Dear Director General
Congratulations on your appointment. I am glad you are reviewing the extent to which the BBC delivers the impartiality and public service content Licence fee payers pay for.
As someone who seeks to make a contribution to the main arguments over public policy, specialising in economic and constitutional matters, I find the BBC output is often biased against discussion and thoughtful consideration of views and attitudes that disagree with the conventional wisdom of the large corporations, civil service and international quango establishment. As examples I have in the past been denied access or time to explain the case against the ERM and features of the Euro which duly went on to do considerable economic damage, the case against so called independent central banks when they were in recession creating mode, to consider the opportunities given to nationalisms by devolution or to make the case to rescue industrial and agricultural market share lost during our years in the EU single market. I have written and published on these and other themes extensively and wish to discuss them in a true Reithian spirit of independent enquiry. Instead I have to listen to a propaganda channel which just assumes the establishment view of Euro policy, thinks the single market is always a net gain which we must not lose, that Central Banks are wise and right and the errors of economic policy are all the fault of governments, and favours lop sided devolution which must be encouraged. There is a reverence towards so called independent experts who are often political in their judgements and sometimes not even good experts in their fields with poor track records at forecasting.
I do not think the BBC reveal party political bias between Labour and the Conservatives. The interviewers are usually rightly tough on both parties. There is however systematic bias against England, with many voices representing Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and liberal reporting of the devolved governments with never any consideration of the views of England where most Licence fee payers live. There is no English radio or tv channel to redress the balance, unlike the other nations in the Union which have their own channels. No-one is ever allowed to speak for England. We are endlessly told Scotland voted to stay in the EU but never told England voted decisively to leave. The BBC follows the EU agenda of trying to break England into regional and city area governments, whilst leaving Scotland whole despite the anti Edinburgh tensions in places like the Shetlands and the differences between the Highlands and the main cities. I would appreciate the opportunity to have a conversation with you about global establishment bias throughout BBC output, which has left the BBC finding it very difficult to report sensibly on Brexit or Trump or other populist movements. I think the BBC needs to do a lot more to foster intelligent debate about these economic and constitutional matters, as it misses out on many of the conversations listeners and viewers are having on social media in frustration with their state Broadcaster.
The bias is also reflected in the way so called populist politicians and parties in office overseas are reported. I am neutral on the US election, as UK politicians should stay out of foreign elections and be willing to work with any democratically elected government that emerges in an ally. Listening and watching BBC output it regularly frames the election as the Democrats would wish, concentrating plenty of hostile fire on Trump and his supporters but never doing the same to Biden and his. Coverage of continental parties in government that are sceptical of EU policy is also usually more hostile in tone than coverage of pro EU parties. I look forward to meeting.
Yours sincerely
John Redwood
October 31, 2020
“I look forward to meeting” – hopefully broadcast!
Sadly the BBC is not the only institution where an enquiry based approach is not permitted. If enquiry does not a priori support a result, it is shut down and those involved cancelled.
October 31, 2020
Retail will be smashed forever if there’s a full lockdown in November
Please you and you fellow MPs must stop this at ALL costs.
October 31, 2020
What will wake the Prime Minister wake up?
All back bench MPs threatening to resign their seats force about 100 by elections?
Boris Johnson is just on big bloated disaster.
Vote Conservate get Chinese Communism
October 31, 2020
+1
October 31, 2020
Time for him to be forced out. Johnson is destroying our way of life and economy.
October 31, 2020
OT: First lockdown did NOT after three months, so moron Johnson and two dope side kicks want to do it again!
Come on JR, oust the idiot. It has to be better to try a plan B like you asked the other day.
People must not comply and ignore Johnson like Con Woman articles suggested this week.
October 31, 2020
China pursues Leninist State Capitalism ;it’s certainly not textbook “communist”.Messrs Johnson and Cummings clearly would like to form a Leninist vanguard but their execution owes more to Harpo Marx than Karl Marx.
October 31, 2020
A delight – thank you!
Incidentally, regarding this ineptitude, I replied to one mocking Mark Drakeford’s recent actions with the words “just wait”.
So here we are – Johnson now apes his wisers and betters, but too late – yet again.
October 31, 2020
It’s easy for Wales to decide to lockdown as the economic hit will be paid for by the English.
October 31, 2020
What a curious last sentence – of course if enquiry, on analysis by reason alone, i.e. “a priori” will not lead to a result, then further resources will not be wasted on it.
October 31, 2020
What an amusing response.
The use of empirical data is ignored if it contradicts a desired result of a particular theory.
November 1, 2020
I see, thank you for stating your criticism intelligibly and correctly this time.
What is your evidence for a given conclusion having been “desired” by anyone at the BBC?
October 31, 2020
Sir John, I hope you will advise us of Mr Davie’s response – even if it’s just a polite brush-off!
October 31, 2020
An excellent diary entry!
I cancelled my tv licence 19 months ago.
October 31, 2020
I cancelled mine around that time, too. Havenât regretted it for a moment.
October 31, 2020
Sensible. I bet you donât miss BBC TV either.
All the other TV channels are free on âcatch upâservices anyway. Even some of the BBC stuff is available free elsewhere.
Streaming services offer far better advert-free entertainment at lower cost.
October 31, 2020
We have been BBC-free for about fifteen years now and have not regretted it for a second. In fact, it has been a great relief and very freeing. I say that as someone who used to be a telly addict.
October 31, 2020
ditto
Yes the threats tend to wear off after the first few years, but still keep coming, money is no problem really. Proof its used as a propaganda tool.
Don’t watch live tv.. defund the BBC.
Claim your refund as well. Then refuse to communicate with them unless you want to waste their time.
Why is is the BBC being allowed to borrow from the state.?
Let it go insolvent.
October 31, 2020
Indeed. The BBC is clearly a pure propaganda channel. Worse still they are consistently wrong on almost everything. They are pro EU, pro climate alarmism, were pro the EURO and ERM, pro an ever larger state and ever higher taxes, pro expensive and unreliable renewable energy, pro ever more red tape and over regulation, anti-business, anti-landlord, pro the politics of envy and grievance, vehemently anti-Trump and pro the damaging war on plant and tree food, pro the evil identity politics and all the woke lunacy.
Largely staffed by fairly dim, deluded art graduates with little grasp of logic and almost zero understanding of competitive business, real economics, engineering or science.
October 31, 2020
+1
October 31, 2020
+1
October 31, 2020
Why does the BBC persist in employing mainly third-rate Oxbridge graduates?
October 31, 2020
Well they always used to advertise in the Guardian I think. Perhaps that explains it. With all those use public sector jobs for diversity officers and the likes.
October 31, 2020
+1
October 31, 2020
+ 1
October 31, 2020
+1
October 31, 2020
An interesting letter. Speaking as one who does admire the BBC, I am unconvinced by allegations of bias, but I hope the new DG does give you an opportunity to put your views across.
October 31, 2020
As a left wing remainer, obviously you don’t agree with John.
October 31, 2020
Samara Gold
Glad you admire them it is nice to know that they have got one disciple.
October 31, 2020
you admire but do you listen and watch BBC varied output?
Possibly a Radio 4 and BBC 1 drama fan?
October 31, 2020
âbetween 2005 and 2015, only 132 (3.2 per cent) were supporters of the UKâs withdrawal from the EU! This when 52% of the public did (and this despite all this BBC propaganda dripped on them)â and sensible scientists (who are almost always climate realists though some dare not admit it for grant/job reasons) are clearly banned completely by the BBC.
What would it take to convince you of the BBCâs appalling & endless bias?
October 31, 2020
The politics of grievance. You’ve got your Brexit, your party has been in power for over ten years now, and still you want to revel in playing the victim. How petty. How sad.
October 31, 2020
You mean the Brexiters achieved all of that despite the BBC? So now they should simply ignore the bias?
October 31, 2020
+1 and we still do not have a proper Brexit clean yet.
November 2, 2020
There is no more such a thing as a “clean” brexit than there is a “pretty” disembowelment.
Get used to it.
October 31, 2020
Other than lorry parks, masses of extra bureaucracy, fewer rights, higher prices and intentional ridicule what exactly did the Brexiteers achieve?
November 1, 2020
Sovereignty.
October 31, 2020
+1 thats why we are ignoring BBC output and keeping our money in our pockets
November 1, 2020
If it weren’t for the Brussels Fraudcasting Corporation, that percentage margin would have been a lot bigger!
October 31, 2020
Their vile output has given succour to the EU in thinking that the UK regrets its decision and will now rejoin (alongside output from Sir Starmer, the Libdems and various other antidemocratic groups). D Miliband and Osborne on Any Questions still saying it was a mistake and we will regret not following their wise musings at the time. Nobody on board from the 52% to counter this.
October 31, 2020
Most of the â52%â have scarpered. Rats fleeing a sinking ship. You get the odd idiot who still defends Brexit on national TV – Bridgen, Duncan Smith and a few other oddballs – but most realise the damage they have done and keep their mouths shut.
October 31, 2020
Twaddle.
Where is your data to prove your claim?
November 1, 2020
No we haven’t.
October 31, 2020
The vast number of British do regret the decision to leave but cannot do anything about it. Maybe in another generation or so we might rejoin. It was a catasthrophic mistake made because of the lies we were told and the consequences we will see in a few months time with the finish up of cross channel JIT for business and then the queues at the ports- blue passport and all the the French will screw us
November 1, 2020
No we don’t.
October 31, 2020
Sad for you Charles that you spin this against SJR.
You sound like the BBC – coincidence?
October 31, 2020
The BBC featured Nigel Farage more than any other politician during the run-up to the referendum.
His preposterous assertions were usually never challenged either, because he sprang them on the listener at the very end of his allotted ninety second slot or whatever, and the stopwatch rules in live broadcasting, as he and others are only too aware.
October 31, 2020
Nigel was the weakest Brexiteer, so naturally they featured him. Look at the old clips of the greatest generation arguing for British Sovereignty, Benn, Castle, Shore to name only the Labour Brexiteers. Read JRs books to see the strength of t argument he was never allowed to propound on the disastrous and dead-in the-water BBC.
October 31, 2020
Rubbish.
Where is your proof of that claim.
November 1, 2020
+1000
October 31, 2020
Nigel Farage An intelligent man- knows how to play the opponents game and use it to maximum impact
November 1, 2020
đđ
October 31, 2020
An excellent letter Sir J, which covers the main points without, very sensibly in my view, touching on the licence fee problems and the expensive and dubious enforcement processes carried out by a manifestly incompetent contractor.
October 31, 2020
excellent points.
October 31, 2020
What is the problem. Ban the licence fee and make them charge. Then they will have to respond to customer demand rather than bombard them with idiotic BBC think propaganda.
October 31, 2020
Daily newpaper circulation figures below. So why do the BBC have to ape the Guardian which almost nobody reads or buys? If people paid the BBC it would have to respond to their customers. This rather than dripping left wing, woke, lunacy over them every day.
Metro 1,419,614
The Sun 1,206,595
Daily Mail 1,134,184
Evening Standard 787,447
Daily Mirror 441,934
The Times 359,960
Daily Telegraph 318,000
Daily Express 289,679
Daily Star 274,808
i 215,932
Financial Times 155,009
The Guardian 126,879
Daily Record 103,222
City A.M. 85,738
October 31, 2020
Thank you for those stats – they explain exactly why the country is in the risible and contemptible – in equal measure – position that it is.
October 31, 2020
I realise this is a difficult thing for you to absorb but people have a free choice as to what newspapers to buy and this is the result.
I expect like most on the left you would close down those newspapers you disagree with and have just one newspaper.
Like USSR had with Pravda.
