An interesting insight into the minds of the BBC

Earlier this week Eric Hammond the former trade union leader died and was described by the BBC as as "controversial" and then a list of his offences against the BBC Socialist narrative was given. I wrote at the time that I didn't remember certain Marxist trade union leaders' deaths being reported with anything other than utter reverence?

I was reminded of this today as I read Douglas Eden's piece in The Spectator on the deceased Trade Union leader Jack Jones. The piece reminds us that Jack Jones was outed as a Soviet agent by Oleg Gordievsky. In fact Oleg Gordievsky claimed to have been Jack Jones' last KGB case officer.

Let's see how the BBC handled Jack Jones' death: His obituary last updated 22 April 2009 has no mention of him being a Soviet spy, just the usual

"He was politically-minded from an early age and a Labour Party ward secretary at 15. At 23, he was the youngest member of Liverpool City Council.

He fought with the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War and was wounded.

Jones began his full-time union career in 1939 as a district organiser for the Transport and General Workers' Union and during almost a quarter century in the Midlands did much to improve the wages and conditions of car workers and their bargaining methods.

...

He was influential in ending two crippling national dock strikes in the early 1970s, though some militant extremists in his union reacted violently against the second settlement.

...

He made great efforts to ensure that the TUC stood shoulder to shoulder with Harold Wilson in his successful bid to recapture power in the first 1974 election and his return in the second.

Jones, above all others, was responsible for shaping and producing the so-called "social contract" between the new Labour government and the TUC and in fighting it through Congress, despite threatened opposition from the other giant union, Hugh Scanlon's AUEW.

...

He was a passionate advocate of industrial democracy, believing that workers had the right to a greater say in all matters affecting their pay and livelihood.

...

He turned down the offer of a peerage, but accepted the title of Companion of Honour, which he said he regarded as a tribute to the whole trade movement."

The BBC also have a "Tributes to union stalwart Jones" page full of such insights as:

""Mr Brown described Mr Jones as "truly a leader of working people" who had fought for justice throughout his life.

"Jack Jones was always there to help people in need," the prime minister said, recalling that Mr Jones fought in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s and campaigned for pensioners' rights until his death.

"All of us who were personal friends of Jack will miss his advice, his courage and his inspiration. My thoughts are with his family."

Veteran Labour politician Tony Benn described Mr Jones as "one of the finest men" he ever met.

"I feel a real sense of personal bereavement," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"Everything he said, he believed. He was bitterly attacked [but] if he was powerful it was only because he represented people." "

What no mention of Jack Jones' suspected role as a Soviet spy?

Does Gordon Brown realise that his "personal friend" has been called a traitor to the Country? On this matter, don't forget that it was Gordon Brown who once wrote of:

“the gross inequalities which disfigure Scottish life”, and argued that the times cried out for “a new commitment to socialist ideals”. He urged “a coherent strategy” of reforms designed “to cancel the logic of capitalism” and to lead “us out of one social order into another”. This would involve “a phased extension of public control under workers’ self-management and the prioritising of social needs by the communities themselves”. He called for “a planned economy” and for “workers’ power”, identifying himself with “Scotland’s socialist pioneers, Hardie, Smillie, Maxton, Maclean, Gallacher, Wheatley and others”—a pantheon that included both revolutionary and reformist socialists. What was needed was “a positive commitment to creating a socialist society”."

So why do the BBC think that Eric Hammond was "controversial" for supporting "no-strike agreements" but that Jack Jones was a "union stalwart" despite being suspected of being a Soviet spy?