The BBC's Nick Robinson - at it again

The BBC's political editor, Nick Robinson, keeps a blog, as befits a senior BBC journalist it is impeccably unbiased; well it should be but in fact it reeks of pro-Labour spin. I have blogged before about this state of affairs but his latest blog entry is a really good example of his style. The item is ostensibly a response to the Conservatives picking Gordon Brown up on his "era of irresponsibility" comments. However the piece starts with a reference to Norman Lamont's "Je ne regrette rien" comments, in fact it starts by linking David Cameron to Norman Lamont and so to the last Conservative government, the government that the BBC worked so hard to fell and replace with that nice Tony Blair. Nick Robinson gets the phrase "callous Tory party" in and the claim that the Conservatives

"did not regret the economic mess the country was in and the personal cost of it in terms of repossessions, soaring interest rates and unemployment."

Nick Robinson then states that by way of contrast:

"Cameron believes - hopes - that Gordon Brown's pledge to end the "era of irresponsibility" is another similar gaffe."

Interestingly Nick Robinson ends with an explanation of Norman Lamont's words that I do not remember getting any coverage on the BBC at the time:

"Lamont was, in fact, simply cracking a joke to try to avoid answering a skilful question posed by my colleague John Pienaar in the Newbury by-election in May 1993. Pienaar asked Lamont at a press conference whether he most regretted claiming to see "the green shoots of recovery" or "singing in his bath". He replied by quoting the Edith Piaf song "Je ne regrette rien"."