PS
If you took away the Guardians the BBC buy their figure would be even lower.
October 31, 2020
Crap!
October 31, 2020
Much talk of a new lockdown which would be insane. Daily new âcasesâ are now hardly increasing at all. The rate of increase has declined significantly already. In another week or so new âcasesâ are likely to be declining if you look at the trend.
This despite the fact that they are testing hundred of thousands everyday and perhaps as many a 1/3 of the positives are false positives (the government are not giving us the true false positive figures). They are not really âcasesâ either as many do not even show symptoms.
Coming back to the BBC On Any Questions and Question Time this week of the 9 guests only one seemed to be a Trump supporter and she was also the only one who remotely to the right of centre politically. Of 4,275 guests talking about the EU on BBC Radio 4âs flagship Today programme between 2005 and 2015, only 132 (3.2 per cent) were supporters of the UKâs withdrawal from the EU! This when 52% of the public did (and this despite all this BBC propaganda).
October 31, 2020
LL,
First paragraph +1.
October 31, 2020
LL, we have not been given any accurate figures to scare the nation since March. None. Govt cannot still give accurate death figures showing people FROM Chinese Flu not WITH it. We read the fiddling is encouraged. Why? First time ever I have known death certificates not to be accurate.
Witless and Unbalanced warned us in Sept, during their double act, of figures that did not reach even half of their prediction.
No lock down required. Great Barrington Declaration is the way forward. Johnson is now toxic. Time to get rid of him.
November 1, 2020
He is the best we have who would you replace him with? Keep hold of nurse for fear or something far worse!
November 1, 2020
Rishi Sunak. IDS back to welfare and pensions, JR secretary to Treasury. I would only have MPs with conservatist view.
Raab, Gove, Hancock would be dust. I would make Lords and put them straight into cabinet rather than the current crop of crap.
October 31, 2020
The deaths are a combination of Covid, Flu and Pneumonia.
It’s a con to justify harsher measures.
Look up the graph on flu deaths 2020 and you will see they have vanished.
October 31, 2020
So Boris is considering a other ruinous loxkdown. Who else thinks this is cover for selling out on Brexit.
October 31, 2020
+1
October 31, 2020
+1
October 31, 2020
Good article in the Atlantic about the 80/20 Pareto’s rule applying to Coronavirus. Basically 20% ish of infected folk do 80%of the spreading, so finding those 20% and ignoring the 80% is a route to solving the problem. Backward tracing does more to help than forward tracing. It also means just cutting the numbers who they (or crudely anyone) can meet in those few days contributes hugely to solving the problem.
Without data on who is catching this and where they are catching it, it is difficult to justify wholesale measures on the population.
October 31, 2020
Lockdownsceptics.org has the new âcasesâ adjusted by specimen date which show an even more positive message than just reported cases.
âthe reality on the ground is that daily positive tests by specimen date have not risen since October 19th, 11 days ago. Where is the âdoublingâ? The rolling average hasnât doubled since the start of the monthâ
What on earth are Sage and the Government on about a new lockdown for?
October 31, 2020
Excellent sense on Covid from Prof. David Livermore (UEA) today on Andrew Castle – LBC today about 12 mins in. He is spot on.
And I thought the University and East Anglia was just a hotbed of climate alarmist lies, propaganda, lunacy and distortions. Good to see there is still some sense up in Norwich – at least in the Medical Department anyway.
October 31, 2020
We are dying as a nation, drip drip, one bit at a time, as the lifeblood of our society is drained away with lock-downs…
Restaurants and other outlets are closing down, and will never have the capital or incentive to start up again — Is the government so blind to the continued, irreversible effects of lock-downs?
Are we going to get a Christmas lock-down that will totally ruin the year for many, as it’s already been a damned awful year!
What should concern us all are other effects of a global shut-down — Like the availability of food — We managed to scrape through the last full lock-down without too many food shortages because goods were in transit…. but with so much of the world closed for business we cannot rely on food coming from abroad…. BUT are our food producers able to feed us if they are also shut.
Damn the the lack of innovative thinking from experts – they will ruin us all.
October 31, 2020
It would be interesting to know where in the country these “hundreds of thousands” are being tested. From what I’ve seen and heard from other forums, these test centres are like ghost buildings; a few yellow-jacketed officials and very few if any people. And we are going to maybe lock down England for nothing, again, with the BBC spreading doom, gloom and propaganda. I haven’t watched a tv set since 2007 and am thankful for it. It is disgusting what the Beeb has turned into.
October 31, 2020
Iâd like to see these figures too Chris, how many tests per test centre how many + from those tests.
October 31, 2020
The âNew lockdown speculationâ is bizarre, we never locked-down mid-week so why is this speculation saying mid-week is it to coincide with the American election, what is about to go down in the UK that they donât want people to meet and discuss with others. Tell us where the people in hospital caught it (lets not just discuss the number of people with positive tests I now know a couple of people that recovered in a week with hardly any symptoms in fact one didnât know he had it, we are also testing thousands more now we donât even know for a fact how many had it in February, March, and April its all guesstimates).
With a new lockdown are we getting a new furlough scheme including people that were hired after March and havenât previously been furloughed because I donât think businesses that tried to survive the first lockdown will cope with another at the best sales time of the year without full financial support for those workers they lay off?
October 31, 2020
LL when I started campaigning for Brexit, not 1 national newspaper was in agreement.
October 31, 2020
L L
Im not sure about the THOUSANDS tested. Here in North Devon the yellow coated testers are normally playing football
October 31, 2020
LL
+1 Third para – with respect just what did you expect with the EU funded BBC. He who pays the piper…
October 31, 2020
Well put, lets see what he has to say on your letter. He has just defined the scope of employees political excursions effectively saying no more posting on line. Some of them have revolted publicly. It will be interesting to see if they are replaced by more Reithian seekers of truth, and where he advertises for replacements. His start at least suggests he understands the problem. I see it as a last chance saloon measure, failure of which will see the BBC working to a different financial model in the future.
October 31, 2020
Good luck with that, JR.
I thought non – payment of the licence fee was to be decriminalised, why has this not happened ?
October 31, 2020
Why has it not been banned – not just decriminalised?
Make they charge and see how many are prepared to pay for it. Make them compete fairly with other broadcasters.
October 31, 2020
Good morning, and thank you Sir John for raising a number of issues.
The BBC will not change. It is irreversibly Left Wing and bias. The only solution is to simply defund it and leave it to wither on the vine. Yes, a lot of independents will go down too but, that is their fault for not fighting their own corner and changing to suit the way people now view their entertainment.
Youtube, Netflix, Curiosity Stream and others are all producing good content. This morning I watched individual YT’s who produced well researched and produced content mad on their own PC’s in their own homes or, in one case, from a man who lives and travels on a narrowboat on the English Canals.
So screw the BBC ! Keep you woke diversity and politically bias crap ! I’m watching real TV.
October 31, 2020
I would imagine the BBC is pretty safe.
It is and always has been the propaganda machine of the govt.
And since liblabcon is a reality the BBC has never had to change its agenda.
Nudging us towards communism.
Nearly there too!
The government loves and adores it!
And we poor saps thought it was there for us!
October 31, 2020
+1
October 31, 2020
The BBC promotes the Tory Govts cultural Marxism despite any fake outward criticism. It is clear to everyone if the govt was serious it would have acted by now. We had promises since Cameron, nothing has changed. Perhaps, like immigration, in private they are not serious about changing the BBC.
Like all politicians BBC does not mention England. Cameron promised to address the Lothian question years ago. Nothing of substance to date.
October 31, 2020
+1, Hope.
October 31, 2020
Hope. you always talk sense! +1
October 31, 2020
I think you’re correct.
Our host is rather prone to encourage evolution of these organisations, when they need revolution. Exception granted is the EU, where he’s happy to walk away and wave goodbye. Several of our other organisations from the BBC to the NHS deserve a similar approach.
October 31, 2020
Just keep giving them rope.
October 31, 2020
Well said. Thereâs great content out there, a lot of it is free. Since cancelling my TV licence Iâve realised I what a waste of money it was. So glad Iâm not funding the BBC any more, too.
October 31, 2020
+1.
October 31, 2020
There is so much news and comment available on the BBC website that I am begining to wonder why I bother to buy a newspaper every day. Until recently, and maybe this is still the case, I could even find the rules of rugby there … and much else.
Isn’t it time that the BBC gave the dailys a break?
October 31, 2020
A boy called Sue.
We have much to thank the BBC for. By perpetuating the conduct of our political parties, in effect pissing on our heads and telling us repeatedly it is raining, they annoyed a sufficient proportion of the population out of stupor into actually voting.
Had they stopped sneering long enough to listen, the result could well have gone the other way.
October 31, 2020
Yep !
October 31, 2020
Simple instruction for would be BBC reporters get a degree in English or Social Sciences or Media Studies learn no maths, physics, engineering, economics,logic or business. Be a member of some disadvantages group (as visibly as possible). Remember raw emotion wins every time over reason and logic.
Good news is reported thus: Despite, Trump, Brexit, Farage, Populism, Climate Change, Boris, the extreme right …….. Bad news thus. Due to Trump, Brexit, Farage, Populism, Climate Change Deniers, Boris, unscrupulous Landlords and profit seeking businesses ……..
And always remember that to the BBC the state monopoly NHS that kills competition is âthe envy of the worldâ. This no many how many people is kills and fails or how badly it performs in international comparisons.
October 31, 2020
Spot on, and now most sub-45 year olds have been fed this diet since early adolescence. Without a veritable revolution this stodge ball of an organisation combined with all the other “progressive” (double speak) organisations run by arts graduates will run us all into the ground.
October 31, 2020
Translates as “BBC output is insufficiently biased in favour of right wing so-called think tank doctrine, as propagated by several obscurely-financed groups sharing an address in Tufton Street”.
October 31, 2020
The usual knee jerk indicating you havenât read the letter in its entirety, maybe if you are looking for a âone eyedâ agenda you should look in the mirror.
October 31, 2020
+++
October 31, 2020
Nigl – excellent response to MIC or rather Martin in Denial midgit robot.
October 31, 2020
+++
October 31, 2020
Just watch their faces and the output when Trump or Biden wins and it will tell you all you need to know. You are denying the bleedin’ obvious.
October 31, 2020
Trump will win.
October 31, 2020
Once again I have to say, “Well Said”. I look forward to your report on your meeting with the DG.
October 31, 2020
Dear Director General
We are abolishing the license fee. The BBC will have no access to public funds. We have finally realised that it is impossible for any broadcaster to be free from bias. There is therefore no legitimate rationale for a state broadcaster.
Yours, etc.
October 31, 2020
Sir John, perhaps if you’d spent less time crafting a letter on an issue that is decades old you might have had time to comment on the continuation and escalation of government policy AGAINST the people it is supposed to serve. Or perhaps your silence on the matter indicates support for government policy now that the virus is (apparently, according to dodgy government data) increasingly virulent?
October 31, 2020
+1
October 31, 2020
There is, however, absolutely every reason for the Establishment to control a state broadcaster, and for them to convince a large part of the public that it is reasonably impartial.
I would disagree wholly with most of John’s followers about who the Establishment are, however.
It certainly does not include the Labour Party, Greens, SNP, Sinn Fein, the Co-Operative Society, mutuals, and even a handful of lawyers and judges these days.
It does very much include John’s party, however.
October 31, 2020
+1
October 31, 2020
Simeone
Well said ..second that
October 31, 2020
No legitimate rational and worse it is unfair competition to other providers to have this tax payer subsidised propaganda outfit that has no need to respond to its listeners/watchers/customers. Indeed it treats them with compete contempt. Rather like much of the NHS in many ways and for the same reasons. They have your money already anyway.
