Question time for BBC over political coverage of Covid crisis

GORDON Lawrence (The Yorkshire Post, April 8) must listen to a different BBC to the one whose news and current affairs output I endure.

I do not believe that there is a systematic bias in favour of what he calls a liberal elite; rather, I would say, there is a sycophantic bias in favour of the political Right in a way I have never seen in 40 years of adult life.

The problem is that many London-based BBC journalists have stopped asking hard questions, presumably in case they offend their paymasters.

We saw this in the Brexit debate where, in the name of balance, uninformed opinion was given equivalent status with hard facts, and too little attempt was made to unpick the evidence from the opinions; “I think we have heard enough of experts” comes to mind.

We see this still, where too few probing follow-up questions are asked of Ministers about for example:

Why the 2016 emergency scenario modelling, which revealed a flu-type pandemic as the most likely threat to UK security, failed to attract investment on more resources (like PPE or ventilators)?

Why the Security Select Committee report on Russian involvement in UK elections and the referendum has still not been published?

Why the UK spurned the EU’s offer to join in with them on sourcing ventilators in bulk?

Frustratingly, the rest of the BBC’s output is excellent.

But then, Mr Lawrence gives away his own view of where the centre ground of British politics is when he describes the BBC as having “an entrenched antipathy to the Tory party, especially its right of centre limb”.

From: Bob Holland, Skipton Road, Cononley.

THERE are suddenly unprecedented numbers who did have jobs, but are now unemployed with no income (because they were on zero hour contracts, or had only casual work). So they have to apply for Universal Credit (UC). As a food bank volunteer, I have heard how this is a new, distressing experience for most applicants.

It is excellent that the Chancellor has increased the money in the basic UC, but the poorest of all UC claimants are families with children. They have more to pay in utility bills, rent and council taxes etc.

Will our North Yorkshire MP, Rishi Sunak, please find money for these vulnerable children and raise the level of child benefits? Surely our other Yorkshire MPs know this is needed?

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James Mitchinson

Editor