#MountSinai (Mount Moses - Jabal Musa) & Sharm El Sheikh

My son James invariably has some holiday to use up early in the new year (before it expires at the end of March). How to use it? James loves the "all inclusive" by the pool in the sun type holiday and in past years we have headed to the Canaries - quite often with my brother - Uncle Mike. It takes us no time to convince ourselves we should find a week in our cold wet January. So to the Canaries again - a safe bet - but Egypt came up because package companies are currently offering cheap deals there. James and I had been to Egypt before but 10 years ago now probably and Mike knows Egypt well through work and kite surfing. It is quite a bit longer to fly there than the Canaries - a reason not to go - but prices were very substantially cheaper for the same type of package. So seven days all inclusive in a big hotel in Sharm El Sheik with "5 stars" and an aqua park !!!

My main intention is to write about a night time ascent of Mount Sinai with Mike but before I do that a quick bit about "Sharm" as it is known.

Sharm El Sheikh is an Egyptian city on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, in South Sinai Governorate, on the coastal strip along the Red Sea. Its population is approximately 53,670 as of 2022.

Sharm El Sheikh was formerly a port, but commercial shipping has been greatly reduced as the result of strict environmental laws introduced in the 1990s. Until 1982, there was only a military port in Sharm El Sheikh, on the northern part of Marsa Bareka. The civilian port development started in the mid-1980s, when the Sharem-al-Maya Bay became the city's main yacht and service port.

Sharm El Sheikh's major industry is foreign and domestic tourism, owing to its landscape, year-round dry climate with long hot summers and warm winters and its long beaches. Its waters are clear and calm for most of the year and have become popular for various watersports, particularly recreational scuba diving and snorkeling. There is scope for scientific tourism due to the diversity of marine life: 250 different coral reefs and 1000 species of fish.

These natural resources, together with its proximity to tourist markets in Europe, have stimulated rapid growth in tourism in the region. The number of resorts has increased from three in 1982 to ninety-one in 2000. Guest nights also increased in that period from sixteen thousand to 5.1 million. Companies that have invested in the city include Hyatt, Accor, Marriott International, Le Méridien, Four Seasons Hotels, and Ritz-Carlton, with categories of three to five stars. In 2007, the first aqua park hotel resort opened in the area. The four-star Aqua Blu Sharm Resort was built on the Ras Om El Seid, with an area of 133,905 square metres (1,441,340 sq ft). It development continues a pace but was very badly hit by covid and its implications for travel.

Our hotel was massive but on our arrival it was clear it was nowhere near full. It subsequently became apparent that this was mainly because it was early in their season. We had fantastic weather but the hotels are busier when the weather hots up even more. The other feature is our hotel guest makeup was dominated by Russian speakers - not necessarily Russians but from their former satellite states - the "stans". We had no problems but you will be aware of their presence and of course the language creates a barrier from a social point of view.

MOUNT SINAI

An all inclusive is fine for a week but Mike and I feel it is good to do something out of the hotel to break up the week. We settled on an organised trek to walk to the top of Mount Sinai - the place where many believe Moses received the 10 commandments. (James is not keen on heights and was happy to stay by the pool!) We were picked up from our Sharm Hotel at 9pm to drive north deep into the rugged Sinai desert. Our assent started at just after 2am under torch light on a rough but established path. There were hundreds doing the same thing. The explanation - Mount Sinai is a place of pilgrimage as Moses is significant and revered to Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. (I will admit this both confuses and surprises me given that it was Moses that led the Israelites to the promised land. More on this later).

Mount Sinai is 7497 feet high and surrounded by other rugged mountains. Although our walk started at the base we were of course well above sea level. We were told the walk up would be about 7k on a winding path with various stops as necessary. The plan was to witness the sun rise from the top which would be at around 6.30 am. (please do not think you can do this on a whim in the winter - you need some descent gear - so some prior thought needed.)

It was quite a warm walk initially - there was some excitement too. Despite the dark there was a bit of a buzz and the other feature was there were camels on the trail available for hire for those that could not walk to the top. The camels could take you a fair part of the way at a cost (unknown). They are amazing creatures. Anyway like most others we walked of course. Gradually things settled down - groups separated and it was possible to get in the zone which is something I always try to do. Getting in the zone for me means appreciating where I am - reflecting on it - being amazed by it actually and of course determined to walk to the top with a bit of self respect. It was quite a tough walk especially in the dark with only minimum torch light available.