October 31, 2020
That would get my vote
October 31, 2020
Coverage of Covid 19 seems perpetually gloom-laden with emphasis on dire predictions from Sage and Neil Ferguson (why does anyone still listen to him?) Rarely do we hear the more optimistic voices of Professors Sunetra Gupta and Carl Heneghan.
On climate the BBC are disgracefully one-sided. In 2019 I heard not one mention on news bulletins of the 500 (now 800) scientists who signed a statement that there is no climate emergency whereas a month later they ran as lead story a declaration by self-proclaimed “scientists” including Professor Micky Mouse and experts on snake preservation, whatever that means, who issues the usual unscientific predictions that we are about to fry.
October 31, 2020
With regard to your first point, it looks like the government has preferred scientists that tell them what they want to hear. It is interesting that rather than predicting 500,000 deaths, they are now predicting ‘only’ 85,000 deaths. Yet this is enough to justify another national lockdown. Poor Ferguson didn’t realise there was no need to exaggerate the threat to provide cover for a government-led lockdown. If in the first place he’d said 50,000 would die, government would have happily locked down anyway, with the same broad support from the public.
Incidentally, if it is a ‘national’ measure, MPs will get a vote. I wonder how many rebels there will be?
October 31, 2020
Ian Wilson
+1
October 31, 2020
And that is only the 800 who are prepared to sign not the millions of others who feel they had better keep their head down (for grant, job or personal reasons).
October 31, 2020
Stop press – I have just read an excellent piece by Professor Gupta in the Daily Mail outlining the hostility and censorship she is facing. Inter alia she relates how she was invited to give a radio interview (I must point out she doesn’t actually name the BBC) but was told minutes before she would be forbidden from mentioning the Great Barrington Declaration due to orders from senior level. Who is pulling the strings here in this lamentable killing of free speech and proper scientific practice?
October 31, 2020
Who indeed it is even worse with climate alarmism. The BBC just ban sensible climate realists completely!
October 31, 2020
Tim Davie read English at Selwyn – Better slightly than PPE I suppose but does not inspire much confidence. He almost certainly will not be able to grasp the Climate Alarmist lunacy of the BBC, itâs political bias or to address the huge, bloated inefficiency of the organisation. He is essentially a sales and marketing man given his business experience.
The BBC, on top of being a blatant propaganda outfit, unfair competition and very poor value for money – has policies that actively and blatantly discriminate against people who do not belong to certain âdisadvantagedâ groups. This with their evil quota agenda. They judge not by your character or ability but by your skin colour, accent, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, sex, wokeness or (preferably visible or audible) disability.
October 31, 2020
I guess you applied for another top job being the most qualified but were not selected. Easier to sit at home repeating the same stuff endlessly rather than being out there making a difference?
October 31, 2020
The last time I applied for a job was when I was about 19 and I got it. I have worked for myself since I was about 24.
October 31, 2020
Interesting.
Either precocious or not a graduate…..
October 31, 2020
For transparency, not posted by me.
November 1, 2020
This employer kindly sponsored me (with extra grant money) though Cambridge Uni and then Manchester and employed me over the holidays (on quite a good salary). Plus you got a full grant in those days. I was thus able to save a few thousands to set up my first business (initially in electronics). Later I even got the the Enterprise Allowance Scheme set up under Thatcher (which gave a guaranteed income of ÂŁ40 per week to unemployed people who set up their own business).
October 31, 2020
LL – exactly – – they must have statisticians that categorise all people in the UK. Then ensure all are present in the job groups. End result being a ridiculous majority of minorities rather than true representations of the population.
October 31, 2020
A sort of flower arranging for the TV screen. The trouble is that they then end up with far less able people (as they have not been chosen on ability) so this totally backfires. People then start to think x and y are idiots and conclude they are clearly only there for âdiversityâ reasons not ability.
October 31, 2020
âTim Davie read English at Selwyn â Better slightly than PPE I suppose but does not inspire much confidence. â
People have all sorts of hobbies. Cataloguing the universities attended and courses studied by various people in the news is one of which I had not previously heard.
You are in danger of becoming the pub bore.
A four ball at the nineteenth hole :-
âOh no that Logic chap is standing at the bar!â
âBetter take our drinks and sit outside thenâ.
October 31, 2020
Ps. Many of the license payers would like to know why you feel the need to pay eye watering salaries, beyond their wildest dreams, to people like Mr Lineker for doing not much more than reading an autocue and confirmation that the people responsible for the Cliff Richard and others scandal and subsequent payment of damages and costs, again paid for by the public, are not now employed.
If they remain with the Corporation, the public deserve to know why.
October 31, 2020
Around 7m people watch Match of the Day.
That means, on a ÂŁ1m salary, Gary Linekar costs around 14.5p per viewer.
An MP earns just under ÂŁ82,000.
There are 365 Conservative MPs.
82,000 x 365 = just under ÂŁ30,000,000.
Reply MPs represent all their constituents, all who voted for other candidates and all who did not vote.
Just over 13m people voted Conservative meaning Conservative MPs cost around ÂŁ2.30 for each person that voted for them.
ÂŁ2.30 per voter vs 14p per viewer.
I know who is the real waste of money.
October 31, 2020
Check out the ratio of salaries of quangocrats, charity bosses and union bosses and NHS bosses to minimum wage earner enjoy and get back to us
November 1, 2020
Now add in all the other over-rated and over-paid presenters….
November 1, 2020
So on pay-per-view – no problem. Letâs abolish the TV license.
October 31, 2020
It beggars belief why this man should be paid ca. ÂŁ1.8 million pa. I really don’t know what he does, apart from chairing the occasional discusion between a panel of ex-footballers.
October 31, 2020
ÂŁ1.8 million must be about 18,000 old peoples licences every year (after collection, NI, admin costs and the likes). Just for one employee! I home they can still afford to keep warm while they are watching!
October 31, 2020
Heâs a STAR. Theyâre all STARS! They are all absolutely fabulous and deserve every penny of their huge salaries, pensions, sick pay and expenses. You canât discuss anything without a nice lunch with taxis there and back. Funnily enough, in business you canât claim expenses like that.
October 31, 2020
I agree perhaps the BBC could answer why they pay people like Mr Lineker such eye watering salaries to discuss football (is his salary covered by the Football league?), and the same for news readers, Martin Bell made a good point last week that it never used to be the case, the BBC isnât in competition with the self-funding channels and news sites so it doesnât have to be competitive. Iâd have thought that having BBC trained artists/presenters move around into the commercial sector would be a win win all around? They could also spread the jobs around wider and create more work for more people instead of just a small clique getting every job.
October 31, 2020
Very good letter as ever.
I do hope these letters are actually sent? Do the recipients take much notice?
Well they canât can they or things would have changed.
I seem to remember much sabre rattling re BBC when Johnson slithered into number 10.
Nothing much has come of that!
Yet the rapid response gang have apparently decreed another immediate lockdown…what a field day the BBC will have with that today. đ€ź
Reply Of course they are sent!
October 31, 2020
Reply to reply.
Oh good. I thought we could trust JR.
Well they are excellent letters, requiring a lot of hard work no doubt and I hope they hit home!!
October 31, 2020
I would add that Talk Radio is a channel that is willing to hear and discuss both sides of a discussion. It is speaking up for both Brexit and challenging ministers and Sagesâ decisions about the virus.
And they allow the public an opinion,
October 31, 2020
Have you ever been asked on Talk Radio John?
Reply Yes, quite often
October 31, 2020
You should put a link to the talk radio posts when youâre on Iâd never heard of it.
October 31, 2020
Yes, I am increasingly listening to Talk Radio. It’s very good
October 31, 2020
Looking forward to the new non-woke TV news channel which is due to launch soon (unless it is ‘cancelled’ by Ofcom). If they need programming suggestions, I would suggest periodic one-hour slots for those whose articles or papers have been denied public airing by SJWs. Also a unslanted history of slavery, perhaps presented by the American academic Thomas Sowell.
October 31, 2020
John, are you personally acquainted with DG Tim Davie, from his time as deputy Chair of the Hammersmith and Fulham Conservative Party in the 1990s?
October 31, 2020
What is a âdeputy chairâ?
October 31, 2020
Ah – sorry, obviously a chair for a deputy!
October 31, 2020
Not sure why anyone would want a radio or tv station for England. We already have regional radio at a decent level of granularity, i.e radio Berkshire covering topics of local interest.
The BBC license fee is also excellent value for money with superior entertainment programs compared with the likes of Sky which we had for years at many times the cost of BBC but have now cancelled.
Both left and right see bias. Bias against Trump is imagined though. He is presented as he is, an incoherent petulant narcissist.
October 31, 2020
I totally disagree.
October 31, 2020
It could be quite educational to a lot of immigrants as to the geographical Country called England, then again also a lot of the news readers and their producers who mistakenly say Briton when talking about solely English matters.
October 31, 2020
If the BBC licence is such excellent value for money, people will pay it. I donât think it is value for money so I donât pay it. I do pay for Netflix and Amazon Prime. If the BBC is so great, surely they could compete.
October 31, 2020
Would you please write to the Channel For Filth too.
October 31, 2020
Fully agreed. I’ve more or less given up with the BBC including even Radio 4. There’s much better and more informative broadcasting available through podcasts and other sources these days.
October 31, 2020
The BBC suffers from acute Brexit and Trump derangement syndrome. Only this week we have a second rate Eastenders actor telling us how wrong we all are, then we have jug ears the crisp man openly slagging us off.
I don’t subscribe to the Marxist organisation and I believe millions of others have taken the same position.
It’s time it was a subscription channel then we would see how popular it really is.
October 31, 2020
Sir john
Brilliant. But (always a but) will they take notice. Hopefully a new brush will sweep clean but nobody will be holding their breath.
October 31, 2020
A good review as always.
Which ever way it is framed the BBC is taxpayer funded, but the taxpayer has no ability to challenge, have changed, reviewed or remove their Political views, Wokeness and Cancel Culture. The People have no voice, a selective view starting from bias is not a voice. The BBC clearly has an agenda and will use their unique taxpayer funded advantage over all other views to push it. That surely cant be allowed in a free democracy – then again the have shown they are against that as well.
October 31, 2020
MsM today quote – Lord Hall said: âThe thing you canât get away from is that if you want to have something good, a public service available to all â then it has to be funded by all not by subscription or behind some paywall.â
How on earth is the BBC good or a public service! When it only caters and panders to the minority
October 31, 2020
Off topic
Just seen Boris is to announce a national lockdown to maybe start as soon as Wednesday!
Iâm not going to say anything more such is my fury and frustration at the total idiocy of the situation!
October 31, 2020
I have had to go and lie down!
October 31, 2020
Sharon, I tried to post on this topic, but the simple questions I posed have not passed moderation apparently. Over the target?
October 31, 2020
It’s less silly than the UK’s brexit position, but so would be the entire nation standing upside down in buckets of fish guttings.
October 31, 2020
Brexit Derangement Syndrome writ large
October 31, 2020
Sharon
As someone once said:
“Those the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.”
November 1, 2020
…and I note, that he is preventing Pubs from remaining solvent by disallowing off-sales of alcohol. Thet is probably the one single thing that prevented many publicans from going out of business during the first lockdown.
In Wales, Drakeford prevented supermarkets from selling goods that were available from the forcibly closed businesses ‘in the interests of fairness’.
Preventing pub off-sales (which usually ceased at 7pm anyway) now FORCES people to make their purchases FROM the supermarkets. How is that ‘fair’ Boris? It’s almost as if you WANT publicans to go out of business. At this rate 50% of Pubs will be closed PERMANENTLY by the Spring.
