Senior Adviser, Kekst CNC | Non-Exec Director, BBC Board | Fmr Director of Comms, No10 | Fmr Head of BBC Westminster | Chair Westminster #LUFC supporters club
Westminster
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Because journalists at the press conferences are asking questions through the prism of establishing political culpability, they are not asking the questions that matter (1/10)
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An impressive performance by Dom Cummings with lots of details and a clear rebuttal of some of the media’s coverage of the story, which have been shown to be false. I predict the story will no longer be leading the broadcast running orders by the end of the week.
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This audience feels like it’s full political activists rather than typical voters. #bbcqt
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Channel 4 News revealed, yet again, to have a total disregard for impartiality. Less than a week before the election they have been caught doctoring footage to smear the PM as a racist. The head of Channel 4 should go on C4 News tonight to make a public apology.
Boris Johnson says “people of talent” not “people of colour.”
Our earlier tweet was a mistake. We misheard and we apologise.
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This is genuinely not a purely party political point, but I really don’t understand how anyone in Britain could possibly vote Labour with these people leading the party. I just don’t understand it. standard.co.uk/news/politics…
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Is there anyone more damaging to the BBC's reputation for impartiality than @lewis_goodall ? This is so off the scale I don't even know where to begin.
This week's cover: How the government's ineptitude created a lost generation.
Featuring @stephenkb and @lewis_goodall.
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It remains one of the great mysteries of our age how Channel 4 news is not drowning under a sea of complaints to the watchdog Ofcom so flagrant is its political bias.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article…
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I’m proud of the BBC’s Gary O’Donoghue whose amazing live reporting from the Trump rally captured the full significance of events. He kept his composure on air and somehow found and interviewed the key eye witness to the gunman’s actions. Gary embodies the BBC at its very best.
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1.9 million Leave voters say they would now vote to Remain. But 2.4 million Remain voters would now vote to Leave. The country hasn’t changed its mind. (Deltapoll, Sun on Sunday) #RoadtoBrexit
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Since the crisis began there has been a collapse in confidence in the media across all four countries in the survey - the biggest fall being in the UK with a 21% net loss in confidence (5/7)
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Trapped by its own woke group think, the Today programme - or radio misery as my friends call it - bombards its listeners with a relentlessly negative and sneering tone and paints a picture of Britain that is monstrously out of touch. #today
dailymail.co.uk/news/article…
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The EU know that the Withdrawal Agreement will not get through Parliament with the current backstop unchanged. If the EU won’t change its red lines it will be the fault of the EU, not the UK, that we leave with no deal.
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The EU still seems to treat the UK like an exiting country trying to negotiate the terms of its withdrawal. It has not quite clocked the UK has already left. We are a third party wanting to do a deal with the EU, not applying to remain in its legal orbit - in tomorrow’s Telegraph
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During crunch talks with Labour to get Theresa’s May’s deal through, Labour’s Brexit spokesman, Sir Keir Starmer, condemned a document we had just given him – even though it had been copied and pasted from his own proposals!
dailymail.co.uk/news/article…
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Cheap, political, business as usual questions, such as the one from Ch4 News at weekend demanding an apology from the Home Secretary, completely misjudges the public mood (3/10)
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On the day the BBC announces the welcome news it is moving more programmes out of London, this BBC Breakfast clip reveals a sneering and cynical attitude towards our monarchy and flag that shows it’s not just about where people are based, the BBC has a wider cultural problem.
What a bizarre thing for the BBC to sneer and snigger at. What’s wrong with ministers of the British government having the flag and the monarch on display?
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Once the UK has left the EU is it realistic any major party would propose rejoining?
The pitch would be:
- An end to the control of our borders
- Pay a net £10bn a year (or probably more)
- Meaning we’d have to make cuts to public spending or raise taxes
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An opinion poll by Kekst CNC today suggests the media is the one UK institution that has seen a collapse in public confidence, a net 21% fall (2/10)
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Q. Is there evidence that exposure to other viruses in a patient’s history can impact on the severity of Covid19?
