past nine months represents "balance", I'm dead against it. I don't think it's the job of the BBC to slavishly mirror the views of licence-payers, or those of the government of the day. But, then again, it seems rather perverse to plump for slavishly mirroring the views of a pitifully weak opposition and a distinct minority of licence-payers. In an era when consumers are increasingly deserting terrestrial TV for the delights of Sky, Virgin, Netflix, Amazon and the internet in general, I'm not sure - even if it were true - that constantly telling the majority of those who have no choice but to pay your wage bill that they're a bunch of credulous, mean-spirited, blinkered, racist idiots is necessarily the best way of ensuring the survival of the "unique way the BBC is funded" - i.e. a legally-enforceable poll tax.
In terms of the way television is funded in free countries, the BBC is a "peculiar institution". I wonder how many of its senior executives realise that they're currently pursuing what might very well turn out to be a peculiarly disastrous policy. Unless, of course, disrespecting the majority of your customers has suddenly become a winning business strategy.
No comments:
Post a Comment