Grant Shapps had a long and testy exchange with Today presenter Mishal Husain this morning over the BBC’s continued refusal to call Hamas terrorists, tearing a strip off John Simpson in passing. Mishal claimed it was because of Ofcom rules – this is a stretch and plenty of other broadcasters in Britain call Hamas terrorists – she then switched tack and claimed the protection of the freedom of the press. Mishal even went so far as to point out that the government only designated Hamas as a a terrorist organisation two years ago when atrocities have been going on for much longer. Seems a self-defeating argument coming from the BBC…

Shapps called on the BBC to call “a spade a spade” and to stop making an equivalence between the acts of terrorism and the defence response of Israel. The BBC’s institutional sympathies are all too clear.