Well that should have Glastonbury‘s founder Michael Eavis chewing his silly beard. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy came to the Commons to debate the BBC‘s hate-rapper incident.
Rather than excuse it, the minister flew into what I understand (guitar-speak) is called a prolonged riff. Nandy was jammin’! Both Glastonbury and the BBC were torn off a strip.
For years the centre-Left has grovelled to Glastonbury, hailing it as a pinnacle of our culture. Labour MPs have attended its foetid mosh pits and chanted ‘oooh Jeremy Corbyn‘ alongside spliffy rich kids boogying in the mud and mire.
MPs such as Tom Watson (now a Lord) sucked up to these designer-grungies and their ghastly eco-glamping.
But all that was forgotten when Ms Nandy stood at the despatch box. She seized on this foul-up and on wider conduct at the festival, where terrorist flags and Nazi symbols were seen.
Things were so bad that Jewish festival-goers had felt it necessary to create their own ‘safe space’. All this from a venue that claims to be liberal.
‘I have levers at my disposal,’ Ms Nandy told the Commons, ‘and I will not hesitate to use them.’ She was ‘exasperated’ by the BBC and its poohbahs. ‘I’m not satisfied with the explanation so far,’ she cried.
Not since the row over Blairites ‘sexing-up’ the case for war in Iraq has a Labour politician torn into the corporation in such a way. For Ms Nandy to sound cross is quite something. Normally she is as menacing as Sooty’s little friend Soo.
For all the harrumphing, do we believe the Starmerites would ever pull the ultimate ‘lever’ over the BBC and put it out of existence? Invited to do that by Reform’s Richard Tice (Boston), she froze.
But she certainly did well with this Commons display and even managed not to be booed – a miracle –when she made a reference to Sir Keir Starmer.
It may or may not be worth noting that the Culture Secretary has been much tipped for demotion in a coming ministerial shuffle. After this performance she has made it harder for No 10 to sack her.
Lisa Nandy debates the BBC-Glastonbury fiasco in the Commons
The Conservatives’ Stuart Andrew claimed that music festivals ‘must appeal to the highest standards of social cohesion’. There speaks a man who plainly packs a chip butty for his picnic at Glyndebourne.
No MP asked the obvious question: can the director general, Tim Davie, survive? But Peter Prinsley (Lab, Bury St Edmunds), fanning himself with a scrap of paper, did ask ‘who on earth will be held accountable?’ and John Glen (Con, Salisbury) said the public would expect ‘people to be held individually to account’.
Dame Caroline Dinenage (Con, Gosport) noted that the editing failures could hardly be for lack of staff.
The Beeb had 400 people at Glastonbury, averred Dame Caroline, who chairs the culture select committee. ‘What were they all doing?’ They were surely in the beer tent. Or, being the BBC, it may have been the Pimm’s tent. Or something more powdery.
Sarah Sackman, justice minister, wandered in to listen to the debate. So, upstairs in the peers’ gallery, did Luciana Berger, who has rejoined Labour after the anti-Semitism of the Corbyn years. Jim Allister (DUP, North Antrim) spoke of ‘an appalling pro-terrorist broadcast on our national broadcaster’.
Andrew Murrison (Con, SW Wilts) had written to the super-rich Eavises at Glastonbury – ‘no reply, none expected’.
The only dissent to the Beeb-knocking came from Ayoub Khan (Ind, Perry Barr), who wondered why the Government did not criticise ‘death to all Arabs’ chants by Israeli football crowds.
Ms Nandy firmly told Mr Khan that was because it had not been broadcast by the BBC. Sammy Wilson (DUP, E Antrim) described Glastonbury-goers as ‘young, middle-class, educated morons’. Rap may not be Sammy’s thing.
He is possibly more of a Dolly Parton fan. I must say, I can seldom understand a word rappers say or sing. No subtitles. Maybe that was why the BBC failed to cut the feed.
