Betraying Public Interest

Cristina Odone writes:

The Today programme obviously reckons it is the highest authority in the land – the Supreme Court, Government and General Synod all in one. Today sets the agenda and the priorities – and woe betide any hapless minister who dares challenge their liberal orthodoxy.

That orthodoxy rates abortion on demand up there with FairTrade Coffee and Boardroom Quotas.

So when Andrew Lansley had the temerity to order the CQC investigation into what this paper had exposed as the grotesque and potentially illegal abuse of the 1967 abortion law, he had a fight on his hands. Today attacked him for politicising the issue – why the urgency? Why waste a whole million pounds and 'cancel' inspections into care homes?

In fact, the charge of politicising should be levelled at the supposedly apolitical BBC rather than on the elected Lansley. Both the news report and the discussions this morning betrayed a political and social agenda hostile to any restriction whatsoever on abortion on demand. Amid the outrage manufactured by their "scoop" (obtained through a suspiciously well-targeted FOI request), exposing a letter from the CQC expressing concern about the burden of meeting Lansley's order, three points were lost: the CQC need only postpone other inspections; the cost of the investigation is chicken feed by NHS standards; and the result was impressive – with a number of doctors and practices exposed as law breakers.

Throughout, Today attacked Lansley for betraying public interest; in fact the programme will only defend the interest of those members of the public who share its own moral compass. And for this bias, we pay through the nose.