A couple of tweets by the Culture Secretary does not create a new policy. It appears for the next few years the Licence Fee remains, though for a couple of years it may not increase. What she has done is invite those interested to debate the future financing of this important national institution.
The Licence fee is becoming increasingly difficult to collect as many people turn to social media and commercial entertainment and news services which they say they can legally access without paying the Licence fee. The Fee is also resented by more people who are paying for access to non BBC service but still have to pay the tax because of the way they watch other services. The BBC continues to antagonise people who legally do not need to pay with their intimidating emails and messages demanding payment.
One of the reasons BBC support is dropping is the attitudes and content of much BBC output. Although the BBC sought to be impartial over the formal period of the EU referendum. for the rest of the time before and after , it is remorselessly pro EU putting the EU case against the UK and refusing to treat the EU to critical pieces on its policies and on its ways of arriving at them in the way it does for any UK government. It campaigns relentlessly for net zero policies, weaving them into the fabric of many of its programmes, and favours the experts of world organisations however wrong they turn out to be. It plays up Scottish and Welsh identity but refuses similar treatment for England.
It also has some great back catalogue material, employs some talented and interesting people and produces some good programmes. If it wishes to re establish itself as the accepted voices of the UK it needs to become the people’s BBC. I suggest that the government should now move to decriminalise the licence fee, making it a bill like other household bills. Enforcement occupies too much time and resource in magistrates courts. The BBC should also be told to offer the same level of support and service to England that it shows to Scotland by having BBC Scotland.
January 18, 2022
Good Morning,
If I don’t pay my water, gas or electricity bill, I get that service cut-off. Why can’t I get the BBC cut-off also?
January 18, 2022
Because the Beeb is everywhere, like a continuous shower of neutrinos. There is no escape from it. None!
January 18, 2022
Try tin-foil hats
January 18, 2022
Strange – I see and hear nothing from the BBC unless I visit their website.
January 18, 2022
There tentacles reach far & wide, regional radio, world service, C4, C5, SC4, Dave Freeview, school channels and their website to name a view
January 18, 2022
What compels you to watch or to hear any of those?
January 18, 2022
not really – we see and hear nothing from the BBC until we turn equipment on.
January 18, 2022
@S_W; “Because the Beeb is everywhere, like a continuous shower of neutrinos”
Scrolling through all the stations on my DAB radio there are way more non BBC stations listed, including Times Radio etc, when I push the button marked 3 on it my TV shows ITV/ITN, when I push (sequentially) buttons 233 I get Sky News, 236 GBNews etc.
Either you are talking nonsense (most likely), your radio/TV is broken or you need to learn how to use them!
January 18, 2022
The fact that Sea Warrior was obviously joking is clearly beyond your humourless ken.
But you do make the very valid point that there are LOADS of radio stations, of all sorts (and now GB News is also broadcast on DAB+ radio!) so clearly there is no need for people to be forced to pay the BBC for its radio offerings. They should sink or swim with advertising funding!
January 18, 2022
@X-Tory; What are you bleating about, the UK radio reception licence was abolished in 1971, no one has been ‘forced’ to pay the BBC for its radio offerings since. Duh!…
But you do rise a very valid point, if your logic has any validity, given how many non subscription TV channels are available perhaps no one should be forced to pay the Sky or BTTV offerings, they should have to sink or swim with advertising funding alone, just as commercial broadcasters do and how many seem to want the the BBC funded.
January 19, 2022
We still have to pay for BBC emissions even if we don’t watch or listen to them.
January 19, 2022
@dixie; Consumers also have to pay for both commercial and subscription broadcasters emissions we donât watch or listen to, in the case of subscription broadcasts, emissions we can’t access.
January 18, 2022
More to the point the same with Netflix, Amazon Prime etc.
January 18, 2022
And in addition, why should I have to pay a BBC licence fee if I want to watch live tennis on say Amazon Prime?
January 18, 2022
I pay my licence fee but canât get Netflix or Sky Sport for free
January 18, 2022
find a friend who pays full SKY and ask for their GO facility.
January 18, 2022
My friends are law abiding citizens and would never defraud any broadcasting company, and love the BBC and everyone that works thereâŠ.if anybody asks
January 18, 2022
Exactly
I stopped funding them after the run up to the referendum. It should be a subscription service or part of our Virgin package.
Paying for the likes of jug ears and Zoe Ball is not attractive to me.
January 18, 2022
+1
I suppose because the delivery of its nasty propaganda is deemed more important than peopleâs need to keep warm?
January 18, 2022
âA couple of tweets by the Culture Secretary does not create a new policy.â
Indeed. It has successfully made headlines though, as has the story of Royal Navy involvement to meet illegal immigrants in boats. So they could be viewed as part of the response to the partygate bad news – an attempt to recapture the front pages.
Like many here, I no longer pay a licence fee. The two year reminder letter dropped through the letter box just after Christmas with a threat if I did not respond to it. Like others, I do not miss TV and free BBC Radio is often irritating too – particularly Sarah Montague on the one oâclock news.
There is also a big threat to commercial services broadcasting sport. Every football match -including 3pm kick offs -formula one racing, cricket etc is now available free on streaming services. They are illegal but there is no effective way of preventing people using them. Attempts to close down the streamers are unsuccessful. They simply switch to another location or country.
Anyway, the BBC saga will run and run. There will be much hand wringing but no finale for a very long time.
January 18, 2022
@Peter Woods; If you do not have a gas supply you do not need to pay any gas Bill, and no one needs to have a mains gas supply as you can cook and heat via other means, if you have you open generator you do not need to pay a electricity Bill (nor fuel duty as you can run it on red Diesel, for now…), if you have a well and suitable cesspit you do not pay any water Bills, if you do not own and use a motor vehicle on the public roads you do not pay any VED, even though you might still ride your horse or bicycle along the public roads.
No one has had to pay a radio reception licence in the UK since 1972, and as our host helpfully points out, there are many legal ways of watching streaming content via the internet that do not require a TVL. Failing that no TVL is needed to watch prerecorded commercially released content such as boxed sets of DVDs.
January 18, 2022
Come off it Jerry.
Nearly everyone in the UK has a TV thesedays.
If I anybody wants to watch live, and I repeat live TV (but not from the BBC) then they still have to pay the BBC fee.
January 18, 2022
@jerry
None of which explains why, if I pay Amazon to watch live tennis, I have to pay the BBC too.
When I go to a BP petrol station to buy petrol, I donât have to pay Shell as well. So why should the BBC get paid by me?
January 18, 2022
@Mike Wilson; “None of which explains why, if I pay Amazon to watch live tennis, I have to pay the BBC too. “
As I understand it, that very much depends if Amazon are sharing the rights with another UK broadcaster, if they are not then you likely do not need a TVL to receive the service, although if you watch the streaming service via a TV set (instead of computer monitor etc.) you will need a TVL. Don’t blame the BBC for parliament making a pigs ear of the legislation!
As for your other point, true, when buying BP petrol you do not need to also pay Shell, but you do have to pay VED, that the govt may or may not then use to maintain the highways. Remember the TVL is a licence to RECEIVE broadcast TV and some IPTV services, it is the govt who decides were the money goes once collected [1], it could well be possible that a TVL fee remains even if the BBC were to be either entirely closed down or converted into a commercial/subscription broadcaster, the revenue then being use to say subsidize the often promised network of ultra local PSB TV, or the availability of FTTP, in the same way as the govt top-sliced the TVL fee to fund certain aspects of DSO (such as free STB’s for those who needed them).
[1] and it is only in recent years that the BBC has had a direct hand in its collection, previously it was the GPO who enforced collection
January 18, 2022
Good point Mike.
January 18, 2022
I genuinely don’t know what the BBC is actually there for nowadays, to be frank, and have felt this way for about 20 years.
Is it meant to provide mainstream light entertainment such as EastEnders or Strictly, or to educate the public about ???, or to provide full and impartial coverage of political matters, or to provide access to culture and cultural activities that is unobtainable unless one can afford to tour the world or regularly visit concert halls, for instance?
I know what I would like it to do, but would be interested to read other opinions.
January 18, 2022
It is supposed to inform, educate, and entertain. It was also understood it would provide a non commercial service of a higher standard and in better taste than its one commercial rival. In fact, it tried to compete with its one commercial rival, even to the extent of feigning advertising breaks – with adverts about itself.
January 18, 2022
rose, It is supposed to inform and educate so where did the BBC news programs and information programs go wrong with the WASPI women, they claim they weren’t informed of the sharp increases in pension years and didn’t know to save more. I knew it was coming because I’m a political person, when Blair first announced he intended to equalise the pension age I regularly commented against it and the short notice. My friend born in 1954 suffered particularly as her birthday was just over the cusp and she lost 4.5 years of pension and had to continue paying employees ni for those 4.5 years (so a personal loss of around ÂŁ43-ÂŁ45,000)
January 18, 2022
Indeed now just a left wing propaganda outfit for climate alarmism, break up of the union, pro the EU, Covid alarmism and for self promotion of the BBC.
January 18, 2022
Taking television first: Inform – yes but to a political script.
Educate – adults or children, or both? It doesn’t deal much with the modern world of science, computing or other technologies which we rely on. History is covered but only through focus on ‘glamorous’ major figures, and how the wealthy lived.
Entertain – well the biggest audiences have always been covering various sports. BBC has almost abandoned then all. The focus is dumbed down soaps, or drowning us in themes that run and run, and get repeated later ad nauseum.
Radio: Just what are the audience sizes for the domestic major channels? And why cover world (very low) audiences when others do it better. Trying to hang on to Empire respect as the truth medium? – don’t make me laugh.
January 18, 2022
what is wrong with my suggestions?
January 18, 2022
Rose- you forgot to mention UNBIASED broadcasting and reporting.
January 18, 2022
I think it was taken for granted that the BBC would be truthful and patriotic as well as educated.
January 18, 2022
Propaganda.
January 18, 2022
Russian Television (RT) worldwide BAD
British Broadcasting Company (BBC) world-service GOOD
All propaganda is bad
January 18, 2022
-The license fee tax should be rescinded immediately, made subscription only.
-Huge salaries, if you can get woke appointed. Another place for jobs for the favoured.
-Globalist propaganda with no effective oversight by customers demand.
– Anti popular democracy.
-massive cpi cost push and demand(QE funny money) coming as expectations are reset to persistent high inflation.
Bills hit. Heating or Eating or Watching.
January 18, 2022
I think the Covid crisis has shown us very clearly what the BBC is there for. It’s to manage public opinion in a way that suits policy-makers. To set the Overton window in such a way that dissenting voices are marginalised or suppressed entirely. To challenge and disrupt social norms so that our society’s traditional values can be replaced by acceptance of endless novelty (as Christopher Booker observed many years ago), in particular new ways of making money for the favoured few, whether it’s PPE or green crap. It’s there to give interviews to politicians who the public think are in charge, but not to expose the chumocracy enriching themselves at our expense.
January 18, 2022
SM the alternative strand of opinion is summed up by Polly Toynbee:
“The World Service reaching 279 million people a week and the BBC News website the worldâs most visited” is considered a soft power. What % of its overall (licence fee) budget is spent on this world service? What subsidy do they get from the government on top of the licence fee to provide it, does that contribution cover the cost?
January 18, 2022
But to what ends? The BBC promotes its own views that are often unsupportive of the UK. Toynbee may support them, but beyond her dedicated followers do we? And if not, why should we fund it?
January 18, 2022
a-tracy, downloads.bbc.co.uk âBBC Annual Plan 2021/22â, March 2021, 69 pp.
For 2021/22 total income ÂŁ4,039 m with ÂŁ3,736 m from licence fee income (p.38).
World Service ÂŁ325 m (p.39)
January 19, 2022
It doesn’t say hefner how much the BBC received from the government on top of the publics licence fee for the World Service -v- it’s cost to the BBC to run it.
January 19, 2022
The cost is ÂŁ325m taken, I guess, out of all the income that the BBC gets ie 3,736 from the licence fee and 4,039-3,736=303 from other sources.
In absence of other information, it could be that ÂŁ22m are provided by the Government (FCDO?). You would have to read the 69pp of the report to see whether this is the case. Or ask Nadine Dorries MP or Sir John for details.
January 18, 2022
SM : âI genuinely donât know what the BBC is actually there for nowadays, to be frank, and have felt this way for about 20 years.â
Just like our eliteâs push to unilaterally save the planet through the imposition of UN’s Net Zero, could it be that the BBC considers its real job is to be the UNâs official broadcaster?
Hence it is woke, anti British, pro EU, against freedom of speech, climate alarmist, pro Covid Lockdowns, and believes in diversity rather than meritocracy etc..
January 18, 2022
it is just a mouthpiece for the Establishment, nothing more.
January 19, 2022
You are correct, but you need to inform yourself properly as to whom the British Establishment actually are.
January 18, 2022
As a public service broadcaster, all they have to do is REPORT the news and current affairs. They do not need to make documentaries or drama or light entertainment. ÂŁ10 a year for a licence for impartial news and current affairs – one 10 minute program on one channel every hour – would be ample.
