BBC Strike - The Turkeys who are not voting for Christmas

Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC understands what the stakes are. A planned strike by broadcast unions, timed to coincide with the Conservative Party Conference, and later, an important speech by George Osborne, is a transparent, explicitly political act of sabotage. That the Unions choose to deny this is a lie. Such an obvious lie, and one that nobody gives credence to, especially many journalists and frontline production staff who have signed their names on an open letter to the Unions, in which they say:

Impartiality is the watchword for the BBC's political coverage and we would not wish to give a misleading impression that this is no longer something we value highly.

Of course, this is bollocks. Cynical bollocks. None of them believe that the BBC coverage of politics is anything other than a "left-leaning liberal" narrative. To be fair, there are exceptions, but the minority of non-lefties are regularly sidelined, and the power lies with the editorial staff who, as we know, control the researchers who call the pundits to make sure they fall in with the story of the day.

Andrew Neil's name is not on the petition. Neil is not a BBC employee, but Jo Coburn is and her name is on it. Coburn also signed a petition against NUJ plans, in 2007, to "boycott Israeli goods". The former travesty is merely one of many examples of just how politicised the NUJ at the BBC is.

Aside from the scandal of a bunch of thugs running a public broadcasting service that Vladimir Putin would be proud of, what interests me is the subtext, which is that the signatories to the petition and Mark Thompson himself, fully understand that, by this strike, the existence of the BBC is under threat and that this action will hasten its demise.

This petition (see it HERE) is no declaration of honour, it is a roll call of turkeys who do not want to vote for Christmas.