Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP (Wokingham) (Con): I entirely agree with that passionate defence of localism by Rachael Maskell. Local must mean local and we do not want people in the BBC in London imposing on us their views on how our local radio should be conducted and how big our locality should be. I see behind the centralised planning at the BBC a distorted version of what our constitution should look like within the United Kingdom, and a wish to impose thatâagainst the clear majority wishes of people, whenever they have been asked about these subjects in referendums and elections.
It is not just that the BBC wishes to create phony regional groupings instead of truly local radio, but that it has a very distorted view of devolution. The BBC seems to be an enthusiast for devolution to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, but it does not even know England exists. It always wants lopsided devolution. One of the four important constituent parts of the United Kingdom is scarcely ever mentioned; it is never suggested it should have any powers or right to self-government and there is no engagement with English issues on BBC radio in the way that there is a clear engagement with Scottish, Welsh or Northern Ireland issues. That causes enormous resentment.
In my own case, local radio is organised at the county level, at Radio Berkshire. That makes sense, because it is an area that we can recognise and there is some loyalty to our royal and ancient county. Many people now do not know that it had its borders artificially compressed in a local government reorganisation some 50 years ago, under a Conservative Government that I think made some mistakes. The county retains an enormous amount of goodwill and residual loyalty, and people are very happy for our local radio to be organised at that scale. If people had real choice, however, I think Wokingham would rather have a different radio from Reading, and I think we would probably rather have a different radio from Windsor, because we have a different set of issues. But we accept that there have to be some compromises because talented people need to be appointed and paid wages, and that cannot be done to a sensible budget at very local levels.
I urge the BBC to look in the mirror and understand why, in many respects, it is getting so out of touch with its audiences. It has a very narrow range of views and issues that it will allow people to discuss, and it has a particularly warped perspective on how we feel about our areas and what our loyalties belong to. I am allowed to express views from time to time on BBC Radio Berkshire. It does not put me through the ordeal of a pre-interview to find out whether my views are acceptable and fit its caricature of a Conservative in the way that nearly always happens if national radio is thinking of interviewing me. Then, I always have the double interview, and I quite often fail the first interview test because my views are clearly too interesting or unacceptable, or do not fit the caricature that the radio wishes to put into its particular drama. So people are spared my voice on radio and I have more free time, which is perhaps a wonderful outcome from those events.
I do not find that my local radio quite plots the drama as strongly as national BBC radio and television. I am very grateful for that because I think that good, independent broadcasting of the kind that the BBC says it believes in should allow people of decent viewsânot extremists who want to break the law, or racistsâto conduct civilised conversations and debates through the medium of the BBC. But all too often, that is truncated or impossible because of the way in which the editors operate and their pre-conceived set of views, about which they wish to create some kind of drama.
Colleagues have made extremely good points, which I will emphasise, about the treatment of staff and the way these kinds of proposals are planned. If the BBC wishes to run truly local services, it must listen to usâthe local people and the local peopleâs representativesâand treat its staff well, and be aware that they have given good service in the past and should be taken on a journey of change that makes sense for them as well as for the BBC. This all looks rather top-down, abrupt and unpleasant. Successful organisations understand that their own journeys, evolving as institutions, are best conducted if, at the same time, they allow good journeys for the staff who give them loyal service. That does not seem to be happening in this case.
I will spare you a bit of time, Madam Deputy SpeakerâI have made the main points that I wished to make. The BBC needs to be more open to a wider range of views. If it wants to be local, it has to ask us what local means.
December 10, 2022
Good morning.
Local radio can be provided for by private means, not the BBC. The BBC needs to learn to do less, charge less and, in the case of a football presenter(s), pay less.
A local radio station for local people.
December 10, 2022
Mark B,
Agreed, there is no need for BBC to fund local radio stations. If there is a demand private companies can provide a service.
December 10, 2022
+1
just get rid of left wing BBC it is the only way to reform it. It will have to change or die by competition. But we were given many false hopes by the fake Tories, lies, lies and more lies.
December 10, 2022
@Hope +1 Why does a Metro Left SocCon Government want to hang on to the BBC?
December 10, 2022
IT,
Propaganda. You might have noticed lots of programmes scare/promoting, nudging, public to accept their culture changes. It is constant reinforcing messages.
