Why so coy BBC?

As I was driving in to work, I heard Radio London report that Ken Livingstone had suspended Lee Jasper and that Lee Jasper had asked him to report the matter to the police for investigation. Now at work, I thought I would look at the BBC website for their detailed report on this matter. Nothing on the news front page, nothing on the politics front page; to find it you have to go to the London news section where it appears under the heading "Mayor suspends funds row adviser". Why so coy BBC? Surely this is major news? Oh no, sorry it concerns Labour politicians so it is a minor story; now if only a Conservative MP had received a parking fine, that would be front page news!


The story is being spun as a way of clearing Lee Jasper's name and the Evening Standard are of course fingered as the real party to blame in all of this. Go read the whole BBC piece and then wonder how long before Ken Livingstone and Lee Jasper, once again, play the race card. You can read about their previous form in this area in this article by Andrew Gilligan earlier this week:

"Remarkable, isn't it, how many racists there are in London, all of a sudden? Trevor Phillips, the chair of the Commission for Equalities and Human Rights; Martin Bright, the political editor of the New Statesman; me and the staff of the Evening Standard; Boris Johnson, the Tory candidate for Mayor; the Lib-Dems and Tories on the London Assembly, and indeed anyone else who questions the behaviour of Ken Livingstone or his adviser Lee Jasper.

Thus Mr Livingstone calls the attacks on Jasper a "lynching" and a "racist campaign"; Martin Bright's Dispatches exposé was dismissed as motivated, incredibly, by "Islamophobia"; Trevor Phillips will "soon be joining the BNP"...

Racism is one of the most serious charges you can make against anyone, and in a city with its fair share of real racists, it should never be abused in this McCarthyite way. But under Livingstone it is racism, not patriotism, that has become the last refuge of the scoundrel."


I detest Ken Livingstone and it really cheers me up that he has finally been found out and with a following wind may be out of power in London within 3 months.