Panorama tonight

Thank you growstuff for explaining earlier about the Jennifer Saunders sign off. I'm not on Twitter so had no knowledge of this.

Grany Thanks for posting the link to James O'Brien. It was so articulate and so rational, in the face of much irrationality.

Who is betting the compensation money comes with a non disclosure agreement?

And with a "full and final settlement" clause inserted.

You are welcome Eloethan I agree thanks

There have been NHS staff who died after being off on leave or from working in very low risk areas whose family will get the payment regardless which is a good thing surely?

Interesting comment in the Telegraph today under the heading ‘The BBC's unforgivably Trot-dominated Panorama shows why we need transparency’

an excerpt- ‘Research from Guido Fawkes yesterday remarkably revealed that every single doctor interviewed for Panorama had a history of left-wing political activism. The Labour Party links were so deep that the programme turned into more of a Party Political Broadcast than a piece of serious journalism. It even shared the same cast as one, as Panorama’s trainee GP (and wannabe MP) Sonia Adesara genuinely appeared in the Labour’s 2019 TV adverts.

Instead of representing a range of voices, the critiques that certainly exist from the pro-market perspectives were simply ignored. Panorama instead favoured highlighting the views of longstanding far left members of the Labour party, union organisers, and even candidates. To cap it all off, none were flagged up as such to the audience by the BBC, directly breaching the organisation’s code of conduct commitment to disclose what the Beeb calls ‘Contributors’ Affiliations’.’

Guido Fawkes ! Enough said.

The journalist is a chap called Tom Harwood, who was quoting GF, he concludes - ‘The argument here is not that television programmes have no right to interview partisan guests – of course they do. News with views is in many ways a more honest and healthy way to conduct a political conversation than the faux-impartiality half-heartedly pursued by so many of our broadcasters. The point is not to shut things down but open them up. Audiences have a right to know, and broadcasters have a duty to say, who their ‘experts’ really are.’

While trust in every other profession has risen, confidence in the media has collapsed over the last month. With egregious errors of judgement like these, it’s easy to see why. It’s clear that things need to change. Transparency has to increase.

If only the Torygraph was so concerned about the BNP participant and member of staff on Question Time a couple of months ago. I don't recall them being in high dudgeon then.

The majority of NHS staff are left wing. If they aren't when they go into the job, they are eventually. Same with teachers. You see cuts and underfunding year in, year out, it makes you veer left even if that isn't your initial inclination.

Tom Harwood works for Guido Fawkes and is a former member of Turning Point UK, a right wing student organisation, is strongly pro-Brexit and has written in support of Johnson.

That doesn't like a very neutral, non-partisan kind of person to me. It's not surprising he should oppose the Panorama programme. Freedom to express different opinions is the bedrock of democracy.

It could be that journalists like Tom Harwood are part of the reason people's faith in journalists is low.

I’m aware that this article is behind a paywall so not totally accessible, here’s another bit worth reading - ‘Examining the remarkable list of medics given the spotlight up you would be forgiven for thinking that the entire health service was staffed exclusively by Tory-bashing, Corbyn loving, political headbangers. You would be shocked to discover that in fact survey after survey finds that fewer than half of medical professionals support the Labour Party, and of the ten doctors elected to parliament in the last election, eight were Conservatives.’

We all have our favourite publications. I read the Times, Telegraph and the Guardian, amongst other things, so that I see a broad breadth of views, but am obviously a Tory. Just because he wrote it doesn’t mean that the people in the program are not who he said they are and therefore will reflect a particular bias.

What is important is not what the political affiliations of the people being interviewed were (and, incidentally, they were experts, being qualified doctors or nurses) but that was what they were saying actually true?

I haven't seen any rebuttals of what they claimed; have you?

Tom Harwood is a rightwing journalist who can bend the truth with the best of them.

The BBC have issued a statement about the Panorama programme:

www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/statements/panorama-mon-27-apr

I think the point he’s making is that it would have helped if the left wing approach was made clear, as it should have been according to the code of conduct for the BBC. The issue is transparency in this respect. If there had been a balanced mix of political affiliations, different views would no doubt have featured.

I haven't seen any rebuttals of what they claimed; have you?
Yes. I have heard a radio interview with a nurse who said they had eniugh PPE where the interviewer kept asking the question in different ways to get a different answer and in the end summed up that there probably wasnt enough in that persons workplace anyway..

.. they are cherry picking the HCPs that will give them the answers they want and discarding the rest from their line ups

I don't suppose you have to support the Labour Party to be dissatisfied with the government's handling of this crisis - especially if you are at the sharp end of a very frightening and distressing situation where the health or your patients, yourself and your family is being put at risk.

Thank you MaizieD that's quite straightforward reading really isnt it
Of course people will read into it and interpret it any way they want.

There is also the issue that Unison can be quite dominant and that creates a culture where the labour HCPs get to shout loudest and the labour critical HCPs keep shtum. Nobody wants to get on the wrong side of the union rep!

It creates an illusion that doctors and nurses are mostly or all labour fans and anti Tory. Election results say otherwise though dont they? Almost everyone in the country either has worked in the NHS or has a close family or friend who has done. If they were all labour there would be no contest come election time!

They are in a difficult position with their licensing future at stake, they have to justify their reasoning in the light of such criticism so no wonder they have issued a statement. Right and left are not going to agree about this, statement aside, they still could have made a more balanced program.

I haven't seen any rebuttals of what they claimed; have you?

My local hospital has made two statements asking not to recieve donated PPE etc after it was shared on social media that they were asking for it. People chose to either ignore or disbelieve

Hospital staff have even been abused for turning it away on site.

Ive seen comments on pieces by hospital staff who said they appreciate donations but they have enough which pretty much amount to claims that they said so with a gun at their heads.

I do not doubt that some areas have run out or run into logistical issues or struggled to keep supplies up due to the global issues etc, especiallybthe hard hit areas!. But I imagine its more of a patchwork with some places low and others not than the media would like to portray. As thats not the story people want!

Just as there have been some very hard hit regions, there are also regions that are less so. Its not been a "warzone" everywhere. Few if any staff have been working around the clock. Maybe a handful of specialists in particularly hard hit areas, but as an exception not a rule

What is an HCP?

The fact that some hospitals have adequate PPE does not in any way negate the fact that some hospitals don't have adequate PPE.

When I asked about rebuttals I was thinking of rebuttals from the hospitals in which the participants in the programme actually worked. The interviewees weren't anonymous; their colleagues will know them and could well call them out on it if they were lying.

Starmer today, in PMQs, quoted the Royal College of Physicians concerns about PPE. Is the RCP a hotbed of leftie activists? Or can it be trusted to know what it's talking about?

Glorybee Are you implying that people who aren't left wing are too cowardly/uncaring to speak up?

It doesn't matter if even 90% of staff have adequate PPE, if the remaining 10% don't. They all matter not just the ones who are alright. (Sounds a bit like some people's attitude in general, to be honest.)