Sir John, when Parliament gets to debate and vote on these latest measures, I would hope that there will be calls for this sneakily inserted restriction to be removed. Perhaps you might seek to table that? Many Publicans will thank you for it.
And…. seriously….. Nov 5th? It’s almost as if the serfs’ noses are being rubbed in it.
Regards,
GW
October 31, 2020
OT Once again we will probably be entering a National lockdown far too late, all because the science is ignored and covidiots, many on here, spout nonsense about the current low death rate so why should we lockdown, completely oblivious that deaths will inevitably follow on weeks after rising infection rates and hospital admissions. We have more likely already locked in more deaths than the first wave as a consequence of muddled policy and dilly dally.
When are we going to get a working track and trace system let alone the world beating one this government promised us back in March ? Where is the accountability for the billions given to the private companies to deliver this ?
October 31, 2020
Excellent summary of the disease with which the BBC is riddled. As an aside, they also fail to use grammatical English. However Iâm afraid itâs all too late, the people have lost faith, we no longer want to pay or listen. Had the Government acted more promptly, they could have saved the national broadcaster, but as ever dither and indecision leads to disaster.
October 31, 2020
Lynn, your first “sentence” does not contain an active verb.
October 31, 2020
This is a passive passive sentence, the thing being acted upon is the subject of the sentence i.e. the BBC.
i.e. means âthat isâ.
November 1, 2020
Yes, it’s off topic, and I don’t want to spend long over this, but “the disease with which the BBC is riddled” just functions as a noun.
In a properly-constructed sentence, that would relate to a main verb, as subject or object, but you do not use one.
Yes, that’s reasonably OK – Tony Blair used such structures all the time in his speeches for instance – but it is a solecism, and if I were to criticise the BBC’s grammar, then I’d avoid that in the same comment.
November 1, 2020
Better to be slightly out on grammar than to continually get facts wrong like you do, supplied by the Guardian. I suggest you pay more attention to substance than pedantic comments.
November 1, 2020
I could give you some good advice Martin, âfor freeâ.
November 1, 2020
Are you âstood thereâ Martin? Or âwere you satâ?
Anyway. âListen upâ.
October 31, 2020
Lynn, take no notice of the very pedantic Martin.
You post was well written and easily understandable.
November 1, 2020
What a hoot!
November 1, 2020
You need to go back to school and learn some grammar.
October 31, 2020
The verb âto beâ is one of the five verbs of incomplete predication. They are helpfully remembered using the mnemonic BLABS. To be, look, appear, become and seem.
I am here.
No âactive verbâ in that sentence either. Perfectly grammatically correct.
October 31, 2020
Hallelujah Sir John, you said what needed saying. The BBC has morphed into an Orwellian construct quite unrecognisable from the useful services that it previously provided. A âstateâ broadcaster is no longer needed, if it ever was. In particular we should be free to choose which (if any) broadcasting services we wish to watch or listen to, and not forced to pay for one that spouts biased nonsense with which we profoundly disagree.
October 31, 2020
The BBC has always been a broadcaster of state propaganda. The BBC is the Ministry of Truth and newspeak has always been its language.
October 31, 2020
There once was a British Prime Minister,
Who contracted a virus most sinister.
It addled his brain and drove him insane…
So he made all the UK his prisoner!
For ever!
October 31, 2020
That is actually very good
zorro
November 1, 2020
And sadly true.
October 31, 2020
Urge action on instead of praising the NHS as if due a sainthood why not draw attention to :-
âCancer survival in Britain the WORST in Europe,â The Daily Telegraph reports.
This and many other similar headlines are prompted by a major new study on cancer survival rates in Europe from 1997 to 2007.
While survival rates have tended to improve, cancer survival still varies widely between European countries. The lowest survival rates for most cancers were found in eastern Europe. The study also found that the UK and Ireland has LOWER survival rates than the European average for many cancers, particularly of the colon, ovary, kidney, stomach and lung. The lung cancer survival rate in particular was FAR LOWER than for other regions. The UK has about average survival rates for cancer of the rectum, breast, prostate, melanoma of the skin and lymphomas.
Researchers say the main reason for low survival rates in the UK seems to be DELAYED diagnosis, UNDERUSE of successful treatments and UNEQUAL access to treatment, particularly among elderly people.
However, patient factors are not accounted for, such as the level of smoking, alcohol misuse and poor diet in the UK.
October 31, 2020
I’d have thought UK treatment of cancers or lack of would be more important than Covid right now!
October 31, 2020
.
…………….. Nicely put — Do please keep us informed of any response.
I would still say there is little hope of the BBC reforming, and should be closed down.
October 31, 2020
My observation of their “Points of View” programme is that the BBC is not open for criticism. Should the presenter of that programme actually interview a responsible BBC official, she offers no challenge to their view. More often that not, she just reads a statement of denial that the group prepare.
I recall the programme used to be better, when members of the public could skewer an editor, but now they just hide behind their defensive wall.
It’s so irritating, I only watch it by accident.
October 31, 2020
Wooo! 11,000 comments re Lockdown proposal in DM.
Readers not happy. Not remotely happy!
What are the ( anti commie coup) Tory backbenchers going to do about this?
There will be a vote on it I hope?
October 31, 2020
+1
October 31, 2020
I see that the London Ambulance Service tweeted out a couple of days ago that suicides they deal with are up by over 50%. I hope the government are proud of themselves, with the result of these silly games they are playing with the publicâs lives.
October 31, 2020
I think I can safely confirm that covid has contributed towards the current crisis, far more than our government. China’s however have a lot to answer for.
October 31, 2020
A vote? You jest.
October 31, 2020
Constituents must write, and write again, short and focused letters/emails to their MPs. Even although some MPs seem incapable of exercising wisdom, integrity, common sense and judgement (let alone have a sound understanding of the science and basic economics – they should heed Prof Heneghan, Michael Yeadon, Ivor Cummins, the Barrington Declaration scientists), they will take note of the volume of letters/mail on a particular topic.
As Johnson shamelessly seems to base policy on newspaper polls and focus groups, clock in with the D Express polls regularly and make your views known.
October 31, 2020
The men in grey suits need to act.
October 31, 2020
Sir John
You are wasting your time.
Roger
October 31, 2020
Agreed. That is why I advocate defunding the BBC. It is time that ‘we’ the people took matters into our own hands and peacefully and lawfully effected change.
October 31, 2020
Roger
I hope you are wrong, but fear you are right.
Please post the response JR
October 31, 2020
I very much hope that the proposed meeting actually takes place. The big question is whether the new Director General understands the need for change and reform, and if so, whether he has the character and determination to make it happen. He will be up against a colossal vested interest in maintaining the staus quo.
October 31, 2020
Not before time, and thank you for your voice of sweet reason this morning.
Are we to understand, did you understand, that these “documents” were shown to the broadcasters before the PM?
October 31, 2020
Brilliant letter John. Let’s hope you at least get an interview. Many of my elderly friends are not paying the licence fee now and instead have opted for Netflix and firesticks. We are considering going the same way as we are fed up financing BBC luvvies to go on luxury jaunts around the world whilst sending back biased reporting and having to listen to the likes of Linekar who along with others are paid a ridiculous salary.
October 31, 2020
Biased and marxist the BBC certainly are and yet they are supporting the same totalitarian anti human agenda being pursued by your government Mr Redwood. It makes me think that all the grandstanding and posturing over BBC bias, Brexit, BLM etc is merely a stage show and that the ruling class are our real enemy and always have been.
October 31, 2020
JR the problem with Harryâs comment is that the actions of Mad Boris make it impossible to refute.
October 31, 2020
Off topic, but nevertheless of concern:
According to a report quoted in today’s Daily Telegraph, our friend the Archbishop of Canterbury and his fellow clerics claim that 31% of children in England today are living below the breadline. Can we really believe this in this country today? Do they mean living in relative poverty? Even that stretches my credulity. Are we really no better than third-world country or has England’s top cleric, not for the first time, got his facts wrong?
October 31, 2020
Qubus
You can make statistics read what you want if you try hard enough, I think the Archbishop has tried very hard.
Who sets the breadline, and what does that actually mean ?
October 31, 2020
I donât know if that figure is right. I do know, because I grew up there, there are a lot of areas in towns and cities where you would not want to live. If you donât live in one of those areas – and no-one in politics or the media lives there – you will never visit them by choice.
October 31, 2020
Well said Sir, there is a BBC Scotland, a BBC Northern Ireland, a BBC Wales, there is even a ….. BBC Asian Network, but there is no BBC England , England doesn’t deserve an identity or voice on the BBC
October 31, 2020
90% of tax payers live in England, don’t they?
October 31, 2020
â England doesnât deserve an identity or voice on the BBCâ
Or within a UK Tory Government either it would seem.
October 31, 2020
+1
October 31, 2020
I see no reason for the State to provide us Pop music, dancing competitions or soft pornography . The market will do that (sadly ). The BBC sucks the life out of a free media. Combined with a closed shop democratic system we end up with the fetid public life in which Sir John Redwood thrives.
A small BBC would suit me nicely . Sir John is welcome to appear between the stair lift adverts on channel 350 if they will have him.
October 31, 2020
God !
*guffawing*
October 31, 2020
Sir John, like many of your readers, I open my online information search each morning by making your Diary my first stop.
Once more your cogent contribution shows why this is so.
Even when it is clear that you are fired up by an issue the calm exposition of your considered opinion and analysis is never over ridden by ill-judged or intemperate language or expression. You add greatly to the quality of debate by this fact alone.
The quality of your reason deserves a wider airing which the BBC should take pride in providing.
October 31, 2020
Excellent letter. Thankyou Sir John, for being valiant for the truth, even though some will ask: ‘Can a leopard change its spots?’
October 31, 2020
Dr Mike Yeadon (previous Head of Research into respiratory diseases at Pfizer) has watched the BBC for 41 years and, after their coverage of coronavirus, will never watch the BBC again.
This video is essential viewing. The pandemic ended in June. Excess mortality is the same for any other year. There is no ‘second wave’. The government, advisers and the media are lying to the public. – and that is coming from the industry equivalent of Sir Patrick Vallance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9vj4UVwnvU
October 31, 2020
Basic common sense Sir John as you explain it so well as usual modestly and sincerely. Britain owes you a great debt on your valuable contributions over decades steering us away from hidden dangers that few give a second thought to.
You deserve so much better from the arrogant ignorant propaganda robotic machine so-called “national broadcaster” outputting spin 24/7 365.
October 31, 2020
Ps off topic but even more important. A Dr Mike Yeadon shreds The SAGE lockdown advice in the Mail on Line accusing Hancock, who we know has no scientific background, of being totally in hock to an incompetent small group who systemically ignore wider and different views.
I have no idea in who is correct but I, and the people I know, have zero trust in what SAGE is saying branding it at best panicky and risk averse and Hancockâs responses, spin and BS.
Please contact MrHancock and ask him to specifically comment on and rebut the points made. We deserve and the ultimate solution demands empirical based decision making.
Much is made of unconscious bias in racism. I donât think it is even unconscious against the Government within the medical community.
October 31, 2020
“Licence fee payers pay for.” – – HAVE TO pay for – even if they don’t watch the BBC.
October 31, 2020
Yes. Another question from Sir JR. âWhen will you introduce a license fee opt out for the people that do not want your services?â
October 31, 2020
Nigl just stop reading and posting on this blog. You will have âopted-outâ free of charge.
October 31, 2020
I HAVE TO pay for your pension. Even though it is zero benefit to me.