As it is every commercial program maker has to compete with the licence fee funded BBC. How we ever got into this situation is beyond me.
January 18, 2022
The BBC business model needs to be changed from compulsory licence fee (a tax) to voluntary subscription. Its output, like that of its many competitors, would likely then comprise a mixture of free content (such as news) and paid for (drama, documentaries and music events). Competition would require it to raise its game to retain existing and attract new viewers (including a global audience). Technology has changed fundamentally how such services are created, delivered, watched and paid for. That revolution continues. It will be a painful, but potentially exciting, transition for the BBC whatever future course it takes- just as it is for any other business organisation that must adapt to a changing world or die.
January 18, 2022
How about that, a concerted attack on the BBC by Conservative MPs at the exact time that we are discovering No 10 spent lockdown laughing in the faces of us little people who had to follow the rules. What a coincidence ….
January 18, 2022
How about this: a concerted and sustained attack on the PM, to the exclusion of all other news, every time there is a by election coming up. What a co incidence. And why now? Just when we were supposed to be taking back N Ireland and finally freeing ourselves.
January 18, 2022
It’s happening now for the same reason it’s front page news in the Mail and the Telegraph. Do you expect the BBC to ignore those at the top breaking the very rules they imposed on the rest of us while the rest of the media continue to report it?
January 19, 2022
The issue for me Peter isn’t that they report a sustained attack on the PM, it is that they don’t share any of the good news and when there is good news they put a twist on it, similar to what the Guardian do (which is expected). Unemployment down especially in Midlands and the North 4.1% compared to France 8.1% and Germany 5.2%. Latest ONS figures reveal there are 1,247,000 vacancies these need investigating to see why the 4.1% can’t take them? Does the BBC mention when talking about the UK cost of living crisis that other Countries they usually compare us to are having similar if not worse problems?
I did laugh at the BBCs website ‘Who is Sue Gray’ when they felt it important to tell us that even with decades with the civil service she once ran a bar in Northern Ireland and her husband is a Country and Western Singer, apparently so she knows what a party is.
January 18, 2022
Yes, timing is everything isn’t it. We’ve had an alleged Conservative Govt for how long now? Yet the BBC has been allowed to carry on unhindered in areas mentioned above and more besides, until now that is or so it seems.
I reckon once the No.10 drinks fiasco runs out of steam then maybe the fist shaking against BBC will.
January 18, 2022
What about the BBC’s “attack” on the British people by refusing to challenge the Government’s propaganda and instead silencing alternative Expert opinion to SAGE and its political editor/journalists just relentlessly demanding even more, longer, harder and stricter restrictions on our Civil Liberties?
Doesn’t that bother you?
January 18, 2022
Its feeding the mass gullibility.
January 18, 2022
@Donna; Stop being so transparent! Why shouldn’t the BBC report the facts, as issued by the elected government, and why shouldn’t the BBC also report known facts, even supportable supposition, involving political scandal.
All your comment does is prove that whatever the BBC does they can never do the correct thing by some, if they do not report the facts they are being biased, if they do they are also biased. Thus the ONLY people actually being biased are those who ignorantly claim the BBC is biased and then try to construct an argument, worse a policy, around their bias. Often doing so simply because the BBC is not being sycophantic to their own views [1]. Would you or @rose (above), would the Daily Maul, be so critical of the way the BBC has reported “Partygate” had these parties occurred with Corbyn or SKS in Downing Street, on their watch?
Remember the total deference shown to politicians before the early 1960s cut both ways, the leaders of the opposition parties and their MP’s were treated just the same as the then PM and his MP’s, who ever was in govt, is that the era you really want to return to.
[1] the BBC gets as many complaints about perceived right-wing bias as they get perceived left-wing, why might this be, the bias found within the UK print media perhaps…
January 18, 2022
Donna .The Establishment decide the agenda regardless, remember we are all subjects with out a voice.
January 18, 2022
This is NOT an attack. It’s dragging, kicking and screaming a spoilt child who likes to then poke you into line with its siblings, who have to look after themselves. Next in line the EU.
January 18, 2022
Ah, Spare The Rod And Spoil The Child.
Yes, children can be terrified and brutalised into mute obedience.
January 18, 2022
almost true of the electorate.
January 18, 2022
@SKS; The entire MSM has a problem with bias etc, why single out the BBC then if this is not an attack on the BBC (along with a similar attack on Ch4 looming), were are the proposes to make the Morning Star give equal and fair column inches to our host, for the Daily Express to give equal and fair column inches to the ex member for Broxtowe, or for GBNews having to give open mics to such people (outside of election periods)?
January 18, 2022
They are independent commercial businesses Jerry.
They can take whatever editorial position they like.
January 18, 2022
@Peter2; As is, and as can, the BBC.. Go read up what a statutory corporation is and is not!
January 19, 2022
Where does each company get its money from?
Rather different in the BBC’s case.
I thought the BBC charter requires it to try to be impartial whereas newspapers do not.
January 20, 2022
@Peter2; Go and actually read what the Charter says, do not maker political assumptions to fit your own political bias!
January 20, 2022
So no actual response..
Just go and read the Charter.
So I did
It does require the BBC to try to be impartial.
Which is what I said.
Thanks Jerry
January 18, 2022
The BBC has led a concerted attack on the UK for years. Its broadcasting during the EU referendum was diabolical. It MUST go.
January 18, 2022
More to the point it is just when minds need to be focused on solving the energy crisis, which isn’t even listed as an amuse-bouche for the so called red meat (which they still want to ban anyway).
January 18, 2022
Dories did not go anywhere near enough on controlling the dire lefty, green crap and pernicious BBC.
Nadine Dorries said âWhen it comes to monthly bills this is one of the few direct levers we have in our controlâ
Well that is not true dear energy and heating cost are pushed up about 25% by the moronic net zero religion and 5% VAT, petrol and diesel bills (just to get to work often) about 80% is tax, we have very excessive council tax, motorist mugging all over the place and then we have the 2×1.25% manifesto ratting National Insurance increases, the triple lock pension manifesto ratting, the freezing of all personal allowances and the deliberate large devaluation the currency plus the vast burden of mainly idiotic red tape. Quite a few other levers actually Nadine!
The main problem with the BBC is there evil agenda of 99% pro EU, against freedom of choice, pro the dire monopoly NHS structures, insanely Climate Alarmist, for Covid Lockdowns, for Diversity over ability and talent & pushers of woke PC lunacy all over the place.
But clearly it should compete on a fair level playing field basis with other media providers.
January 18, 2022
Spot on LL. I’ve just been reading about the number of established businesses that will be ruined by the clean air zone charges around Greater Manchester. It’s shocking just how many people just trying to get on with their lives doing essential things will be caught up in this nonsense. I’d like to know exactly what these charges will be spent on and how it benefits anyone. Perhaps the BBC could highlight the stupidity of these charges and how they are going to affect real people living in the real world instead of showing us contrived programmes such as Country File abd the likes.
January 18, 2022
+1 with huge damage to jobs, productivity and the economy.
January 18, 2022
Correct â we pay a vehicle car tax to use the queens highwayâŠso why are we having to pay twiceâŠ.its highway robbery with a green gun
And not one MP had the bottle to argue against it because of its âgreenâ message
January 18, 2022
F U S
The Clean Air Zone charges are just that, pollute if you like, and if you can afford it.
It’s all about money collection, which will fund more signs, for more money collection ideas, and increasing regulations, and to pay the wages of those who are going to regulate the fines and payments.
If you wanted a clean Air Zone then you would simply ban all vehicles which pollute, clearly that is a step too far for most people, and would ruin many businesses which operate inside any dedicated Zone.
January 19, 2022
All vehicles pollute as does public transport but some more than others. Even bikes and walking need human food as fuel which also pollutes the world.
January 18, 2022
And Humpty Dumpty and all.
January 18, 2022
There is no point trying to explain reality to you MPs
January 18, 2022
The BBC actually mentioned “supply” this morning when talking about another piece of rumoured Government interference in the energy market, but only with the phrase “long term problems in the supply of energy into the UK”. It is still concealing from its audience the fact that we have our own supplies which the Government is refusing to let us use.
January 18, 2022
Indeed motorist in the UK are about the most highly taxed in the world over all even before the active motorist muggings (parking, bus lanes, speed and other mugging cameras) that the state organises. One of the few things they can do efficiently it seems.
January 18, 2022
Indeed Rose. There is much that the BBC doesn’t explain and much it makes up as it goes along to suit it’s own narrative.
January 18, 2022
Another example this morning: was Nick Robinson being ignorant, sloppy, or lying when he said Mr Javid was the English Health Secretary? There is no English government, just as there is no English BBC. If Mr Javid were not the Secretary of State for Health in Her Majesty’s Government of the United Kingdom, why would he and his predecessor have supplied the devolved regions with money, scientific and medical information and advice, medicines, vaccines, PPE, etc?
This misinformation arises from years and years of the BBC trying to break up the Union. Why, for example, as Sir John points out, is there no English BBC, when there are separate services for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland? Because the BBC is trying to alienate those parts of our country and persuade them to separate from England. It was noticeable after the statement in the House yesterday, how very satisfied the National Socialists and Separatists said they were with the BBC’s coverage of their regions.
January 19, 2022
Javid is the English Health Secretary because health is a devolved matter: Humza Yousaf is the âHSâ in Scotland, Eluned Morgan the one for Wales and Richard Pengelly the one in Northern Ireland.
January 18, 2022
Government created problems of supply – as usual the government doing rather more harm than good.
January 18, 2022
Government intervention bad
January 18, 2022
But you want the Government to intervene to stop owners of private property from selling it to whomever they like, if those buyers happened to be French, Chinese, or whatever, don’t you?
January 18, 2022
I thought that is what you wanted to happen NHL
Certainly where UK companies are concerned.
January 18, 2022
No
January 18, 2022
Certainly essential services ought to be restricted to UK owned, better still English owned – just in case the tribal others might be sucked in by the behemoth across the Channel.
January 18, 2022
Curriculum review to see Shakespeare and Einstein replaced by Mandela and Angelou. Geniuses discarded on the altar of woke bigotry
This is the new Tory party now wholly owned and enslaved by the Neo-Marxist woke teaching unions
Is there nothing sacred that the Tory party will not sacrifice to insulate itself from its enemy?
BY the way, WHAT EXACTLY isn’t a hate crime in this day and age?
The UK is finished as a cohesive and healthy nation
January 18, 2022
Still forcing children to wear ineffective and very unpleasant masks all day in schools for no valid reason. Also still trying to force them to get vaccinations that they do not need and do more harm than good for children and the young in general as the statistics seem to show rather clearly.
January 18, 2022
Exactly. Why is no pressure being placed on Zahawi over this.
January 18, 2022
Yes, the adverse affects reported on the USA VAERS system particularly in young people needs further investigation. The way our government is treating young people is so wrong.
January 18, 2022
I think that you will find that many more school kids have died from playing rugby than have been harmed by this vaccine.
January 18, 2022
Few kids have been vaccinated so that isn’t a sound statistic comparison.
January 19, 2022
âFew kidsâ: What is the statistical basis that allows you to put such a statement? Figures, facts, please. Size of the samples related to overall age group, related to total population? Define your statistical significance.
Otherwise, I am afraid thatâs just another of P2 vacuous statements.
January 19, 2022
Look up the figures for yourself hef if you are so interested.
Are you claiming my statement is wrong?
Perhaps you should ask your pal bill to do your research for you.
January 19, 2022
So what are the figures P2, or are you as I guess unable to find them? You are the one always asking for facts, arenât you?
January 20, 2022
It sems NHL can make claims without and figures to back them up, like he has here, and you never ever come on demanding his proof.
Only when I challenge his obvious fanciful claims do you suddenly require facts figures and evidences.
I never asked for NHL’s facts.
Did you not notice heffy?
The ones always demanding facts are you and your pal bill.
January 18, 2022
correct… but some are mainly due to poor coaching regarding contact and rules of engagement.
Undeveloped necks and sculls are at risk.
January 18, 2022
In answer to your questions as to what isn’t a hate crime, I think destruction of our culture built over centuries by a closely connected people is not a hate crime.
Insulting said culture and its people is not a hate crime, as they don’t have ‘protected characteristics’.
Fast forward to a time many are predicting when the heritage population will be the minority (as they already are in some areas of the country) will we then have ‘protected characteristics’
January 18, 2022
I doubt it Michelle. Our tolerance to intolerance is why we are doomed. The intolerant will care for themselves, and no other.
January 19, 2022
Not at all, Dom surely knows that he writes utter tripe, but I’d defend his right to do so.
January 18, 2022
Well, you’re on here every day, spouting your relentless varied hatreds, so the answer to your question is, apparently “plenty”.
January 18, 2022
NLH. Coming from you that is one hell of a hypocritical comment. You certainly excel in double standards.
