Dear Sirs,
Look North Leeds, Mon 13th July
The question of whether or not the UK should remain in the EU is politically contentious, and there?s going to be a national referendum to decide it. Therefore the BBC must, by the terms of its Royal Charter, be impartial. Yet your item on Monday about the possibility of the UK leaving the EU was completely one-sided; in fact the bias was blatant and bare-faced. It was like watching a Party Political Broadcast for the pro-EU Party, if such a party existed. Arguable statements were given the status of unchallengeable fact. For instance the presenters gravely introduced the piece with the words:
?If we leave the EU . . . our food will cost more?
?If Britain decides to leave the UK [migrant workers] won?t be available.?
There was absurd scaremongering about food supplies: ?Shelves could run bare.?
Point after point was made about the benefits of EU membership (and the benefits of uncontrolled immigration) and there was not a single word about the disadvantages of either. Not a single word: I challenge you to find one.
Can you tell me when a balancing broadcast of equal length will be made, in which we would be given the other side of the EU question? Just like your pro-EU item it would of course need to be totally biased and with no chance for the other side to comment. I very much hope you will show such an item, as this would go some way in restoring my faith in the impartiality of our beloved BBC. It would also correct what is, as it stands, a clear breach of the terms of the Royal Charter.
Yours
Bill Wright