Letters From A Tory Daily views on British politics and the Conservative Party from a centre-right thinker who writes letters on his blog to politicians, journalists and many others.

“Met Office staff are eligible to receive performance-related pay based on achievements against specific targets agreed and monitored by the Met Office Board, which are linked to the success of the Met Office at either individual, team or organisational level.”
- the excuse given by Kevan Jones, the Defence Minister, as it emerged that staff at [...]

From the Daily Mail:
The academic at the centre of the ‘Climategate’ affair, whose raw data is crucial to the theory of climate change, has admitted that he has trouble ‘keeping track’ of the information. Colleagues say that the reason Professor Phil Jones has refused Freedom of Information requests is that he may have actually lost [...]

From the BBC:
There has been an increase in the number of British people who are sceptical about climate change, a poll commissioned by BBC News has suggested. It showed that 25% of those questioned did not think global warming was happening, an increase of 10% since a similar poll was conducted in November. The percentage [...]

Dear readers,
You would have thought that with the country grinding to a halt under severe weather conditions, there might be more important things at stake than worrying about Doctor Who. Apparently I could not have been more wrong.  From the BBC website:
———————
Doctor Who, BBC One, comment about ginger hair, 1 January 2010Publication date: 6 January 2010
Complaint
We’ve [...]

For those who missed it in my blog roundup last night, Next Left has the details:
A victory for Carter-Ruck and Trafigura in the High Court as the BBC have offered this statement in open court with regard to Newsnight’s reporting of the dumping of toxic waste by Trafigura off the Ivory Coast. That Trafigura illegally [...]

“Nobody calls the BBC ‘Auntie’ any more. ‘Auntie’ was an affectionate name for someone who might have been a trifle prim and stuffy at times, but who was basically reliable and behaved herself with decorum. ‘Auntie’ was not the type of person who stayed in Las Vegas hotels, clocked up taxi rides at £200 a [...]

“The BBC has handed the BNP the gift of the century on a plate and now we see the consequences. I’m very angry.”
- Peter Hain, Welsh Secretary, after a poll suggested support for the BNP has risen after Nick Griffin appeared on Question Time.  A YouGov poll in the Daily Telegraph, conducted just after the show finished, suggests [...]

Before Question Time last night, we knew that:
(a) Nick Griffin was a twat.
(b) Unite Against Fascism were a bunch of illiberal, anti-democratic loons who choose violence over discussion every time.
(c) The BNP’s policies and record would not stand up to any serious scrutiny.
(d) The Question Time audience were clearly going to be rigged against the [...]

“Question Time is scheduled for 10.35pm tonight and will be a milestone in the indomitable march of the British National Party towards saving our country.  Our violent opponents on the far left have promised to lay siege and barricade the studio venue, because they know only too well that this could be the key moment that [...]

“We want to be clear that the BBC should not be handing the BNP this invitation to political respectability.”
- a spokesman for Unite Against Fascism, who will be holding a day-long protest at Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time.  The programme’s producers are to push ahead with next week’s show, despite UAF’s plans to protest outside [...]

“Another wholly feeble and biased Today programme rounded off with a fawning interview with a Tory pundit!!”
- a tweet from Ben Bradshaw, Culture Secretary, who used Twitter to criticise Radio 4 and also alleged in an earlier post that an interview with Michael Gove on Monday’s Today programme was “feeble”.  This morning, Evan Davis conducted an interview [...]

Dear Johann Hari,
Much as I find your Independent columns rather dull affairs for the most part, today I will make an exception.  Although the recent declaration of support for the Conservatives from Rupert Murdoch may seem like little more than political posturing, you have rightly spotted that there is something more sinister brewing in the [...]

“No doubt the BBC celebrates the fact that it now has well over half of all radio listening. But the consequent impoverishment of the once-successful commercial sector is testament to the corporation’s inability to distinguish between what is good for it and what is good for the country.”
- James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch and [...]

Dear Joan Bakewell,
Age discrimination is not exactly one of the most gripping political dilemmas in the modern era, yet its influence is still pervasive.  You attacked the BBC over the weekend for damaging the position of older women in society by exiling female news presenters, and it’s not often that the BBC is on the receiving end [...]

“I think it’s absolutely shocking that Alesha Dixon is not going to be a judge on Strictly Come Dancing. And as equality minister, I am suspicious that there is race discrimination there.”
- Harriet Harman, hitting out at the axing of performer Alesha Dixon from Strictly Come Dancing. Harman urged the BBC to bring the 30-year-old, whose [...]

Dear BBC,
Your anti-fascist agenda is thinly veiled these days and your delight at the jail sentences handed out to two rather unsavoury individuals yesterday was obvious enough.  What you failed to realise, however, was that these jail terms demonstrated how seriously the free speech of British citizens is now being curbed.
In a landmark case, neo-Nazis [...]

“Either he is an influential figure in Government or this is just window-dressing.”
- John Whittingham, Conservative MP and chairman of the Culture Select Committee, calling on the BBC to ‘fire’ Alan Sugar beacuse he does not believe that it is possible for Alan Sugar to be closely associated with the Government while continuing his role [...]

Dear Peter Horrocks,
I was appalled by the way that Jade Goody’s death was splashed all over the BBC last weekend and I’m delighted to see that this has resulted in a large number of complaints being sent in.  Yesterday, as the head of the BBC’s multimedia newsroom you said the coverage was justified both on the [...]

Dear Carol Thatcher,
I’m so sorry to read about what happened to you.  Losing your job is never fun at the best of times, but to lose your job on the BBC’s ‘The One Show’ because you made a totally harmless remark in a private conversation without any TV cameras around that wasn’t even remotely offensive.  [...]

Dear Jeremy Hunt,
As Shadow Secretary for Culture, Media and Sport, there is plenty for you to talk about.  With the Olympics no more than two years after the election, your supposedly cushy brief could end up with you walking into the lion’s den in 2010.  However, more pressing is the issue of the BBC.  It seemed to [...]

It’s not often I say this, but well done to the BBC.  They produced a low-key but suitably damning piece on the proposal for a windfall tax on energy companies.  If you want to find out why such a move is almost impossible to implement, READ THIS.

Dear BBC,
It appears as though your organisation has now been compromised by the poor literacy skills that are sweeping the country.  Yesterday your website made a complete hash of reporting the news in an unbiased way, and not for the first time.  Here is a screenshot of your front page on the Standards Chief’s assessment [...]

Dear BBC,
There are many many many reasons why I now feel that your entire organisation needs reform, not least because of the ridiculously overt liberal bias that your news reporting continues to suffer from.
While the British government is in disarray after the Home Secretary accidentally let around 9,000 people into the country without running security checks [...]

Dear Sir Michael Lyons,
I doubt you are a very popular man in and around the BBC at the moment.  2,800 jobs are to be chopped and you are the one who has instigated it.  You’re probably in for quite a lot of flack over this, but I find it astonishing that even an incident such [...]