THE BBC AND BREXIT SURVEY OF A DAY OF SPECIAL RADIO 4 PROGRAMMES: ‘BRITAIN AT THE CROSSROADS’, 29 MARCH 2018 Table of Contents Introduction: Britain at the Crossroads ......................................................................................................... 3 Executive Summary: Britain at the Crossroads .......................................................................................... 4 PART 1: GLOBAL STATISTICS ............................................................... 6 1.1 Airtime ......................................................................................................................................................... 6 1.2 Speakers ..................................................................................................................................................... 7 PART 2: INDIVIDUAL PROGRAMMES ...............................................12 2.1 Today ........................................................................................................................................................ 12 2.2 The Long View ......................................................................................................................................... 14 2.3 Dead Ringers ........................................................................................................................................... 16 2.4 The Channel .............................................................................................................................................. 23 2.5 World at One .......................................................................................................................................... 35 2.6 The Brexit Lab .......................................................................................................................................... 38 2.7 The EU After Brexit ................................................................................................................................. 40 2.8 The World Tonight .................................................................................................................................. 42 2.9 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 44 PART 3: IMPARTIALITY ANALYSIS: ....................................................45 Today ................................................................................................................................................................ 47 Why Nifco?: ...................................................................................................................................................... 47 In detail: Today from Teesside ....................................................................................................................... 50 Presenter/BBC Correspondent Input ............................................................................................................. 53 Conclusion: Today ............................................................................................................................................ 59 The Long View ................................................................................................................................................. 61 Analysis: The Long View .................................................................................................................................. 65 Conclusion: The Long View ............................................................................................................................. 71 World at One ................................................................................................................................................. 76 Conclusion: World at One .............................................................................................................................. 78 The Brexit Lab ................................................................................................................................................. 80 Conclusion: The Brexit Lab .............................................................................................................................. 82 The EU after Brexit ......................................................................................................................................... 83 Conclusion: The EU after Brexit ..................................................................................................................... 86 The World Tonight ......................................................................................................................................... 89 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................................... 90 APPENDIX: FULL TRANSCRIPTS ..........................................................93 Today, 6am ..................................................................................................................................................... 93 The Long View, 9am ................................................................................................................................... 131 Dead Ringers, 9.45am ............................................................................................................................... 143 The Channel, 9.48am .................................................................................................................................. 144 World at One, 1pm .................................................................................................................................... 148 Dead Ringers, 1.55pm ............................................................................................................................... 157 The Brexit Lab, 4.30pm ............................................................................................................................. 158 PM, 5pm ........................................................................................................................................................ 168 Dead Ringers, 6.30pm ............................................................................................................................... 176 The EU after Brexit, 8.30pm ..................................................................................................................... 177 Dead Ringers, 8.58pm ............................................................................................................................... 194 The World Tonight, 10pm ......................................................................................................................... 195 Dead Ringers, 10.43pm ............................................................................................................................. 198 2 Introduction: Britain at the Crossroads On March 29, 2018, one year before the UK’s projected departure from the EU, BBC Radio 4 mounted an unusual broadcasting project called Britain at the Crossroads. This was a group of eight otherwise unconnected programmes – starting with Today and concluding with to The World Tonight – each containing specially-produced material about Brexit. It turned out in one way to be a red-letter day. For the first time since the EU referendum in June 2016, and possibly ever, the Corporation, in The Brexit Lab, produced an entire programme which examined as its main theme some of the potential benefits of leaving the EU. But in almost every other sense Britain at the Crossroads was more negative about Brexit. By a heavy margin, the speaker and word-count totals were dominated by those who wished to remain in the EU; out of 92 contributors during the day, only 15 (16 per cent) were confirmed withdrawalists. This bias, as is detailed in Section 3, was, however, much worse than the headline statistics suggest. The key findings include: The Long View, presented by Guardian pro-Remain columnist Jonathan Freedland, who heavily distorted history to suggest that Britain has been dependent on ‘Europe’ since the Norman Conquest and was now leaving on the basis of long-standing xenophobia The Today programme had a 3-1 imbalance of speakers against Brexit. This negativity was compounded by the highly-negative approach of the presenters and correspondents, and a huge inbuilt skew through the choice of mounting an outside broadcast from a Teesside company strongly opposed to leaving the EU’s single market. The EU after Brexit, was ostensibly a look at the EU’s prospects following the UK’s departure, but it failed to do so. All the contributors were Europhiles, and the keynote guest was Jean-Claude Trichet, one of the EU’s greatest champions. The growing ‘populism’ in EU countries was virtually ignored in favour of pro-EU comment. Five special-edition strands of the satire show Dead Ringers were deeply skewed in their portrayal of supporters of leaving the EU as xenophobic idiots Thus, in summary, The Brexit Lab uniquely swam against the tide of anti-Brexit, pro-EU opinion, by which it was swamped. ‘Britain at the Crossroads’ turned out to be yet another episode in the BBC’s seemingly relentless determination to undermine and discredit the Brexit process. At the same time, it failed to even begin to analyse or draw audience attention