Alistair Carmichael: "Liam Fox is acting like a tinpot dictator"

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Andrea Leadsom demanded that BBC journalists should be "patriotic" - which in her mind consisted in telling everyone how well the negotiations with the European Union are going.

Now Liam Fox has written to  the BBC’s director general complaining that the corporation consistently runs negative stories about the economic effects of Brexit and demanding a meeting.

The Guardian report quotes someone giving the right response:

The Lib Dem chief whip, Alistair Carmichael, called the letter “a blatant attempt at intimidating the BBC and undermining the independence of our media”. 

“The BBC shouldn’t be bullied into publishing government propaganda and has rightly stood its ground,” Carmichael said. “Liam Fox is acting like a tinpot dictator. He can’t blame the media for his inability to deliver on all the trade deals promised by the Brexiteers.”

At the back of all this nonsense lies the fact that the Conservative Party is no longer Conservative.

Far from taking pride in British institutions - the National Health Service, our schools and universities, the BBC - they despise them.

All must be punished by continuous reform, with the inspiration coming from abroad - usually the USA (though other models are available).

There is something unpatriotic about the whole enterprise.

But then it was also unpatriotic of Theresa May to allow Liam Fox back into the cabinet after he was forced to resign the first time around for putting people at physical risk by breaching the ministerial code.