Circles

A dangerous allegation in The Guardian by Simon Jenkins, contributing to the debate started by Today presenter Nick Robinson on the BBC's reporting obligations as we negotiate the UK out of the EU: 'After the Brexit vote last June, Robinson’s boss, Lord Hall, went round the London dinner circuit wailing that BBC balance had “lost us the election”'. I hope he's sure about that.

(Saturday update: BBC writes to rebut the Jenkins' 'quote')

Mr Jenkins goes on to worry about "balance", which Mr Robinson says should no longer apply, at least with stopwatches and two-handed yah-boo debates, versus "due impartiality" in BBC News coverage.

 "We can accept the BBC view that any opinion must be weighed in the scales of significance before being unleashed on the public. But we must ask who is doing the weighing, what is their inherent bias.

"I may love the BBC and defend its independence to the death, but it is an alarmingly narrow monoculture. Politically, it is not diverse. It staged a good Brexit debate, but by then its past bias had loaded the outcome. I am all for “due impartiality”, but to whom is impartiality paying its due?"

Let's hope the new BBC non-exec minding matters editorial, Ian Hargreaves, can come up with some new phrases and a little Lancashire common sense to move this debate forward, from its current circular path.