We get to within 10 minutes of the summit at about an hour before sunrise. By now we are much higher and it is freezing. The cold is exacerbated because inevitably you sweat walking up and even with breathable clothes moisture is retained. We were able to hire blankets (a good business). They with heavy and smelly - but at the time it didn't matter. We wrapped ourselves in them until the time came to move up to the top.

So there we were with many other people - where Moses received the Ten Commandments - looking out over the Sinai desert as the sun rose. It was a good thing to do - another good memory for sure.

Coming down in the day light on the same path we went up in the dark was a strange contrast. One negative though. Too often people inevitably means litter. It was now evident to us in the daylight. A shame especially given its status as a place of pilgrimage.

After a couple of hours we are down in the hot sun sat outside the St Catherine's monastery at the foot of the mountain. We had a tour within the walls. It is designated a World Heritage Site. It is a very historic place famous for its icon collection, its mosque within a church evidencing peace and most notably the "burning bush" from where Moses heard the voice of god.

Here is an extract from Wikipedia :

Saint Catherine's Monastery officially the Sacred Autonomous Royal Monastery of Saint Katherine of the Holy and God-Trodden Mount Sinai is an Eastern Orthodox Christian monastery located at the foot of Mount Sinai, in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt. Built between 548 and 565, it is the oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery in the world.

The monastery was built by order of Emperor Justinian I, enclosing what is claimed to be the burning bush seen by Moses. Centuries later, the purported body of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, said to have been found in the area, was taken to the monastery; Saint Catherine's relics turned it into an important pilgrimage site, and the monastery was eventually renamed after the saint.

Controlled by the autonomous Church of Sinai, which is part of the wider Greek Orthodox Church, the monastery became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002 for its unique importance in the traditions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.

The site also holds the world's oldest continually operating library, with unique or extremely rare works, such as the Codex Sinaiticus and the Syriac Sinaiticus, as well as possibly the largest collection of early Christian icons, including the earliest known depiction of Jesus as Christ Pantocrator.

Saint Catherine's has as its backdrop the three mountains it lies near: Ras Sufsafeh (possibly the Biblical Mount Horeb, peak c.1 km (0.62 mi) west); Jebel Arrenziyeb, peak c. 1km south; and Mount Sinai (locally, Jebel Musa, by tradition identified with the biblical Mount Sinai; peak c. 2 km (1.2 mi) south).

We had a great time in Egypt. For some it might be confronting. Sharm hotels try and offer a "western" experience but things can be quirky and sometimes they miss but it is part of the ups and downs of travel. What is undoubted - fabulous weather in the winter and incredible value at the moment. The three of us had a real good time and a lot of laughs. James had an extra day by the pool but Mike and I have treaded the steps of Moses to the top of Mount Sinai - pretty cool even if you are at least an agnostic ! 

Here are a few photos :

Mike on Mt Sinai

Waiting for the sun up.

Mt Sinai (borrowed photo). We get to the top[.

Sun rise

Sun rising

Me looking back up

Tired but almost down

Approaching the Monastery

St Catherines Monastery

Inside the walls - the Mosque on the right

The burning bush

James chilling and having fun

Ramy - a very good barman

#Makeworkpay by Richard Tice of The Reform Party

Britain used to be a nation of grafters, but now over half of our households receive more in state benefits than they pay in taxes. That's 36 million people.

It's also no surprise. Since day one of Reform UK I have warned that Britain faces a dependency crisis. Westminster has made 'not working' a viable choice, with benefits spending now well over £120 billion a year. The weight of this bill will crush our economy, unless we get a grip. That is why in early January I launched our new policy: to make Britain work, we must make work pay.

After decades of government failure, a culture of entitlement has taken root. The number of people on out-of-work benefits stands at a stunning 5.2 million. That is over a million higher than pre-Covid levels. Even more shockingly, 27 million people get an average of £23,000 a year in cash benefits and 'benefits-in-kind'.