December 10, 2022
@Mark B – were I disagree with you on this is that commercial operators need listeners therefore their operations are not about ânewsâ, âdiscussionsâ etc. but listener ratings. As with the MsM you attract your audience with the most bizarre headline to maximise the exposure for your advertisers, as it is them that pay the bills â the substance has nothing to do with anything.
Things should be turned on its head, the BBC as a National (really a Metro Socialist Left wing mouth piece) entity needs disbanding. It should then be all Local and only pooled nationally when the locals deem a reason for it.
December 10, 2022
But, like most of the state sector, it is clearly run for the benefit of the staff (and as a government propaganda outfit).
December 10, 2022
A powerful speech, persuasive and clear.
You say “I urge the BBC to look in the mirror and understand why, in many respects, it is getting so out of touch with its audiences” but is there perhaps too much wrong with the BBC now to mean it is made incapable of finding its own redemption?
December 10, 2022
Perhaps if the BBC were not unfairly funded competition in broadcasting in general we could have more local radio funded by subscription or advertising. This without the endless lefty, woke and climate alarmist BBC propaganda.
Stephen Fry in the Telegraph Today: âI donât understand climate change deniersâ
After travelling the globe for a new documentary, A Year on Planet Earth, the broadcaster reveals his wonder – and worries – for the planet.
Well Steven no one sensible denies that the climate changes it always had always will. Millions of factors affect the climate. If however you really mean deny that there is a âclimate emergencyâ that is because there is no reason to think there is any emergency and certainly not one caused by manmade CO2 emissions. A little more atmospheric CO2 is on balance a net benefit. Perhaps had you read Physics, Maths or Engineering rather than English you might understand rather better.
December 10, 2022
Stephen Fryâs contribution to the world or yours? You donât even come second. More obsessive condescension about university qualifications, I cannot recall you appearing on university challenge.
December 10, 2022
Lifelogicâs example of the BBC funding someone well-known to go on a journey of discovery typifies the absence of BBC creativity and values.
December 10, 2022
I think this one is ITV but they and Channel 4 are all as bad essentially propaganda outfits. True I have never even applied to be on University Challenge – in my day it was rather more slanted towards History, Greek, English Lit. and Latin than today. But I do think I probably know & understand rather more than Mr Fry about climate, maths, physics, chemistry, electronics, energy, economics, the tax system and engineering in general.
I am not at all condescending about his qualification I am sure his English degree is most useful to him and his knowledge and Beowulf, Milton, Keats, the war poets and Shakespeare is more refuned and superior to mine.
But then I do not want him to be designing aircraft, bridges, new climate religions, cars or energy systems for me or others. He is perhaps not best suited to it.
December 11, 2022
more ârefinedâ I meant.
It is however surely rather easier of a scientist to access and understand english literature, history, music, poetry, plays and the arts in general than it is for most art graduates to understand complex science and engineering without having understood basic physics, maths, quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, energy generation and distribution systems, chaos theory, jet enginesâŠindeed most seem to have little interest in even trying to understand. One âenergyâ editor of a âqualityâ UK newspaper did not even know the difference between energy and power or the correct units for them. Did she even have a physics GCSE I wondered?
December 10, 2022
I felt the “obsessive condescension” was Mr Fry’s use of the word ‘Deniers’ Nigl.
Stephen Fry has always struck me as being a bit condescending himself but perhaps that’s because he’s SO much more intelligent than the rest of us. I’m not a genius but I do try to think for myself. Frankly, I don’t really mind being called a ‘denier’ – it’s much better than ‘naive’ or ‘dupe’.
December 10, 2022
The polymath Stephen Fry turned up in a BBC series on great composers; people tuning in to learn
about Wagner’s music were instead treated to an extended discussion of some of Wagner’s political views.
December 10, 2022
Do you listen to local UK radio in Italy? Our local BBC radio is first class with none of the stuff you keep on about so obviously you don’t. The local commercial stations are rubbish with repetitive adverts every 15 minutes. Why do all your views come from the Telegraph?
December 10, 2022
The BBC are the real climate change deniers.
They deny that there was any change in climate until the Industrial Revolution.
So the last ice age didnât exist, the non-anthropogenic warming which ended the last ice age 11,000 years ago did not exist, the Roman and medieval warm periods did not exist and of course all the warm periods where there was no ice at the poles or the other ice ages over the last 500 million since the start of the Cambrian explosion years did not exist.
