That is a good point. The other constitutional point I would make about businesses is that in an entrepreneurial business where the entrepreneur-owner-manager owns 51% or more of the shares, of course they speak for business, so if they say, “I want to stay in,” or, “I want us to pull out,” that is not only their view but the view of the whole business. I can understand that and it is very interesting, but quite often the people being interviewed are executives with very few shares in very large companies, who have not cleared their view through a shareholder meeting or some other constitutional process. The BBC wishes to give the impression that that is the view of all the members of the company, whereas in fact it is just the opinion of an executive. It is interesting, and the executive may be quite powerful, but he does not necessarily speak for the company, and that is never stressed in the exchanges.
European Union Referendum Bill
Proceeding contribution from
John Redwood
(Conservative)
in the House of Commons on Monday, 7 September 2015.
It occurred during Debate on bills on European Union Referendum Bill.
About this proceeding contribution
Reference
599 c138 Session
2015-16Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamberSubjects
Librarians' tools
Timestamp
2015-10-05 17:36:52 +0100
URI
http://hansard.intranet.data.parliament.uk/Commons/2015-09-07/1509083001358
In Indexing
http://indexing.parliament.uk/Content/Edit/1?uri=http://hansard.intranet.data.parliament.uk/Commons/2015-09-07/1509083001358
In Solr
https://search.parliament.uk/claw/solr/?id=http://hansard.intranet.data.parliament.uk/Commons/2015-09-07/1509083001358