Survey of Bbc Radio 4 'Brexit: a Love Story?'
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THE BBC AND BREXIT SURVEY OF BBC RADIO 4 ‘BREXIT: A LOVE STORY?’ Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................................. 2 Summary ............................................................................................................................................ 3 PART 1: STATISTICS ................................................................................................................. 6 1.1 Airtime ......................................................................................................................................... 6 1.2 Speakers ...................................................................................................................................... 6 1.3 Word Counts ................................................................................................................................ 7 1.3 Archive and Contemporary ......................................................................................................... 8 1.4 Politicians .................................................................................................................................. 10 1.5 Most Quoted Speakers ............................................................................................................... 10 1.6 Contributions from Mark Mardell .............................................................................................. 11 PART 2: ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................. 12 2.1 Key Points from Quantitative Analysis ..................................................................................... 12 2.2 Bias by Omission ...................................................................................................................... 14 2.2 Why was the title ‘Brexit: A Love Story?’ chosen? .................................................................... 16 2.3 Was this ‘News’? ....................................................................................................................... 18 PART 3: SUMMARIES ............................................................................................................. 21 3.1 Summary of anti-EU/EEC points made by contributors ............................................................. 21 3.2 Summary of ‘Pro’ EU/EEC points made by contributors ............................................................ 24 PART 4: MARK MARDELL ANALYSIS ................................................................................... 39 APPENDIX I: METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................. 62 APPENDIX II: TRANSCRIPTS .................................................................................................. 64 1. Fanfare for the Future .................................................................................................................. 64 2. Yes to Britain in Europe ............................................................................................................... 69 3. Battling Maggie’s Blues ............................................................................................................... 74 4. From Bruges to Bust ..................................................................................................................... 79 5. Up Yours Delors! .......................................................................................................................... 85 6. Major’s Bastards and the Battle of Maastricht ............................................................................. 91 7. Major and the Mad Cows ............................................................................................................ 97 8. The Most Successful Party that Never Won a Seat .................................................................... 104 9. Blair, Brown and a bike ride ...................................................................................................... 111 10. Pole Position ............................................................................................................................ 118 11. Banging on about Europe ........................................................................................................ 124 12. Five miscalculations and a resignation ................................................................................... 131 13. An Island Nation ..................................................................................................................... 138 2 Summary Brexit: A Love Story? was a BBC Radio 4 factual series presented by Mark Mardell – presenter of BBC Radio 4’s World This Weekend news programme - broadcast on a fortnightly basis between March and September 2018. The series, which consisted of 13 parts of roughly 19 minutes broadcast in Radio 4’s World at One. It was thus projected to listeners as a news and current affairs segment. The total running time was 245 minutes or 38,000 words. It purported to give an overview of the relationship between the UK and the EEC/EU since 1972, looking in particular at the factors which might have led to ‘souring’ and the decision to leave in 2016. There were 121 guest contributors who were a mix of senior civil servants, government advisers, figures drawn from the world of the media, and a small sprinkling of ‘experts’ Between, them the speakers contributed 22,000 words. News-watch tracked and analysed all the programme transcripts using accepted academic media analysis methodology. The core findings are that it was seriously skewed towards pro- EU opinion and thus breached BBC impartiality requirements: Although there was only a slight numeric advantage in favour of ‘pro’ EU/EEC contributors, those speakers delivered 64 per cent (13,392) of the words spoken, against 28 per cent (6,009 words) from the ‘antis’, a ratio of 9:4. In addition, of the top 10 contributors by running length, eight were ‘pros’ and only two were ‘anti’. Strong Europhiles such as Tony Blair, Nick Clegg and Sir Stephen Wall had much more space to advance their ‘pro’ opinions than those who were negative about ‘Europe’. This skew towards ‘pro’ EU/EEC opinion was very much worsened because Mark Mardell was not impartial. Much of his contribution, together with the editing and structuring of the programme, sought to establish that the UK-EU relationship had turned sour because those who hated the EU had poisoned public opinion against it. The factors he cited included Margaret Thatcher’s love of conflict; the British press, who, he worked hard to demonstrate, had lied and exaggerated problems emanating from Brussels; ‘obsessive’ Tory rebels who were determined to sabotage Maastricht despite the public not being concerned; the ‘blokeish’ Nigel Farage, who had opportunistically used events outside the EU’s control to force David Cameron to hold a referendum; and David Cameron himself, who, it was claimed, had made grave miscalculations in his decision to hold a referendum at all, and then compounded the mistake by – unlike Harold Wilson in 1975 – taking part in the ‘Remain’ campaign. Other elements of Mardell’s bias were a failure to explore – ‘bias by omission’ – that the reasons for rising Euroscepticism in the UK were rooted in greater integration, a mounting threat to British sovereignty, and a huge rise in immigration. He instead claimed that discontent with the EU was based on factors outside its control, such as the financial crash of 2007/8. 3 Introduction ‘Brexit: A Love Story?’ was a thirteen-part series, broadcast between March and September 2018 as part of Radio 4’s lunchtime news and current affairs programme, The World at One. The series was also made available as a podcast, and for download through iPlayer from its dedicated web page.1 The first episode was part of a special day of Radio 4 EU-related programming entitled ‘Britain at the Crossroads’, marking one year before the UK’s scheduled departure from the European Union.2 Subsequent editions were generally broadcast at fortnightly intervals.3 Pre-publicity had indicated that the serious would comprise twelve parts4, but ultimately there were thirteen.5 ‘Brexit: A Love Story’ was presented by BBC journalist (and the Corporation’s former Europe Editor) Mark Mardell. He described it thus: Each episode will look at one event during the UK's membership of the EU, retelling the story of a fascinating and complex relationship - and asking whether the tensions and contradictions which ultimately led the UK to choose to leave the EU were evident from the beginning.6 Mark Mardell asked, in his introduction, ‘Was the UK’s relationship with Europe ever really amorous, ever less than lukewarm marriage of convenience?’ He explained he would be examining snapshots from the 45-year relationship, hearing ‘the inside story, told by those who were there at critical points’, and looking at these moments ‘under odd lights and at curious angles to see what we can learn about ourselves now.’ His narrative followed a timeline beginning in 1973 and culminating in the post-referendum present, although episode 5, ‘Up Your, Delors!’ diverted from the linear arc to offer a thematic exploration of the role of the British press in ‘shaping the British mood’, and episode 13, ‘An Island Nation’ served as an overview of the series, and included some content repeated from early