Professor John Ashton’s had quite a week, after appearing on the BBC’s party political Panorama in which he took up one-third of the interview time, to having old antisemitic tweets uncovered by The Jewish Chronicle – including comparing Zionists to Nazis, and asking if the Jewish news site was “in the pocket of Zionists”. We already knew he was Labour, turns out he’s a true Corbynista…
To help paint a further picture of just how biased this go-to ‘expert’ is, Guido has unearthed footage of Ashton at a TUC rally in 2012 – where he spoke alongside the likes of Len McCluskey and Andy Burnham – in which he calls the Coalition Government “carpetbaggers” and a “Dickensian mob who know the price of everything and value of nothing”, before rallying attendees to go protest LibDem conference.
Guido was similarly interested to discover Coronavirus hasn’t been the first time the Tories have had a row with the media over John Ashton. Back in 2012 when Ashton was campaigning against health reforms, CCHQ got sick of the BBC, issuing the statement “The BBC has a responsibility to report news objectively. They should always inform their viewers if the person they are interviewing has political motives”. Eight years on and the BBC are still refusing to adhere to their own guidelines…
Last night John Ashton was once again wheeled out by BBC Panorama to attack the government, with the editors – who can’t not know – failing to tell viewers of his longstanding left-wing, anti-Government views and proud half-century of Labour Party membership. While Ashton took up one-third of the show’s interviews with British medical professionals, Guido wasn’t at all surprised to quickly unearth the left-wing, activism of each and every one of the show’s other NHS interviewees. Guido summarises his research…
Most of the interviewees’ left-wing activism and criticisms pre-date the pandemic. Yet another dereliction of duty by BBC editors to tell viewers from whom their information is coming…
Guido has long taken it upon himself to call out broadcasters for having ‘experts’ appear, while failing to inform viewers of any party political biases they may have. Throughout the Coronavirus pandemic, Professor John Ashton has been pushed to the fore and Guido’s taken it upon himself to detail the prof’s long history of radical leftism, including his self-professed 53 year’s of Labour Party membership.
Sky News must have recently changed their policy – for the better – introducing Ashton this morning as “the former president of the faculty of public health, Professor John Ashton; we should also say he’s also been a member of the Labour Party at various points”.
Ashton clearly hated this, blasting back “where did that stuff come about from the Labour Party, I am not a member of the Labour Party… I have not been in the Labour Party for over a year I don’t know where that’s come from… please don’t politicise this.” In line with academic research principles, Guido’s cites Ashton’s own Twitter account as the source of this information…
Professor John Ashton used his prime slot on last night’s Question Time to repeatedly slam the Government’s four-stage coronavirus response policy. Fair enough. He was introduced as a “former regional director of Public Health England for the North West”. What viewers were not told, however, is that two years ago the Professor described himself as a:
“broad left , radical,non trot , baby boomer , green, gender inclusive , feminist labour .Party member for 53 years”
Ashton seems very angry with the Government for a whole host of reasons beyond Coronavirus, not least of all Brexit:
- The day after the result of the referendum was announced, Ashton tweeted “What an embarrassing dirty little country we live in.”
- He claimed that “after Brexit, the U.K. could disintegrate”.
- Ashton is also a long-standing supporter of Labour’s radical four-day week policy, which would cripple the NHS.
- He also had to take a leave of absence after attacking e-Cigarette advocates as “onanists” and “c**ts” on Twitter.
Ashton is so partisan to his core that he even called his son “Fabian Che”, or Che for short, after the Fabian Society and Che Guevara. A little more context from the programme last night would have been illuminating…
UPDATE: And now Professor Ashton has been on Sky News with no nod to his politics…
Prof. Ashton introduced just now on Sky News without any nod to his political affiliations...https://t.co/RbJwBDJt6B pic.twitter.com/bI1eaZ70jG
— Media Guido (@MediaGuido) March 13, 2020
Discredited anti-fracking charity MEDACT is making a last ditch effort to influence Lancashire County Council’s 24 June vote on whether to allow fracking, by holding a public meeting in Preston next week, in which they will wheel out their “experts“.
The only expert announced so far is one John Ashton, a former civil servant and the founder of environmental not-for -profit E3G.
E3G receives funding from the Department of Energy & Climate Change.
And the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.
And the Department for International Development.
Oh, and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
The government is funding the opposition to its own fracking policy…
