The BBC has once again been slammed for its overt politically correctness, with critics claiming it used a celebration of Shakespeare’s life, broadcast live last night, to push a pro-immigration agenda.
The criticism comes as the publically funded Corporation reveals plans to ensure that one in six of its on-screen stars is either gay or disabled.
Last night the BBC marked the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death with a live broadcast of a selection of scenes from his plays, performed by a line-up of left-wing luvvies including Benedict Cumberbatch, Judi Dench, Dame Helen Mirren, Meera Syal, David Suchet, Rufus Wainwright, Tim Minchin, Gregory Porter, Joseph Fiennes, and the English National Opera.
But rather than using the event to celebrate of his better known and better loved works, producers included in the program a pro-immigration speech which was never staged during the bard’s lifetime.
The exerpt, known as the Immigration Speech, appears in a play titled The Book of Sir Thomas More, by Anthony Munday, which contains a series of scenes depicting the May Day riots of 1517 when Londoners protested the arrival of Italian immigrants from Lombardy and wanted them expelled.
Shakespeare inserted 17 lines into a speech by Sir Thomas, asking the audience through the statesman: “Say now the king / Should so much come too short of your great trespass / As but to banish you, whether would you go?”
Conservative MP Peter Bone told the Mail on Sunday: ‘They’ve gone out of their way to find a piece of writing which fits the Left-wing establishment’s pro-immigration agenda and it’s a shame.
‘You’d have thought they could at least have found something which was published under Shakespeare’s name for a start.”
Meanwhile, the BBC has rolled out new diversity targets aimed at ensuring that, by 2020, one in six of all its on-screen roles are given to either LGBT or disabled people.
In addition, half of all its broadcasting roles will be handed to women, who already make up 48.5 percent of the BBC’s on-air content, with the Radio 2 line-up set to be given a complete overhaul as it is currently dominated by male presenters.
Following criticism from David Lammy MP that the Corportation is failing the ethnic minority audience, the BBC is also set to work harder to achieve its target of 15 percent of broadcasters coming from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) background, in line with British demographics.
Tunde Ogungbesan, head of diversity, inclusion and succession at the BBC, said in a statement: “The BBC is a diverse organisation, whichever way you look at it.
“Almost half of our workforce is made up of women and the proportion of our black, Asian and other ethnic minorities in our workforce is at an all-time high.
“But there is more to do and we know the challenge we face so we’ll be building on this strong platform by continuing doing what works.
“Later this month we’ll be launching our new diversity strategy full of new and innovative ideas for our audiences, for our people and with our partner to do even better between now and 2020.”
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