Just to say that I sent the following to the Guardian - to build on Caroline Glendinning's effort to draw the BBC Trust's attention to the lack of balance in John Humphrys' programme on the Future of the Welfare State. We got the brush off from Helen Boaden, then Director of BBC News, to whom Caroline's letter was passed…but following a complaint from CPAG it seems that the Trust has had a change of heart. The Guardian coverage on this issue appeared on July 30th if you want to read it.
Nick Ellison.
The letter reads:
On behalf of the UK Social Policy Association, I welcome the fact that the BBC Trust has ruled that the controversial programme about welfare reforms presented by John Humphrys (The Future of the Welfare State, BBC2) breached its rules of impartiality and accuracy (Guardian, BBC programme on welfare reforms broke impartiality and accuracy rules’, July 30th). Following the programme’s broadcast in November 2011, the SPA complained to the BBC Trust about precisely this issue, noting that Humphrys’ contention that the welfare state was imbued with a ‘culture of entitlement’ was not balanced by ‘any consideration…of the numerous benefits of welfare state provision’. The reply from Helen Boaden (received 13/3/12), then Director of BBC News, to whom the complaint was passed, claimed that the programme had ‘provided a balanced examination of the ongoing debate surrounding proposed reforms to the UK’s welfare/benefits system’ and that the essential issues had been properly aired. Following the Trust’s investigation of a complaint from the Child Poverty Action Group, it now appears that the Trust disagrees with the position taken by its erstwhile Director of News – and, by extension, with its original appraisal of the Humphrys programme. What, I wonder, has dictated this change of view?
Prof Nick Ellison,
Chair, UK Social Policy Association,
School of Sociology and Social Policy,
University of Leeds
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