At the same time the Government’s broken welfare system deters people from working. So there are over 1 million job vacancies waiting for workers. And I have spoken with too many good businesses who tell me their employees are resigning to go on benefits. It’s sheer madness.

This tragic waste has to stop. Long-term unemployment locks people into poverty. It causes a spiral of family breakdown and damages mental health. The truth is that Labour and the Tories have abandoned communities around the country. For some, worklessness has become a way of life.

People need the dignity and self-worth of a decent job. A dream of something better. But instead, Government and big business want to import more cheap, low skilled labour. We must do better. We must turn Britain back into a nation of grafters and make work pay.

Reform UK has the policies to do this. We could give a huge lift to the income tax starting threshold, raising it from £12,571 to £20,000. This would free up 6 million of the poorest from income tax. It would also mean many on low incomes keeping £30 more per week – a reason to work more, not less. The key point is that people should always be better in work than out of it. 

We have costed this policy at £40 billion net per annum. But we will also motivate and train 2 million people on benefits to return to work. Whether a talented youngster, or an over-50 with experience, everyone deserves another chance. This will save £30-40 billion over two years, paying for the tax threshold rise - with further cuts to government waste making up the balance.

The only answer is bold leadership, proper management and proper direction. We will end the national disgrace of benefits Britain. We will break the culture of dependency and entitlement. We will unlock Britain’s talent and energy. For the lowest paid and least well off, we will make work pay.

Labour have no answers. The Tories are trying to blame Covid. But the rise in state dependency began with New Labour, long before the pandemic struck. The truth is that the Westminster elite have broken our economy and broken Britain. We will fix it

27th Jan 2023 - a speech given by Jeremy Hunt - Chancellor of the Exchequer  :

Jeremy Hunt has promised a "fundamental programme of reforms" to get millions of people back to work as he said the drive will be the key to fixing the UK’s "productivity puzzle". 

The Chancellor said approximately one fifth of UK adults of working age are economically inactive - about 6.6million people - and of those 1.4million want to work but a further five million do not. 

He described this as an "enormous and shocking waste of talent and potential" as he told those people that "Britain needs you".

Delivering a keynote speech on the UK's economic future in central London this morning, Mr Hunt said: "So it is time for a fundamental programme of reforms to support people with long term conditions or mental ill the barriers and prejudices that prevent them from working. 

"We will never harness the full potential of our country unless we unlock it for each and every one of our citizens. Nor will we fix our productivity puzzle unless everyone who can participate does.

"So to those who retired early after the pandemic or haven't found the right role after furlough, I say Britain needs you and we will look at the conditions necessary to make work worth your while."

#NationalMaritimeMuseum & The Royal Observatory Greenwich

Now and again at this time of year I plan a day out in London. There are many places in London I have intended to visit but for whatever reason have only ticked them off slowly!

Today I have been to Greenwich to visit the National National Maritime Museum and the adjacent Royal Observatory. Both are located in/around the beautiful Greenwich Park. Today the park looks much different to the last time I was here - to accompany my son James to the start of his London Marathon. On that Sunday morning there were thousands in the park - on this day just a few - it is cold and frosty.

The National Maritime Museum is free entry - but it is best to book a ticket online. The museum is in an impressive building. What was I expecting - lots of significant boats! Basically I was wrong - I hadn't used much common sense or done much prior research. I wasn't visiting the National Boat Museum - but the Maritime museum. The National Maritime Museum basically tells our story - our history - our relationship with the seas - with the great oceans of the world. There are some boats of course but mainly the many displays/installations are made up of artefacts, written accounts, models, paintings and photographs - as I say not what I was expecting but I was not left disappointed. The Museum sets out to show the epic stories of exploration and endeavour that have shaped the world today. The museum is set out in rooms - The Atlantic Room - The Pacific Room - The Trade Routes room - the polar room - Nelson's room etc

My plan was to spend about 3 hours in the museum but to be honest you could easily spend that time just in one room. You can get audio commentaries but there is a huge amount to read if you are inclined. Each artefact in itself has a  a story to tell so to gloss over them in double quick time is not really appropriate - although that is what I ended up doing.

One thing I did do was a "treasures" guided tour with an audio commentary. I enjoyed it very much.

