The BBC’s woke orthodoxy has being going on since the Thatcher years

DAVID Collins (The Yorkshire Post, March 30) seeks to absolve the BBC from its centre-left bias. I’d like to amplify on this long-standing controversy.

The Conservatives, for many years, have been subjected to this prejudice and have campaigned against it but have failed to make much headway.

The BBC, itself, did some research a few years ago and admitted such bias was a concern.

The issue reached its pinnacle following the Brexit referendum.

For three years the visual media, with the BBC the most conspicuous exponent, impregnated their programmes with pro-EU, anti-Brexit propaganda.

This seems the inevitable result of the media staff very largely emanating from the London-oriented liberal intellectual elite that have an entrenched antipathy towards the Tory party, especially its right of centre limb.

Mr Collins and others on the left have tried the clever wheeze of suggesting that the BBC has been accused of both a right-wing and left-wing bias, and therefore it must be pretty balanced in its output.

But its anti-left bias is only against the extreme left and nothing like the constant prejudice it exerts against the centre right.

It rests nearly all its favours for the liberal left, the dominant force that spawns the current woke orthodoxy that has prevailed at the BBC since the Margaret Thatcher years.

From: Coun Paul Sullivan (Con), Bingley Rural Ward, Bradford Council.

LIKE councillors of all political persuasions, I have responded by digging in with volunteers from different backgrounds, to help local people and wider community.

When I heard that Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, is calling on former police officers who have retired within the last five years to support the service, I was delighted. At a time when the Government are looking to recruit an extra 20,000 officers, it feels like my natural calling to protect my local community. Indications from the City Solicitor are that elected members would be able to join the policing fight.

Therefore, I have contacted West Yorkshire Police Force to discuss a suitable deployment – preferably one that dovetails with my council duties. I will be delighted if the wealth of experience of former officers can be mobilised to more effectively help in this our generations darkest hour.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.