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A BBC Cymru Radio Wales (RW) star has been accused of “flagrantly breaching” the corporation’s impartiality guidelines and there has been a call for her to be sacked after she published virulently anti-Conservative rants on Twitter and Instagram.
Two months ago the former Countdown presenter Carol Vorderman accused the UK Government of being “a lying bunch of greedy, corrupt, destructive, hateful, divisive, gaslighting crooks”.
She has also used Twitter to call Conservative MP Johnny Mercer and his wife “petulant” and “childish”.
But her overall boss might be concerned by such remarks. The BBC’s Director General (DG) Tim Davie said in Cardiff soon after his appointment: “If you want to be an opinionated columnist or partisan campaigner on social media then that is a valid choice, but you should not be working at the BBC”.
BBC rules underline this, and announce that staff should avoid, too, using disclaimers such as ‘My views, not the BBC’s’ in their biographies and profiles, as they provide no defence against personal expressions of opinion.
Comments underneath a UK newspaper report about the outburst were highly critical of Ms Vorderman, and the BBC’s policy on impartiality. One said: “Over a period of time I saw regular tweets from her (Carol Vorderman) which seemed very structured in therms (terms) of the repetition and targets. I repeatedly asked on her timeline if she wrote all her won (own) tweets or were they labour sponsored/written. She never responded”.
Unfortunately, these public comments fall into a familiar pattern for Ms Vorderman.
In the past she has proclaimed on Twitter “The Tory party is morally corrupt”. In her tweet, she attached a Mirror story with photograph, which stated: “Shameless Boris Johnson living in a £20m home for free…”.
She has also written: “PARTYGATE TURNS TO RENTGATE Boris Johnson living in donor’s £20m home The Tory party is morally corrupt. Lies, violation of our NHS, protection of the rich, don’t forget the Michelle Mone PPE-Scandal. 2 years from now will they have destroyed all we have?”.
In the past Ms Vorderman has also tweeted about Mr Johnson that he: “Even lies in his final speech as Prime Minister who has brought this country to its knees. Boris Johnson has had many relationships through his life…. but sadly for us, he’s never had a relationship with the truth”.
She has long been outspoken on social media, and her anti-Conservative views have incurred the wrath of a commentator on a right-of-centre television station.
Ms Vorderman has tweeted out another Mirror story which began: “Firm ‘profiteering from misery’ by providing migrant barges donated £70,000 to UKIP…”.
On GB News’ ‘ALBIE’S ARGUMENT’ it was stated: “‘Carol Vorderman, we get it, you don’t like the Tories. Instead of sitting on the sidelines moaning, join a political party, stand for election and try to make a difference.'”.
Her messages have also disconcerted colleagues at the BBC, and several who used to work there.
A former senior executive at the organisation proclaimed that: “Her (Ms Vorderman’s) comments raise serious questions about the impartiality of celebrity presenters on the BBC. This is clearly politically motivated”. An employee who still works at BBC Cymru Wales (BBC CW) said: “It is ridiculous that Carol Vorderman is allowed to say these things. I suppose it is because she is such a star. It’s one rule for them, but another for us!”. One-time RW presenter Mike Flynn told The Eye: “What she said was completely unacceptable. Carol Vorderman should be sacked”.
A Tory MP has called for the BBC to investigate her social media posts: “She makes Gary Lineker’s comments look quite mild”.
However Welsh-born Ms Vorderman is no stranger to controversial headlines.
She has complained that people focus too much on her “big bottom”, without recognising her other attributes.
Mrs Vorderman appears to be unhappy with the mainstrem media generally, and has described how she was left ‘in tears’ and spoke of “harassment” when she spotted two photographers, one in front of her on the pavement and the other on the opposite side of the road before she drove from her house in Bristol to do the regular programme on RW. Ms Vorderman stated in a video she shared: “This is what happens when you walk outside your home… This is what I call harassment”, and was supposedly “frightened” by the incident. Yet the pictures these photographers tried to take, came after she had herself shared on Twitter two images of herself posing in skimpy “home gym gear” to show how young she looks.
Ms Vorderman has also liked to publicise owning another home when the subject is extremely fraught. Hello magazine proclaimed: “Former Countdown star Carol Vorderman usually resides at her home in Bristol, but she also owns a second property in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The latter is where the star is currently staying, and by day she appears to be enjoying paddleboarding and sun-soaked activities but by night this is where she relaxes”.
However the whole concept of second homes in Wales is enormously controversial because it drives up property prices for local people, and incomers are often unaware of the indigenous Welsh language in tourist areas.
Political parties and the media, have also highlighted the huge problem it creates in Wales. The issue has been described as a “crisis” in UK newspaper The i, and as a “gross injustice” in The Guardian.
A Swansea University (SU) report for the Welsh Government (WG), analysed, as well, this enormous difficulty. It stated: “The phenomenon is limited in its most extreme form to the four coastal counties of west Wales (Gwynedd, Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Anglesey). Although there are smaller areas in other counties (such as the Gower Peninsula in Swansea) which also have a high concentration of second homes, these too tend to be in parts of Wales frequented for holiday and leisure purposes”. The academic investigation was featured in the Western Mail (WM) with a report on it saying: ‘Increasing taxes on second homes is just one recommendation put forward in a new report commissioned by the Welsh Government to look at a so-called “second homes crisis” in Wales’.
As well as the glowing ‘story’ in Hello, a MailOnline report emerged about Ms Vorderman, which said that she had “incredible curves”and “incredibly smooth complexion” with her age prominently displayed. These words, set alongside the age (she is now 62), are usually reserved for someone who has had extensive plastic surgery.
Even so, Ms Vorderman claims to be unhappy about coverage of her appearance, and has stated to newspapers: “One of the sad things is that people think I am only ever talking about the way I look. I just choose to pay no attention to it. I was a free school meals kid. I got to Cambridge from a comprehensive. That just didn’t happen in the 70s. Now I do a lot of work with kids from a similar background to me. I have my online maths school, I sell I-don’t-know-how-many education books a year. But that never gets talked about. Instead it’s,`how big is her bottom?’”
But the articles about Ms Vorderman come amid growing concern that she has regularly grabbed the headlines in the UK for alarming reasons (and social media has often been at the heart of the revelations), with her exploits even being the subject of a piece by our satirical writer Edwin Phillips.
Ms Vorderman is originally from Prestatyn, yet intriguingly despite her professed love of Wales, and being pictured in a T-shirt emblazoned with the Welsh flag at a rugby stadium, she chooses to live in England, although she regularly stays at her second home in Pembrokeshire.
It seems also that she is, today, part of a celebrity ‘set’ in Wales. A picture of another personality, completely naked, was sent to her and also put on social media. The photograph was placed on Twitter by the rugby presenter Jonathan Davies with the caption “Just for you Carol”.
Ms Vorderman said “Diolch Rhydian xx” to another BBC Cymru Wales radio personality Rhydian Phillips who declared on Twitter that it had been good to see her at Broadcasting House (BH).
Despite what the rules on impartiality say…
The memories of Phil’s, astonishing decades long award-winning career in journalism (which involved sticking to key guidelines on impartiality) as he was gripped by the rare neurological disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in the important book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order the book now!
Regrettably publication of another book, however, was refused, because it was to have included names.
Tomorrow – how an angry councillor in Wales has highlighted a growing number of complaints about a huge health board – with one of its hospitals singled out for protests, when it had already been accused of poor treatment in a “damning” report.