October 31, 2020
That’s not true Andy – as a participant paying into in the scheme the benefit is you will be able to draw from it in due course. Surprised that didn’t occur to you.
October 31, 2020
+++
October 31, 2020
I have paid for my pension, and that of others. You are paying for the same benefits in the future.
October 31, 2020
When we worked and paid our taxes we could have taken the same view as you, that we were paying for our parents’ generation State Pension.
But we didn’t. Why? Well we were reasonable, knew full well they had worked all their lives and were in effect paying into the saving scheme which is the Pension. That is why we can happily accept the Pension now, but for most of us learning that we should also make provision for additional finance when our turn came to retire. That is what you should be doing – understanding that we paid for everything when you were a crying baby in nappies. Nothing much has changed.
October 31, 2020
WE HAD TO PAY FOR YOUR EDUCATION – although as you know nothing it was patently a waste of money.
October 31, 2020
Wrong you only have to pay National Insurance.
And that helps to pay for the NHS, the State Pension, unemployment benefit, maternity pay, sickness pay, disability allowances, and bereavement support payments.
You told us you were an employer, yet you continue to reveal how little you understand about how a company payroll is run.
November 1, 2020
Not sickness pay, Edward self-certificated sickness pay for 28 weeks plus sickness holiday pay is now paid by the employers including tiny employers.
November 1, 2020
Ah, its changed since I was directly involved.
Thanks for the info.
October 31, 2020
Andy yet another short sighted stupid comment from you. Are you saying you won’t be drawing your pension when you reach our age?
October 31, 2020
No doubt you will refuse the state pension assuming you live long enough to get it. I imagine, given how angry and fed up you are about everything that, your health will suffer in the long run. When I was working I was quite happy to pay taxes and NI so that older people could have an income in their retirement. Donât be so selfish and begrudging.
November 1, 2020
Pensions paid in the UK are very low and are often topped up with benefits?
Honest recipients of benefits, have very limited means and all income is spent buying goods & services. Some may not approve of the choices made , but the money is spent probably with a better vfm record than present HMG.
October 31, 2020
An excellent precis of the situation with one or two exceptions :
The Today Programme is most certainly guilty of bias in its interview technique.
Conservative ministers and MPs are frequently and aggressively interupted while Labour figures, particularly women, are given a very easy time. Husain is by far the worst culprit as was Sarah Montague before she took her dark talents to the World at One.
Much has been said about Newsnight which, since Jeremy Paxman left, has become an hotbed of anti-Conservativism and Brexit by staff both in front and behind the cameras. Emily Maitlis has been heavily criticised and rightly so.
October 31, 2020
Interestingly feedback suggests the Left feel that they get the rough end and that the Beeb is right wing. It shows that politicos at both ends are not interested in listening, especially to alternative views from their own.
October 31, 2020
Obvious solution is to close it down then. We are unanimous.
October 31, 2020
âThere is however systematic bias against England, with many voices representing Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and liberal reporting of the devolved governments with never any consideration of the views of England.. No-one is ever allowed to speak for England. The BBC follows the EU agenda of trying to break England into regional and city area governments, whilst leaving Scotland whole despite the anti Edinburgh tensions in places like the Shetlands and the differences between the Highlands and the main cities.â
As someone who purports to speak for England John, perhaps you could address these very same points to your own Government who are equally guilty of the above.
October 31, 2020
It’s this silly self righteous nonsense that has us in the predicament we are in with the EU talks- also have you ever thought why they won’t give you or your other ERG friends the access you would like? maybe they, the BBC editorial staff, maybe they consider you to be a crank- a little OTT?
Then for instance what does it matter what our home grown BBC pundits commentators say about the US elections? whatever difference will it make to the result?
October 31, 2020
How rude. Your first paragraph is just a series of insults. Have you ever considered a job with the BBC?
As to your second, it matters because the BBCâ s charter says it has a duty to be impartial. Propaganda always âmattersâ .
October 31, 2020
Barbera
Well said.
Clearly the BBC is in breach of it’s charter, therefore, gov’t has a duty to revoke it’s licence to broadcast.
Problem is Johnson would need to grow some, as it were. Despite him promising to abolish the licence fee. You cannot trust anything he says, he’s a circus act not a leader of the nation.
October 31, 2020
Yes rude- and you can stick it up your jumper – and as far as the second point nobody outside of England gives two figs about the BBC charter.
October 31, 2020
What a stupid comment. People expect unbiased commentary on foreign affairs; why does the BBC have to have a point of view about a matter which you also concede is none of its business?
October 31, 2020
Maybe it’s just because as MPs the ERG only represent a fairly small minority of the constituencies in the UK?
October 31, 2020
For certain millions of British license payers consider the BBC editorial staff to be very cranky and definitely way OTT!
October 31, 2020
Sir John, that is an excellent letter.
Please let us know the response.
I gave up complaining years ago both the to BBC and OfCom so I hope you have more luck.
October 31, 2020
The BBC have threated to ignore all my complaints. I posted a complaint for each negative article about Trump. I couldn’t find any about Biden.
Then they come out with they are trusted, reflect society.
They don’t. What we have is large number of people, and I suspect you fall, like me, into the category that the BBC ignore. They can’t have people who dissent against their world view. After all the BBC is theirs to use for their own ends.
What they discover is that people don’t want them. The defund the BBC is getting worse and worse. People are turning off. Couple that with their repeats because they aren’t making new programs and its over.
October 31, 2020
Itâs not just political bias John. Why arenât BBC reporters asking the pertinent questions about what will happen if the lockdown is enacted this Wednesday – is there a new close down furlough? Will companies be able to furlough people not previously furloughed because it is needed? If Sage think companies can keep coming in and out of business for unknown weeks at a time then theyâve never worked in industry and commerce – all those new staff hired because business people are optimistic people and wanted to push on coming out of a four month long furlough, that didnât work the first time and hasnât been working in Leicester, Blackburn, Liverpool we are told, some business people will not survive another month long closedown without work.
October 31, 2020
Would my life change if the BBC was privatised, and sold off like british gas etc….NO
October 31, 2020
It has already been privatised and sold off.
Almost everything practical, and a large part of programme-making production, is now outsourced.
There is virtually nothing left to sell.
October 31, 2020
And the parts sold now have greater value.
November 1, 2020
Hardly – for instance the BBC’s Outside Broadcast facility was sold off in 2008 – to the gambling industry – who fairly quickly realised that they didn’t know what to do with it, and so closed it down and pulled out of the market.
Give some evidence for your out-of-thin-air, silly claim, please.
November 1, 2020
That was because of the speed of technical change.
Outside broadcasting can be done more cheaply and using equipment that is smaller and lighter.
Allow the BBC to become a independent company.
Let it compete in the media marketplace.
I think it could do very well.
November 1, 2020
Have you noticed that the BBC still does outside broadcasts?
October 31, 2020
A reason given for not making BBC TV a subscription service is Freeview does not have the technology to remove unwanted channels. This falls into “the dog ate my homework” category. Even if the difficulties are equivalent to a Mars landing then tough on Freeview dissenters why should the rest of us have to pay for an unwanted service.
October 31, 2020
Sir John, Well said!
October 31, 2020
Balance – If there’s a black history month, shouldn’t there be an asia history month, a white history month ?
October 31, 2020
glen cullen
“white history month ?”
Nope, that would be racist, that would.
October 31, 2020
A second national lockdown – has this government and your fellow MPs completely lost the plot
October 31, 2020
Even with that, a further 85,000 deaths over winter are being contemplated.
October 31, 2020
Contemplated like the 500,000 deaths they completed in March
October 31, 2020
Beyond balanced journalism, there is an urgent need for the Cabinet and Alexander Johnson to urgently:
a) disband SAGE. Instead use a comprehensive team of real world advisors (not modellers) Everyone I know has grave concerns about SAGE yet the BBC keeps using them and Neil Ferguson and allows no dissenting viewpoints
b) cease Pillar 2 PCR (community) testing until the false positives and dubious lab practices can be resolved
c) improve Pillar 1 PCR (hospital) testing and stop counting repeatedly tested patients as separate ‘cases’
d) stop lockdowns and expansion of tiers as these are based on the current inaccurate testing and modelling.
October 31, 2020
The government are punishing the BBC by only briefing lockdown details to a bunch of newspapers instead. By-passing Parliament, their own MPs, you John, and in defiance of the Speaker’s warning last time. If now a national lockdown is government policy then Starmer was right wasn’t he ?
October 31, 2020
Roy Grainger
“The government are punishing the BBC by only briefing lockdown details to a bunch of newspapers instead.”
Wow ! Biased left wing Institutions must be terrified of Boris Johnson. A man not to be messed with, eh.
The best way to punish the BBC is to decriminalise non – payment of the licence fee, which Johnson said he would do, but hasn’t. I think he doesn’t have the balls and was lying.
October 31, 2020
For those who donât know, the websites âBiased BBCâ and âNews-Watchâ quantify this.
October 31, 2020
I used to watch Andrew Neil on ‘This Week’ and always felt that I was getting a critical but broadly balanced view of events. The BBC didn’t seem to appreciate Andrew Neil quite as much as me though and he was gradually side-lined.
At one time that would have been that. However, thanks to the internet and YouTube, I can now watch ‘The Week in 60 Minutes’ with Andrew Neil at the Spectator
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoaPJkA9GmE&t=5s
So fortunately the BBC is no longer the only available source of news and debate…
October 31, 2020
Sweden is never mentioned by the BBC and every street interview is a person happy with masks and who wants lock down.
The BBC is bent.
October 31, 2020
I really think the BBC just interview a bunch of people on a particular topic, then select the ones that suit their preconceived agenda for broadcast. If there is any balance it’s only because they have decided to allow it.
October 31, 2020
Have you notice half of the interviewees are teenagers or school children
November 1, 2020
+1 and if they want to have someone from the non âBBC thinkâ side of the argument (a Trump, Brexit or Climate Realists for example) they make sure they choose someone who seems a bit mad or odd rather than one of the millions of sensible ones). To make their point even further.
See you got balance but look how mad these non âBBC thinkâ people are!
November 1, 2020
freudian slip?
October 31, 2020
The BBC receives licence payers money from both Remainers and Leavers.
I would have no issue with the BBC broadcasting, as it does incessantly, Remainer biased programmes if it also broadcast Leaver biased programmes.
At least then it would be using its income more fairly and thus better fulfilling its remit to be the public service broadcaster.
The same applies of course to many other issues, such as energy generation or immigration, where the BBC constantly pushes just one point of view and totally lacks any diversity of opinion despite being funded by a majority of the UK population many of whom are not in agreement and whose opinions are not represented
October 31, 2020
Thank you sir John for an excellent article. Just don’t expect the BBC to listen whilst they are funded by a compulsory licence fee which we pay whether we want to hear their views or not.
October 31, 2020
I donât pay it so I donât hear their views.
October 31, 2020
It’s not just the BBC John the mainstream media are no better.
Everyone want to win an arguement using tools that have been proven to be useless/ losing tools. Brexit which will be the best thing that has happened to this country in a long time amplified these issurs. Negative interest rates another crazy example.
Let me try and explain John.
Any budgeting that hasn’t been offset with taxes needs to be borrowed. True to make the choices available as taxing, borrowing or defaulting. That story is completely wrong nothing more than a myth from the gold standard era.
They ignore the fact that govt actually issue the money. If there is always an option to finance the spending commitments with another instrument then saying the amount of debt the govt has restricted the Govt some way is farcical. Saying they can’t do anything with tax due to the deficit or can’t borrow due to the debt then in effect they are saying they can’t spend. Due to their ignorance of monetary operations have lost the argument. With Brexit we need to win that arguement.
