Anybody waking up last Friday morning and tuning in to the BBC’s TV or radio news bulletins might have thought there had been a national disaster overnight. 
On Radio 4’s Today programme, in particular, the voices were sombre, verging on the funereal. Had they been required to wear ties, the presenters would surely have chosen black.
But far from being a catastrophe, the event they were reporting upon — David Cameron standing up to the Brussels elite by vetoing a new EU treaty inimical to Britain’s interests — was considered by the majority of the public (as proved by opinion polls at the weekend) to be a cause for celebration, or at least applause.
To the BBC, however, it was a betrayal of one of the Corporation’s most trenchantly held views: that Britain can prosper only if it agrees to do everything Europe demands of it.
Hence, the veto was reported from the perspective of the EU — rather than the British taxpayers who pay the wages of the BBC’s vast army of correspondents and executives.
On Radio 4’s 6am news bulletin, Justin Webb announced gravely: ‘Leaders of 23 EU countries are to draft a new fiscal pact to help stabilise their currency without the involvement of Britain.’
He added: ‘President Sarkozy accused David Cameron of making a deal between all 27 countries impossible.’
It was a full two minutes before listeners heard Mr Cameron’s own remarks explaining why he was forced into exercising Britain’s veto.
The debate, as conducted by the BBC, was batted around that, if the hopelessly flawed, one-size-fits-all model for a single currency collapses under the weight of its own monstrous debts, it would somehow be Mr Cameron’s fault — even though nothing could be further from the truth.
Apocalyptic tones: The BBC’s reporting of the Prime Minister’s historic veto of an EU treaty was skewed in favour of Brussels
On BBC TV’s One O’Clock News, presenter Sophie Raworth continued with the negative tone and began by saying: ‘David Cameron has dramatically refused to sign a new treaty designed to resolve the eurozone debt crisis.’
The response of senior Tory officials to this dark propaganda was a weary shrug. They have become accustomed to BBC bias on all matters European.
But what makes this latest coverage so depressing is that the Corporation is fully aware of its pro-EU bias and seems incapable of behaving any differently.
Last year, BBC Director General Mark Thompson accepted the Corporation had previously been guilty of a ‘massive’ Left-wing bias. He also confessed that the BBC’s coverage of Europe had been ‘weak and rather nervous’.
Promising a change of course, Mr Thompson added: ‘We have made some progress there, but I think there are more areas where we can make progress.’
Yet still the BBC’s instinctive response in recent days has been to assume that Britain is doomed and that — by not binding Britain ever closer to Brussels — Mr Cameron has somehow sold us all down the river.
Surprised: George Osborne was asked almost nonsensical questions from BBC interviewers after the veto
Every medium available to the Corporation was flooded with negative coverage. On the main news website on Friday, political correspondent Carole Walker was warning of the ‘profound danger’ of wielding a veto which could have ‘damaging consequences’.
When Labour MPs took to the airwaves to denounce the Prime Minister, they were largely given a free ride. The line taken by Labour and Lib Dem MEPs and backbenchers — namely that Britain would be left in parlous ‘isolation’ on the fringes of Europe — was treated as if it were gospel.
Yet when Chancellor George Osborne was invited onto the Today programme on Saturday morning, he was subjected to an unusually harsh grilling.
After the editor of the pro-Europe Financial Times — which was proved spectacularly wrong over its support for the euro — was given licence to attack the Government for leaving Britain ‘completely on our own’ in Europe, Mr Osborne took a battering from John Humphrys, who was characteristically adversarial.
The presenter’s opening remarks included the following line about the Prime Minister: ‘He wielded a veto and we gained nothing in return.’ The BBC man then curiously compared Tory Eurosceptics with Danish invaders from the time of Ethelred II.
Mr Humphrys told a stunned Mr Osborne: ‘You’ve chucked them some meat, or to use another metaphor if you like, you’ve paid some Danegeld [a tax raised to pay tribute to the Viking raiders to prevent them from ravaging the land]; you’ll never get rid of the Danes now, will you? Once they’ve got this — they’ve got it now — they’ll want more.’
In other words, he was implying that the veto was a ‘political gambit’ designed solely to appease ‘extremists’ in the Tory Party.
By Sunday, when Nick Clegg appeared on BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show to openly attack the Prime Minister, the sense of glee in BBC newsrooms was palpable as his message boosted the Corporation’s Euro-friendly agenda.
The story leading the BBC website yesterday morning said: ‘David Cameron will face MPs later to explain his decision to veto EU treaty changes, the day after his deputy PM said the move was “bad for Britain”.’
According the BBC’s own editorial guidelines: ‘Impartiality lies at the heart of public service and is the core of the BBC’s commitment to its audiences . . . We must be inclusive, considering the broad perspective and ensuring the existence of a range of views is appropriately reflected.’
Yet according to the polls, around six in ten voters support Mr Cameron’s actions. Less than 15 per cent are against.
Not that you’d know it from listening to the ‘British Broadcasting Corporation’.
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