I am sat here now thinking what I might refer to? Here are 2 or 3 things that registered and made me smile - and for a short time at least prompted me to think it would be interesting to know more about that - ha!

• From the Trading room. A really good account of the history of the East India Company and when Britain ran half the world ! Our merchants wanted to trade with China - particularly for tea - which was highly prized and very profitable. But the Chinese authorities only wanted to be paid in silver as they were not impressed with the goods we could offer. They had lots of rules too. The British solution - take opium grown in India and sell it to the Chinese people at vast profits enabling them to pay for the tea. Of course the Chinese authorities hated opium because of the destructive affect it had on Chinese people. I had heard of the Opium Wars before but to be honest didn't really know who was fighting who. Yes it was the Chinese trying to stop the British opium trading. Incredibly (in today's terms) the British won both wars.
• One from the Elizabethan Room. When Elizabeth Ist came to the throne Britain was near bankrupt. She was quick to understand there was money to be made "trading" with the world - something the Spanish and Portuguese were already doing very successfully. She commissioned Francis Drake to carry out an expedition. (He was the first man to circumnavigate the globe in one voyage.)  Drake was accused by the Spanish of being a pirate. He came back with his ship laden to the extent he rewarded the Queen with plunder valued at £300K - enough for her to pay off the national debt. Drake was knighted - became a hero and of course he defeated the Spanish Armada. Spain called Drake a pirate and of course it is true he robbed their galleons. But where did the Spanish get their loot. They were robbing and plundering South America. The Spanish wiped out the Incas. The Incas had no horses or guns - were no match for the invaders and of course the European diseases they brought with them. I have spent some time in South America. It is amazing the impact the Spanish and Portuguese have had. Most of the South American countries are now Catholic - and their first language is either Spanish or Portuguese. 
• There are exhibits relating to Scott's attempt to beat Amundsen to be the first man to the South Pole. It is a well known story. (I am smiling now thinking about our house names at our junior school. Scott, Hillary, Fuchs and Shackleton. Brilliant inter house competitions on sports days.). One thing that caught my eye - Scott's overshoe on his ill fated Antarctic expedition. No Gortex for them. Incredible resilience. 
• The grand finale on the "treasures" tour - the jacket Nelson was wearing when he was killed. Two bits of trivia. Nelson lost his arm in a battle off Tenerife. He came home to heal but was desperate to get back to sea. The wound would not heal. After months a piece of cloth (bandage) emerged from the wound and his arm healed. He returned to sea to win the Battle of the Nile and then Trafalgar of course where he was shot and killed. (a Musket shot through a lung and damaged his spine.) Nelson was married but his uniform with the bullet hole was left to his lover Lady Hamilton. Apparently she was a big spender and sold Nelson's uniform on. Eventually it was bought by Prince Albert for £150 and he donated it to the nation!

I would recommend a visit to The National Maritime museum - but maybe be one exhibition per visit perhaps.

Early in the afternoon I walked up to the Royal Observatory in the heart of Greenwich Park. The RO was commissioned in 1675 by Charles 1st as somewhere to develop astronomy - map the universe. It's history is one of ground breaking exploration and observations of the moon and stars and subsequently as the centre for improving navigation techniques. It is a very gentle place. 

However the Royal Observatory is also the place where world time is measured from - Greenwich Mean Time (although annoyingly it is now referred to as UTC).

The distance around Earth measures 360 degrees. The meridian that runs through Greenwich, England, is internationally accepted as the line of 0 degrees longitude, or prime meridian. The antimeridian is halfway around the world, at 180 degrees. It is the basis for the International Date Line.

Half of the world, the Eastern Hemisphere, is measured in degrees east of the prime meridian. The other half, the Western Hemisphere, in degrees west of the prime meridian.

At the RO you can stand on or over 0 degrees longitude - one foot in the east - one foot in the west. It is a bit of fun. I sat there for a while (in the sun!) and reflected on the time when I crossed the antimeridian - 180 degrees - literally on the other side of the world. It is referred to as the International Date Line. From Qingdao we headed out into the East China Sea to cross the North Pacific heading for Seattle. When we left we were 8 hours ahead of GMT. As we sailed east we had to adjust our ships clock as we got further and further ahead of GMT. We get to maximum ahead - 12 hours ahead. And then in the moment it takes to cross the imaginary 180 degree International Date Line you have gone to the maximum 12 hours behind Greenwich Meantime. We have lost a day. When asked how long it took to sail across the Pacific I always say 28 days but it might have been 29. Thinking about it now there was no great ceremony when we crossed the IDL. We were racing - our 70 foot boat was under huge strain - the seas were enormous and it was bitterly cold. Like so often in life these precious moments live in the memory - at the time it was full on and brutal.

