George Osborne has accused the BBC of helping fuel an anti-business culture in Britain.
The Chancellor compared the broadcaster to the women who used to gather to watch the execution of aristocrats during the French Revolution.
The accusation came during an interview on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme after Britain was warned that its credit rating may be downgraded.
Mr Osborne mounted a strong defence of the Government’s pro-business credentials before accusing the publicly-funded broadcaster of undermining the economy.
In reference to the carts using to carry condemned prisoners to their death during the French Revolution, he said: “The BBC is often in the front row of the tumbrils, doing its knitting…We have got to celebrate business in this country.”
He claimed that the “only story” you hear reported about business is often the “relentless diet” of items about how “we are being ripped off by every company in Britain.”
“We’ve got to celebrate business success, entrepreneurs,” he said.
Mr Osborne also insisted that the coalition was “pro-business” despite the row which led to RBS (LSE: RBS.L - news) chief executive Stephen Hester giving up his annual bonus and the bank's former boss Fred Goodwin being stripped of his knighthood.
“We are a pro-business Government, we are cutting business taxes in order to make Britain an attractive place to start a business, run a business and employ people,” he said.
However, he added: “A fundamental part of the free market is that, yes, you get rewards for success - and we encourage that in Britain and not an anti-business culture - but also there shouldn't be rewards for failure and if businesses fail, including banks, they should go bust.
“We draw a distinction between sorting out the mess in the banking system and this
relentless attack on anyone who makes any money out of a successful business and out of successfully employing people.
“That is dangerous for Britain because it will mean people are put off coming here and setting up businesses.”
Government ministers regularly complain privately about what they believe is “biased” coverage by the BBC, but it is rare for concerns to be aired publicly. It is alleged that the Corporation (BSE: CORPBANK.BO - news) gives undue prominence to stories about government cuts and several ministers have unofficially begun to effectively boycott the flagship Today programme.
Mr Osborne was forced to give broadcast interviews after Moody’s, one of the world’s biggest credit ratings agencies, put Britain on alert that there is a one in three chance that the country’s rating will be downgraded.
The Chancellor said Moody's statement was "the clearest possible warning" that scrapping or slowing planned Government spending cuts and tax rises would lead to “an immediate downgrade” of Britain's rating.
Mr Osborne admitted the UK's weaker growth prospects were "a challenge", but denied he had "abandoned growth".
He added: "If you don't have confidence in a country's ability to pay its debts - as you have seen with plenty of other European countries - then you get negative growth, rising unemployment and no prospect of recovery.
“I don't see this false choice between growth and dealing with your debts. If you don't deal with you debts, you will not have growth.”
Ed Balls, the shadow Chancellor, described the agency's move as “a significant warning” and urged the Government to spark economic growth.
He said: “Moody's is clear in its statement that the primary reason for Britain's negative outlook is 'weaker growth prospects' which are making it harder to get the deficit down.
“With our economy now in reverse, unemployment at a 17-year high and £158 billion extra borrowing to pay for economic failure, the case for a change of course and a real plan for jobs and growth is growing by the day.”
Reign of terror
When George Osborne described the BBC as “in the front row of the tumbrils, doing its knitting”, he was referring to les citoyennes tricoteuses, women who watched executions during the French Revolution while doing their knitting.
During the Reign of Terror, from 1793 to 1794, thousands of aristocrats and other “enemies of the revolution” were put to death, many of them beheaded at the guillotine.
Executions were a public spectacle to please the masses, and the tricoteuses (“knitting women”) were a regular feature, usually occupying prominent seats and often shouting encouragement to the executioners. Tumbrils, two-wheeled horse-drawn carts, where often used to bear the condemned to the execution.
Perhaps the most famous tricoteuse is a fictional character, Therese Defarge, in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, who used knots in her wool to encode the names of those she wished to see executed. The novel describes the tricoteuses at the place of execution, where “they sit knitting, knitting, counting dropping heads.”
Last week, Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, presented all his Cabinet colleagues with a Dickens novel to mark the author’s bicentenary. It may just be coincidence, but the volume he selected for the Chancellor was A Tale of Two Cities.
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