I usually watch the Sky Press Review because I like to see what lies the Murdoch empire is telling us. Right now I’m recording it because otherwise my TV viewing would be interrupted by visits to the loo. Yes, I (and several other family members) have the latest lurgy. Don’t sympathise: with this virus, I don’t need a post-Xmas detox. I’m getting one whether I want it or not.

Last night, the usual smarmy Murdoch clone – I had to google it but his name is Jeremy Thompson  - was up against Zoe Williams of the Guardian and a nice man from the (London) Standard. It’s not too surprising that this Sky ‘journalist’ is never put up against the likes of Kevin Maguire and Andrew Pierce, who would slaughter him. He tried to talk over Zoe Williams, but Zoe has several advantages over him: she is very bright; she knows her stuff; she never gives up when she’s right; and she can be quite funny with it. 

First we dealt with the floods. I’ve been wondering for days if any journalist – BBC, ITN or Sky – would question why these floods are happening again and why the people of Cumbria, Yorkshire, Lancashire and Greater Manchester are not getting the kind of help offered to the people who were flooded out in the Somerset Levels and Gloucester a couple of years ago. Zoe asked. She pointed out that one area is in the north of England and the other in the Tory-voting south.  She also mentioned the cuts that have been made to the flood defence budgets by the Tories. So it was laid out in front of us: the Tory heartlands could have whatever money it took to solve their flooding problem but…and Jeremy Thompson moved us on.

To the hospital doctor issue. It seems the UK employs more ‘foreign’ doctors than any other EU country. Jeremy Thompson was concerned about the language barrier. He claimed a German doctor had killed a patient with an overdose of painkillers because his English was so poor. Zoe was right in there: the problem wasn’t that the doctor’s English was poor. The doctor prescribed the wrong dosage of painkiller - dosages are numbers and numbers are universal. The doctor in question was incompetent and we don’t have systems set up in the UK to assess foreign doctors’ skills – or even to check their references. Zoe also pointed out the reason we need to employ foreign doctors is that we train our own people very well and at vast expense and then treat them badly, so they leave. Jeremy Thompson tried to argue with that claiming many doctors go and work in Africa because they relish the chance to work in an area where they can study ebola – a bit of a stretch that one - but he shut up when Zoe pointed out that the hospital doctors’ strike threats were about wages and conditions. And both for UK hospital doctors are pretty poor.

I found myself thinking: I could watch this all night. A proper discussion. A real argument.  But I wonder if Sky will keep Zoe Williams on. Ian Dale of LBC chucked his place on the Press Review for a while because he was paired with Jacqui Smith (former Home Secretary and another smart cookie) and she kept arguing with him. And she knew what she was talking about.

I’m now looking for someone like Zoe or Jacqui to challenge the BBC on the use of the word ‘we’ in interviews: you’ve probably heard this and may not even have registered it. In a discussion of the bombing of Syria, the question is put by a BBC journalist (allegedly impartial): ‘What do we have to do now?’ The BBC’s job is to represent all sides. We need to hear the opposition view on Syria – yes, there is one - so we can make our own minds up.  Is the BBC biased? I don’t know because there hasn’t been enough research yet, but it is interesting that academic researchers have recently found that interviews on the BBC on anything to do with industry and business will offer the views of 19 people from the business world as against 1 from the trades unions.