They need to stop thinking about it as money and debt. There are many different instruments that can be used. Those different instruments have different properties.
Some you can use at a vending machine, Some you can use to make a transaction in the financial markets. Some pay interest some don’t, but are decentralised and some are anonymous erc, etc All of these are different types of govt liabilities. All of which are guaranteed by the govt at nominal face value.
Which one of the instruments you choose to issue is like comparing how many 10p you want to issue compared with ÂŁ20 notes. That’s what you concentrate on what type of instrument am I going to issue and what do I want to achieve after we leave the EU.
You can make the argument about what instrument pays interest and what doesn’t. If interest payments as a % of GDP become so large and private sector spending is such that there is less non-inflationary room available for other discretionary spending then that is what tax is for. Tax – to reduce private spending and/or the government can reduces its own spending. But before that happens the current account, tax revenue (from higher activity) and saving will be taking up a significant part of the adjustment. Make it clear That government net spending is limited by the available real resources in the economy left by non-government sector saving desires. That the budget constraint needs to be replaced by an inflation constraint.
Saying Reserves that pay interest are debt and reserves that don’t pay interest are money leads you to a bizarre situation that if you are paying zero interest on reserves at the central bank that’s money. If you pay .25% interest on reserves that’s debt.Wether debt pays interest or it doesn’t is the wrong distinction to make. It’s a safe investment, a store of wealth, promised nominal value they are just different instruments that are being used.
If interest rates were zero what’s the difference between a 3 month treasury bill which they will roll over forever and a coin ? Nothing they are just a different instrument. Some say you can’t spend a treasury Bill in a vending machine.Well try spending what’s in your ISA or in your fixed rate bond you can’t spend that in a vending machine either. You have to change it to another instrument first cash. You have to transfer it into your current account. It’s just a different type of debt instrument. We don’t call our savings a different type of money.
Consolidation between the central bank and treasury helps to explain the govt balance sheets clearly.The amount of treasury debt in circulation at any time. Is a decision made by the Treasury and CB together. Central bank independence is a sham.
The Treasury has discretion ex anti
The Central bank has discretion ex post
What the Treasury starts the central bank finishes.
If the central bank decides they want more 30 year bonds in circulation it has two options. To sell bonds it owns or asks the treasury to issue more.
If the Treasury only issued 30 year bonds and didn’t issue anything else.
The Central bank the day after decided to replace half of them with cash.
That’s exactly the same as if the Treasury issued only cash then the CB replaced half with 30 year bonds.This shows it doesn’t really matter what instruments the Treasury issued to finance the spending. What really matters is the instruments the CB chooses to leave in circulation at the end of the process.If the CB wants more bonds less reserves, less bonds more reserves it will do whatever it takes.
The question how many bonds are in the economy is a question the CB is analysing at all times. The CB can set the curve to anything it wants. Instruct the Treasury not to issue 30 year bonds anymore and just to issue 10 year. Or issue 100 year bonds and create a new market if it chooses to do so. It sets the rate not bond vigilantes.
Example:
The treasury has been monitoring its spending for the month and needs ÂŁ20 billion next month so it’s account doesn’t hit zero Treasury says to the CB we are going to issue more bonds next month.
The CB says we have a nice mix of reserves and bonds our balance sheet looks great. If we do nothing because we like our mix at the moment. That will take ÂŁ20 billion reserves from the private sector. As the private sector will swap their reserves for the bonds you are going to issue. So an hour before your treasury auction we are going to buy up ÂŁ20 billion of bonds that are already in circulation. This will create an extra ÂŁ20 billion of reserve balances. We might not do it as a permanent transaction we probably do it as a REPO.
The CB does the REPO with a little sugar in top. Now the private sector has ÂŁ20 billion extra in reserve balances. The treasury now carry out the auction and sell their bonds. The private sector have spent their ÂŁ20 billion reserves balances have their bonds and the Treasury now has the ÂŁ20 billion they needed.
The CB bought ÂŁ20 billion worth of bonds The private sector reserve balance is back where it started with a little sweetener from the REPO. The treasury has ÂŁ20 billion of new funds in its treasury account. The CB has monetised that debt through the back door.The CB has used the primary dealers to do it. The CB provided the funds that the primary dealers then used to purchase the bonds from the treasury.Now the Treasury spends that ÂŁ20 billion into the economy by crediting the reserve accounts.
The CB now says hey that’s upset our mix. We are going to reverse the REPO we did earlier.
The CB reverses the REPO. Takes ÂŁ20 billion out of the private sector reserve balances and puts it back into bonds The CB has unmonetised what it did previously and now the private sector are holding more bonds than they did earlier. The CB is holding less bonds and reserves.
At the end of all that. You would say the Treasury has Borrowed ÂŁ20 billion from the private sector and the private sector are holding a bunch of bonds. You wouldn’t even know the CB was involved and monetised anything.Yet, the truth is the CB and treasury work hand in glove. The CB at each step are in the middle making sure the mix is right between reserves( settlement balances) and bonds. Created the balance sheet it wants.
It doesn’t matter if you fund the deficit by issuing coins or bonds.
The CB has the tools to distribute the different instruments and will continue to do so. Calling the CB independent misses the whole point. Fiscal progressives / conservatives miss all of it by not understanding any of it and the mainstream media are clueless so lie about it. Say it works like a household budget.
Actually the CB should just issue it’s own bonds. It’s cleaner more effective. Just as safe as treasury securities if not safer. Create its own account that has nothing to do with the budgeting process.
Problem solved. Solves the problem fiscal progressives / conservatives can’t even see. This needs to be fully understood when we move out of the Brexit transition period. It is both vital and crucial to make brexit a success and the mainstream media are all clueless about it.
October 31, 2020
Why is Laura Kuenssburg privy to the details of the lockdown going to be imposed by Johnson, and not MPs? Where is the Parliamentary scrutiny? Where is the accountability to Parliament? Why is Johnson able to behave like a dictator, and not a single MP challenge him? Why are MPs not marshalling key scientific and economics experts to present government with measures based on proper science? In short, why are Tory MPs permitting this wilful destruction of our economy, lives, and livelihoods to go ahead?
Perhaps MPs should just give up and go and be journalists, and wait for crumbs to be dropped as and when by the Downing Street cabal? Kuenssburg et al seem far better informed about policy than Tory MPs.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1354434/BBC-news-Laura-Kuennsberg-lockdown-UK-coronavirus-Boris-Johnson-latest-vn
October 31, 2020
BBC Newsreaders not wearing poppies. Why? And this is the Marxist organisation you seek to preserve.
The Tories are utterly without morality that they should seek to pander to such vileness and offensive neh deliberate provocation
I am sure that tens of millions of becoming p-ssed off with your party’s refusal to do what we know to be right and proper…ie crushing Labour’s racist client state
Just do it and we will back you to the hilt. Refuse to do it and you’ll drag this nation into the mire
Oh and I bet Channel 5 doesn’t replace Henry VIII with a black actor as they have with the actress to play Anne Boleyn. The poison of feminism to slander white heterosexual male borders on the criminal
I give up with your party. What can we do except expose you all to the necessary cross examination and to expose your hypocrisy and selfishness in sacrificing our nation to protect yourselves
November 1, 2020
“Virtue signalling is nauseating, says man wearing huge poppy weeks before Remembrance”
November 1, 2020
ever thought they just might want to be remembering their dead grandfathers (like mine) killed by German machine guns in Northern France? My mother only had a vague memory (?) of her father going off to war at 4 years old, but also the very late telegram at the end of 1918 reporting his death Sept 21st. I don’t have to wear the poppy early, but totally understand those that do. Perhaps your thoughtless snide remarks show your general contempt for all things English? I suppose you are to be pitied.
November 2, 2020
My grandfather was killed in WWI.
My father saw some of the bloodiest fighting in WWII.
That was for the freedom to point out all manner of things, including silly, pious nonsense, like that above.
He thought that the European Union was marvellous on that basis too.
October 31, 2020
You are so right. But is it enough to hope for a change or heart or do we (a) have to cleanse the Augean stables or (b) change the way in which the BBC is financed, with no licence fee?
Just to give one example: In the interminable run up to Brexit, you were interviewed several times by Andrew Marr, who never allowed you to develop your lucid arguments for Leave, but constantly and rudely interrupted you. It was clearly a strategy devised with malice aforethought. How I longed for you to say “Shut up, you silly little man. Your viewers want to hear me, not you”.
Now you know why I could never be a politician.
The BBC and whole establishment is in favour of organised religions, particularly alien ones. This is in spite of the fact that the majority of people in this country – particularly the indigenous population – are atheists, agnostics or of no organised religion. This attitude is not confined to the BBC. The various branches of the God squad are over represented in parliament. The Queen’s Easter message gave good wishes to people of all faiths and all denominations but not to the irreligeous majority. Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, sees himself as Defender of Faith. The entire establishment is the problem.
I want the Conservative Party to be defenders of the Kingdom, of capitalism and liberty. At the moment that seems far off. The Monarchy is convenient because it avoids us having an Executive President but it is not essential. We could have a ceremonial President like Germany. It would help immensely if the Church of England were to be disestablished. That would liberate the Monarchy.
October 31, 2020
What Johnson is doing bears a good comparison to the draining of the Aral Sea.
I bet the scientists said that the âscience was settledâ about that!
Communism never ends well and always in total disaster!
October 31, 2020
It is being widely reported that next week Boris will place healthy people under house arrest again for up to four weeks, destroying more businesses and costing tens of thousands of jobs. But the places where we know the virus spreads, schools and workplaces, will remain open and so there may be negligible effect on the infection rate. In which case how are we going to get out of lockdown? Also, is there any truth in the rumour that the Government are deliberately inflating the covid stats by including deaths due to pneumonia and seasonal flu?
October 31, 2020
Announcement in 5 min as I write. This lockdown apparently for 4 weeks the first was for 3 weeks. Does business get the grants again? More furlough?
Yes they speak now of âcorona virusâ which includes pneunomia and fluâ.
November 1, 2020
includes suicides and cancer deaths for the following shutdown in February.
October 31, 2020
H0w dare the BBC run that advertisement about how they don’t wish to steer viewers one way or the other regarding the US elections?
I would frankly feel less insulted if one of the presenters stepped out of the TV and hit me full in the face, which would at least be more honest!
A huge thank you to our host for sending this letter to them on our behalf.
October 31, 2020
When I was still working in my school (primary) there were two short BBC videos. One was Donald Trump and the other, Hillary Clinton.
Trump – long list of faults; Hillary – long list of praise!
Totally biased – great for year 5, 10 year olds eh?
October 31, 2020
+1
October 31, 2020
Don’t know why you are all complaining about the BBC I think it a well run institution with good balanced news and editorial content. That and the daily read of Guardian newspaper keeps me going.
October 31, 2020
The BBC and the Guardian…two peas in a pod.
October 31, 2020
You are South African? The Beeb and the Guardian very mild in comparison with the full blown South African Communism – presumably thatâs why you are in the UK?
October 31, 2020
Grant
Me too!
October 31, 2020
MH no surprise there.
October 31, 2020
Yes, the BBC is a well run institution – for those who are not English and for those who would like to see the country sold out to the ungrateful EU.
November 1, 2020
a special sort of Job Centre.
October 31, 2020
Grant,
don’t you sometimes wonder why you don’t learn of real events in the World?
Do you not feel that the rosy glow from those significant entities may be less than the whole truth. Go on, just think for yourself. It may change your life entirely.
October 31, 2020
Even if you think that, they could provide news content for a fraction of the money it costs to run. It is a gravy train.
