BBC pandering to immigration prejudice

The iconic Black politician Bernie Grant once told me:

The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

As an activist learning the ropes over two decades ago I struggled to understand the lesson that Bernie was trying to tell me.

But looking at the headline for tomorrow evening's BBC double billed programme; ‘Nick and Margaret: Too many immigrants?, I see exactly what he means.

I can imagine some ‘smart Alex’ programme maker pitching the idea to the BBC: ‘Look everyone’s talking about immigration, in fact the anti-immigrant party -Ukip- just won the popular vote in the EU elections. So we're going to put the immigration debate under the spotlight by pitting five Ukip style supporters and five immigrants, and we’ll see if their prejudices against immigrants stack up’.

The programme maker and the BBC know that in the main the Ukip style supporters' prejudices will not stack up, but on route to them and viewers finding the facts and the real lives of most immigrants-which is tough- the Ukip style supporters spew a lot of bile.

And that’s the point, along with the provocative title; ‘Too many immigrants? and the spewing of anti-immigrant bile, the facts simply get lost, or ignored. Even when the facts are clear and proven, too many will say ‘So what, I don’t want them here.’

There are many problems with this programme but the framing of the debate by the BBC is the most disappointing: ‘Too many immigrants? is the type of loaded question that is so profoundly negative. It’s a bit like stating: ‘Are you still beating your wife? In the first question what you remember is 'too many immigrants', not the question mark at the end of the sentence. In the second, ‘beating your wife', is mostly what you remember. Worst still if there is already a preconceived idea, in this case that there are too many immigrants, then getting away from that is doubly difficult.

The BBC acutely know this, but they’ll also be aware that the easiest way to get people to watch your programme or listen to your radio show is to pander to prejudice with a headline grabbing title.

If the BBC really cared about the plight of immigrants, they could easily make a programme with the title and the intention to explore: ‘Why do we treat immigrants so appallingly? That way we don’t put them - the immigrants- on trail but rather the focus on the nasty views and actions of others including politicians.

It’s real shame that at a time when we need a counter-argument to the present immigration debate, which has been characterised by the Home office ‘Go home’ vans, we now have the BBC , at best being naive and worst blatantly pandering to the immigration prejudice.

I can hazard a guess what Bernie might say to the BBC, and he wouldn’t mince his words.

Simon Woolley