27 October 2015

Is Jersey a One Party State with its own Radio?

Political debate is common elsewhere, even in Legoland
So just where is the political debate? We are often told that 'choice' is what distinguishes democracies from dictatorships, but what happens when those in power refuse to engage in political debate with those in opposition?

Again, as is usually the case for the representatives of the de facto Jersey Tory Party, when asked by the BBC to join Reform Jersey in the studio for debate, they refuse. To make matters worse, the presenters of the local BBC seemed to take personal offense, this morning,  when I challenged the Ministers on their continued absence and their lack of mandate, to the point that the usually cheery and polite anchor chose to keep his head down and ignore me rather than engage in the customary civilities.

On top of that, there was an attempt to frame the debate as an 'abstract argument' which had already been dealt with in the States this month, rather than an ongoing reality, which was only now starting to afflict suffering on real people, in the real world.
BBC Jersey's Ashley Tracey and Tim Pryor

The BBC in Jersey must really up their game and shame politicians who consistently refuse to engage other than on their terms. They should offer truly insightful, incisive and interesting political discourse, rather than trite, lazy apologetics.

It is the job of any [indepedndent] media to act, as a check and balance on Government, as a Fourth Estate. In Jersey, they may as well be on the States payroll.

But the Government themselves must also interact.

I or Reform Jersey do not claim to have all the answers, but we can't always be wrong! Let's have meaningful debate and let people decide for themselves what to think.

12 comments:

  1. BBC Jersey has gone from bad to worse regarding any political challenge where the BBC see it as their job to apologise for the lack of engagement by Ministers. It is the BBC's job to be holding these clowns to account and not apologising for them. Good work Monty and Reform Jersey.

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  2. Montfort.

    The BBC is supposed to be holding the Executive to account and challenging it. The Executive refuse to turn up, the opposition agree to turn up. The BBC then thinks "oh well we'll attempt to hold the opposition to account since the Executive/Establishment won't turn up and we'll call it playing Devil's Advocate." It's an absolute joke and the only people who are laughing are the BBC and the Establishment.

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  3. You only have yourselves as a party to blame for failing to get any proposal stopped so stop blaming messengers like the BBC.

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    Replies
    1. Or, playing Devil's Advocate, it is the fault of the Jersey electorate for being so gullible that they fill the rest of the house with nodding dogs and outright shysters like Andrew Lewis.

      Or the fault of the undemocratic system which fills 1/3 of the house with the Constables Party (largely unelected)

      Nu ton the subject of the BBC, let's cast our minds back to how they treated Shona Pitman after she and her husband had been shafted by "pro-peadophile cover up" Jurat John Le Breton:

      http://voiceforchildren.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/bbc-state-radio-reaches-new-low.html

      Oh another reason why Jersey's opposition is relatively ineffective. JUDICIAL CORRUPTION
      ....aided and abetted by the state broadcaster, the Savile Broadcasting Corporation.

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  4. Sun Tzu said it best:
    "Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment — that which they cannot anticipate.”

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  5. In order to maintain the pretence of balance the BBC very occasionally slips in a piece giving the other side an airing -generally after the event and so they can years later refer to a half hour slot and claim that they covered the story!

    http://thejerseyway.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/bbc-radio-jersey-interviews-blogers.html

    It was probably the first time on the radio for many of the bloggers, and they coped with the daunting experience very well. They were mostly too polite and failed to go for the jugular.

    Note how the experience of Stuart Syvret and John Hemming MP gave the biased interviewer so much less room for manoeuvre.

    Note also how amateur the then head of BBC Jersey's paedophile cover up was. Jon Gripton totally looses his grip and is reduced to a gibbering idiot. On Graham powers unreported statement: .....um, er ...we are ....um, er ....using it in out journalism. WTF!

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  6. Meanwhile across the water the BBC and the establishment conspire to ensure the Smith Review into the decades of BBC cover up of the crimes of Jimmy Savile is not released until AFTER the BBC's charter is renewed.

    www.exaronews.com/articles/5672/bbc-seeks-to-delay-smith-review-until-after-renewal-of-charter

    www.exaronews.com/articles/5692/smith-review-already-avoids-prejudicing-ongoing-police-cases

    www.exaronews.com/articles/5678/revealed-panorama-s-plans-to-smear-survivors-of-child-abuse

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  7. Montfort.

    Thoughts, and prayers, are with Bob Hill and FAMILY.

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  8. You are not an 'opposition', there is only three of you in the States, so you can't credibly form an alternative government.

    If the COM stopped working and engaged with debate with every member who isn't in the COM they wouldn't get any work done - it would be spent non-stop in a radio station.

    You have the debate in the States, that is where you get the chance to debate and raise issues. Just because the majority of the population does NOT support the Reform Party, you can't get the hump for being sidelined when you want to debate ad infinitum.

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  9. So you think an Irish joke who claims the States Of Jersey Police, the Honorary Police, the Law Officers, Lawyers, the AG, States Members and even the Media are involved in covering up child abuse which, would need 100s of people to be in on it? If you do then you're as thick as he is.

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  10. The BBC is not responsible for holding Ministers to account. The BBC is to report news in a non-partisan way. They have given considerable airtime to Reform Jersey given the small size you represent in the States. In addition, you are not the opposition as pointed out by another commentator. You are just three very naughty boys....

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