January 19, 2022
Not at all, Dom surely knows that he writes utter tripe, but Iâd defend his right to do so. (Sorry I misplaced this reply earlier)
January 18, 2022
Pot kettle NHL
Or was your post really aimed at your pal Andy?
January 19, 2022
So P2, are you tolerant to intolerance, intolerant to tolerance, tolerant to tolerance or intolerant to intolerance?
January 19, 2022
You having a quiet day heffy?
January 18, 2022
I think that what Dom writes is mostly hyperventilating, fixated baloney, but if he wants to say it and John wants to print it, then that is for them alone.
He’s not breaking any law, and nor would he be by saying most of the things that he wrongly and hysterically claims have been categorised as hate crimes.
January 18, 2022
It is just stuff you dislike NHL
January 18, 2022
hate? – we read it every day on here.
January 18, 2022
Interesting, the curriculum review was started in April 2021 and published on the gov.uk website on 12/05/2021. And funnily our household @&£) » talks about it in 01/2022. Who is the manipulator and who is manipulated?
January 18, 2022
Einstein claimed his ‘thought experiments’ derived the work of such great Mathematicians and Physicists as James Maxwell, Hendrik Lorentz, Henri Poincare, David Hilbert et al when they were simply the results of plagiarism. He didn’t get into university because he wasn’t good enough.
January 18, 2022
So Einstein wasnât good enough to get into university. As if âgetting into universityâ is some sort of absolute benchmark. A friend of mine left comprehensive school at sixteen with a couple of CSEs and a âheâll never amount to anythingâ report.
He was running his own IT business at school and by the age of 17 his company had been bought by a (household name) blue chip company who wanted his software – which, to this day, is used to manage their stock control and logistics.
He now works as one of those 6 grand a day consultants and has an IQ just over 170. He never even made it into the 6th form, let alone university.
In my career I met numerous graduates who I wouldnât trust to tie my shoelaces. Johnson is a graduate. Say no more. Not much of a criterion.
January 18, 2022
Very interesting but totally beside the point.
January 19, 2022
To be able to re-derive the equations found by previous scientists usually required quite a bit of work, specially at the end of the 19th century when there were not so many learned journals from which to extract the details of the calculations. Then taking all the various bits and pieces from them, taking a different approach (essentially not based on practical experiments) and coming up with some more encompassing theories is still an achievement that was recognised at the time. After all in 1905 he only published on the photoelectric effect, the Brownian motion, the e=mc^2 thingy, and some special (limited) relativity.
As you point out, f, the good Albert might not have been good enough to attend university, he only published 16 books, 31 book chapters and 272 scientific articles, and worst of it most of them in the German language. And he just got a Nobel Prize in 1922.
Which, I assume, pales before your own achievements, doesnât it?
January 18, 2022
Misogyny is not yet a hate crime.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jan/18/government-defeated-as-lords-vote-to-make-misogyny-a-hate
“Lords inflict multiple defeats on ministers with misogyny voted a hate crime”
January 18, 2022
DOM. I had to ask around the nurses to even find out who on earth Angelou was! In answer to your question, hate crime, of course, is Thought Crime.
January 18, 2022
It’s all taking too long. Those who don’t like the content should take the matter into their own hands and cancel their TV licence. I did so about 4 years ago. It’s an easy process and there is no comeback. You can’t watch any live TV afterwards (even foreign stations, which is ridiculous: that is something the Culture Secretary should change immediately), but unless you are a sports addict then Youtube and Netflix can provide all the other content you might want (including some of the BBC’s back catalog).
January 18, 2022
+1
Starve the beast
January 18, 2022
Indeed. I stopped paying when I read how much they pay Zoe Ball. She is not getting a penny of my money. Nor is Lineker.
January 18, 2022
I am pleased to see the BBC tax held steady for two years. This morning, there was a grave voice on R5L warning that cuts would have to be made. The last time I checked, the BBC had some FIFTY TV and radio channels. It’s time that some of those were closed down completely – particularly those that cater for alien cultures, perpetuating division.
P.S. And I wish that ministers would keep off Twitter. Some of them seem to use it as a substitute for proper communications rather than as an addition.
January 18, 2022
Current spend reported to be ÂŁ3.7bn per year.
Any suggestions on shaving a bit off ?
January 18, 2022
The celebs and stars keep telling us how great they and the BBC areâŠ.prove it, sell the whole organisation and lets see you stand on your own feet
A bit like the proposed car banâŠif electric cars are so good why ban ICE cars !
January 18, 2022
SW – Polly Toynbee: The BBC’s “global reach is poised to âhit a weekly figure of half a billion people in its centenary year”. How much money do they receive from these viewers? Can’t they expand their income by selling more shows to stream worldwide? Or do they do this already I wonder?
I found this – “The BBC’s licence fee income in the United Kingdom (UK) in the most recent year 2021. The BBC had licence fee income totalling around 3.75 billion British pounds (Statista). Total BBC income in 2019/20 was ÂŁ4.94 billion, 71% of which came from the licence fee revenues. The remaining 29% or ÂŁ1.42 billion came from commercial and other activities (such as grants, royalties and rental income). (source-commons library). Are there no ways to increase this from 30% to 50%?
January 19, 2022
I am sure you must have a lot of ideas how to increase this from 30 to 50%.
January 20, 2022
hefner, I surely do have lots of ideas and if they’d like to hire me on one of their top brass salaries I would tell them, write a plan, hire the right sales/marketing people and do some proper analysis of spending.
January 18, 2022
@S_W; I wonder if the govt will now announce an “incomes and wages” policy for the UK based MSM, having frozen the TVL fee for two years on account of the looming cost of loving crisis, so how about telling Sky, BTTV, Netflix et al that their subscription fees are also frozen for two years, that they will be expected to either adjust their creative content and budgets or make saving from within their back offices?
PS, the last time I checked Sky had 500+ channels, most of them unique to their platform, many of them owned by Sky, often broadcasting content that can only be accessed via the Sky platform.
January 18, 2022
Why should they Jerry ?
They are independent commercial companies.
They have no comparison to the relationship the BBC has with the government.
January 19, 2022
For once, P2, I fully agree with you: why should Sky, Netflix et al. freeze their subscription fees for two years?
Is a free market in broadcasting not the nec plus ultra that most on this blog want?
Would you want to introduce additional regulations on independent commercial companies, most of them not even British (BT TV thanks to its multiple agreements with YouTube, Fox, Microsoft, âŠ, Sky being essentially owned by US Comcast) ? Are you becoming delirious?
And S_W, why would you want to prevent ministers from using Twitter? Isnât that an impediment on their freedom, free speech, free will and all that sort of things?
It does not look much consistent with your claimed libertarianism.
January 20, 2022
You started well hef but then descended to your usual grumpy sarcastic stuff.
PS
I wouldn’t want to introduce additional regulations as I think there are already enough acting on broadcast companies.
January 18, 2022
I am not compelled by law to pay for Sky. A subtle difference you seem unable to grasp. I am very happy to never watch BBC output. Why should I pay them a penny? They donât provide me with any service.
January 18, 2022
@Mike Wilson, You make a very good argument for per channel subscription only TV, only ever pay for what you want to watch, no more commercial TV, no more multi channel subscription packages…
Or is it only the BBC who you want to damage?
January 18, 2022
There really only needs to be 5 or six national radio stations. If there is a market for multi-ethnic content then is should be provided by private sources.
January 18, 2022
The sounds about right. The Beeb shouldn’t be providing local radio stations where a number of commercial alternatives exist.
January 18, 2022
@Mark B; The BBC, until 1990, used to make do with just four national radio stations (plus the world service, at the time funded via the FCO), and they had just two TV channel, in many respect that is perhaps were the BBC should now return, having carried out their Charter remit (at the govts behest) of both populating & popularizing both DAB and DVB (Freeview/Freesat) to become commercially viable.
But the same multi-station/channel rational could equally be applied to both commercial and (especially) subscription services who have far more stations or channels than they need. These are not purely BBC problems, but by some trying to make it just about the BBC they are very clearly pinning their true intent to the aerial mast, the intent to neuter the BBC and only the BBC.
January 18, 2022
Perhaps the BBC might wake up and realise its best opportunity for future success is to become independent and drop the licence fee.
I think as a world wide respected company the BBC would thrive and expand once set free.
January 18, 2022
@Peter2; If you understood anything of the real issues you would know that is the very last thing any of the commercial or subscrip0tion broadcasters want, there is barely enough revenue as it is, nor do they want the possibility they might be forced to offer prime time PSB either, at one time ITV Plc. even suggested they would hand back their ITV1 (channel 3) licenses than have to provide more PSB content than they do currently.
January 19, 2022
It should not own the back catalogue though, that should be held separately with free access by UK taxpayers. If an evolved BBC, or anyone, wants access then they should pay for it, along with rental for all property and assets.
January 19, 2022
You herd of duffers make a song and a dance for 44p/day you spend for the BBC. And thanks to Sir John in the last few months you must have filled around O(30) full webpages of recriminations and spent some hundreds of kWh of energy debating the BBC. What a bunch of clowns you are.
January 19, 2022
You are in grumpy mood heffy.
Letting yourself down with cheap abuse to others you don’t agree with.
Very poor.
January 18, 2022
most of the attraction to ‘ethnic content’ radio is already satisfied by private sources.
January 18, 2022
If the BBC are short of money perhaps they shouldn’t have deliberately increased the pay of a load of their female presenters recently. Now it’s not just the men who are overpayed, but the women too! They could easily replace the lot of them with much lower-paid staff. Very few have any special talent.
Just look at the BBC’s own webpage here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-57733127 and you will see not just how overpayed these people are but how the pay of the women has massively increased. Madness!
January 18, 2022
@X-Tory; So the BBC should not pay the going rate within the industry, nor obey the law when it comes to equality etc? Your comment likely tells us more about your, totally out dated, attitudes than they do anything of the BBC.
January 18, 2022
Always thought the license fee was a pointless way to fund the BBC: Didn’t allow any variation by ability to pay, expensive to collect, expensive to advertise demanding payment, lead to lots spent on hunting down non-payers.
Far better to just fund through taxes or make the BBC self-financed in the way of netflix et al.
January 18, 2022
In Germany they have a broadcast contribution, it is high and they also moan their heads off about it because they claim their quality of programming is nowhere near as good as other Countries inc. the UK. One of the problems is that compulsory contribution doesn’t correlate to the best programming.
January 18, 2022
I stopped watching TV in 2005 and notified the TV licencing accordingly. I have had no TV connection of any sort for over 16 years and stopped listening to the radio not long after. What I want to know is, are your government considering making up the BBC’s financial shortfall via general taxation?
If so, will those who don’t watch the BBC or any of the other TV companies who get licence funding, or listen to the equally ‘woke’ filled radio be given the choice to opt out of their taxes being spent in this way? Afterall, they hardly fit the category of an ‘essential service’, despite what they and various politicians think.
I suspect there are many who would strongly object to their taxes funding this ‘entertainments’ facility they do not and will not use.
January 18, 2022
I would strongly object to funding the BBC in any way due to its subversive nature.
January 18, 2022
Can I opt out of the chunk of my taxes that pays for your pensions? Or the increasing chunk of my NI that will go on social care for you lot? Or for the bits that go on your health care, winter fuel payments, bus passes and the like?
The BBC costs me about ÂŁ3 a week. Taxes for all your pensioner perks cost me well over ÂŁ2k a week. I strongly object to funding handouts to whinging old people.
January 18, 2022
Can I opt out of paying towards your child allowance handouts, and the tax rebates against your pension contributions ?
January 18, 2022
No you can’t young andy
Just as I can’t refuse to pay for children’s education and health costs.
January 18, 2022
Walter Mitty aka Andy
If you are paying ÂŁ104,000 tax pa, you need to get a new accountant.
January 18, 2022
You are a cracked record, and must be a laugh a minute amongst friends… you do have some do you?
Ever wonder why they avoid you?
January 18, 2022
This is what they do in Germany and I am given to understand that it is hated. We are only now talking about the way the BBC is funded because the old model, a tax, now no longer works.
January 18, 2022
No, it has been raised by the Tories in the hope of turning the BBC even more into a parroter of the viewpoints seen every day in the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, Sun, Times, and so on.
As it is, it tamely follows the agenda set by these.
That in itself is one of the biggest stories in the UK, and the BBC obediently never reports it at all, which sort of misleads that this is in some way normal in a democracy.
January 18, 2022
If the BBC was set free it would not be able to be pressurised by any government.
January 18, 2022
NLH – Yet all I’ve heard is Lefties defending the licence fee. The ‘expert’ brought on the Jeremy Vine Show today was from the Guardian, with no opposite view.
I read one of those papers and I find the vast majority of BBC output unwatchable.
January 19, 2022
‘Yet all Iâve heard is Lefties defending the licence fee’
– You’d get a fail in university, the law and business for making a sweeping comment like that. I’m a Conservative who supports Culture and Patriotism but obviously anti left-wing politics and woke culture. I don’t recognise you as a fellow Tory for making sweeping comments like that but someone trying to impose their view through sweeping, generalised statements – and name-calling.
