BBC host slammed for shutting down uncomfortable topic for the Tories

Fiona Bruce


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Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry was on BBC Question Time on 5 September. And she raised an important issue that should make all Conservative Party supporters uncomfortable. But that seemed to be one step too far for millionaire host Fiona Bruce.

“Silencing discussion”

Thornberry was scathing about Boris Johnson’s appalling start as prime minister. But it was when she mentioned Britain’s foodbank crisis that Bruce felt the need to step in, saying “we’ve heard all that”. This sparked outrage online:

 

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Foodbank Britain

As The Canary previously reported:

In April, the Trussell Trust revealed that foodbank use in the UK hit a record high. It handed out 1,583,668 three-day emergency food packages from April 2018 to March 2019. Over half a million (577,618) of these went to children. It noted that this “is an 18.8% increase on the previous year”. And over the past five years, the number of food parcels handed out across the UK rose 73%.

On 18 August, meanwhile, the Mirror wrote:

Figures released today by Meals and More shows up to four million children are at risk of ‘holiday hunger’, with more than two million of these (53 per cent) being under the age of five. This proportion is up from 51 per cent last year.

About 700,000 are in “severe” poverty, up from 600,000, while seven in 10 are from working families.

And it highlighted that:

School children in Britain are having to scavenge in bins for food and eat toilet paper because their parents cannot afford to feed them

This is because school holidays put “extra financial pressure on families who are eligible for free school meals in term time”.

Foodbank organisations have also linked the Conservative-led government’s Universal Credit policy to rising foodbank use.

It’s a crisis. And we need to talk about it.

As Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour has consistently stressed, Brexit isn’t the only issue British people face today. The country also needs mass social investment to recover from a decade of destructive ideological austerity led by the Tories and enabled by centrists like the Liberal Democrats. Just one policy in this period – cutting public health spending – has led to over 130,000 premature deaths in the UK. And a 2018 UN investigation concluded that “14 million people, a fifth of the population, live in poverty”. Report author Philip Alston said:

The costs of austerity have fallen disproportionately upon the poor, women, racial and ethnic minorities, children, single parents, and people with disabilities.

And he continued:

Britain is certainly capable of eliminating most, if not all, of its poverty if it wanted to. But it’s clear that there’s a political choice: that it doesn’t want to. It would prefer to offer tax cuts to the wealthy than to remove hundreds of thousands, maybe a million or more, out of serious poverty.

The BBC previously asked if foodbank users were “embarrassed” about seeking help. But it’s the Conservative-led government that should be embarrassed about expanding poverty across Britain. And the BBC should be embarrassed about failing to hold it to account for its appalling record in power.

Featured image via OnlyZoom/YouTube

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  • Show Comments

    1. Fiona Bruce is a dreadful chair for Question Time. She’s a typical sneering Tory who cuts off the left and makes the programme all about her. If you looked back at last week’s show and showed how many times Emily Thornberry opened her mouth to speak and was cut off by Bruce adding yet another meaningless two penn’orth , it would be amusing if we weren’t in such precarious times, where we need a Labour government to clear up the mess and heal Britain

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    2. BBC host slammed for shutting down uncomfortable topic for the Tories,
      ///
      Was the RICH presenter Fiona Bruce. a Tory Govt funder??
      look like it in this article she was and could have or maybe asked to gag any food back question or U-CREDIT question By Tory Govt Minister.
      ///
      Therefore, if she GAGS the truth from public for personal gain plus the of Tory Govt, this person no matter how much cash she has, should be sacked from this job A.S.A.P.
      I as a license payer do pay to have interviewed people Gagged by any presenter of any B.B.C. program.
      ///
      WHY are B.B.C. board member letting her overstep her mark on Public + Govt matter could it be over the license fee problem being looked at by Tory Govt,
      now for the over 75 years old that B.B.C wish to scrap fully.
      ///
      I believe it is the T.V. licenses mess that this already rich person Fiona Bruce. Stopped any question to do with Tory Govt problem like.
      Tory SCAM U-CREDIT
      Tory SCAM FOOD-BANKS
      Tory SCAM HOMELESS PEOPLE HELP
      Tory SCAM ROAD + RAIL PROBLEMS
      Tory SCAM CUT TO LOCAL AREA COUNCILS
      This interview person Ms Fiona Bruce as a possible
      Tory voter plus funder voted for to unfold in 2015 G.E. 2017 G.E. party MANIFESTO paper so she is in-fairer of not attacking her Tory Govt policies she voted for so is a one sided interviewer if you talk about her Tory party she will stop you live on T.V.
      FINALY!
      Looks like this person(present) doesn’t like freedom of speech as well and will GAG anybody that talks about Tory Govt mess to get benefits from Tory Govt Minister possibly or could be or maybe big tax brakes help plus over perks.

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