BBC bias over climate crisis must end – Yorkshire Post Letters

WE had two articles on the BBC (The Yorkshire Post, December 6) for the price of one.

The comparison was stark. Melvyn Bragg’s, as one would suspect following his long association with the Corporation, was a vaguely concealed tribute outlining some of its superficial faults but failing to go to any effective depth in his analysis.

Let’s get behind BBC in its hour of need – Melvyn Bragg

BBC presenters like Nick Robinson need more balance – Peter Lilley

In contrast, Peter Lilley shows his respect and admiration for the BBC in the quality of much of its output but goes into depth on the Corporation’s cardinal problem – its narrow, liberal metropolitan bias embodied in its unquestioning, institutional woke, self-righteousness.

Lilley sums up perfectly this deep-rooted flaw: “That manifests itself less in what is said than what is not said, the voices not heard, the questions not asked, the issues not addressed.”

It is inherent in the BBC’s work. Its bias is largely exposed via these sins of omission, for instance, the cancellation of any opinion that might be contrary to the early move towards net zero. Critics claim such an early target will be severely detrimental to the economy and as a consequence create acute hardship for ordinary citizens especially the poor.

The BBC, it seems, would rather enact the rhetoric of the Greta Thunberg bloc rather than aerate alternative views.

As Peter Lilley describes, such tunnel vision particularly applies to other controversial issues such as EU/Brexit, energy and immigration.

From: Chris Broome, South Yorkshire Climate Alliance, Hackthorn Road, Sheffield.

THE Government’s refusal to make public its analysis of how its climate policies will meet its emissions targets is very worrying, as you recently reported.

The real reason for its refusal needs to be spelt out. Unless that analysis includes some grossly over-optimistic assumptions, it will not show how the targets will be met but rather how they are likely to be missed by a large margin.

There is abundant evidence to show that growing “green industries” cannot do anywhere near enough on its own to tackle the climate emergency and yet this forms the bulk of the Government’s approach.

We need to collectively reduce our consumption of energy and materials too, by transitioning to more sustainable lifestyles. Unfortunately, this does not fit with our political leaders’ populist but politically cowardly message that “green growth” will solve everything.

Public suspicion about the Government’s real commitment to addressing climate change is justifiably growing. To respond by hiding the evidence is not going to work.

From: Thomas W Jefferson, Batty Lane, Howden, Goole.

JAMES Bovington asks why the US has lifted tariffs on steel imports from the EU but not from the UK (The Yorkshire Post, December 8).

He probably thinks it’s a problem caused by Brexit because the White House is using it as leverage against us until the Northern Ireland Protocol problems are resolved. In truth, it is a problem caused by President Biden who is using it to virtue-signal his Irish roots for his own political reasons.

Brexiteers see the EU as unsuitable for the UK because it progressively undermines national democracy. Every new treaty signed takes another tranch of “competences” away from domestic electoral oversight and we then have to trust that the unelected EU Commission knows best.

It isn’t even as though that formula has been an economic success, as demonstrated by the fact that the Eurozone has had poor growth and high unemployment since its inception 20 years ago.

Safeguarding our country’s ability to govern itself is a first-order priority because, in the final analysis, it is society’s safety-valve. All other matters are of second-order importance and can be dealt with satisfactorily within that framework.

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today. Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you’ll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app, receive exclusive members-only offers and access to all premium content and columns. Click here to subscribe.