Q. Do we use the same medical criterial for admission to ICU as other countries who seem to have different survival rates?...(10/10)
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Excitable questions about “government U-turns” (or responding to new advice when the evidence changes), “cabinet splits” (or just different points of view) and other “gotcha” techniques are jarring at best (4/10)
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Questions designed to help understand how we can defeat this virus, what genuine lessons we can learn from other countries and updates on the developing science is what the public really want to hear. For example… (5/10)
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Q. Is there evidence that the level of exposure to the virus – the viral load - will determine the severity of the illness?
Q. Are we getting very detailed data from other countries mapping the development of the virus? … (6/10)
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Q. Are the countries who are lifting some lockdown restrictions basing their decisions on science or the needs of their economy? If the UK were faced with same data, would it come to the same conclusion? …. (7/10)
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Q. Where are we on the trials of existing drugs that might help to tackle the virus?
Q. What is the latest research on re-infection showing? ….. (8/10)
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Jeremy Corbyn admits he is opposing the Brexit deal without even reading it. He’s putting his own party interests ahead of the national interest.
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Ch4’s decision to ban nonpolitical journalists from tweeting about politics is a step in the right direction and other broadcasters should follow its lead. However there is so much more that needs to be done to improve impartiality and accuracy in broadcasting. My checklist:
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Q. What is the earliest possible timeframe for a UK vaccination programme? There are reports that one might be ready by September. Is that correct?... (9/10)
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This evening’s Facebook message by the PM has so far been viewed by 7.5 million in just 4 hours.
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I am pleased to announce I will be leaving the BBC to join the Prime Minister, Theresa May, as her new Director of Communications
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Congratulations to my brother @NickGibbUK on his knighthood. During his 10 years as Schools Minister, England rose from 10th to 4th in the world for reading, and from 27th to 11th in maths. Now that’s an achievement.
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A vote for any other party than the Conservatives risks another hung Parliament, which means more of the same — more delay, more deadlock, more endless arguments over Brexit as we move into a fourth year since the referendum result.
dailymail.co.uk/debate/artic…
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Fake news harms our democracy. Those who would deliberately misrepresent public policy for political gain - be it passports or animal sentience - should be called out.
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To those on both sides of the House who stood on a manifesto promising to leave the EU – I say do what you promised voters. Deliver Brexit.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article…
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Delighted new BBC DG, Tim Davie, has made impartiality his number one priority: “Trust in our impartiality is not a nice to have, it is the very essence of who we are. It is the bedrock of why people come to us. We urgently need to champion and recommit to impartiality. (1/4)
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New BBC staff social media guidelines published today, may be the start of reform but I doubt it will end there and nor should it. The BBC can only justify itself as a publicly-funded broadcaster if it provides something its rivals do not – impartial news and entertainment.
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The UK Government has made significant compromises to help find a deal. The EU now need to follow suit and respond constructively. This is in the best interests of everyone and it might well be our last chance.
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- Hand over control of our fishing to the EU
- Hand law making powers to unelected officials in the EU
- Maybe have to join the euro
- Be part of ever closer union.
Doesn’t sound like a good pitch to voters in the north or anywhere else for that matter. 😩
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It's been a privilege to work for the BBC. I will always be a supporter because of its values and commitment to impartiality.
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This is a falsehood. I worked on many BBC election programmes. Staff may have had private feelings in all different directions, but the idea they would be so unprofessional as to express them in the context of an election programme is absurd. File under things that didn’t happen.
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In light of the death of the MP Jo Cox, tonight's Question Time and This Week have been cancelled.
