BBC and Andrew Marr caught cherry picking on the Single Market
On the BBC yesterday, SNP leader Ian Blackford argued that the UK should stay in the EU Single Market.
The interviewer, Andrew Marr, advised him that the problem with his idea was that people were told time and time again that voting to leave the EU would mean voting to leave the Single Market.
He must have anticipated what Blackford was going to say as he had compiled a short video of politicians doing so as evidence of Blackford’s folly.
Click here if you can’t see the video to read the article on our website.
The problem with Marr’s video is that there were a lot of other Brexiteers saying the exact opposite.
As demonstrated in this film.
Now, you could play word games here and argue about what the Single Market actually is.
Certainly, it seems to be used interchangeably to mean several things. However, I think most people understand it to be, access to the European Economic Area.
Which according to Wikipedia:
provides for the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital within the European Single Market, including the freedom to choose residence in any country within this area.
This area includes all EU countries as well as the countries that make up the European Free Trade Agreement(EFTA).
EU member states in Blue. Provisional EEA member (Croatia) in Yellow. EFTA member states in Green. EFTA signatories that have not ratified (Switzerland) in Red.
These two videos highlight the main problem with the EU ref.
There was no core case put forward for leaving the EU.
Unlike the 2014 independence referendum where there was a white paper published that the public could refer to if they felt they couldn’t trust spiel of the politicians. The Leave Campaign had no such document, and they had multiple people contradicting each other so nobody could know for certain exactly what they were voting for.
In the case of the Single Market, the public was being told simultaneously that we would be leaving it and that we wouldn’t be leaving because it would be completely bonkers to do so. Also, as the phrase Single Market was, and still is, used to refer to several different things, the public couldn’t be sure exactly what it was they would or would not be leaving.
Not that what was said during the referendum should make one iota of a difference to Blackford’s argument.
If he thinks we are better to remain in the Single Market then it matters not a jot if the public made an informed choice to leave it or not. His job isn’t to do what the UK public says, it is to do what is best for his constituents who voted to remain in the EU. So, even if Marr’s video wasn’t so selective, I’m not sure what that point was of confronting Blackford with it.
It seems clear that the BBC and Andrew Marr tried to pull a shoddy trick on Blackford.
Marr showed the Brexiteer statements that suited his narrative and knowingly omitted the ones that didn’t. It’s a transparent case of cherry picking that would surely fail any college journalism assessment. Sadly, the Marr video is another blatant example of the BBC not living up to the standards of journalism it should rightfully be held to.
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