January 18, 2022
In other news, the unvaccinated NHS doctors and nurses will start to be sacked in the next two weeks.
I struggle to get my head round this. All my vaccinations have historically been to protect meâŠ
Why then, when the NHS doctors and nurses risked their lives in 2020 working with an unknown virus, some did die from the disease âŠ.who now choose not to have the vaccine (which doesnât stop you getting or passing on Covid, and it seems to be more likely youâll catch Covid than those whoâve had Covid or not had the vaccine) is their reward⊠being sacked?
I still say, in the US and here, there are tens of thousands of hospital staff refusing the jab⊠do they know something we donât? I know what I think, and itâll just be a matter of time before that bubbles up to the media⊠and the public.
January 18, 2022
As an ex-employer, I know you have an obligation to protect your staff and your customers as far as possible. As vaccinations are said to reduce the likelihood of passing on the virus and severity of illness then it is a good precaution and defence, and the lack of vaccinations may even invalidate their liability insurance. I should imagine this will be especially important for care homes and others who care for vulnerable people.
January 18, 2022
Shirley, you must know by now that serious questions have been raised about the efficacy and safety of the Covid vaccines. Who says they reduce the likelihood of passing on the Covid virus, and on what evidence?
Also, which employer would want to sign a risk assessment, taking into account the risks of getting the injection, and taking responsibility for mandating his/her employees to get it? The vaccine manufacturers are indemnified against vaccine harms, but employers are not.
January 20, 2022
It’s a minefield, Shirley, as an employer the NHS will sack staff for not taking a vaccine, so will the vaccinated staff left be able to refuse to treat unvaccinated patients and can care homes refuse to take unvaccinated elderly patients in?
There must be a middle way where the unvaccinated can care for the unvaccinated patients on specific wards designated for this if and only IF it is absolutely essential and there is evidence the unvaccinated staff are the carriers when they may carry the disease but be symptomless. It would also give proper research to see if the unvaccinated patients with unvaccinated carers have a higher mortality rate.
January 18, 2022
This would be a good thing for Boris to back down on to regain popularity. He could calm those who have been made nervous by Government propaganda by explaining that the recent data suggests that the jabbed are at least as likely to carry covid as the unjabbed. The only measures that make sense are regular testing for all and peer vigilance for symptoms.
The trouble is that they have already implemented a mandate for care home staff……
January 18, 2022
After the vicious backlash against the PM personally and against Hancock, when infection was carried into nursing homes by staff, especially agency staff working at more than one institution, you can’t expect them to undo the policy. It is the commonest charge against them after the one about not shutting down the country early enough. So much damage has been done because of these vicious personal attacks making them risk averse.
January 18, 2022
+1 SHARON
They know of many serious side effects, and deaths post vaccination. Many will have had Covid and will have strong and lasting immunity. They also know that the ‘jabs’ are failing so why on earth take the risk.
January 18, 2022
lasting immunity? really? I know several people who have had Covid twice, and even three times!
One or two others but vaccinated, I might add, have still caught it but fairly mild for a couple of days.
January 18, 2022
Yes, I know people who’ve had a cold twice as well, Mickey.
January 18, 2022
This decision needs to be reversed. Not only should no-one, not even this authoritarian Government, have the right to force someone to have something injected into their bodies against their wishes but the utter madness of what will result from this decision if this incompetent Government donât back down doesnât bear thinking about. Morale amongst NHS workers is already at an all time low. How will sacking up to 100,000 Doctors and Nurses (do these idiots know how long it takes to train them?) help an NHS which is already in crisis?
January 18, 2022
Sharon. Before the vaccines came about some people who caught Covid were fine and others weren’t. Now we have fully vaccinated people who are still spreading it, still catching it and some still ending up in hospital. How do we really know the vaccines are working as they say they are? Could it still be a case that some get it and are ill and other aren’t regardless of vaccination status and so it’s just a big money making scam by the pharma companies. Until a vaccine stops you getting it and spreading it maybe some are right to refuse it. Just saying. BTW. I’ve had all my childhood vaccines and am not an anti vaxer but this vaccine doesn’t seem to be doing the job we were promised.
January 18, 2022
Because in spite of the vast number of cases, deaths have been relatively limited.
The vaccine does its main job – to save life.
January 18, 2022
NLH. Yes but the virus isn’t as virulent as Delta so difficult to compare.
January 18, 2022
It’s about control and obeying orders ….. not health.
January 18, 2022
In this area alone, the BBC has become treacherous. I do hope a way will be found to grant an amnesty, and NOT to sack medical and care staff on the basis of exercising a legal right. In a more balanced and perceptive world, they would have legal redress against the Government. Meanwhile, it would appear ‘Omicron’ might single-handedly immunize the world by natural means.
January 18, 2022
@Sharon
You will not hear any challenges to the bat flu orthodoxy on the BBC.
January 18, 2022
No, you don’t often hear the merits of alchemy being promoted either for some reason.
January 18, 2022
Thats not fair ….I recommend you listen to ‘Midas Man’ – by Renaissance (YOUTUBE).
Certainly GOLD.
January 18, 2022
+1. And there are lots more of us out there who think the same.
January 18, 2022
According to Wikipedia, applicants for senior posts in the BBC were vetted by the British Security Services to ensure that subversive elements were kept out.
This was stopped in the 1990s but perhaps it is time to bring back the vetting and make the organisation accountable.
Unfortunately. I suspect that the rot starts much earlier than at the employment stage – at school and university.
January 18, 2022
Maylor
“….rot starts much earlier….”
It was certainly prevalent in the London School of Economics back in the 1960’s, it would seem many of our Universities were also breeding ground in or around the same time, so students have had that sort of propaganda influencing them for decades.
Hence the reason we are where we are. !
January 18, 2022
And in the 1930s, it was Cambridge and its Philby, MacLean, Cairncross, Blunt and Burgess.
January 18, 2022
ah…University the breeding ground for spies and subversives.
Then some go on to teach new recruits to the organisation…
January 18, 2022
The tragedy of the current state of extremism in Britain is that those who vote for for the leftwing-captured Tory party are simply voting indirectly for everything they despise, reject and hold in contempt. Tory MPs by encouraging voters to vote for a captured Tory party are knowingly encouraging this dissolution of all that we hold dear
The PC, woke and progressive left now hold control of all areas of British public life and they will use this total control to smash all that we are, destroy voice,
criminalise all opposition and demonise those who dare to fight back
Education, Parliament, BBC, health, social and immigration policy all dictated by a BLM agenda.
Books removed. Statues downed. Words abolished. People cancelled. Laws passed to destroy free speech. All under a Tory government ruled over by the LEFT
What is the point of a Tory party that when ELECTED into government carries out the policies of the woke Marxists?
Appalling deceit
January 18, 2022
No books have been removed. One statue, of a slaver, has been downed. No words have been abolished. No people have been cancelled. No laws have been passed to destroy free speech, quite the opposite, the Human Rights Act protects it.
You really need to calm down and try a dose of reality not hysteria
January 18, 2022
Books have been removed.
Statues have been removed.
People have been cancelled.
January 18, 2022
The nations character have been destroyed & the community divided
January 19, 2022
Starting a literary career, eh P2?
January 19, 2022
You are busy today eh heffy.
Maybe troll someone else.
What I said was correct.
What Gary said was completely wrong.
Either you agree or you don’t
January 25, 2022
Books are being digitised.
One statue has been removed in Bristol and another one in Taldykorgan.
âPeople have been cancelledâ: what does that mean? Is it some New Age talk like âwokeâ. I thought it was only used in South East Asian cuisine đ€Ș
January 18, 2022
Gary, you’re being overtaken by events. The Royal Holloway University of London Library announced in June 2020 that in an effort to fight âstructural racismâ in British society, it will âdecolonize and diversifyâ its book collection. In response to a Twitter query, they did not deny this would involve removing some books.
Statues of Robert Milligan and Baden-Powell have been removed.
January 18, 2022
What an ignorant – or deceitful – post! Loads of books HAVE been banned (even Noddy!!) and replaced with bowdlerised versions; the statue of a wonderful philanthropist (Edward Colston) WAS removed; loads of traditional words and expressions CANNOT be said (even Midget Gems are now being renamed!!) ; many people HAVE been ‘cancelled’ (just Google the comedian Andrew Lawrence for a clear example).
Our supposedly ‘Conservative’ government is just as culturally marxist as Labour!
January 19, 2022
X-Tory, obviously out of your intellectual grasp but a lot of libraries had been cracking at the seams and many have in the last fifteen-twenty years started to consider or actually started replacing actual books by computer files of those (like in your Kindle in case you have reached this level of evolution). The books have not been banned, they just need to be retrieved from the computer system as files you put on your computer or tablet. In case you donât know a lot of procedures are computerised these days.
January 18, 2022
If this conservative government really believed in market forces and capitalism theyâd privatise the BBC tomorrow
January 18, 2022
Market forces: most people here want them to deal with the BBC but not with the energy providers, to deal with the NHS but not allowing the banks and financial system to crumble, to deal with the school system but not with the state and other pensions, to provide food from all over the world outside the EU but providing prices remain affordable to them, to decrease tax but keep improving the road infrastructure …
Do I detect some inconsistencies here?
January 18, 2022
What do you want energy providers to actually do?
What connections are there between the NHS and the operations of banks and financial institutions?
What connections are there between schools and pensions?
Then your odd connection between the EU and food prices.
Then roads and taxes..
What an odd smorgasbord of topics hef
January 19, 2022
Oh I see, too complicated for you to realise that it would be quite possible to let market forces deal with the BBC, and energy providers, and NHS, and financial institutions, and education, and pensions, and food provision, and tax, and infrastructure.
And that people here want market intervention only on some of them and not on the others.
Sorry to have overwhelmed your brain.
January 20, 2022
Not too simple heffy just that I felt your post was badly written and had numerous odd connections.
PS
It would be quite possible to let market forces deal with….
But in our mixed system of private and state that isnt going to happen.
So try to keep calm.
January 18, 2022
It wouldn’t be the “British” broadcasting corporation then, would it?
It would be no more “British” than the Royal Mail is “Royal”.
Maybe it would be owned by overseas interests, just like our energy suppliers and Sky, etc.?
January 18, 2022
So what?
You have already said you don’t like the Monarchy.
January 18, 2022
Spot On
January 18, 2022
Quite right Dom. At the last election it made sense to vote Conservative since Corbyn would definitely have cancelled Brexit. But that was then and this is now. Boris is obviously determined not to deliver any more than the HALF BREXIT that we have. Even on his own terms, therefore (“Get Brexit done”), Boris has failed. He has NOT delivered Brexit to Northern Ireland, by abolishing the Protocol. He has NOT delivered Brexit to Britain’s fishing industry, by expelling EU fishing boats. He has NOT delivered Brexit to the taxpayer, by ending payments to the EU or cutting VAT. And he has NOT delivered Brexit to business, by slashing EU rules and regulations.
Boris has also failed on othere fronts too, such as stopping illegal immigration, or cutting taxes, or ending cultural marxism. So what is the point of voting Conservative next time? There is NONE. So therefore vote for a party that you can truly support. I will be voting for Reform UK, and encourage others to do likelwise. I just wish a few genuinely conservative Conservative MPs would switch to that party to get the ball rolling! They would finally be able to look in the mirror without feeling ashamed of the party they represent.
January 18, 2022
The BBC is causing its own problems, yet another once great British institution going to the wall on its WOKE and Political agenda.
Shame really, but life will go on !
Find myself viewing more and more programmes that I have recorded nowadays, and just skip through the adverts.
January 18, 2022
Just think – the problem used to be just the EU. But as your Brexit crashed and burned before your eyes the problem became everything else.
Parliament, judges (theyâre enemies of the people), the Civil Service, the BBC, universities, the NHS, the National Trust, the RNLI, etc etc etc. Apparently all of these great British institutions are now âwokeâ.
They arenât of course. They are always the same patriotic force for good they have always been. Whatâs changed is the Brexitists who have gone from being just a little bit mad to stark raving bonkers.
People like you are the problem.
January 18, 2022
So the BBC was a beacon of light and truth 4 years ago was it Andy.
Me thinks you need to grow up a bit, that tunnel vision you appear to have over Brexit and Old People in particular, is wearing just a bit thin.
January 18, 2022
People like me who used to pay an RLNI subscription monthly are the problem.
I see.
January 18, 2022
… and the National Trust.
January 20, 2022
The CPRE has fallen too.
January 18, 2022
I thought we all did that!
January 18, 2022
The debate about licence fee seems to me to be cart before the horse.
First the remit should be sorted – do we need so many channels targeting different audiences? What output should we be expecting – should the BBC be able to bid for large sporting events and show them on terrestrial TV or should sports be hived off for a subscription BBC channel? How to determine impartiality ? Both left and right do seem to think they are disadvantaged by the BBC which suggests that they report the missteps of both sides.
