Big Auntie

I have a business meeting in London tomorrow so have arrived in the UK in time to watch "Sunday AM" with Andrew Marr. As an avid politico, this ought to be a treat - if only to see it on a proper TV and not via a Russian broadband connection. In fact, I am apoplectic.

All pretence of balance in BBC political coverage has been abandoned, it seems. Patricia Hewitt and the Scots "First Minister" spoke officially for Big Brother and reported in glowing terms on increased tractor production in Britistan. Those of us with family and friends who live there may never have seen the tractors, but statistically - comrades - they are there.

In their support, we had luvvies Esther Rantzen (she whose mass perversion of adult/child relationships has destroyed childhood in our country and arguably cost the life of at least one child), and Timothy West. West, a classic luvvy who has never encountered the real world is of course a member of the ruling party.

Marr was pathetic. He allowed Hewitt to dodge every question about the NHS, simply replying with the official lies about increased tractor production.

The one dissenting voice was artist David Hockney. Never was a straw man so unconvincingly set up to be beaten. Dishevelled and eccentric, he tried in vain to make the case against New Labour's health fascism over smoking. Millions are having their personal choices removed "for the sake of their health" and this scarecrow was the best dissenting voice to be found? The BBC was apparently scared even of this minor lese majeste in broadcasting dissent to the Party Line. It engineered matters so that Hockney could not hear the arguments he was supposedly there to refute. In the only telling moment of the whole show, Marr let the cat out of the bag when he apologised - with supposed irony - on behalf of "The State Broadcasting Corporation."