The BBC's 'Ting Tong' Hypocrisy - I Won't Defend Janice Atkinson But the BBC Need to Answer Questions

Well I never thought I’d see the day when I’d feel sorry for Janice Atkinson. And it still hasn’t happened.

However, the hypocrisy of the BBC never ceases to amaze. Yesterday BBC South East were outraged, outraged I tell you, by UKIP MEP Janice Atkinson calling the Thai wife of one of her party members “Ting Tong from somewhere”. They had recorded her saying it in an unguarded moment off camera. THIS article then appeared on the BBC website and is now all over social media.

Nowhere does the BBC acknowledge in the article that the term originated from …cue drum roll … a BBC TV comedy. So how is it acceptable for it to be used to make fun of Thai transsexuals on LITTLE BRITAIN, and yet when a UKIP politician uses it, the BBC goes into an orgy of attacking UKIP. They even produced Professor Tim Luckhurst on camera to allege that, well, if one of them says it, it’s likely they’d all say it. I ask you.

I point this out not to defend Janice Atkinson (I never like turncoats), who is in many ways a rather ridiculous character, but to point out the BBC’s downright chicanery and double standards. It is the BBC Comedy Department who need to be held to account here for their blatant racism, not just the idiot politician who saw fit to quote them.

It was Janice Atkinson, you will remember, who gave a journalist the finger and told them to eff off during the European Election campaign. I remember when she defected to UKIP and they took her on as their Director of Communications I told Nigel Farage he could expect trouble from her. I didn’t quite realise what a good prediction that was. I wonder how many people expect her to last the full five year term as a UKIP MEP.

When she was in the Tory Party Atkinson (who was then known as Janice Small) was Tim Yeo’s press officer, espousing the virtues of more European integration. But at least she recognised that people didn’t much like her. After failing to get nominated for a Tory marginal in Kent she asked the local party agent: “Why don’t people warm to me?” I think we can now all see why.