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The Andrew Neil Interviews - Theresa May 22nd, Paul Nuttall 23rd, Tim Farron 24th, Nicola Sturgeon 25th, Jeremy Corbyn 26th - BBC One, 7pm
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11) audiences want to know what’s going on, not just what’s going wrong
12) the role of interviewer is to ask the questions the audience would ask if they had the chance. It should not become a game designed to embarrass the politician or raise the profile of the presenter
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6) you can’t be both an impartial journalist and commentator - choose one or the other
7) only say what you actually know. Journalists should apply the same standards of accuracy and fact checking on Twitter as they do on broadcast
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New survey, conducted by Kekst CNC, tracks public opinion in the UK, USA, Germany and Sweden. It reveals a dramatic change in the public’s views since outbreak of Covid-19 (1/7)
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It seems on Covid-19, as with Brexit, Keir Starmer will insist he is putting politics to one side, while in reality indulging in the same old point-scoring. This political profiteering will only serve to divide when we should all unite - Sunday Telegraph
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Brexit - What Next? Andrew Neil interviews the Prime Minister as she begins the process of exiting the UK from the EU, tonight 7pm BBC One
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1) always make impartiality the number one priority or it will take second place to other considerations
2) on social media and broadcast it should not be possible to work out any journalist’s political views
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Andrew Neil will interview the Prime Minister, Theresa May, on Monday 22nd May at 7pm on BBC One.
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On tomorrow's #bbcsp former UKIP leader Nigel Farage with Janan Ganesh, Julia Hartley-Brewer, Steve Richards and of course Andrew Neil
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Britain’s big Brexit compromise was its upfront offer to ask for nothing more than the EU has offered to other countries, such as Canada and Japan. Nevertheless, the EU continues to insist on placing unreasonable extra demands on Britain.
digitaleditions.telegraph.co…
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Public trust in central government has gone up, particularly in the UK, where 40% say they have more confidence in the Government than before the crisis (2/7)
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8) don’t pretend you can predict the future - you can’t and your guess isn’t news
9) show some humility - you probably don’t know as much as the person you are criticising
10) don’t judge the success of an interview by retweets. It will distort how you conduct the interview
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Andrew Neil Interviews on BBC1
26 May 7pm, Jeremy Corbyn
28 May 6pm, Nicola Sturgeon
29 May 7:30pm, Paul Nuttall
1 June 7pm, Tim Farron
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Watch: Douglas Murray v Swedish MP Laila Naraghi on impact of immigration on Sweden bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04v2tw… #bbcsp
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CONFIRMED: Four Andrew Neil #euref Interviews, peak time BBC1 including George Osborne, 8th June, 7:30-8:00pm
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There are no significant differences in the findings between Conservatives and Labour voters overall. The UK has gone from one of the most divided nations to one of the most united (3/7)
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CONFIRMED: Line-up for The Great Debate at the SSE Arena, Wembley - 21st June, 8pm BBC One
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3) on Twitter look at your tweets in the round, check they don’t all point in one direction
4) never like or retweet partisan comments that lean either left or right
5) ask yourself: am I providing a service that will be as congenial to a Telegraph reader as a Guardian reader
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The old right/left divide on the role of government is suspended – 89% of Conservative voters are comfortable with a bigger role for government, as are 81% of Labour voters (6/7)
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20) impartiality applies to everything, not just politics. Just because you think your opinion is common sense doesn’t mean you can express it on broadcast
21) all broadcasters are covered by the Ofcom code on accuracy and impartiality. Understand that and act accordingly
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.@pacquep I’m of course aware of the EU argument about proximity, but it’s a red herring. In the modern world of international commerce and trade, geography is irrelevant. It’s just the EU excuse to keep us in its orbit.
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It has been an honour to work for Theresa May, one of the country’s most dedicated public servants. I would like to wish Boris and his new team at No10 all the very best in the months and years ahead.
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Leeds United 3-2 winners having been behind and all seemed lost. A sign of things to come..... ?
