Has the MSM woken up to "Common Purpose" ?

There's a BBC 5 broadcast tonight on:

Secret society?

We shine a spotlight on a nationwide networking organisation with influence in high places.



“Common Purpose” has been described as a politically correct version of freemasonry.

Prominent supporters include the Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Cressida Dick, BBC Business Editor Robert Peston and numerous top public sector officials.

We investigate whether there is any substance to the rumours about its hidden influence and agenda.

I have my doubts about how good such a programme can be given that a large number of BBC staff are Common Purpose graduates. But anything that raises the public awareness of the treat of such organisations is to be welcomes. Listen tonight at 8pm or on the BBC's iPlayer.

Common Purpose has plenty of lawyers as well as police officers, judges, politicians and even soldiers in its ranks , so it will be interesting to hear what the programme has to say about it.

Having listened to the piece I would have to describe the inquiry as less than serious. There we're lots of hints for the listener that the people who question Common Purpose are a bit wacko. ( Mentions of Lizards, conspiracy theorists and right wing at the appropriate moments ).

CP obviously felt they finally had to put someone up for interview, but again they were hardly forth coming.

The point was made about the large amount of public money and the secretive nature of CP's networking organisation. The CP rep also pointed out about people being open about their mistakes etc with each other, which had a sort of cultish edge to it.

The investigative reporter admitted at the end that he had been invited to speak at CP events in the past ( so hardly impartial ). A little attempt was made to state the degree to which the BBC itself is involved in CP - even though such information is easily available via the CP web site.

The article itself is a little over half way through the programme ( for one week available here ). As an exercise substitute Freemasons for CP whenever their name comes up and you wouldn't have quite the light hearted approach that John Maitlands tries to convey.

I'd be more interested ina Dispatches investigation. ( I suspect its too much to hope for that the BBC's Panorama would do a good job ).

The impression I left with is that of an attempt to lance a boil of a conspiracy theory by the report, rather than a serious attempt to get to any objective answers. A number of organisations that bother the government ( and hence the BNP ) make claims about CP, and the article seemed like an attempt to difuse the use of the CP issue, rather than to answer hard questions.

But all in all the more investigations there are into CP the happier I'll be. I'm not 100% convinced they are a sinister problem, but they are certainly a problem for a democratic society as is evidenced by the inability of the MSM to be able to investigate them effectively.