The BBC does fail when it takes a side in a debate, we have seen from the EU debate, climate, Covid lockdowns and vaccinations and most recently the Nolan investigation into trans issues and Stonewall entryism that the BBC takes an editorial stance. That editorial stance seems to pervade internal BBC culture and programming which can not be right.
I would be prepared to pay a licence fee if the remit were to be locked down and I would pay an additional subscription for sports, including the overpayment of high profile presenters, demanded by the governing bodies when awarding contracts.
January 18, 2022
I stopped paying the BBC licence years ago and it is probably one of the most healthiest things I have ever done for myself.
The satisfaction of knowing I do not contribute money to the sneering set of those at the trough, who suddenly become judge and jury on every topic going.
The blatant political one sided offerings. The rudeness and again blatantly one sided political opinions of the pompous journalists interviewing their victims or fawning over those from the same side of the fence as themselves with a much softer questioning and no interruptions.
The blatant anti-English stance. The boring, depressing, endless social justice message in just about everything.
Just a few of the reasons I ditched it. I would say there’s little difference to be found in the other mainstream media outlets either. They all seem to be working from the same agenda.
So for me the box in the corner is purely for playing dvd’s and I’m none the worse for it.
January 18, 2022
Hear hear.
January 18, 2022
Off topic, the Belfast Telegraph reports that under the terms of the Irish protocol it is now easier to get goods into the Irish Republic via the Northern Ireland ports and the land border than direct to the Republic:
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/northern-ireland/irish-hauliers-and-dublin-port-officials-report-more-goods-arriving-via-northern-ireland-ports-under-ni-protocol-41248062.html
“Hauliers and Dublin Port officials in the Republic have reported an increase in goods coming into the country via Northern Irish ports because of less onerous customs rules here under the terms of the NI Protocol.”
I’ve dropped them a line pointing out that at present the terms of the protocol are not being applied:
https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/poots-sea-border-situation-could-get-so-much-worse-90-of-checks-arent-even-happening-yet-3527250
âWhat people need to understand at the outset is, in terms of the protocol, probably weâre operating at less than 10% of the checks that would be applied with the full implementation of the protocolâ
Of course this is close to the nightmare scenario, as cunningly invented by the Irish government and the EU, with goods evading strict EU Single Market rules by entering Northern Ireland unchecked and then flooding across the open land border into the Republic, so basically they have now got what they did not want.
January 18, 2022
John, you made the good point that the BBC license fees should be decriminalised to free up the work of magistrates. Surely Dominic Raab should do this as an emergency measure for two years to help free up the courts.
January 18, 2022
If the BBC object they should be accused of not supporting the fight against the covid virus.
January 18, 2022
I think you can still be imprisoned for not paying a fine imposed after non payment of the BBC licence fee.
January 18, 2022
It would appear that Sir John is going to pursue Johnson’s Dead Cat strategy.
A two-year freeze in the BBC Poll Tax is hardly headline news (assuming it happens). And announcing in 2022 that the Poll Tax will be cancelled in 6 years time – post another General Election which they may not win – is sufficiently down the road to be forgotten about by the time comes. After all, Johnson forgot every Manifesto commitment he gave about 6 months after the last election.
I would be more impressed if the Government ENFORCED the BBC’s Charter now, by demanding that Tim Davie sack high profile presenters and editorial staff who refuse to keep their personal opinions to themselves, than make threats about funding which they almost certainly have no intention of keeping.
I cancelled my licence 3 years ago. When my son returned home to live for the lockdowns he paid it because he watches live sports. When he leaves again, in the near future now, it will be cancelled again. I don’t watch the BBC anymore and I have no intention of ever doing so again, regardless of the funding model. They produce nothing I’m interested in watching.
Reply No, I want proper reform of BBC starting with decriminalisation of the licence fee. I will at a later date set out my thoughts on the future of the BBC
January 18, 2022
Live sports provided by other organisations – the BBC does hardly any.
January 18, 2022
Why that? Could it be that other better funded channels were able to get the broadcasting rights of such sporting events by producing the dosh for the various greedy sports leagues?
January 18, 2022
The BBC still do the badminton horse trials âŠ.a great favourite with all the family
January 19, 2022
Yes, because it’s a minority sport, but one enjoyed by the Establishment elite, and a commercial broadcaster would find it a loss maker.
January 18, 2022
@ Donna – +1
@ Reply – we all want proper reform and Mrs Dorries has made a very poor start but at least she has done something even if it risks being thwarted. Why fuss with decriminalization of non-payment when the licence fee should just be abolished?: place the effort where it is really needed and eventually must be.
Its cosy funding model has permitted the BBC to rest on its long-gone laurels and miss vast and lucrative opportunities (it could have been Netflix).
January 18, 2022
The question might be: who prevented Beebs from developing and becoming a Netflix?
January 18, 2022
Reply to reply
The BBC, despite what you think, can never be reformed. Just let market forces do the work and stop fussing trying to save an organisation that hates you !
January 18, 2022
Why should I need a licence to watch television in the UK? That is the question to me.
It is another example of state control which must be scrapped.
January 18, 2022
Well, you need one in plenty of other countries if that’s any help.
January 18, 2022
Perhaps you would like enforced viewing to justify the fee?
A step nearer Smith watching the telescreen showing Big Brother? (1984 for our younger ill-informed like Andy).
January 18, 2022
I don’t want anything enforced except the law.
It’s the brexistists here, who want enforced anti-European views amongst millions of ordinary public servants just doing their jobs, isn’t it?
January 18, 2022
What twaddle NHL
January 19, 2022
As a brexitist I want pro-UK views and action enforced on public services. And I am anti-EU not anti-Europe.
January 19, 2022
Dixie, thanks for confirming what Pete denies.
January 20, 2022
Re read what Dixie said NHL
“Pro UK views”…”and I am not anti EU nor anti Europe.”
January 21, 2022
@NLH where exactly do I say I am anti-European?
Being pro-UK does not mean I am anti-Europe, my view on European countries is based on their behaviour towards the UK, people and country.
The EU however is a purely political organisation that is actively negative towards the UK and it’s people, so I am against it.
The EU is not Europe and public servants must put UK interests first or they are not properly serving the public interest.
January 18, 2022
They have âcommunismâ in many countries, they ‘drive on the right’ in many countriesâŠ.doesn’t make it right
January 18, 2022
Indeed, in France the âcontribution a lâaudiovisuel publicâ (also called âredevance teleâ) costs âŹ138 in 2022 and is by default added to oneâs local tax. One is likely to get visited by the local gendarmerie if one deducts the amount from the âtaxe dâhabitationâ.
January 18, 2022
What a disastrous policy, breaking up the media envy of the world. It would turn into another great privatisation success story like the railways. Or the sewage dumping industry. Or the energy industry. All because a small number of far-right MPs want to be able to set editorial policy more to their liking.
January 18, 2022
Well, I suppose if they really are the ‘envy of the World’, then the BBC’s revenue will dramatically increase as the rest of the World pays, via its subscription, to watch it…
January 18, 2022
Like our other envy of the world the NHS – the rest of the world likes our services because they are free
January 18, 2022
But its rubbish
January 18, 2022
Nothing in UK is the envy of the world.
January 18, 2022
+1
Except its benefits system for people illegally arriving on our shores.
I have paid over 42 years contributions into the system and for that I get a State pension of ÂŁ8,917.44p.a. and 2 free prescriptions p.m., but no dental care, or even an ability to see a GP.
I cost the State substantially less than what they fork out (via our taxes) for illegals (who are housed in full board 4* accommodation, get free dental treatments, get to see a doctor & ÂŁ40.00 p.w. pocket money) to live here a fraction of a year, yet I am in the group they want to cull, despite paying into the system for decades!
January 18, 2022
I also believe that illegal immigrants and refugees are exempt the BBC licence fee
January 18, 2022
SG
Just keep the World Service going, although that now is not anywhere near as good and as it used to be .
January 18, 2022
As the BBC is supposed to be a public service broadcaster, it should not have an editorial policy. It should report the news and current affairs. It should not take a position.
January 18, 2022
For ÂŁ5.99 a month I can subscribe to BritBox, a streaming service part-owned by the BBC. On this I can view old BBC shows (that I’ve already paid for via the license fee actually) which they don’t make available to me via BBC iPlayer and new series like Spitting Image that they don’t make available to me on their terrestrial channels. So I’m not sure why they’re suddenly horrified by the idea of funding themselves via subscriptions.
January 18, 2022
‘So Iâm not sure why theyâre suddenly horrified by the idea of funding themselves via subscriptions.’
Because then they become a commercial broadcaster and will never be able to produce the kind of original programmes, we all long for, that only a broadcaster, free of commercial pressure, can produce.
This is where Cultural Conservatism comes in as opposed to a Conservative who is just focused on Money / The Economy (important as that is – there is more to Conservatism than this). It’s ultimately a Cultural Movement (or should be) although, of course, money / economy central to that as well. Culture depends on money / economy to sustain it. But money / economy without culture is meaningless / dead / soulless.
January 18, 2022
And Culture and Patriotism very much interlinked. You can’t be a Patriot and not support one’s National Culture. And we cannot leave National Culture 100% in the hands of Capitalism as Capitalism (which I of course endorse) is primarily concerned with Profit – not Culture or Patriotism. It’s not either or. We need BOTH Capitalism AND National Culture / Patriotism. But not National Culture / Patriotism 100% in the hands of Capitalism.
January 19, 2022
“You canât be a Patriot and not support oneâs National Culture.” – The BBC isn’t and doesn’t
January 19, 2022
I largely agree with you. But the BBC could under the right leadership / culture create great, original programmes that are also patriotic – both creative and patriotic. I’m just saying, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. But sure, have to throw out all the left-wing politics and the WOKE culture in the BBC. Agreed.
January 18, 2022
@ Roy Grainger – because a subscription service means consumer choice that may be fatal, most particularly an end to the bounty of captive subscribers, including those who only consume rivals’ products.
January 18, 2022
Strange how the very pro Boris, Nadine, without whom she would probably not have a job, just happened to put a couple of populist anti Beeb tweets out on the same day as he fell deeper into mire.
I agree with Lifelogic (re the Beeb) that her comments on the financial impact on the poor are ludicrous in the light of energy, tax, rises and demonstrates your desperation.
This cynical action is made worse because you have been threatening this kind of action for umpteen years, indeed when the last charter renewal came up, you meekly rolled over. You agreed to a new top man, within the last couple of years who has quickly been absorbed into their blob so the blame is only at your door.
Yes, the model needs to be looked at and impartiality questioned but again strangely I do not hear a similar call about the NHS, more important and a hundred billion plus more costly.
January 18, 2022
Should sewage escape into a river the culprit is fined and made to clean up the mess. The BBC continuously pollutes the airways but the listeners keep paying.
But we should not lose track of the important things Govt should be doing, or the real damage it IS doing because of diversion tactics.
January 18, 2022
Nonsense ..the Water Companies typically avoid all response to their effluent discharge, until the public record and build up a head of steam to challenge them. The cases drag on and they use sloping shoulders to try to protest that it cannot be avoided in times of flooding. When, rarely, they are found guilty the fines are not representative of the horrific pollution they caused. They never clean-up. By that time ‘water has gone under the bridge’ fish and wild life poisoned, adjacent vegetation killed and smothered in sewage, and swimmers coated in what we flush down the toilet.
I think you are getting confused with a small business dumping a barrel load of dodgy chemicals into the river/ canal.
January 18, 2022
100% wrong on both claims.
January 18, 2022
I am pretty sure that the person with more QT appearances than any other is Nigel Farrage , he certainly held the record with 33 in 2019. The BBC utterly failed to interrogate the laughable lies pumped out by post truth movement who were allowed to get away with claiming that erecting trade barriers with our largest and most important market would make us richer….et al
It is quite unacceptable that News is flattened by free to air dumped content form an organisation that is paid at the whim of the Brexit State and threatened on a daily basis .Neither is there any logic to having the State supply celebrity dancing competitions and pop music.
Public service broadcasting should be small , tax funded and do things the market will not over the long term.
January 18, 2022
If you mean this century, you’re right. In 2019 the all time winners of this BBC programme were Ken Clarke, Shirley Williams, Menzies Campbell, Harriet Harman, Charles Kennedy, Clare Short, Michael Heseltine, Paddy Ashdown, Roy Hattersley, and Simon Hughes.
I’m just wondering if these were all Remainers.
January 18, 2022
The Tories will never relinquish control over BBC News And Current Affairs, whatever their populist posturing.
January 18, 2022
I agree â the BBC has become the political ‘Tower of Babel’ reaching for the heavens believing that theyâre all powerfulâŠ..it needs to be pulled down (well sold off)
January 18, 2022
Hilarious nonsense NHL
Are you really claiming the Beeb is pro Tory?
January 19, 2022
Spot on NLH !!