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15) avoid loaded language, it gives away your bias
16) in a democracy there are many ways politicians are held to account, not least in Parliament. So not every interview has to be the Spanish Inquisition
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13) programme editors should constantly ask themselves will this running order look fair and reasonable to viewers with different political views to their own
14) avoid group think and metropolitan bias by regularly talking and listening to people outside the bubble
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Looking beyond the lockdown, over a quarter of the UK public say they will travel less by plane, 22% say they will eat out less, go to the cinema less or use the gym less (7/7)
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CONFIRMED: Andrew Neil #euref Interview, peak time BBC1 with UKIP leader @Nigel_Farage, 10th June, 7:30-8:00pm
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Now is the time for MPs to break free from this appalling Parliamentary paralysis, to live up to their promises to voters and get Brexit done.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article…
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In the UK the public have become more positive towards business, central Government, public health agencies, the NHS, supermarkets and the banks than before the crisis (4/7)
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Totally hilarious. Brilliant.
I hate to say it, but Britain's doing OK. Even Germany envies us... theguardian.com/politics/202…
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17) there are lots of media outlets wanting to interview politicians. Programmes must avoid a sense of entitlement - you can’t always get what you want
18) empty chairing guests should only be done in exceptional circumstances & programmes should avoid becoming part of the story
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For of all the myths about the Prime Minister there is none greater than that which seeks to portray him as a leader who revels in controversy and division – in fact the very opposite is the case.
telegraph.co.uk/politics/202…
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Coming up at 6pm on BBC One, Andrew Neil interviews the First Minister of Scotland and leader of the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon #BBCelection
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19) presenters and reporters should avoid speaking engagements (paid or unpaid) where there could be a perceived conflict of interest
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This deal delivers Brexit.
It takes back control of our borders and ends free movement.
It takes back control of our money so we can spend it on the NHS.
It takes back control of our laws.
We are coming out of the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy.
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Applying my impartiality check to this twitter thread it fails on 1,2,3,6,8,9 and 15. Apart from that it’s great.
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Review 2016 #bbcdp (4/10)
Nick Clegg confronted with montage of clips from referendum campaign on single market
order-order.com/2016/10/20/c…
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Ted Malloch tipped to be US ambassador to EU tells the Daily Politics "UK is now at the front of the queue” for a trade deal with the USA
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Andrew Neil will interview the leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn at 7pm, BBC One #bbcelection
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We’ve made good progress this week on the Road to Brexit.
1) Nuclear Safeguards Bill passed through the Commons
2) Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill passed through the Lords
3) Trade and Taxation (Cross-Border Trade) Bills are now at the Committee Stage in the Commons
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"If you want to be an opinionated columnist or a partisan campaigner on social media then that is a valid choice, but you should not be working at the BBC. (3/4)
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BUDGET 2018 (1/2)
1) Largest ever increase in NHS spending, delivered without any rise in personal tax
2) Ending of austerity with increases in public spending, year on year, for the next 5 years
3) Tax cuts for 32 million people by raising personal tax allowances a year early
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6 point lead. #justsaying
Westminster Voting Intention
CON: 42% (+2)
LAB: 36% (=)
LDM: 11% (=)
UKIP: 4% (-1)
Via @YouGov 24-25th Sep.
Changes w/ 18-29th Sep.
A 6 point lead is CON's largest since 6th June.
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"We’ll take action in coming weeks, but to be clear, there will be new guidance on how we best deliver our impartiality guideline; new social media rules, which will be rigorously enforced; and clearer direction on the declaration of external interests." (4/4)
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Following the London terror attack the Andrew Marr Show and Sunday Politics have been cancelled
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WATCH: Daily Politics mash up of The Thick of It and General Election campaign moments.
bbc.co.uk/news/av/election-2…
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Having spent most of my career at the BBC, I am delighted to be joining the Board as the England representative.
gov.uk/government/news/sir-r…
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Even a cursory comparison with our European neighbours reveals a pattern of similar Covid challenges to those seen in Britain. But when comparative data is used it is all too often selected to show Britain in the worst light rather than a fair light.
express.co.uk/comment/expres…
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It must be a big day Westminster tomorrow as the Daily Politics had been moved to BBC1, 11:30-13:00 #bbcdp
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The Andrew Neil Interviews will not go ahead as planned whilst election campaigning is suspended.
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