October 31, 2020
LOL
zorro
October 31, 2020
Could it be that Grant was just being ironic? đ
October 31, 2020
Excellent!
October 31, 2020
+
. The odds are on Boris Johnson, in his address to the nation at 5pm tonight, pushing England into a Full Lock-down
Time to replace SAGE scientists with someone that can actually achieve something.
We no longer have any faith in the alleged experts that are ruining our economy…!
October 31, 2020
Yes. Please isolate me from SAGE, the CMO, a DCMO, the CSA, the Health Secretary, the Chancellor. The threats to our survival are clear and visible and the PM should tackle them.
October 31, 2020
Apart from ruining our economy and stripping some of their livelihoods, they are blighting the lives of the rest of us. The proposed terms of the lockdown are not very different from those of a convicted criminal released on license from prison with an electronic ankle tag.
October 31, 2020
Bryan Harris
Well, Johnson has done it. National lockdown but schools and universities remain open, pubs to close.
So is it lockdown or is it not ?
The only thing he’s achieved is by the use of the term ‘lockdown’ to cause another round of greed buying. Could have just simply said; ‘pubs to close’
Causing widespread greed buying, cowering away from the BBC, lying about ending EU negotiations on 15th Oct, refusing to send illegal immigrants back to France,
Johnson has to go, we’re done with the con merchant……and he can take his SAGE cronies with him on the way out.
October 31, 2020
A good letter John,
It may interest you to know that I complained to the BBC about its biased stance on climate change – it has long believed that global warming is happening and that it is largely man made. I pointed out that this view was not shared by many reputable climate scientists – including Nobel laureates – and moreover that impartiality required that both sides of the debate be heard. I received the following reply from Fran Unsworthâs assistant, Malcom Balen – Head of Editorial Standards:
âThe BBC does not ban anyone from its airwaves, but it does exercise its editorial judgment over who it should invite.
The BBCâs position is that man-made climate change exists and that the best science on the issue is set out by the UNâs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Although there are those who disagree with the IPCCâs position, very few of them now go so far as to deny that climate change is happening.
Our journalists are therefore asked to be aware of âfalse balanceâ: as the mainstream scientific consensus is that climate change is accepted as happening, we do not need someone who argues the opposite to balance the debate.
We do not, however, rule out including proponents of such views in BBC coverage and there are occasions where they should be included.â
If the BBC believes in AGW, it should encourage open debate instead of stifling dissent. ON several occasions it has had to apologise for inaccurate climate reporting. At present, it is ignoring the multiple instances of early snow and low temperature records, especially in the USA. This is nowhere near balanced coverage.
Please publish the reply to your letter.
October 31, 2020
It’s looking good in swing states for Donald J Trump who almost certainly will be re-elected President of the United States !
Polly
October 31, 2020
Don’t tempt Providence !
October 31, 2020
It’s quite possible.
His voters don’t like having their manners set for them, by the kind of people whom they used to bully when they were in class with them at school.
The trouble is, they depend upon those self-same people for any kind of material quality of life.
Leave voters here have to learn the same uncomfortable – for them – fact.
October 31, 2020
MiC
So you were bullied at school then. Blame your left wing teachers for ignoring your plight, not those of us who voted for freedom.
November 1, 2020
No, I was reasonably popular at my old grammar school, noted for practical jokes at teachers’ expense.
However, the quieter, more seriously studious pupils, who went on to be outstanding perhaps had a lonelier time.
November 1, 2020
Martin practical-jokes? oxymoron!
November 1, 2020
We had a teacher who used to nip into the staff toilet during his double maths to take a cigarette. It had a door spring with a pull handle on the inside. I removed the handle. The next double maths turned out out be single maths for some reason.
October 31, 2020
You were on Radio 4 this morning Mr Redwood – right after the expert who knew what he was talking about.
October 31, 2020
Never second guess the electorate, Polly. But here’s hoping đ
October 31, 2020
Poll I do bloody well hope you are right
October 31, 2020
I wonder if we’re in for one of those (rare) elections where the polls were completely wrong and the likely result was always obvious to anyone counting the hundreds and thousands at a Trump rally while Biden and Harris were drawing tens of supporters?
October 31, 2020
Fingers crossed Polly.
October 31, 2020
No Polly sorry to burst your bubble and have absolutely no idea why you would want somebody with shameful character like Trump to be re-elected it’s just not going to happen- After four years America has had enough of this clown
October 31, 2020
I don’t think either of the candidates are anything to write home about Harmon – and it seems quite likely that a vote for Biden will result in the first black female President before too long. She also happens to be some way to the Left of what most Americans might desire. We’ll see.
Got enough to worry about at home without wondering these two candidates are the best a nation of 330 million can produce. But then we are only about 68 million – and we managed to produce Corbyn & Boris đ
November 1, 2020
Donald Trump will win in a landslide and save the free world.
November 1, 2020
+1
November 1, 2020
define Free World?
Do you feel free in England right now?
October 31, 2020
Good letter – let’s see if he meets you. But meeting someone to listen politely and offer platitudes is different to actually doing something.
My views on the BBC:
1. Not paying the licence fee would cease to be an issue if the BBC did what other providers of paid-for content do: put it behind a login (presumably licence number and password).
2. Their news /current affairs is the only part of their service that could in any sense be regarded as “core” for a State broadcaster. The fact that they proliferate radio music channels actually works against the commercial operators in this space, making it more difficult for them to survive, as the BBC TV channels do for companies such as ITV (it is ridiculous that people must subscribe to BBC in order to watch ITV).
3. The BBC projects liberal socialist “woke” doctrine in many ways. I recently cancelled my TV licence because we had already stopped watching anything they produce. Even the drama series in which they have been world leaders for many years has seen quality nose-dive, with characters often projecting attitudes and values in period dramas that simply would not have been true in those times.
This is a form of indoctrination of less experienced minds into the mindset of the authors.
4. The entrenched lefty/woke attitudes in the BBC are unlikely to change any time soon, even if it is pared back to its core operations. The fact that the job titles of “editor” are now occupied by journalists, who don’t seem to actually edit anything, seems to be using the title to overpay journalists. They claim that they have “an editorial policy” without ever saying how that is policed, by whom, or how it is looked at across all output of one individual, team or the BBC as a whole.
I could go on, but enough said.
The alternative to putting the BBC behind a login is to allow it to show adverts. This option is rarely discussed.
October 31, 2020
And why does the BBC never discuss the following :
At present there are powers of arbitrary arrest by any EU prosecutor of anyone in Britain, and lengthy imprisonment showing no evidence, under the European Arrest Warrant.
Does Government want to keep it that way after 31/12/20, with an extension or a replica arrangement, as was the openly declared policy of Rudd and May?
Or will they stand firm and demand that a British court, faced with an extradition request, must regain the right to see and assess the evidence of wrongdoing already collected by the requesting state? And the power to refuse the request if it sees fit?
If not, EU prosecutors will be empowered to arrest and transport anyone they donât like, on spurious and defamatory accusations, for undeclared political reasons.
Our independence can then be snuffed out at their pleasure.
The public really does need to know the intentions of HMG in this regard. Why are the media not asking the government to come clean, and tell us?
Our friends and partners in Europe can play very rough, when it suits them â just look back over recent history. When Scots demanded independence, the UK said âOK, have a referendumâ. When Catalans asked for the same, they were told âOK, have 25 years in prisonâ, and their referendum voters were physically assaulted by Spanish riot police. Brussels agreed that this was within the ârule of lawâ.
The EU institutions have appointed a supremo European Public Prosecutor, Ms Laura Kovesi, from the Rumanian Prosecution service, which is notorious for using judicial powers of arrest and accusation with imprisonment âpending investigationâ, as a political battering-ram against political adversaries. They are also accused of working closely with the Securitate, the not-so-ex secret police from Ceausescuâs day. Mr Dan Adamescu, a Rumanian opposition newspaper owner, was arrested and imprisoned, and he died in prison. What does this tell us about the sort of European State that the Eurocrats mean to build?
If this is not addressed, the British people risk finding themselves landed with a nasty and dangerous fait accompli.
October 31, 2020
PS re EU Arrest Warrant. The danger is that in a Brexit Security Deal, Government sign us up to a continuation of this appalling arrangement.
October 31, 2020
Am so looking forward to a Biden win in the hope that it might restore some normalcy and decency to the US and the world. Think of all the good things that might follow a Biden victory Vs four more years of the same or worse- I think BBC is on the side of decency
November 1, 2020
If Trump does not win it is the end of the free world.
November 1, 2020
âNormalcyâ is Trump. The burning of America is Biden.
October 31, 2020
I agree. Who are these people who are getting tested? If I was feeling poorly Iâd just take myself off to bed and quarantine myself. The last thing I would do is get a test, especially when it canât be relied upon anyway. I canât believe most young people would get tested.
Thereâs something very suspicious going on.
October 31, 2020
A valid and reasoned argument – which I agree with
October 31, 2020
BBC Breakfast has turned into a ”soap” being a mixture of Casualty, Holby City, and Call the Midwife. It champions mental health and does everything to ensure that you start the day utterly depressed.
The have taken the word ‘News’ off the title. At least that is honest as there is none!!!!!!!
I hope you get a reply Sir John
October 31, 2020
Why does Robert Peston know what the measures are going to be when Johnson announces lockdown details? What about MPs, and Parliamentary scrutiny?
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/what-are-the-new-lockdown-measures-for-england-
October 31, 2020
Original Chris
“What about MPs, and Parliamentary scrutiny?”
The EU lover Johnson obviously rides roughshod over such things.
I think we should now ignore anything this con merchant says, and have him removed from office.
November 1, 2020
+1
October 31, 2020
Well put John. I look forward to your confrontation with the DG. let’s hope he is genuine and is not just a front man.
October 31, 2020
Worth putting a shot across the new man’s bows I feel but your letter would possibly have more impact if it had concentrated just on the one sided nature of BBC coverage without the opportunity for full discussion and representation from opposing arguments. Very little is ever settled.
By adding what you wish to discuss I think you reveal your own prevailing outlook and values, and you are in effect saying I am right and the BBC was wrong when you really are just asking for balance and then leave it up to the listener.
October 31, 2020
Well said John. My wife thinks Donald Trump is a terrible person for no particular reason other than watching the BBC.
She doesn’t want to listen when I try to point out the good things that Donald has done because, unlike the BBC, I’m not an authority.
October 31, 2020
Sweden 9 deaths yesterday to our 274.
No lockdown.
I know Martin disparages Tory voters for breaching lockdown but it really isn’t us. Students do not vote Tory and nor do BLM etc.
Even if Martin is right this lockdown will fail for that reason.
The Tories have just pulled the plug on the economy. Boris is held prisoner by the mistaken Sage group and various others – possibly his wife too.
You will be out of office by insurrection before the summer. Never before have I felt that violence and disobedience should be justified against our own government. I shan’t be joining it but I will fully understand it.
November 1, 2020
+1
October 31, 2020
Why is CV-19 not called a syndemic ?
It is not a pandemic. It kills (by a large proportion) people already ill with known illnesses. Shield those.
This isn’t even a proper lockdown. Universities (the hotbeds of CV transmission) are still open.
October 31, 2020
NLA
“Why is CV-19 not called a syndemic ?”
It is syndemic. Read the BMA assessment in the Lancet, they identify it as such.
If Johnson and his SAGE cronies admitted the virus targets the morbidly obese and those who’ve abused their bodies, they wouldn’t get away with this ‘pandemic’ con trick.
November 1, 2020
Indeed all six of the people in my daughters university flat tested positive. None had serious symptoms at all. The more young people given a free vaccine in this way the better for all.
