Tom Slater Tom Slater

Emily Maitlis wants a Remainer BBC

Thank god for Emily Maitlis. Finally someone has had the balls to call out the pro-Brexit, pro-Boris bias of the BBC. It’s been staring us in the face for years, as the Today programme, Newsnight, Question Time and the rest have become ever-more subsumed into the Ukipper deep state, forever deferential to its poundshop fascism.

If that portrayal of our state broadcaster sounds like some wild-eyed conspiracy theory to you, utterly detached from reality, that’s because it is. But that didn’t stop Maitlis – formerly of the corporation, now unshackled from Beeb impartiality rules and with a new Global podcast to promote – from trotting out a version of it in a high-profile speech in Edinburgh yesterday.

Maitlis – a BBC journalist of 20 years, latterly at the helm of Newsnight – gave the MacTaggart memorial lecture yesterday at the Edinburgh international TV festival. Which in recent years has become a forum for ‘impartial’ broadcasters to bash the government.

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