Post by Teddy Bear on Jan 3, 2014 22:03:31 GMT
When you consider that the usual stance from politicians or media types when things have been shown to be going wrong is top pretend everything's fine, and certainly not highlight it. That's why it's a great surprise to see the ex-leader of the Lib-Dems, acknowledging the waning belief in the BBC.
He obviously sees there are just too many valid reasons for this mistrust.
He obviously sees there are just too many valid reasons for this mistrust.
'Nurses were angels but some turn out to be witches': Paddy Ashdown in dire warning of 'crumbling' trust in NHS, BBC and politics
By Matt Chorley,
Ex-Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown has launched an extraordinary attack on the BBC, the NHS, the City and the media, warning ‘crumbling’ public trust risks triggering ‘public disturbance’.
Lord Ashdown, who is in charge of the party’s election campaign, claimed bankers have their ‘fingers in the till’, the BBC was ‘complicit’ in the Jimmy Savile scandal and nurses who were once thought to be angels ‘turn out to be witches’.
The 72-year-old said he is ‘surprised’ that there has not been more unrest in poor areas as a result of the recession, claiming a collapse in trust and morale has been caused by ‘the absence of hope’.
The Lib Dems have seen a collapse in their support since entering the coalition, falling from 22 per cent at the 2010 election to barely 10 per cent in polls now.
Lord Ashdown admitted that the party he led from 1998 to 1999 could no longer count on attracting protest votes, with those disenchanted with the main parties instead switching to the UK Independence Party.
But he warned that the rise of Nigel Farage’s UKIP was in part fuelled by a ‘the collapse of beliefs, the dissolution of institutions’ leading to people to ‘find an appeal in answers that are simplistic’.
In an interview with The Times he said trust in society's major institutions is ‘crumbling into dust’.
In extraordinary criticism aimed at the NHS, Lord Ashdown said: ‘The NHS, we are told, is to be failing right down to the level of doctors. Nurses were angels but some turn out to be witches.’
He attacked the BBC for wasting money and failing to stop a campaign of sex abuse by star DJ and presenter Jimmy Savile during decades at the Corporation.
‘The BBC is revealed as an organisation which can't manage its own affairs, misspends public money and seems to have been complicit in aggrandising someone [Savile] whose proclivities would be rejected by most people.’
The collapse in trust of once revered institutions has created an ‘absence of hope’ which is being exploited by political parties outside the mainstream, he claimed.
‘You're seeing a shift to UKIP and a shift to Marine Le Pen. It can be left or right — the loss of confidence in the politics of the centre, of the three major parties, it seems to me is quite strong.
‘We are now a party of government, not a party of protest, and so you've got UKIP occupying that position.’
UKIP leader Mr Farage predicts his party will win the elections to the European Parliament, which would ‘cause an earthquake’ in British politics.
Lord Ashdown also revealed his surprise that the riots seen I Britain in 2011 had not been repeated as the economy faltered. ‘I don't predict them and I don't want them — and I don't want to be scaremongering. But there is something very unsettling out there,’ he said.
He added: ‘I cannot exclude the possibility that we'll see people who don't believe they can make their point within the political system making their point on the street instead.’
- Lib Dem election supremo reveals fear of public disturbance on the streets
- Warns of dangers when trust in society's key institution has collapsed
- Outsider parties like UKIP have replaced Lib Dems as a party of protest
By Matt Chorley,
Ex-Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown has launched an extraordinary attack on the BBC, the NHS, the City and the media, warning ‘crumbling’ public trust risks triggering ‘public disturbance’.
Lord Ashdown, who is in charge of the party’s election campaign, claimed bankers have their ‘fingers in the till’, the BBC was ‘complicit’ in the Jimmy Savile scandal and nurses who were once thought to be angels ‘turn out to be witches’.
The 72-year-old said he is ‘surprised’ that there has not been more unrest in poor areas as a result of the recession, claiming a collapse in trust and morale has been caused by ‘the absence of hope’.
The Lib Dems have seen a collapse in their support since entering the coalition, falling from 22 per cent at the 2010 election to barely 10 per cent in polls now.
Lord Ashdown admitted that the party he led from 1998 to 1999 could no longer count on attracting protest votes, with those disenchanted with the main parties instead switching to the UK Independence Party.
But he warned that the rise of Nigel Farage’s UKIP was in part fuelled by a ‘the collapse of beliefs, the dissolution of institutions’ leading to people to ‘find an appeal in answers that are simplistic’.
In an interview with The Times he said trust in society's major institutions is ‘crumbling into dust’.
In extraordinary criticism aimed at the NHS, Lord Ashdown said: ‘The NHS, we are told, is to be failing right down to the level of doctors. Nurses were angels but some turn out to be witches.’
He attacked the BBC for wasting money and failing to stop a campaign of sex abuse by star DJ and presenter Jimmy Savile during decades at the Corporation.
‘The BBC is revealed as an organisation which can't manage its own affairs, misspends public money and seems to have been complicit in aggrandising someone [Savile] whose proclivities would be rejected by most people.’
The collapse in trust of once revered institutions has created an ‘absence of hope’ which is being exploited by political parties outside the mainstream, he claimed.
‘You're seeing a shift to UKIP and a shift to Marine Le Pen. It can be left or right — the loss of confidence in the politics of the centre, of the three major parties, it seems to me is quite strong.
‘We are now a party of government, not a party of protest, and so you've got UKIP occupying that position.’
UKIP leader Mr Farage predicts his party will win the elections to the European Parliament, which would ‘cause an earthquake’ in British politics.
Lord Ashdown also revealed his surprise that the riots seen I Britain in 2011 had not been repeated as the economy faltered. ‘I don't predict them and I don't want them — and I don't want to be scaremongering. But there is something very unsettling out there,’ he said.
He added: ‘I cannot exclude the possibility that we'll see people who don't believe they can make their point within the political system making their point on the street instead.’