The Spectator’s Notes | 5 February 2011

Last week, I was airing to a sceptical Cabinet minister this column’s moan (see Notes, 4 December) that the BBC is so obsessed with the Israel/Palestine question that it ignores what is happening in the rest of the Muslim world.

Last week, I was airing to a sceptical Cabinet minister this column’s moan (see Notes, 4 December) that the BBC is so obsessed with the Israel/Palestine question that it ignores what is happening in the rest of the Muslim world. ‘Why,’ I complained, ‘does it tell us so little about the state of Egypt?’ I was more to the point than I knew. On leaving the meeting, I heard that trouble had started in Cairo. Since then, we have had a week of demonstrations, violence and political crisis, but I still have heard nothing from the correspondents of the BBC that would suggest they know very much. Camera shots (the same ones often repeated) show large protests, and reporters speculate, but I have yet to hear a sustained analysis of the political parties, the power of the army, the strength of the religious leadership, or the price of food.