Now Even The BBC Has It In For Labour

Those who say (and there are plenty of them, including me, at times) that the BBC panders to the government's agenda, and that they're scared stiff of New Labour, should listen to this clip from the Today programme this morning.

They play a recording from an interview with Ed Balls last week, when he was talking about Damian McBride. Balls said he didn't know and wasn't involved in McBride's "political work".

Without actually using the word "liar", Nick Robinson does all but. ("My eyebrows shot to the ceiling when I heard that" is pretty much as close as it gets). He says that Balls knew McBride very well, and used McBride to promote his own ends, and that No 10 knew and liked his style. And then Jim Naughtie said that Brown's claim that he "knows less about McBride's activities than anyone else in Westminster is not a very credible line". Which for the BBC is powerful stuff.