Is the BBC biased?

Resignation of chairman has reignited claims of political favouritism

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28 April 2023

Good evening, The BBC Charter sets out four public purposes, the first of which is "to provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them". But whether the broadcaster is living up to that rule is now under debate once again, as chair Richard Sharp departs amid accusations of political bias. Arion McNicoll The Week

in depth Is the BBC biased? Richard Sharp has announced he is standing down as BBC chairman to "prioritise the interests" of the broadcaster after a report found he breached the governance code for public appointments. Sharp "became embroiled in the cronyism row" earlier this year over helping Boris Johnson secure an £800,000 loan facility, said The Independent. An investigation by the commissioner of public appointments has now concluded Sharp broke the rules by failing to declare his link to Johnson's loan, creating a "potential perceived conflict of interest". The controversy has brought the question of BBC bias back into the spotlight. Last year, Sharp himself told The Sunday Times that the broadcaster "does have a liberal bias" but that "the institution is fighting against it". However, others have accused the Beeb of having a right-wing bias. Read more

TODAY'S BIG QUESTION Which EU laws will Britain keep after all? The government is to drastically reduce the number of EU laws it had planned to scrap by the end of the year as part of Rishi Sunak's bonfire of Brussels rules and regulations. In January, the prime minister publicly backed the Retained EU Law Bill that set out to abolish more than 4,000 EU laws by 31 December. However, Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch has now admitted to Conservative Brexiters that the majority of these laws will remain on the statute book. Only about 800 are now expected to be repealed by the end of the year. Read more

podcast Argentinian lithium, airborne rights and cats Is South America on the cusp of a 'white gold' rush? When is a ticket to ride not what it seems? And are cats really a human's best friend? Read more

More from TheWeek.co.uk today Lyme disease: vaccine could halt rise of tick-borne disease Experts have issued a warning as cases rise in the UK Read more from Fact File The best (and wildest) outfits from the Met Gala Guests will pay homage to Karl Lagerfeld on Monday night Read more from In Pictures British American Tobacco fined for sanctions breaches Cigarette giant was accused of indirectly funding Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme Read more from Speed Reads Barry Humphries obituary Actor and comedian was best known as the monstrous Melbourne housewife and Sir Les Patterson Read more from Obituaries

WHAT THE SCIENTISTS ARE SAYING… How to restore a sense of smell People who have been robbed of their sense of smell by Covid may be able to get it back by sniffing an orange twice a day, reports The Daily Telegraph. In the early part of the pandemic, anosmia (the loss of the sense of smell or taste) was a common Covid symptom. It became rarer in later waves as new variants emerged, but while some sufferers got their senses back after a few weeks, others seemed to have experienced a permanent loss. Now, though, a study has indicated that this may be reversible with "olfactory training": taking ten second sniffs of common household scents such as lemons or coffee twice a day. By examining MRI scans, a team at University College London found that people with persistent smell lost post-Covid have impaired connectivity between the orbitofrontal cortex and the prefrontal cortex – but that there is no such "rewiring" in the brains of people whose sense of smell came back, indicating the damage is reversible. Dr Jed Wingrove, co-author of the study published in eClinicalMedicine, says that this raises the possibility that with olfactory training, the brain may be able to recover the lost pathways, and the sense of smell return.

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PUZZLES AND QUIZZES Quiz of The Week Have you been paying attention to The Week's news? Read more

picture of the day Flooding in California A car drives through flood waters at the reemerging Tulare Lake, near Corcoran, California. Once the largest body of freshwater west of the Mississippi River, Tulare Lake disappeared when rivers were diverted by agricultural interests in the late 19th century. Now flooding is filling the dried-up lakebed again. Mario Tama/Getty Images

Good week for... Classic TV drama Grange Hill, which will be adapted into a film more than 50 years after it first aired. The original show depicted life in a British comprehensive school and tackled topics such as racism and drug addiction. According to the show's creator, Phil Redmond, the new film will address the concerns of a new generation, including the effects of social media.

Bad week for... The traditional cuppa, with news that Britons now spend more on speciality teas, such as ginger and green tea, than they do on black tea. Sales of PG Tips and the like stand at £340.8m a year, whereas those of speciality teas are worth £345.5m.

PUZZLES Daily crossword Test your general knowledge with The Week's daily crossword, part of our puzzles section Read more

instant opinion 'Anger over profiteering is giving way to fatalistic silence' Your digest of analysis from the British and international press from the past seven days The UK's high inflation rate is evidenced in "anxious shopping and conversations, our late-night fears and fraught pay negotiations, our cancelled or rationed pleasures, and our sense of Britain's shrinking possibilities", writes Andy Beckett in The Guardian. Yet "the role of increased profits" during a cost-of-living crisis "remains a relatively neglected topic". It seems that "brief periods of anger about profiteering" eventually "give way to fatalistic silence". The UK's "profit-fixated culture" means it is "hard to define what an excessive profit is, or even to argue that such a thing can exist", says Beckett. If "the profiteering of the past two years is not to recur as soon as the next global crisis gives cover, more collective and more official action will be needed". But if prime ministers have to pick between trimming profits and losing their job, "they probably won't opt for the latter". Read more

THE WISH LIST Houses for horse lovers Featuring stables, paddocks and impressive country views in tranquil locations Read more

DOWN TO BUSINESS Friday afternoon markets Gold prices fell today as the US dollar rose, but broad concerns about the global economy kept bullion, which is regarded as a safe haven, on course for a second consecutive monthly rise. FTSE 100: 7,859.58, up 0.36% Dax: 15,892.59, up 0.58% Dow: 33,958.17, up 0.39% Dollar: £1 = $1.2563, up 0.61% Euro: £1 = €1.1369, up 0.31% Brent crude: $79.55, up 1.51% Gold: $1,990.00, up 0.01%

WIT & WISDOM "To live in Australia permanently is rather like going to a party and dancing all night with one's mother." Barry Humphries, quoted in The Metro

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