January 18, 2022
@Newmania
Sounds like nonsense to me. QT takes long holidays – a bit like schools. If he made 33 appearances in 2019 he would have had to be on almost every program. I no longer watch QT as I am both fed up of having to replace TVs after I have put my boot through the screen and because I do not have a licence.
January 18, 2022
Rather than have BBC England, would it not be better to axe BBC Scotland? No one watches it I hear.
What is going to happen to the BBC staff, once the license fee is scrapped, when they discover very few of the UK population are Guardian readers? Horrors – how will their generous pensions be funded?
January 18, 2022
Their pensions – so far as they have earned them – will be funded by their managed fund into which they paid during their employment, just as those of other public and private sector entities are, notably banks.
Pension funds are financially and administratively pretty independent of the companies whose employees they serve, thanks in some measure to the Human Rights Act.
January 18, 2022
Compare private sector pensions to public sector pensions.
And ask yourself who really pays for public sector pensions.
January 19, 2022
Who in the private sector?
The shop floor workers or the management?
The BBC’s FS scheme was closed to new joiners some years ago too.
January 20, 2022
As I said just compare the difference between public sector and private sector pensions.
January 19, 2022
P2, Has your lifetimeâs regret been not being able to be a teacher, a NHS employee, a Civil Servant, a MP or a Local Government employee?
January 20, 2022
No it hasn’t.
January 18, 2022
The BBC should have been stripped of its use of ‘BRITISH’ in its name a long time ago, bearing in mind that it only represents the worst of culture and is so totally biased against UK white people.
The balance has tipped heavily in disposing of this anti-UK socialist establishment, for even the allegedly good programmes it does produce always contain some element of indoctrination, whether it be about climate warming, political correctness, or the support of wokism.
The back catalogue of material should be sold off to the benefit of the UK, the licence fee stopped immediately, and if the BBC cannot find ways to support itself, or get enough sponsorship money from the likes of the EU, then it should be allowed to fold.
Most of us no longer have any use of this monstrosity.
January 18, 2022
Off topic why is the humbug of Sir âForensicâ Starmer not being trumpeted on the BBC? The man quite clearly partook of food and drink with colleagues in some constituency office during lockdown. What is different about that from the bring a bottle gathering for people working in No 10, organised by a civil servant and attended briefly by the PM.
Starmer has that electorally lethal combination of self-righteousness and hypocrisy. As David Cameron once explained in the case of Milliband, you can get away with one but not with both at the same time.
January 18, 2022
“What is different about that from…”
It was more risky because it was indoors and not distanced.
January 18, 2022
The BBC will change itself once the license fee is made to voluntarily .
January 18, 2022
The outcome of Scotlandâs latest offshore wind leasing auction has been announced, with 17 projects approved for an eventual generating capacity of 25GW. Out of a total 74 applications, Crown Estate Scotland chose the best 17. The largest project was from Scottish Power Renewables and would generate 3,000MW, followed closely by one from BPâs Alternative Energy Investments.
This auction will secure at least ÂŁ1bn in UK supply chain investment for every 1GW of capacity proposed. It will also generate around ÂŁ700m in revenue for the Scottish Government and represent the worldâs first commercial-scale opportunity for floating offshore wind.
In November, it was confirmed that a hydrogen storage plant would be built at the UKâs largest onshore windfarm near Glasgow, after the UK government approved a ÂŁ9.4m grant. It will allow energy from the plant to be stored in the form of âgreenâ hydrogen.
January 18, 2022
What the Brexitists havenât realised is that it will be the BBC services that they like which get cut first. BBC local radio, for example, is mostly tosh radio for grannies. Nobody with Netflix is going to care if it goes. But lonely Auntie Mabel might. Ludicrously expensive to produce for what it is. Similarly BBC Drama – very expensive – is mostly for old people. Donât like Match of the Day? I have BT Sports and Sky Sports. Hope you do otherwise no sport for you.
Lots of BBC spending goes on covering major events – like Royal weddings, Trooping The Colour, State Opening of Parliament etc. I couldnât care less about this stuff. Iâd save money by abolishing the monarchy and all this pointless guff. Brexitists probably do care about this stuff. Itâs expensive to make and it should be axed.
Also – the licence fee maintains the transmitter network. You need this if you get your TV – or radio – through an aerial. I get mine through a satellite dish and broadband. I donât care if the transmitter network goes. Granny might.
The point is that the bits of the BBC which will go are the expensive bits that old people like. They are also the ones complaining about the licence fee. They can keep their licence fee. And sit alone in their cold flats – which they canât afford to heat – with nothing to watch or listen to. Poor old dears.
January 18, 2022
Bring it on if that’s your best defence young andy.
January 19, 2022
The licence pays the companies that maintain the transmitter network.
There’s very little technical stuff – or much else – that the BBC does in house these days.
It was privatised in all but name long ago.
January 18, 2022
On balance, I would probably take a BBC subscription I like BBC Bake Off the Professionals, Masterchef, Great British Menu, The Apprentice. Even though now I don’t watch their programs as much as I used to, they used to make great comedy shows like Blackadder, Only Fools and Horses, French and Saunders but you don’t get that anymore. I switched off their news, Question Time, Newsnight, Marr it just all became too draining and miserable after great anchors left and in Marrs case, in my opinion, when he became more obviously unbalanced. You do get a few bits of arts and culture on the BBC you don’t get elsewhere. I stopped listening to Radio 1 when Moyles left (didn’t like to listen to his replacement) and I’m not keen on R2 either I prefer Smooth. I like it when BBC promotes new talent, new shows, when they get stale is when they hold on to some presenters and put them on everything all the time.
I wouldn’t take a Sky subscription because I object to paying for content then being forced to watch adverts too. They double dip.
I share a netflix package with family. This has been a boon, some great programs at a time to watch to suit me.
I watch GB news at 6pm but I do wish they’d swap Michelle with Brazier she’d be better on the 5pm slot and him up against C4 news as a more serious reporter and her guests are just….hard to watch sometimes.
Who do the BBC share the licence fee with?
January 18, 2022
âIt plays up Scottish and Welsh identity but refuses similar treatment for England.
The BBC should also be told to offer the same level of support and service to England that it shows to Scotland by having BBC Scotland.â
With respect, you could equally be talking about the U.K. Government with those remarks John. Pot kettle spring to mind.
January 18, 2022
I said that in my post this morning which is still in moderation. Reason ? It is a bit long to be fair, but I needed to get a few things off my chest đ
January 18, 2022
Itâs unfortunate that non-payment of the license fee will not be decriminalised in the meantime, but I believe MPs voted on this some months ago, so there we are.
I favour the BBC being funded by advertising, so as not to necessitate subscriptions, especially as the BBC already advertises its own offerings on TV for several minutes each hour.
January 18, 2022
Agreed there is a BBC Wales , BBC Scotland, BBC Northern Ireland , even a racially segregated BBC Asian Network ( their diversity policy doesn’t extend there) , but no BBC England , they do not view England as a nation. When Labour were pushing through their devolution policy I felt aggrieved that the effect on English people’s rights was not being aired so pursued a series of complaints against them. I didn’t get very far, no surprise there, but how they dealt with my complain was educational. The person who was tasked with responding to my complaint was a very foreign sounding lady, whose job title was ….’Diversity and English Regions’ so there we are an after thought after diversity and only then in a regional context. The reports they sent me trying to suggest they did in fact take English interests with some concern , were reports that didn’t mention England once. Scotland many times, England not at all.
Of course the BBC can get away with this because the British political establishment want it this way, they want England cleansed from the scene , as we see with the Conservative Government who have failed to give English people any representation in Parliament, no English minister for them, and the pathetic fig leaf of
Parliamentary procedure was dispensed with by Scot Michela Gove.
January 18, 2022
First it is a shot across the bows of the BBC, second it is , on timing alone, a distractraction from the social life at No 10.
Bias in the news and current affairs output of the BBC is a long standing reality. Remember their coverage of The 2016 Referendum and the look on Dimblebys face when the result was announced. Not to mention their response to Brexit ever since. They are the verbal extention of the Guardian reflecting the views of the Islington bubble only. It is not hard to detect their bias beyond the news, in Countryfile for instance. The BBCs total silence on any rebuttal arguments concerning climate are evidence enough. We the population can refuse to pay for the Guardian and should be able to legitimately avoid paying for their mouthpiece.
BBC output is not all bad, overseas their Worldservice is the only believable news, other nations service being so dire. Their drama at all levels is excellent.
My conclusion is that News and Current Affaires plus Sport should be detached to survive on advertising or subscription while losing its BBC title. The remainder should be on advertising or subscription so we only pay for what we want. The sad aspect is that the bias in NACA distracts from much of the good stuff they do, which goes way beyond Sir David Attenborough and outplays anything I have experienced around the World. Do not let those in the NACA yard to take down the others with them.
January 18, 2022
Thank you for inviting comment:
The requirement to have a licence to watch live TV is an anachronism and should end.
The BBC could and in some programmes still does provide a useful public service, home and abroad; so keep it, but pare back its number of channels, stop its self-aggrandizement (look at the long and noisy introduction to BBC TV news as a quick example) and enforce its charter.
Suggested public service broadcast channels: one BBC TV channel and a Parliament TV channel; four radio channels, the equivalents of Radios 2, 3 and 4 and World Service.
Fund it from general taxation. No egregious pay awards to staff or fees for content.
Leave the rest to commercial TV and radio.
January 18, 2022
âIf it [the BBC] wishes to re establish itself as the accepted voices of the UK it needs to become the peopleâs BBC.â
I think this is correct and the solution.
The Government should legislate that the BBC cannot just promote one view on the key issues of the day.
Just as the BBC must allow party political broadcasts from more than one party during elections, so, for instance on the subject of climate change, the BBC should be made to allow broadcasts from those who either do not believe in man-made climate change or who believe that the unilateral Net Zero Strategy is unworkable.
The BBC has more than enough channels and program slots available for diversity of opinion to exist.
Without this diversity of opinion the BBC becomes simply a propaganda tool for whoever is in control of the BBCâs output.
January 18, 2022
And in other news we read that a government scheme to keep cash available in the high street, yes you can march into shops and demand cash with out a purchase is failing because no one knows about it according to Which magazine.
Actually it us because cash is potentially a carrier of the virus, many places went card only because of it and tap and go is easier and cheaper so there is little demand. Does the government not realise how expensive cash is to hold and manage? Of course not.
Obviously designed by King Canute (aka HMG) like other âkeep the high streetâ going policies and purely because they are not strong enough to stand up to a few woke vested interest bleats like so much else they do.
When they learn they cannot stop market forces (read the energy mess they have created) we will all be improved for it. They wonât of course because the go into politics to tell people what to do because they think they know better.
January 18, 2022
‘The virus’ is transmitted by aerosols, not by surface contact, Nig. Anyone who’s been keeping up with the Covid situation must know that by now.
I am also curious to know more about your idea that you can go into shops and demand cash from shopkeepers without buying anything from them. Unless of course you’re referring to cash machines in some shops, where you’re simply accessing your own money, probably in order to buy something. So that surely isn’t an issue.
January 19, 2022
Yes, and there were plenty of aerosols who were not wearing masks on the train, last time that I used one, Philip.
January 18, 2022
King Canute was a wise man demonstrating the folly of flattery.
January 18, 2022
At the moment the BBC is allowing its content to be viewed for free by the rest of the world whilst criminalising people in the UK who don’t pay. Surely it can’t be too difficult to enter a code similar to what is required for subscription services. The BBC has to learn to be more commercial if it wants to survive.
January 18, 2022
For free? Yes and No, as the best way to watch the BBC (and it is only what is available on the BBC iPlayer) from foreign lands is via a computer-linked system using some particular paying VPN connections.
A very well known such VPN service available more or less worldwide costs âŹ7.29 a month in the Euro area or $100 a year in the USA. It also gives access to Netflix, HBO, Disney, Amazon Prime Video, âŠ
January 18, 2022
Do you reckon that is illegal hef?
January 19, 2022
No, such a properly paid VPN service watched from France is not illegal as the BBC iPlayer programmes are âofferedâ as part of a âbouquetâ of channels including Netflix, Disney Channel, et al.
And I pay the âŹ139 of my âcontribution a lâaudiovisuel publicâ to have a telly at my place over there, on which I can watch those channels.
January 18, 2022
âThe Fee is also resented by more people who are paying for access to non BBC service but still have to pay the tax because of the way they watch other servicesâ
Is it technically possible to produce TV sets where the tuning function can be factory set to block BBC broadcasts?
January 18, 2022
Just sell the whole BBC, wash your hands and be done with it……don’t do a brexit half in half out deal
January 18, 2022
“A couple of tweets by the Culture Secretary does not create a new policy.”
An announcement at the dispatch box does though…
“The Licence fee is becoming increasingly difficult to collect as many people turn to social media and commercial entertainment and news services which they say they can legally access without paying the Licence fee.”