October 31, 2020
Just waiting to hear about the lockdown. My son has just bought his first house with his girlfrind. She has just left a well paid job on a super yaght to be home with him. She has a job now as manageress of spa and beauty salon in a prestigious hotel in the new forest. My son is selling solar panels and was doing well. How the hell they are going to manage this lockdown now is beyond me. We can help out a bit but not finance them completely. I despair.
October 31, 2020
Boris says if we don’t lock down the NHS will have to choose between Covid and Non Covid patients…
B…b… but….
That’s EXACTLY what the NHS has done. TWO of my friends have died of cancer and avoidable heart attacks in the last lock down !!!
Vile government. Utterly vile.
October 31, 2020
NLA
“Vile government. Utterly vile.”
……comparable to that which can be seen floating on used dishwater, without using the actual word.
November 1, 2020
It seems over 80s were often not given care and nearly 20% caught the infection in hospital. Only about 10K of extra deaths were in Hospital and 60K extra deaths were in care homes and at home largely untreated.
Protect the NHS, pay for it all your life and when you need it go and die elsewhere please.
November 1, 2020
Sorry to hear that mate.
Totally narrow minded. The government is treating this like some military campaign.
November 1, 2020
+1 lucky I was sitting down when he said that. Is he in the same country as the rest of us?
October 31, 2020
Dear Sir John, if only there were more politicians speaking up for ordinary common sense, as you do, whether it is leaving the e.u., dealing with an epidemic, or the BBC.
October 31, 2020
If there is a second national lockdown, I cannot support it this time. No-one likes being lied to, but what we have experienced is full frontal assault! We have been treated with dis-respect and contempt!
Weâve been treated like infantile idiots and the assault has been relentless!
Lord Sumption is correct – we now have an authoritarian government.
November 1, 2020
+1
October 31, 2020
If this conservative party does not grow a spine and vote down this lock down then as far as I am concerned it is unfit to govern!
Some interesting stats in Dr Mike Yeadon article in the mail; over 44,000 scientists, public health experts and clinicians have now signed the Great Barrington Declaration; how many SAGE idiots 60-70? Out of the last 27 years, 2020 ranks only 8th for mortality.
It’s a bad winter flu following a winter flu trajectory.
October 31, 2020
And there is no exit strategy. At the start of December IF the lockdown isn’t extended they will arbitrarily place districts back in tiers which might be tantamount to a full local lockdown. I wonder how many pubs, restaurants and breweries will bother to re-open, having poured thousands of gallons of beer down the drain for a second time and knowing that lockdown 3 will be on the horizon early next year? How many leisure centres will recall instructors who have had to find alternative jobs again? Furthermore I still suspect we are being neutralised ready for a Brexit betrayal.
October 31, 2020
Will you be voting with the government and opposition on Wednesday?
I assume the SNP DUP and Plaid will not be in the chamber
October 31, 2020
thanks for talking sense on TV today John.
watched the TV show of Boris and his poor quality scientific advisors.
there for us all to see was a first class display of how low quality our ruling classes are.
the Conservative party now has no chance of winning another election, you are all dead in the water. there are going to be a lot of very good people with time on their hands, its inevitable a new party will emerge and beat all of the clowns currently in parliament.
this cannot go on.
November 1, 2020
Boris needs to be replaced pronto, with a lifelong Brexiteer!
October 31, 2020
Could you right a letter to the FA Sir John asking why the football strip for the first time in over twenty years in the last three games have had no George cross on the strip.
October 31, 2020
Yossarion
Because the FA are cowards.
November 1, 2020
The George Cross is no doubt perceived as a reactionary, right-wing symbol bordering on pseudo fascism.
October 31, 2020
I know this subject is off-topic but, today of all days, it is highly topical :
In today’s Times there is the heartbreaking story of a brave woman in the most desperate of circumstances trying to mitigate the worst effects of terminal cancer by ending her life at the Dignitas Clinic in Switzerland in the middle of this pandemic.
I would hope that, having read this story, our host will take up the cause and campaign for people in such desperate circumstances to be treated more humanely so that they can end their lives with dignity and without pain, surrounded by family and friends at home
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/my-dignitas-flight-to-beat-lockdown-m3gqtcsv7
October 31, 2020
Perhaps, Sir John, you might consider posting your views on this topic and sound out the opinions of your loyal contributors ?
October 31, 2020
I no longer contribute the the BBCâs coffers and never will again until they start paying their âstarsâ the wages they deserve. Talking between records for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week with, no doubt, at least 6 weeks âholidayâ is not worth ÂŁ1.3 million of anyoneâs money. And she is most definitely not getting any from me.
November 1, 2020
What I’d give to have Alec Leicester back on very early morning radio.
One who was sacrificed in the name of PC so that Zoe Ball could turn later morning drive time into a childish version of woman’s hour.
BBC do not understand how isolated we twilight workers are and that we need to hear live, gentle human voices at that ungodly hour… not a repeat of Saturday afternoon’s nostalgia radio with completely the wrong tone and energy about it.
I don’t want to jig and boogy at 2am and I certainly don’t want to be taken back to the years where I could have taken a different career path and not ended up being on the road at 2am in the frickin’ morning in my fifties.
October 31, 2020
Looks like now that EU is disappearing from the scene and cannot be blamed Ă nymore the English disgruntled are switching their venom onto the BBC… as always somebody else is to blame..the old English sickness
November 1, 2020
Not at all. I have been anti BBC since Blair got into Downing Street. I am not blaming the BBC for anything. I just don’t like the bias and the stupid amount of what used to be my money they pay their staff and presenters.
Why the hell I should have to pay the BBC to watch Sky News I have no idea. Can you justify it?
November 1, 2020
Jacques the BBC was the local âarmâ of the EU. We wish to be rid of both.
October 31, 2020
NO CONFIDENCE
October 31, 2020
Jacque
“the English disgruntled are switching their venom onto the BBC”
…and with good reason.
November 1, 2020
Having wasted a evening ,missing two rugby internationals and F1 qualifying to make sure that the previously trailed lockdown was actually to be announced, imagine my total horror of missing the chapter in Johnsons’ address which explained exactly what changes to NHS and PHE planning, training, staff re-assignment back to medicine from administration management, reassurance that adequate PPE was now to hand and that not only the previously constructed Nightingale hospitals were fully staffed, and ready but that significantly more capacity increases were now available in all Departments to resolve the backlog of critical care and necessary services such as chiropidary and audiology etc.
It seems not to be on the BBC bulletins or website either. Can anybody put up this information for us all. Surely the summer has not been totally wasted?
November 1, 2020
The Nightingales aren’t equipped to deal with the comorbidities that usually come with a CV-19 patient. And ventilators have been shown to be the wrong way to treat.
They are being used for political effect only.
November 1, 2020
There are no changes – just stay at home, meet nobody essentially, queue at food shops causing mass shortages, plan how you will live with no income for the next year or more.
November 1, 2020
Gregory I assumed that all of that was so obviously achieved that it need not be mentioned. Surely no government would ask for more sacrifice and death-at-home-alone without have implemented the basics?
November 1, 2020
Nobody should get congratulations until they have proved themselves however NOTHING will change. The BBC will continue with their left wing liberal indoctrination of the populace.
Defund the BBC and follow alteranative media which is far more truthful. Regarding your last paragraph, Donald Trump will win in a landslide therby saving the free world from Tyranny.
November 1, 2020
…thereby…..
November 1, 2020
Letter to the government:
Dear government
I have a pint after a dog walk at the beach a few times a week. Before you go in you are told to wear a mask and wait to be seated. When you enter someone greets you, makes sure you use the sanitiser and that you either scan the code or provide your contact details. You are shown to a seat and your order taken. The drinks are delivered to your table and you pay using a card. I have noticed as people leave, the table is cleared at once and sterilised. It is a rather soulless experience but at least the pub is open and, hopefully, the landlord is staying solvent.
Now, despite everything he and thousands of other publicans, restauranteurs and cafe owners have done – the money they have spent putting up screens etc. – you have decided to take away their living despite their being no evidence that the virus is spread in the sterile conditions I have described.
There is no evidence that the hospitality industry is spreading the virus.
Also shops have put one way systems in place, put up plastic screens, limited the number of customers in the shop, insisted on masks, provided hand sanitiser and generally done everything they can to stop the spread of the virus – and now you are again taking away their ability and right to earn a living. For heaven’s sake, WHY??? The virus is not being spread in shops that are doing the right thing.
Cinemas that have stayed open have restricted the numbers and insisted on social distancing etc. Now, they too, will lose the ability to make a living.
Meanwhile people come and go at airports with no testing or restrictions of any sort. Demonstrations – depending on what is being demonstrated against – where thousands stand side by side are allowed with no fines and no interference.
The world-beating ‘track and trace’ system is a farce whose only purposes seems to be to waste billions of pounds as quickly as possible on companies who are not performing and whose contracts allow them to get away with it.
Nightingale hospitals were built and not used.
The data available seems to be useless. I am regularly exhorted to ‘find out about the virus in your area’. It says ‘enter your full postcode’. I duly enter my full postcode and see the results for the whole of Dorset. Surely the result could be narrowed down to my local area? A small number of people in Bournemouth and Poole have the virus – that’s an hour’s drive from where I live in Dorset. The virus is virtually unknown in West Dorset. Yet, we will be locked down too.
It makes no sense. The handling of this is being undertaken by people who do not feel the consequences of their actions. You don’t lose any of your wages – nor does anyone advising the government. It would be interesting to see what advice would be offered if the people offering it knew they were going to lose their wages for 3 months – or be on 80% for 6 months – or, even, lose their jobs. But, of course, no-one employed by the government feels any pain at all. It is left to the private sector to create the wealth and take the pain.
I could go on and on. I think it is high time you selected someone competent to deal with this crisis.
November 1, 2020
And yet the labour party and many many Conservative MPs will support this latest farcical will-he-won’t-he agree with tweedle-tweedledum and shutdown England into obscurity (unless you travel in and out of the country with no checks whatsoever since February).
The poor man lost what reasoning he might have had when Covid struck him.
He must be deposed urgently.
November 1, 2020
Shhh Mike or theyâll send Dorset a dose.
November 1, 2020
+1
November 1, 2020
If were to find myself in the very fortunate position of being appointed the Minister for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, I would revoke the BBC’s broadcasting licence within 5 nano-seconds of my bum-cheeks settling onto the office chair.
They should be barred from using the word ‘British’ to describe themselves.
Their radio frequencies should be given over to another – patriotic – national broadcaster, with a 24/7 national News channel.
The only way the ‘BBC’ would get their licence back is if they made an undertaking NOT to broadcast any News or Current Affairs content until each and every one of their directors, producers, presenters and broadcasters had undergone anti-bias training.
Andrew Marr, Evan Davis, Mark Mardell, and the utterly, utterly appalling Anita Annand (the worst presenter the BBC have, IMO) would all get their P.45s.
November 1, 2020
Nothing will change John, the BBC is our Pravda.
November 1, 2020
Good for you, John –
My personal belief is that the Biased BBC is way past saving – I do not believe that any person would be employed there or get promoted or put in a position of responsibility if they were an openly Conservative supporter. The Labour message is the only one they have and the message is always the same, reinforced by the selection of guests on panels to the reporting of any situation, from a protest to a traffic accident.
The entire organisation is rotten to the core. We must stop pussyfooting around, the Charter should be revoked, and the funds stopped entirely.
In 2020, with the fantastic video and online publishing capabilities available to anyone with a laptop and internet connection, there is absolutely no justification for the British taxpayer to be funding such an archaic and anarchist organisation.