BBC : I ACCUSE.

In the last three days there have been two evictions of occupied sites, the former UBS buildings in Sun Street being used by OLSX and the briefly occupied former bank in Leadenhall Street. Both evictions have involved illegalities, there was no legal process at all at Leadenhall Street, the police claimed some sort of diplomatic status for the building and simply removed the occupiers the same day as they moved in. I do not know the history of the building but it was certainly not in use, is not and never was an embassy, and, as far as I am aware, was a former Iraqi bank. At Sun Street there was a abbreviated legal process and bailiffs rather than police were used, although they were of course present at the eviction to ‘protect’ the bailiffs. Details are still emerging but it appears the bailiffs were violent and at least one assault took place.

The Corporation of London have said they intend to go ahead with the forcible clearance of the St. Paul’s site in the next few days, despite the misgivings of some of the clergy at the Cathedral. In this case due legal process does appear to been gone through but the Corporation have set their face against any sort of longer term arrangement for a small presence in the form of a pavilion to offer information about the issues, which has been suggested.

If this were in any other country, say Poland during the Communist period, it would be described as a crackdown on dissidents and legitimate protest. Yet here in England today I listened to the main BBC news at one o’clock on Radio 4 , about twelve hours after the eviction at Sun Street, and it was not even mentioned. Leadenhall Street was barely touched on in the mainstream media, despite the fact that the legality of what happened there is clearly in doubt and the statements made by the police and Corporation regarding diplomatic status to justify their actions have not be challenged. As far as I am aware there are no Embassies or diplomatic buildings in the City, the Iraq embassy is in South Kensington. And once a building is empty how can it still have diplomatic status ? Foreign banks in this country do not have diplomatic privileges and surely no empty building does ? Clearly this site was just too close for comfort, being right in the heart of the beast, the symbolic City landmarks the Lloyds building and Swiss Re or ’Gherkin’ being right next door, so the Corporation just acted on their own seemingly God given authority.

The BBC’s stance is becoming increasingly untenable. Continuing to treat the City as if it was a single, intelligent individual with some ultimate power and veracity that cannot be challenged and must be consulted at all times, failing to ever treat any subject without introducing the distorting only ever two-way argument of the two main political parties, using the same worthless phrases and language of the political and financial elite ie ’world growth’ ’ global stability’ etc. etc. always deferring to academic so-called ’experts’ who are ’neutral’ and reduce all debate to statistics and banalities.

I am afraid their complicity, even if not fully intended, is now inescapable and their role in what amounts to a continued defence and legitimising of the existing status quo must be challenged. It needs to show that it is not just a façade for a deeply ingrained and self-justifying neo-liberal culture which is promoted by a well-organised, self-interested elite in the City and a mouthpiece for  the established political parties with all the moral equivocation,  and huge partiality this entails. It is now as much a part of the problem as the solution. It is unrepresentative, virtually unaccountable and yet highly authoritative.


The situation whereby the BBC could always claim the moral high ground because there was the powerful, pervasive and collusive evil empire of Rupert Murdoch stalking the same territory has shifted. Murdoch’s minions may have been exposed for the vile creeping things they were, hung by their own petards, but now the collusion of interests that link into the BBC are becoming  clearer. It is time that they ceased to pretend to be a neutral player and either make it completely clear that they are an arms length branch of government or enter the real world and open up to allow the voices of the people to be heard.