Taken from Press and Journal

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BBC BRIAN TAYLOR

As the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Inverness Nairn Badenoch and Strathspey at the forthcoming General Election I was delighted that the BBC had invited the various political parties to attend a live radio show in Avimore in the Scottish Highlands.

A number of us agreed to attend but on arrival despite having been on the list I was refused entry due to the fact I was a political Candidate.

The BBC told me that they had to remain impartial and that Candidates were not allowed in so that no one had an unfair advantage.

However Danny Alexander the LibDem MP who’s seat I am contesting is also a candidate. Not only was he allowed to attend but he was also on the panel. I pointed this out to the BBC,  but they refused to listen. When the SNP Candidate arrived we discussed the situation and agreed that we would simply sit in the audience and not take part in the debate. Once again we were refused.

Later I spoke to security staff who had controlled entry to the room where the broadcast was taking place. They confirmed that they had been specifically told to refuse entry to the Labour Candidate Mike Robb as the BBC had been concerned that he was going to disrupt proceedings. I spoke with the hotel staff who also confirmed they were simply acting on instructions from their client.

While I accept that the BBC wish to remain impartial, why on earth then would they allow Danny Alexander to remain on the panel. It would have been easy to arrange to have a LibDem MSP to join the Conservative, Labour and SNP MSP’s who were also on the panel.

Danny Alexander should therefore never have been allowed to attend this event let alone sit on the panel.

With a General Election just around the corner this gave him a distinct advantage and high profile that was denied to the other political Candidates.

The BBC have been accused of left leaning, liberal bias before, but now I have experienced it for myself.

I have written to the BBC demanding a full and detailed explanation as to why they acted the way they did including the political editor Brian Taylor who Chaired the debate.

So far they have not even acknowledged my email.

I am sure that Danny Alexander is relieved. However he will have to face me on the various hustings where there will be no liberal bias allowed.

Bring on the General Election.

Jim Ferguson

Candidates barred from BBC debate

Anger over reception at Aviemore

By Iain Ramage

Published: 22/03/2010

A WOULD-BE Tory politician who was among three election candidates barred from a live BBC lunchtime debate at Aviemore Highland Resort claims they were “treated like terrorists”.

Jim Ferguson, the Conservative candidate for the forthcoming contest for the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency, is the boss of an Inverness security firm.

Stunned by the reception the trio had on Friday, he has written to the corporation asking for an explanation.

SNP candidate John Finnie and Labour’s Mike Robb were equally amazed to have been refused entry to Brian Taylor’s Big Debate on Radio Scotland despite being on the original audience guest list.

Mr Ferguson said: “We were treated like terrorists. It was totally bizarre.

“I was astonished to have been refused entry to a public debate. I explained that Danny Alexander was the MP, and also a candidate, and asked why he was allowed in and I wasn’t.

“It was embarrassing. It was humiliating. I felt this was absolutely undemocratic and very worrying of the BBC to be allowing the proceedings to happen like that.

“John Finnie and I even offered to observe the debate without asking questions, but they wouldn’t accept that.

“They have given Danny Alexander an unfair advantage.”

Mr Robb said: “I was initially told by the programme’s researcher that I could attend the event. However, I was later called by the programme to say that, as a declared local candidate, I would not be allowed to on the grounds of political impartiality.

“I was astonished to find out that the Lib Dems were to be represented on the panel by local MP Danny Alexander, rather than a Lib Dem MSP.

“He therefore had a platform to put his views to local voters whilst his political opponents at the coming general election were barred from even being allowed in the room.”

Mr Finnie, the opposition SNP group leader on Highland Council, said: “It does seem very peculiar.”

A spokeswoman for BBC Scotland said: “Participants and audiences at our debate programmes reflect our guidelines on impartiality.

“We are confident these guidelines were met.”

Mr Alexander declined to comment.

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Mary Scanlon MSP

Mary Scanlon Conservative MSP spoke particularly well and also made the point that despite LibDem MP Danny Alexander calling the meeting she had on many previous occasions petitioned the LibDem/Labour coalition in Hollyrood when they were in Government, all to no avail. Dave Thompson SNP MSP also highlighted some good points and I felt he contributed in a positive way. The fact that the LibDems have effectively done nothing for Inverness was something that had caused a great deal of frustration on this particular issue.

I also pointed out that these were devolved issues and asked Mr Alexander why as a Westminster MP he was getting directly involved in issues that did not involve him. I also asked him why he was waiting until the eve of a General Election to start to campaign on the Inverness by-pass and why he had not at any other time tried to speak up for the issues at any other point during his term of office.

I suggested that Danny Alexander was in fact using the Inverness by-pass as part of his political campaign to try and win popular support for his own personal election campaign in an attempt to get re-elected.

I asked Mr Alexander to answer these charges but not unexpectedly he refused to do so.

While a by-pass is important to the future development of Inverness it must be well thought out and take into consideration all opinions and feelings of the community that it will affect. The fact that Danny  Alexander has attempted to hijack a sensitive local issue needs to be viewed with a high degree of suspicion.

Danny talks a lot but he has totally failed to deliver on this and many other issues and only now tries to save his political skin by appearing to take an interest. Once the General Election is over, Danny Alexander whether successful or not will no doubt disapear into the void only to appear again when another election approaches.

This region needs real leadership and effective planning and not politicians who simply use issues to further their own attemps to cling on to office. I have no doubt that the majority of people attending were of the same opinion as me.

The time for real action has come and lets hope that it does move forward in a positive way with a cross party consensus on what needs to be done but the political grandstanding needs to be left out.

Jim Ferguson

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