The BBC at it again, via the ever unbiased James Naughtie

The Today programme on Radio 4 this morning and the "hug a hoodie" slur rears its head again. The interviewer is James "If we win the election" Naughtie, who uses the line "let's not get into whether you actually said it". Slur, slur, slur against any Conservative; come on Jim, why don't you come out with it, say it, "Vote Labour".

This is a transcript of what was said and by whom:-
JN - "I can hear a lot of people sitting at home in a rather frustrated state saying 'here he goes again', you know, 'if it's not "hug a hoodie"' now let's not argue about whether you actually used the phrase

DC - "Well I never used that phrase"

The two talk across each other ending with DC saying "the people at home need to know that"

JN - "I think if people walked down the street, and you walked up to them and said 'did David Cameron ever say "hug a hoodie" they would say 'yes' because you got saddled with this idea that you are talking in the long term..."

You can listen to this yourself at the Labour Party Broadcasting Service website here this extract starts at around 5 minutes 25 seconds into the interview.

Now Mr Naughtie answer these questions:

1) Did David Cameron ever actually say "hug a hoodie", except in response to claims that he had?

2) If you know the claim is false, why do you repeat it?

3) Where did these claims originate?

4) Why do you think that "if people walked down the street, and you walked up to them and said 'did David Cameron ever say "hug a hoodie" they would say 'yes'"?

5) If David Cameron didn't say it then shouldn't you as an unbiased broadcaster, not a mouthpiece for the Labour party, disabuse people of that view?

6) How do you think David Cameron got "saddled" with the "hug a hoodie" idea?


This is like the John Major tucks his shirt into his underpants claim. That one was an allegation made by Alistair Campbell and eagerly taken up by Spitting Image and other satirical programmes as a way of making people laugh at John Major. It wasn't true, it was a lie; but a very powerful, and so useful, lie.

However take a read of these four quotations "a lie told often enough becomes truth" and "...when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it" and "The key-word here is blackwhite... Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts.” and “To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed…”. Strike any chords? The first is from Lenin, the second from Goebbels and the last two from George Orwell's "1984" describing how The Party manipulate news.

So which of the above sources is your inspiration Mr Naughtie? Do you want a proletarian revolution, the death of all jews, homosexuals and other degenerates, or just the permanent rule of this country by a single party? What are you Mr Naughtie, a Communist, a Nazi or do you see yourself as an important worker in the new Ministry of Truth (Minitrue) making sure that everyone believes that everything that the Party says is true? Or is it just the methods used rather than the aims that you you approve of?

For the record, I don't believe that James Naughtie is a Nazi or a Communist, or that he wants the death of all jews, homosexuals and degenerates. He may even not want one party rule, so long as the party or parties in power agree with his political view. However I do think that he is a supporter of the Labour party and often incapable of hiding this bias when "interviewing" or "reporting".

UPDATE - You can read more here, apparently the "protesters" took down the Israeli flag and raised the Palestinian flag. I assume that less Greenhouse gasses are emitted by exports from the Palestinian Territories than by exports from Israel...