Bad for democracy, bad for Britain

At 4:30 today the BBC interviewed Nick Chapman, the chief executive of NHS Direct, who strongly supported the government's decision to phase in a new organization for the service. The interviewer was displeased. No interviews with GPs, who all regard NHS Direct as a dangerous as well as expensive folly.

The corporation struck back by replaying hostile interviews by Labour politicians Frank Dobson and John Prescott, and adding new ones from Labour leadership postulant Andrew Burnham and a UNISON cow. The evening news on BBC 1 featured only Burnham's partisan comments.

This sort of thing has been going on for decades, yet for a majority of Brits the corporation is still the beneficiary of the same Pavlovian "envy of the world" response that long greeted any criticism of the NHS. I find it very hard to believe that the government is powerless in the face of such blatant and sustained bias.