As Biased-BBC notes, if any terrorist group in the world wants an image makeover, Step One is to have the BBC on speed-dial.

Typically, of course, their status seems to be ambiguous on our impartial State Broadcaster. From Wikipedia: The group is proscribed as a terrorist organization by the Spanish and French authorities, as well as the European Union as a whole, and the United States. This convention is followed by a plurality of domestic and international media, which also refer to the group as ‘terrorists’. That ‘plurality’ doesn’t extend to the BBC who of course know better. Look for the word terrorist anywhere here and you’ll be disappointed.

However, the ‘terrorists‘ vs ‘cuddly BBC pals‘ debate aside, this so-called “ceasefire” may get top billing on that bastion of impartial reporting the World at One but it’s not actually all that it says on the tin.

If you read the communiqué in full (in Spanish, translated from the original in Basque), they specifically talk about an end to “offensive attacks” but, with the one-eyed logic of the terrorist, ETA have never accepted that they’ve ever carried one out. In their opinion they have always been responding and defending themselves from attacks on them from Spain.

So why make a statement saying that they are going to stop doing something they have never accepted that they do in the first place? Put simply, it’s a tactic they have tried before. They are in a mess after very effective and no-nonsense police work both in Spain and in France and currently aren’t capable of the ‘spectaculars’ so beloved of the IRA in the 1980’s.

Just as with this statement calling a ‘ceasefire’ a few years ago they now need time to regroup and consolidate. And, after much trumpeting in the lefty and trendy corners of the media world, we all know how that ceasefire ended.

The timing of the ‘ceasefire’ has other advantages too. With local elections coming up, it will give their political allies some much needed ‘legitimacy’. With political representation comes the benefits of that much-loved policy of the left…taxpayer funding. Win, win!

None of which comes through in the BBC article which can’t bring itself to call a spade a spade. If you want to feel all fluffy and warm then get your news over there. If you want to actually know what’s going on, look just about everywhere else.