Apart from the fun with the 0 meridian the stand out exhibition was the room dedicated to The Longitude Act. This is from Wikipaedia:

The Longitude Act 1714 was an Act of Parliament of Great Britain passed in July 1714 at the end of the reign of Queen Anne. It established the Board of Longitude and offered monetary rewards (Longitude rewards) for anyone who could find a simple and practical method for the precise determination of a ship's longitude. The Act of 1714 was followed by a series of other Longitude Acts that revised or replaced the original.

As transoceanic travel grew in significance, so did the importance of accurate and reliable navigation at sea. Scientists and navigators had been working on the problem of measuring longitude for a long time. While determining latitude was relatively easy, early ocean navigators had to rely on dead reckoning to find longitude. This was particularly inaccurate on long voyages without sight of land and could sometimes lead to tragedy, as during the Scilly naval disaster of 1707 which claimed the lives of nearly 2,000  sailors. This brought the problem of measuring longitude at sea into sharp focus once more. Following the Merchants and Seamen Petition, which called for finding an adequate solution and was presented to Westminster Palace in May 1714, the Longitude Act was passed in July 1714.

I commend a very good read called The True Story Of Longitude written by Dava Sobel. Back to the exhibition. The problem of actually determining your longitude while on a moving boat at sea attracted two possible approaches/solutions. One was by calculating using the sun and the stars - what was to become astral navigation. The other required accurate measurement of time - very challenging on a boat moving around so much and in varying temperatures (which caused expansion and contraction of metal) leading to wild inaccuracy in timepieces. 

The man that made most progress towards a practical solution was the incredible John Harrison (a carpenter by trade). He spent a lifetime responding to the challenge of the Longitude Act and built 4 incredible clocks in pursuit of the prize.

The RO have his 4 clocks on display H1 H2 and H3 and H4 his watch that solved the problem. As an aside do your remember the final episode of Only Fools and Horses - Del and Rodney become multi millionaires. They had an old watch left in the lock up for years - eventually identified as the lost Harrison watch - sold for £6.2m! 

(8) Del's Finally a Millionaire! (HD & Extended) | Only Fools and Horses | BBC Comedy Greats - YouTube

and while I am here a truly great bit of television - tears in the eyes - such a great choice of music - and the wonderful Michael!

 (8) Best of Only Fools and Horses-The Trotters Become Millionaires - YouTube

A fun note to end on - a memorable day at Greenwich. xxxx 

A few mob photos :

a

Over the Greenwich Meridian - left foot east right foot west.

The Royal Maritime Museum

Turner's Battle of Trafalgar

Miss Britain 111 - the first British boat to do 100mph and on The Solent.

a royal barge used when the Thames was teeming with boats because there was only one bridge.

Scott's over shoes - not much to walk to the South Pole in.

Sir Francis Drake

Nelson's uniform with the musket hole in the left shoulder. He was not a big man.

Greenwich Park from RO - Queen's House, NMM - the Millennium Dome to the East and Canary Wharf over the Thames. 

The Royal Observatory and the famous ball that drops at 1PM each day

Some very clever people have spent time in the Octagonal Room

Harrison's H1

The watch that cracked it H4

The Cutty Sark - the famous tea clipper. Cutting edge in its time.

#BBC their response to charges of systemic bias.

In the last week I have posted 2 blogs on successive days : 

#BBC Broadcaster failing in its duty of impartiality by allowing 'politically motivated campaigners' to present shows, say leading academics.

and

#BBC more academic evidence - BBC dramas ‘warping modern Britain’ by ‘allowing Left-wing bias’.

This is a summary of the BBC's response so far. It is hard not to conclude the BBC is unreformable - their positions and bias just too entrenched. I am campaigning like thousands of others for the BBC to lose its licence fee privilege because it is abusing its position and not fulfilling its charter as a public service broadcaster.

