#War010 The BBC's reporting of the corrupt Mrs J Smith

#War010 The BBC's reporting of the corrupt Mrs J Smith

Peter Oborne in the Daily Mail on Saturday accuses Ms Smith of thievery and challenges her to sue him. He says she got away with her expenses fiddle of claiming her second home allowance for her constituency home for 4 reasons.

1. The Commons Dept for Finance and Administration is notorious for allowing MPs to fiddle their expenses.

2. The wholehearted complicity of the Conservatives and LibDems as they are just as bad.

3. The refusal by the Parliamentry Commissioner John Lyon to investigate the case.

4. The BBC's very partial and highly unprofessional coverage of the story.

He goes on to say on this last point:-

"Rather than give a careful and unbiased account, its gullible political reporters immediately took the official government line.

For example a report on Radio 4's Today programme by Andy Hosken - before the official ruling - claimed that Ms Smith had not broken any rules and was, therefore in the clear.

While it was extraordinary for the BBC to prejudge the case at such an early stage, it was even more surprising that Hoskens had failed to understand the parliamentary rules on MPs' expenses. He wrongly referred to expenses being submitted to the Fees Office, an organisation which changed its name.

Other mistakes were even more grievous. the BBC man told listeners that MPs had an 'absolute discretion' to decide which was their main residence and which was their second home.

However the official rules do NOT allow absolute discretion, or anything remotely resembling it, and assert that in most cases the decision will be a 'matter of fact'.

Indeed, as the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards stated late last year in a crucial ruling: ' If a Member has his or her family living permanently in their constituency home and has modest accomodation in London big enough only for themselves, and which they use only when Parliamnet is in session, then it would clearly seem to be a matter of fact that theMember's main home is in the constituency.'

To view Peter Oborne's articles LINK & also on 13-Feb-2009 HERE

So once again the BBC proves it is institutionally bias and is NOT honouring its Royal Charter.