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05/15/2009: "westminster rocked - BBC close down political comments?"
well i never expected that!
today's revelations in westminster have exceeded all that i would have guessed... i would have wagered good money on the big final story to come out of the telegraph being one about the commons speaker michael martin or the fees office who have been paying all these crazy claims.
i didnt bank on the 3 totally bizarre happenings we got:
first a tory aide to cameron, is caught in the headlamps for claiming his 2nd home allowance on his london home, whilst his wife (also a conservative MP) claimed against their constituency home, so in effect they both had no main home and both claimed the full entitlement for their 2 homes.
ahhhhh todays scandal will be MP couples double claiming for expenses for 2nd homes... wrong!
quite rightly, cameron had the MP and personal aide in first thing this morning and he tendered his resignation, with his expenses being reviewed by the conservative's own scrutiny committee before any further action and he pays the vast thousands of pounds he claimed, back to where ever they pay them back to.
if he hadnt have resigned he would have been sacked.
this was at around 9.30am this morning, and was all over the news. (remember this time as its relevant)
along with another MP up to his neck in it, elliot morley from the labour benches, who was an environmental secretary in the government previously and was also an envoy, who had claimed £800 per month in mortgage interest, for a mortgage he had paid off 18 months earlier.
spin is never far behind though.......
at just before 4pm, the BBC news website posted breaking news that elliot morley had been suspended by whips office and the prime minister from the parliamentary labour party, pending an investigation.
within minutes, something happened which ive not seen before... ever!
the labour whip, nick brown MP appeared for an unscripted interview!
he ended the interview (not before he put his foot in his gob) stating that the conservatives were playing politics over the entire expenses row.
shame this, as there is now clear evidence, that its the labour party is spinning like never before, as regards the BBC
ive noticed since gordon brown was put on the back foot and made to say sorry, everytime there is a news summary on a bbc news broadcast or on an update late in the day on bbc news channel, gordon brown's reaction to the crisis is reported in depth and first, cameron's actions are given an "also" 2 minute status after it, creating the impression that brown has acted and cameron has followed his lead.
twice in two days cameron has taken action hours before brown has followed suit, yet the viewer is not being given the full facts in each news report.
a further example is on the bbc news website, in which their comment section on nick robinson's blog posts (he is the BBC chief political commentator, with an obvious bias towards the government) has been closed down to prevent comments from the public after only 8 hours
normally robinson's comments to blog is open until the next post is put up, which is often 24 or 48 hours away, so why has it been closed early?
very mysterious yet at the same time.... no surprise at all!