The BBC’s only response to charges of systemic bias? Suck it up

Two damning reports have found evidence of what Roger Scruton called 'oikophobia' at the BBC. Yet the Corporation continues to play dumb

The academics at History Reclaimed have performed an important public service by calling out the BBC for blatant bias in some of its recent history programmes. Whereas complaints by members of the general public or journalists can be loftily dismissed by the BBC as merely illustrating the complainants’ own ignorance and bias, the same tactic doesn’t work when applied to a group of professional historians distinguished by their seniority and glittering credentials. The History Reclaimed analysis looked at six programmes in all of which they found glaring examples of unbalanced historical judgements amounting to “the abuse of history”.

For instance in a news report about the repatriation of the Benin Bronzes – the magnificent 16th century artefacts from the African kingdom that is now Nigeria – there were glaring errors. The bronzes were said to be “looted” – whereas, as the report states, the objects were “seized in what was then a legal process in retaliation for an act of war”. And the report didn’t mention the fact that Benin itself was a slaver state and the bronzes were made by slaves for the rulers. 

There were other misleading details and omissions. History Reclaimed says of this report: “The news report on the Benin bronzes sums up all that is wrong with the BBC’s recent treatment of British history: tendentious language, distorted interpretation, and deliberate omission of facts that do not suit the chosen slant. Listeners are not given objective facts to enable them to form a view. On the contrary, they are made the objects of one-sided propaganda.”

Other programmes examined unfairly blamed Winston Churchill for the Bengal Famine of 1943 and, similarly, blamed the Sir Robert Peel’s government for the great Irish famine of the 1840s – once again ignoring any balancing opinions. Overall History Reclaimed have compiled a serious charge sheet against the BBC’s history department detailing a litany of inaccuracies, omissions and tendentious opinions. You might expect then that the BBC would be obliged to respond in a reasoned way.

But did it? True to form a BBC spokesman issued the following arrogant bromide: “Cherry-picking a handful of examples or highlighting genuine mistakes in thousands of hours of output on TV and radio does not constitute analysis and is not a true representation of BBC content.” In other words, you lot might well be emeritus professors, experts in your fields, the authors of scores of books. But we at the BBC know better: overall our history output is fair and balanced. So there. Suck it up.

What that BBC PR man was doing was using a favourite Corporation formula when confronted with unwelcome criticism which is to cite the sheer quantity of its output the implicit challenge being that unless you can show bias in all the relevant output your complaint does not stand-up. This is a canny tactic because no small, voluntary group – like History Reclaimed – will ever have the time, money and manpower to review every bit of history programming.

The PR man’s brush-off doesn’t even attempt to answer the serious allegation which is being made which is that the six programmes chosen show a worrying tendency to exaggerate all the negative aspects of our history. By doing so the BBC, the ‘national broadcaster’ is spearheading a project of national defamation. 

As History Reclaimed puts it: “Taken in isolation, each example might seem minor, but they all tend in one direction: the fostering of a negative view of British history, and especially of its relations with the non-European world from which British citizens of ethnic minority backgrounds and their ancestors originally came. We have found no examples in which recent BBC programmes might be accused of giving excessively favourable accounts of our history: of Britain’s struggle against slavery, its promotion of economic development, its provision of law and security in trouble-torn regions, or its fostering of democratic institutions for independent colonies.”

The late conservative philosopher Roger Scruton coined a useful word which exactly describes the BBC: “oikophobia” – which he defined as “dislike of one’s own culture and compatriots”. Being the scholar he was, Scruton created this word from the ancient Greek word for home “oikos”; my long critical scrutiny of BBC output, as both an insider and outsider, convinces me that it is truly the mot juste. The BBC is living proof of George Orwell’s observation that “England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality.”

The BBC is largely staffed by people who consider themselves intellectuals and they often act as if they hate the country they serve. They rarely celebrate the many episodes in British history where the country displayed bravery, fortitude and moral courage. The fact that this country, at the height of its power embarked on the onerous and hugely costly venture of suppressing the slave trade should be a source of great pride – but the BBC prefers to portray us as slavers.