Nonsense, it is no more difficult to collect the TVL fee than any other ‘tax’, such as VED, and why single out the BBC? Surely Sky and BTTV are also affected by these new ways of watching, yes I did note our hosts the use of the word “licence” but then a Sky viewing card is also a licence in effect. For example why the need to pay for 500 channels from Sky before being allowed to subscribe to Sky Movies.
“The Fee is also resented by more people who are paying for access to non BBC service but still have to pay the tax because of the way they watch other services.”
As are the non BBC subscription fees that have to be paid for content that viewers do not want, as I said above, such as having to pay for 500 channels from Sky when one only wants the Sport channels, and then perhaps only one or two of those sports channels, when will the govt stop people having to fund multiple channels rather than just those they actually want watch.
“The BBC continues to antagonise people who legally do not need to pay with their intimidating emails and messages demanding payment.”
That problem has been largely caused by the way previous govts, most of them Conservative, have changed the way the TVL fee is collected, enforced and by who. Then of course there are those who object to their legal responsibilities when challenged by relevant authorities, never mind those who are breaking the law – any antagonism is being caused by such people, not those simply trying to enforce the law! How come a motorist can have their property legally disabled, even seized and destroyed, for failing (accidentally, or with intent) to pay the VED, but no questions are demanded from the SoS at DfT, even though far more antagonism is being caused by such a heavy handed response…
“One of the reasons BBC support is dropping is the attitudes and content of much BBC output.”
A political assertion, not a fact.
Also if we are gong to cite dodgy viewing stats, remember when BSkyB (at the time owned by News corp) used to relay FoxNews into the UK, apparently that service was scrapped because it was not economic, costing BSkyB more than revenue sales received to support the channel here in the UK, rather suggests there is little or no appetite for hard right-wing politics here in the UK. đ
“I suggest that the government should now move to decriminalise the licence fee”
Fine, just so long as defrauding Sky or BTTV are also decriminalized. đ
What makes me think the govt, and many on the Tory backbenches, are not looking for a level playing field here, and never have (after all this feud has been rumbling on since at least the mid 1980s), given it is also now clear that Ch4 are in their sights too.
January 18, 2022
The BBC’s charter does indeed require it “to educate, inform and entertain”. About 50 years ago those in charge decided that their brief should include “to influence”, and from a leftist perspective. Rather than present the viewer with objective information and let them decide what to think, the BBC insists on pushing its own point of view. The charter requires impartiality, but the BBC is in breach of this every minute of every day. In a famous interview with Malcolm Muggeridge in the 1960’s, Lord Reith was asked what would be the consequence of the BBC “falling into the wrong hands”. Reith instantly responded: “it would result in the greatest social evil of our time”.
January 18, 2022
@Pieter C; “About 50 years ago those in charge decided that their brief should include âto influenceâ”
Actually that occurred when Reith wrote the first Charter, what do you think ‘to educate & inform’ does, if not “influence”?
The major revisions to both the BBC charter and ITV franchise remits, that so affected what could be broadcast, how and when, only started to occur from the very late 1970s, for example BBC Enterprises Ltd (now part of BBC Studios) was created mid May 1979.
In a famous interview with Malcolm Muggeridge in the 1960âs, Lord Reith was asked what would be the consequence of the BBC âfalling into the wrong handsâ. Reith instantly responded: âit would result in the greatest social evil of our timeâ.
Indeed, but at no time did he use the word, nor refer to or imply, Socialism or the left, and remember Reith was fully aware of how some national broadcasters had been used and exploited by certain nationalist governments in (mainland central) Europe during the 1930s, so who know what or who Reith was actually referring to in that interview…
What is true, if you know anything about the man, Reith would be dismayed, even disgusted, at what the BBC (and broadcasting in general) has become in the last 40 odd years, at the hands of successive govts with seemingly scant regard for his (“Reithian”) PSB values. Perhaps you should read his speech from 1954, made in the Lords, with regards the creation of commercial TV, before trying to make him the champion of anti BBC sentiment. Goodness knows what he would have thought about the 1990 Broadcasting Act that put money before quality in the bidding process. In fact I somehow doubt, had it been for Reith to decide, neither commercial nor subscription broadcasting would exist here in the UK!
January 18, 2022
The legal status of the BBC license fee and its non-payment is a matter for government, not the BBC. Conservatives have had over a decade to do something about it, so why now (apart from needing a distraction, much as the Home Secretary putting out the idea of deploying the military in the Channel)? Something to rally the troops behind a leader whose credibility is declining by the day?
Furthermore, enforcement of non-payment isn’t done by the BBC, it’s long since been outsourced to the private sector (Capita), something else I thought Conservatives considered a good thing. although in my limited experience of dealing with Capita with regards to empty rental properties between tenancies, they are utterly useless and incompetent.
The BBC has many different offerings. What would happen, to example, to the World Service or to local radio, both of which are enabled by the license fee? Who would cover state occasions? Perhaps MPs want rid of the Parliament channel so they can avoid having us witness how they behave at times.
January 18, 2022
Like all state institutions it is run for the benefit of management. There is no discipline, staff do as they wish. With a nod and a wink staff are encouraged to do outrageous things.
The BBC hates the English. You are prohibited from watching local TV in HD if you live in London. It’s too expensive. On the other hand, if you are an EU loving Scot everything is in HD.
Because the English are racist, the BBC has to make us watch programmes full of melanin-intensive people for which we have to pay more.
Sadly, because the right schools are too posh, the directors of the BBC are all the hated (by the BBC) white people and mostly men (Socialists aren’t keen on women).
Unfortunately, I’ve lost all faith in the Government to tell me the truth, so I don’t believe this will actually happen.
January 18, 2022
It is NOT an ‘important’ national institution. It is a gravy train.
At the moment, I don’t pay the licence fee. My penalty is that I am not allowed to watch live TV – any live TV. I pay for Netflix and Amazon but if they broadcast anything live – I have to pay the BBC to watch it. WHY? This is absurd and utterly ridiculous.
However, KEEP the licence fee if it means the alternative is a forced payment on my broadband bill. What if people use broadband just to use a computer and never watch TV? One proposal is that a levy on broadband will be used to pay for the bloody BBC. Why? What is SOOOOOOOO great about the BBC that it deserves to exist? Let them sell adverts like everyone else – or, if you want to watch it, subscribe – like I do to Netflix and Amazon.
January 18, 2022
If, like me, you look at the Guardian web site for amusement – you will see that the left wing nutters who frequent that site think the BBC is a rabid right-wing, Tory government supporting outfit.
If you come here, the BBC are characterised as a bunch of Tory hating left-wing loons.
Interesting how people really just see what they want to see. (And the people on the Guardian web site are, of course, wrong.)
January 18, 2022
Mike, that is not the impression I get whilst reading the Guardian, they are very supportive of the BBC and obviously feel it fits in with their narrative or they wouldn’t support it.
January 18, 2022
@a-tracy; You do nothing but make Mikes point for him!
January 18, 2022
Well. When people who look like me are the only ones allowed to be terrorists on the BBC…
Why should I hate it any less than if it were the other way around ?
January 18, 2022
The BBC is remorselessly anti British , pro EU, trivial and parochial. We want world news not endless attacks on anyone picking up the burden of government. The BBC seems to be perpetually an envious adolescent . They never seem to like anything or anyone British.
January 18, 2022
Sell it to highest bid, you could label it, best propaganda outlet, chinese and others pay billion’s for it..
January 18, 2022
Correct tweet donât make policy, nether does freezing the consumer charge, thatâs just kicking the can down the road
Make a clear statement of intent, either sell the BBC or maintain its charter
Iâd say sell it like the âTell Sid British Gasâ campaign and allow joe public to buy discounted shares
January 18, 2022
Like Warriors we need to protect the Culture of our Country. BBC plays or should play a key role in the preservation and growth of our Culture. Sadly, it’s often more focused on Left Wing Policies / Woke / Power for Power-sake. And this must be culled.
However, we mustn’t go berserk (which literally means to lose one’s head – and go chaotic – or something like that – which happens to Warriors when they go over-board). We must trim back the BBC but still keep it going so that we can have brilliant, original, creative programmes in terms of Film, Documentaries, Cultural Programmes, Children’s Programmes etc … That only a national broadcaster, free of commercial pressure, can produce. And which indirectly and directly helps to raise standards in the commercial sector as well. So preserving the BBC isn’t just about Culture but also about giving life and vitality to the Commercial Creative Sector as well.
January 18, 2022
I think it has to be said that Sky has campaigned against Brexit more intensely than the BBC, for example by providing Irish politicians with a platform to make statements such as:
âWe have been very very clear from day one, there cannot be a physical border and that means ruling out cameras, that means ruling out technology, that means ruling out anything that would imply a border on the island of Ireland, it is not an option for usâ.
Said by the then Irish Minister for Europe Helen McEntee, just after 3 minutes here on November 24 2017:
https://news.sky.com/video/is-the-norway-sweden-border-a-solution-for-ireland-11141058
And quoted here on December 4 2017, with my reaction:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2017/12/04/two-views-of-brexit/#comment-905136
“My own conclusion is that itâs pointless trying to negotiate about this with people who adopt such an absurd, extreme and intransigent position, and rather than faff around trying to find a form of words which everyone can accept but each can interpret in a different way, and which may well weaken our Union, Theresa May should just say now that the UK will no longer seek any âdeep and specialâ trade deal with the EU but will trade on WTO terms, and the Irish government can like it or lump it.”
But Theresa May wanted to use it as a pretext to give the CBI, replete with Tory party donors, as much as possible of what they were demanding; and then Boris Johnson, having roundly condemned her Chequers plan which the CBI liked and wanted to be implemented as being “vassalage” and “Brexit In Name Only”, decided that nonetheless it could still be imposed on people in Northern Ireland if that is what it took for him to succeed with his vanity project of a special “Canada style” free trade deal with the EU.
And over four years later, this morning, I read about an interview with an Irish MEP, here:
https://www.votewatch.eu/blog/exclusive-interview-with-mep-barry-andrews-eu-uk-relations-northern-ireland-protocol/
and the first question was:
“What changes are needed from the UK in order to agree upon a final Northern Ireland Protocol and avoid a trade war?”
Once again I refer to this report:
https://www.briefingsforbritain.co.uk/for-the-last-time-an-eu-trade-deal-isnt-worth-it-for-the-uk/
“For the last time â an EU trade deal isnât worth it for the UK”
It is certainly not worth the perpetual national humiliation that Theresa May and Boris Johnson have jointly contrived to inflict on us; I would prefer any relatively short lived national disgrace, and limited economic disruption, that may ensue from unilateral abrogation of the present protocol, an “unequal treaty”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unequal_treaty
January 18, 2022
@Sir John,
Be great to see you working alongside Boris in a senior role (i.e. Deputy PM or something) to help him in his job. He’s the creative sort who needs someone who is more practical to help him. I might be wrong, but I bet that if you really focused on wanting to improve The Arts (and Culture / Sport) in this country, Boris would focus a lot more on you (NOT saying that he is not already focused on you), I’m just saying, I think he’d be even more focused on you. Because I think that the Arts (and Culture / Sport) is something that is very close to Boris’ heart. And, also, not to punish him for being a Party man. It’s in his DNA. But obviously if he doesn’t get his act together, a lot of Tories are going to want to give him the boot.
January 18, 2022
Actually, he is not a party man. It is not in his DNA. That is a media confected image to whip up class hatred. He is a loner and enjoys solitary pursuits like reading and painting.
January 19, 2022
I admit, I don’t know Boris at all. I only go on how he’s presented in the media. But I don’t think the British people, from any class, hate a party man. People aren’t angry with Boris for partying per se. But for partying at the wrong time (i.e. when people were dying and relatives couldn’t visit).
January 19, 2022
rose, How do you know that? Are you his mother, his sister or one of his present/past spouses/girlfriends?
January 18, 2022
Interesting their immediate response it will mean programme cuts. Are the eye watering salaries to Lineker et all justified? Are there not cheaper substitutes. How much duplication, Union enforced out of date working practices etc?
A leading consultancy firm always claimed their first task (and easiest) was to eliminate waste taking 20% cost out of a business. Working with umpteen smaller ones, always my priority.
Only government thinks throwing more money around improves performance. If they had their way, every business would overtrade. Unfortunately only government has the deep pockets of other people, us to make up the losses/waste.
January 18, 2022
It really couldn’t be easier.
Merge BBC 2/ 3/ 4 into 1 channel, stop the low quality tedious repeats.
Reduce BBC1 transmissions to start 8am and finish at 11pm.
Merge Radio 2 /3 /4 into 1 station. Reduce hours 6am to finish 10pm.
5 Live – stop the dial-in programs where has-been footballers bore the pants of everyone, its a private celebrating us show.
Remove foreign language broadcasts.
Ceiling cap on staff and contractors of say ÂŁ300k.
January 19, 2022
âRemove foreign language broadcastsâ: when the BBC World Service aimed at the Arabic Peninsula was stopped at the end of the 1990s, Al Jazeera rapidly replaced it. Was this an improvement?
It was reinstated some years later but too late, a non negligible part of the audience did not go back to the WS.
