A well rested and nicely bronzed Piers Morgan was back on Good Morning Britain this morning to interview NHS nurse Dave Carr. Carr used his airtime to claim the pandemic is the fault of Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock, and that the NHS has undergone ten years of cuts. In reality, whilst Covid in England is in a worrying situation, Labour run Wales is no better. And the English NHS budget has risen in real terms every year of the last decade.
His outburst would not have come as a surprise to those who have seen Dave Carr’s facebook page, which reveals he is a keen left wing political activist. Campaigning for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition in 2015, campaigning for the Socialist Workers Party in 2017, and for the Labour Party and against Brexit in 2019. His facebook includes proudly attending countless protest marches and strikes, cheering “class fighters”, and criticising Israeli policy. The quickest of checks clearly shows a very political figure.
Which is of course fine. It’s totally expected that TV shows promote articulate political figures to make for more interesting debate. What is not fine is introducing these political figures as if they are ordinary impartial medical professionals, that just deceives the viewers. Piers quite fairly introduced and referenced Iain Dale as a Conservative. Why didn’t they extend the same courtesy to their viewers when it came to Mr. Carr?
