Special Edition
Special Issue September 2007

Contents

Editorial
Justice for England March
Wall to Wall Propaganda
The Census + Charities
Nationality & Ethnicity
The Legacy of William Tyndale
Ethnic English Trust & Wycliffe Trust
The Steadfast Trust

Wall to Wall Propaganda
Channel 4 100% English

Some of you may have seen the programme 100% English. One of the participants agreed to take part after receiving assurances that the subject of English identity would be taken seriously. She saw participation as an opportunity to reach a wide audience and give a proper response to the question, “What does it mean to be English”. During the making of the programme she was asked that question in at least a dozen different ways; each time she replied, “It depends on what you mean by English”, and then went on to explain the various types of English identity and the legal position. None of this was included in the broadcast programme – not surprising really because she gave intelligent answers which they neither wanted nor expected. What they wanted was a fairly predictable response from the heart which enabled them to spring a DNA trap. The fact that the DNA test they used cannot determine ethnicity, as they claimed, seemed not to matter to them.

It will come as no surprise to many that the Chief Executive of the production company – Wall to Wall Television – is Scottish. Why I wonder did they not make a similar programme called 100% Scottish . The director was the shifty David Batty whose intent was clearly to make the participants look foolish and ridicule the idea of English ethnicity. English progressives will have been comforted by the way the programme was edited and broadcast but most of our community will have been unhappy to see such blatant mocking of English people and the notion of an ethnic-English identity.

If Wall to Wall Television had made the programme they claimed they wanted to make it would have been important and interesting – a ‘landmark’ programme. Those taking part took a calculated risk but this time it didn’t pay off – well not yet. We will all learn from the experience and deal with any future opportunities in a different manner. It is easy to scoff and suggest they shouldn’t have taken part but we have to try to make the most of media opportunities. It is easy to do nothing and tut-tut and say I told you so but not all such opportunities have been or will be negative.

The matter is not finished because Steadfast made a formal complaint to the Commission for Racial Equality. The letter was posted on 17th November 2006, four days after the broadcast, but a reply was not received until early June 2007, and then only after two further letters had been sent. We complained that the programme racially harassed its English participants and the ethnic-English audience. We asked questions and urged CRE to take action, as it frequently does when other ethnic / racial groups are discriminated against but they neither answered the questions nor took any action whatsoever. An MP has been asked to refer the matter to the Parliamentary Ombudsman and to ask CRE the very questions they have refused to answer.

A participant complained to the broadcasting complaints authority OFCOM that the programme misled the public and was unfair to the participants. OFCOM seemed to take the matter seriously and launched an inquiry. The matter was also referred to the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) but after an initial positive response it lost all interest.

If Wall to Wall Television had made the programme it claimed it wanted to make it would have been important and interesting – a ‘landmark’ programme rather than a tacky hatchet job.