Possibly relevant: publications.parliament.uk , 04/11/2011, âForeign Affairs Committee: Written evidence from BBC World Serviceâ.
January 18, 2022
@ Sir John,
Trying to think out of box here, but how about try and focus on how to promote Shakespeare more in the country. This is the kind of thing that would grab Boris’ attention. And Shakespeare v much about Patriotism not just the Arts which Boris loves.
Also, Boris loves the ancient world. How about doing something to focus Parliament more on the life of Cyrus the Great. This is the kind of thing that would grab Boris’ attention. Not just because Cyrus is from the ancient world. But also because he was a great figure that so many different types of people would be interested in.
Also, things like how we can do more to help / support / promote our galleries – like the brilliant National Gallery and lots, lots more, including how to support more the British film industry, music industry, things like that – the creative industry in this country is huge.
January 18, 2022
‘Cyrus’ – that Parliament put a statue up to him or something. I don’t know. Just trying to be creative / think out of the box.
January 18, 2022
overnight Peers voted against the government’s plans to:
create a new offence of “locking on”, a tactic used by protesters to make it difficult to remove them, carrying with it a penalty of up to a year in prison.
create a new offence of obstructing the construction or maintenance of major transport works
make it an offence for a person to interfere with the use or operation of key national infrastructure, including airports, the road network, railways and newspaper printers.
allow police officers to stop and search a person or vehicle if it was suspected an offence was planned, such as causing serious disruption or obstructing major transport works.
allow police to stop and search anyone at a protest “without suspicion”.
allow individuals with a history of causing serious disruption to be banned by the courts from attending certain protests.
Others to be amended.
A daily diary all on its own please, Sir John.
January 18, 2022
allow police to stop and search anyone at a protest “without suspicion”.
From what I’ve seen on videos of recent demonstrations In London, that will include rectal and I expect vaginal searches where the police surround an individual for some minutes in such numbers that he cannot be seen at all, before taking him away.
January 22, 2022
+1,
Although some of these Lordsâ decisions are debatable I cannot understand anybody supporting âallowing police to stop and search anyone âwithout suspicionââ.
This is a step toward preventing any protest whatsoever.
Which is also a proof that the HoC had not been doing its work given the number of so-called libertarians among some fraction of the CUP.
In that instance the HoL has been serving its purpose.
January 18, 2022
They shouldâve put the word âgreenâ at the start of each pointâŠ.the Lords wouldâve approved it without reading
January 18, 2022
What nonsense we get from so-called experts
express.co.uk/news/science/1551707/eu-news-energy-crisis-uk-sign-energy-alliance-emmanuel-macron-vladimir-putin?utm_source=express_newsletter&utm_campaign=politics_morning_newsletter2&utm_medium=email
An alliance with Macron, who hates the UK and still sees us as subservient to him – NO THANKS!
Never mind coming closer, we need to get as far away from him as possible – He has never been a friend to the UK, no matter that we have bent over backwards to accommodate his wishes. Time we let him know what we think of him!
January 18, 2022
In other news following a urgent question in the house – James Heapply Defence Minister has just confirm that the Royal Navy in the English Channel has NO powers to return illegal immigrants nor to enter French waters
January 18, 2022
Can it block them from entering British water glen?
January 18, 2022
The Royal Navy are there to pick them up….just a bigger faster taxi service
January 18, 2022
And of course the military aren’t allowed to go on strike, so they’ll reliably continue the migrant taxi service.
January 18, 2022
Glen. Now there’s a surprise – not. Still the illegals will be pleased that more of them will be picked up in comfort in a bigger boat. Look on the bright side. They may all want to join the RN.
January 18, 2022
The public like Boris because he’s imperfect like them (/ us) and doesn’t try to over-hide it. They like the idea he knows how to enjoy himself and life in general. And is creative. He won Brexit / The General Election. No-one in The Tory Party has nearly the pulling power of Boris. So Tories need to be careful about booting him out. Also, the country fed up of drama after Recession / Brexit / Covid / last leader elections. They want a bit of smoothness / normality.
January 18, 2022
What is the going punishment for breaching lockdown Ed? 6 months for organising the ‘event’ – suspension on full pay, 3 months suspension on full pay for attending? Has anyone, anywhere lost their job through breaching lockdown?
All those nurses designing dance routines at work whilst other nurses were on the tv telling us sitting in a park would kill them, did they get a telling off, any of the organisers sacked? Did they get told off when all their free food orders were delivered throughout the lockdown? No because WE NEEDED THEM, people working in offices and bread factories and the like during lockdown had little treats a plated buffet, cake, the canteens were still open, the staff spilled outside if there was a grass area near us in the gorgeous weather 2m apart, of course, to enjoy a brief catch of sunshine because they were WORKING whilst the majority were on furlough that April. WE NEEDED the Downing Street operation, they couldn’t work from home, it was hot and it seems to me it was a treat to say thank you. If they sack off Boris it won’t stop there he should watch the lawyer wriggling off the hook.
Cummings is a hypocrite, he thought it was ok the week before to sit in the garden after work to carry on meeting staff and have a chat. I think people forget the marches the following week, the people on the beach and all of the complaints about that. Boris screwed up allowing this in his back garden with his wife in attendance and, especially for me, allowing booze (not something any work meeting I’ve been to includes) but I believe this is the culture there.
January 19, 2022
I don’t support Boris resigning. It was stupid thing he did. But we all do stupid things (I do at least).
(He should be made to suffer a bit – but not resign).
January 18, 2022
Farage won Brexit not some Oxbridge halfwit
January 19, 2022
Yes, fair dues – I didn’t mean to leave out Nigel Farage. But whether you like Boris or not, he charmed the public over Brexit, helping to sway the numbers I believe.
January 20, 2022
No, as Arron Banks said, IT won it.
January 18, 2022
When I told a relative of my cynicism regarding the Covid restrictions being imposed by the government she sent me a screenshot from the BBC website that repeated the instructions without criticism as “proof” that I was wrong to question anything emanating from the “experts”. This perception of the Corporation being the source of truth is widespread and may have had some validity in the past, but its performance through the last two years has been so disappointing with no questioning of the policies and acceptance of everything and anything SAGE came up with. Interestingly, Dr Mark Woolhouse, a SAGE member, has written a book in which the folly of lockdown is exposed. The Year The World Went Mad should be a fascinating but anger-inducing read.
January 18, 2022
The BBC kept Churchill off the airwaves for 28 consecutive months before he backed PM. A leopard does not change its spots no matter how many chances you give it. Not only is the BBC politically biased but it is uncouth and promotes violence, not one of its âcomicsâ can raise a smile. Mary Whitehouse was right. I will never support it financially no matter how the license is rebranded.
January 18, 2022
And the DG, Hugh Greene, personally kept Mary Whitehouse off the BBC till he died. What a tiny, bigoted little mind he must have had.
January 19, 2022
She of the âMoral Re-Armamentâ. Interesting what comes after a few weeks of you blogging on here. And youâre the one talking of âa tiny, bigoted little mindâ. What a hoot!
January 19, 2022
How rude you are hef.
So clever but a nasty streak.
January 18, 2022
Funnily enough I wrote a comment about this yesterday (which wasn’t published, I know not why) saying: “It would take an especially stupid government to commit to ending the Licence Fee without already knowing what was going to replace this, so tell us NOW”. But Sir John tells us now that: “What she has done is invite those interested to debate the future financing of this important national institution.” What kind of cretin becomes a politician if they don’t know what they want changes they want to make to the country?? I have never understood why politicians engage in consultations. It is effectively saying ‘I haven’t got a clue what to do so please do my thinking for me and tell me what to believe’. You must be really, really stupid and pathetic to do this!
But that being the case my proposal is that the BBC be split into two: the commercial part and the public service part. So there would be two television channels: BBC1 would show popular programming – such as drama, comedy, sport, films – and would be financed by advertising, so that it would be available to the viewer for free. And the second television channel – showing documentaries and news programming – would be financed directly by the government, with a ministerial appointee chairing the public service part of the BBC and controlling staffing appointments and programme content, to ensure that this was politically neutral. Radio would be completely privatised, and funded by advertising.
January 18, 2022
Sir John’s Tweet about “Operation Red Meat” proves that the useless, stupid, cowardly and uxorious Boris Johnson is NOT a conservative. Only when he is utterly desperate, on the brink of political destruction, does he do what he should be doing normally: adopting conservative policies. No, Boris Johnson is NOT a genuine conservative. But he is a CON-man. So even now his âred meatâ policies are a FRAUD.
Just look at the proposal to bring in the armed forces to tackle the immigrant invasion. This is just deceitful window-dressing. You would have to be very stupid to fall for this, since unless the government actually start turning boats back (as agreed by the government and their lawyers last year, but so far NEVER done!) then the military will simply add to the illegal immigrant taxi service. And even if asylum seekers are sent offshore somewhere for processing, so what? If their applications for asylum continue to be considered on the same basis as now, they will continue to be granted, and these bogus asylum claimants will eventually come here after all â and the pull factor will remain! So NOTHING will change. As I have said before: the government must declare that NOBODY will receive asylum or ELR under ANY circumstances, and they will NEVER be allowed to set foot in the UK. Thatâs the ONLY solution.
January 19, 2022
The problem is many of these people are undocumented so we do not know where they came from and the French will not take them back.
The only solution it to intern them on some remote Scottish Island. ONce they realise that they will not be able to work in the UK etc they will want to return home much like those on the Belarusian and Polish border.
January 19, 2022
They should take the applicants to a boat and process them on that. They can work on that boat, cleaning, cooking, painting all the basic tasks. Their skills can be assessed and utilised.
January 18, 2022
Sir John,
There is a similar conversation going on in Australia. The ABC (which somehow is even worse than the BBC) is funded through general taxation at a cost I believe of one billion dollars a year. People have to pay for it even if they don’t own a television. The best solution both in Australia and the UK, would be a subscription service.
January 18, 2022
The BBC is an obsolete organisation using obsolete equipment to receive its content. Sell off the few merchantable program formats that the BBC actually makes itself and rent out its back catalogue to other providers. No, the BBC does not Inform, Educate, Entertain which is why the licence fee needs to go now.
January 18, 2022
Not so important these days John, except in its own eyes.
January 18, 2022
I believe the BBC made a bad mistake many years ago in modelling its news output on newspapers.
Thus, the BBC was selective over which stories to run, what degree of prominence to give a story and what facts to leave out, just like newspapers.
This mainly happened after the death of Lord Reith. Although not ideal, his idea of having a set formula for which stories to run, and at what prominence was far better than what we have today.
Lord Reith was also careful not to undermine Parliament by ensuring the BBC did not host discussions or debates about subjects which Parliament had not finished debating or voting on.
The BBC could have bean a beacon of unfettered facts. Instead it became an arm of the Guardian, a fatal mistake.
I believe it is now beyond reform. I think the government should auction off the most popular BBC shows and let the BBC continue on a subscription-only basis.
January 18, 2022
Can Boris actually do anything useful? What is the point of sending our RN to deal with illegals if they can’t send them back? Boris has shot himself in the foot again.
January 18, 2022
I loathe the BBC, absolutely loathe it, as much as I loathe Sky, but I donât have to pay Sky to watch ITV. Get rid of the licence fee ASAP.
January 18, 2022
The BBC is a barnacle on progress period. Buy a TV and the retailer collects your N&A for the govt and the default monopoly channel is always BBC 1 and next BBC 2. You cannot escape from its clutches.
The great pretender of Britain’s view and the Red wall-to-wall News studios are no coincidence in its political bias despite the odd blue dresses matching the EU flags in recent years. Basic stuff.
If you want the most detailed Weather the tax funded BBC corners this historically plus also Regional News and even Local news and slowly killed off local newspapers who could not match the buying power clout.
So whilst the competition has gone to the wall in many areas except fierce competition in MSM it basically sucks the average punter into its greedy tentacles by its outdated ancient Charter giving it licence to collect a TV tax. The most important flip side of the Charter is the responsibility to be impartial.
It has played off successive parties in office by its incumbent monopoly being able to spin news either positively or negatively. This has become so blatantly obvious its power is out of control.
When the BBC started making the story and not just delivering it as per the Charter govts found they were smeared if they dared to challenge it.
It’s interesting to note many vested interests have come to its defence in particular celebs and their families who have played along with the lucrative game.
January 18, 2022
Curiously Yvette Cooper sprang to defend the BBC as her husband has reinvented himself as a celeb after voters were told by his colleagues – Sorry no money left left to the point of no return….
January 19, 2022
The Tories need to be careful. There are millions of Conservative voters who support the BBC. They DON’T support its left-wing politics or WOKE culture but they do support it for potentially being able to create great, original programmes and / or programmes that are patriotic. Sure, loads needs to be done to strip the BBC of its left-wing / Woke culture and empire-building mentality. But that’s do-able. Although a bit of a challenge. And yes that will involve a cutting down of the BBC but not getting rid of it completely.