It is very striking that one of the academics who put their name to this critique of the BBC is herself an immigrant. Marie Kawthar Daouda was raised Muslim in Morocco, moved to Paris to study French literature, converted to Catholicism and fetched-up teaching French at Oriel College in Oxford. In a long interview I recently did with her what most impressed me was her clear-sighted appreciation of Britain’s virtues, the glories of her history and the tolerant and inclusive nation she has become. Truly it sometimes takes an intelligent outsider to tell us that we’re not as bad as the BBC tells us we are.

But can the BBC ever be brought round to a position where it too can bring itself to celebrate the good things and tear itself away from its favoured narrative of Britain as an incurably racist country which, through the evil agency of her empire, inflicted a uniquely wicked rule across half the world? The trouble is that, as with so many things in life, the easy part is the diagnosis; the real difficulty lies in finding a remedy.

The academics at History Reclaimed think a few simple changes would help ensure the BBC’s history output is fair and accurate establish. They stress the need for diversity of opinion in history programmes and crucially they propose an advisory panel of properly qualified historians to oversee output and help correct group-think among programme makers. It’s a good idea which would bring some objective scrutiny and input into history programming. If acted upon, it would give some reassurance that the BBC was finally getting serious about the need for “reform”. 

The Director General, Tim Davie, came into the role promising that restoring the BBC’s reputation for impartiality was his number one priority. So far there has been precious little hard evidence that anything much has changed; if Mr Davie was to take seriously the complaints of the historians it would provide some evidence of his sincerity and bona fides, otherwise his protestations remain just so much hot air.

But, if I was a betting man, I would not put money on the BBC acknowledging the oikophobia of its history department. The BBC is fiercely resistant to outside criticism and relies on its complaints procedure as a defensive shield to ward off its critics; the Corporation claims that its complaints department constitutes an effective remedy for anyone who is able to show that a BBC programme erred in either factual matters or biased presentation. 

Nothing could be further from the truth; it is primarily a mechanism to limit reputational damage. It dismisses the vast majority of complaints, can be painfully slow (I have had a complaint before it for nearly three years with no resolution so far in sight) and almost never finds bias in BBC output.

In a careful piece of research carried out by the News-watch organisation, which monitors BBC output for bias, they analysed and tabulated the outcome of rulings made by the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit since 2017. It showed that only around 125 complaints have been upheld or partly upheld by the ECU – and the majority of these rulings were on grounds of inaccuracy not impartiality. Given the chorus of complaints about BBC bias in recent years this suggests the ECU is remarkably lenient when examining alleged BBC bias – but then isn’t that the glory of marking your own homework? A vital step towards making the BBC more responsive to complaints would be to introduce some robust outside scrutiny into the process. The in-house mechanism is hopelessly compromised.

There is a further problem with the BBC’s complaints procedure, in that anyone alleging a systemic problem – as the historians at History Reclaimed do – would not be able to bring a complaint forward. The ECU will only consider specific complaints about specific programmes, so a generalised complaint alleging a pattern of bias – as in its history output – would not be eligible for consideration.

The bigger picture is that the bias that History Reclaimed highlights is a problem right across the BBC’s output. Today’s report from the Campaign for Common Sense, which has examined BBC drama output over the past year, finds a mirror image problem; storylines are infused with distorted and warped ‘woke’ values and Left-wing bias is thereby smuggled into popular drama series. By these subtle devices viewers are led to accept political narratives which arise exclusively on the Left with no counter-balancing viewpoints.

As professional historians, the members of History Reclaimed have naturally put the BBC’s history output in the spotlight. It occurs to me that “reclaiming history” is exactly what the pocket-intellectuals at the BBC have been doing over the past half century. They have “reclaimed“ the historical narrative that an older generation absorbed; this had it that, despite some blemishes, our country’s history was one we can be proud of. People understood that their country had been a force for good in the world for many centuries and continues to be so. The BBC, in league with Left-wing revisionist academics in the universities have replaced that narrative with one of their own designed to show Britain in the worst possible light; a rapacious, racist, imperialist country. 

No one wants the BBC to give us a sanitised, hagiographic version of British history; what we demand is a fair version – warts and all – which is not what we’re currently being offered. Time to do battle.