And of course, since we started the Industrial Revolution, we should now pay the world reparations for improving the living standards of billions of people as well as increasing CO2 levels which have led to increasing yields of food.
Even dafter, the BBC are King Canuters thinking we can control the climateâŠ.Unless of course this is all just a ruse to frighten us into believing the world is ending unless we (the West not China) destroy our economy and submit to communism/feudalism and a much reduced standard of life.
December 11, 2022
Canute was demonstrating that he could not control the tides I believe.
December 10, 2022
BBC News editors deamplification and visibility filtering is the same political censorship process as Twitter.
Both the Twitter 1.0 editors and the BBC editors have a âGod. Complexâ.
December 10, 2022
Both Jack Dorsey (ex head of Twitter) and subsequent executives and BBC executives have repeatedly said in Government committees they do not politically censor, shadowban, suppress, deamplify and visibility filter news stories.
Letâs take one example. Hunter Bidenâs laptop just before a US election. What about the cost of mass migration. What about the decision to introduce Chinese style lockdowns.
Now tell me Twitter 1.0 and the BBC are not two organs of the same globalist censorship monster.
December 10, 2022
+1 or the huge vaccine injury censorships or the attacks on the very sensible Barrington Declaration people.
December 10, 2022
The Vaccine injury censorship has surely killed some esp. young people who should never logically have been taking the net harm vaccines and perhaps would not have done so but for this censorship and the government/BBC/MSM propaganda and coercion agenda. The vaccine companies, Whitty and JCVI have much to answer for.
December 10, 2022
Elon Musk unravelled more censorship of conservatives and opposing views to govt lock down in US. He also unravelled links to smear Trump with Russian hoax by democrats with Twitter etc.
Hancockâs diaries makes clear he was closing down any alternative view to himself with Gove helping clamp down on anti lockdown protests and anti vaccinations! Both need to censored and sacked from public purse and investigated thoroughly.
So blm and ex Reb protests allowed by govt, anti lockdown and anti vat not. Clear politicisation of policing by socialist Tories using Chinese brutal methods to opposing views!
Just get out.
December 10, 2022
+many
And donât they have a whole new panoply of jabs with which to delight us?
I was most taken aback by a public info ad about shingles! Said to be yet another side effect of the plague jab.l
December 10, 2022
@Cuibono indeed usually a sign of an over loaded or defective immunity system. This often, it seems, was caused people’s reaction to the vaccines.
December 10, 2022
you never take into consideration that the vaccines saved rather a lot of people from dying…and you talk about people being biased!
December 10, 2022
@ Micky Taking – well not much evidence for that alas. It seems from analysing the statistics that unfortunately they did net harm on balance.
December 10, 2022
What is your evidence for your repeated claim that the vaccines caused ânet harmâ? How can you possibly know what harm the virus would have done with no vaccines?
December 10, 2022
Lifelogic, what is your evidence, please with references that everybody on this blog could check, that the vaccines caused net harm. In particular what are the statistics sorted out by age that show the vaccine to be detrimental to children.
You have been telling us now for weeks about it, I guess you must have read a series of reports, documents, books that prove your point.
As a scientifically minded person you will be keen on sharing that information, wonât you?
December 11, 2022
@Mike Wilson. By comparing different places and the different timings of the vaccine programmes. The risk to the young and children from Covid was extremely low so for this group under about 50 or so they certainly did net harm, if you look at the stats. and the timing of the adverse reactions and the vaccination programmes. See the hartgroup.org.
December 11, 2022
Logically? Sorry you lost me there. Was it compulsory, or do you claim merely a good idea at the time?
December 10, 2022
Also in the Telegraph:- Donors can hit woke universities where it hurts
Money talks, and furious alumni are making their voices heard. It is only the beginning of the fightback
DOUGLAS MURRAY – let us hope so.
and:- Blackouts will trigger a peopleâs revolt against the new eco-tyranny
Green policies are popular in theory, but can only be sustained if they donât threaten our quality of life
ALLISTER HEATH
Let us hope so. Green Polices (looking after the environment and reducing pollution) might be popular but expensive unreliable energy and the war on beneficial CO2 plant, crop and tree food is nothing to do with this agenda. They are always wrongly conflated.
December 10, 2022
+1
Vote Reform party to get rid of same lab consocialists. Different cheeks of same ass.
December 10, 2022
In England it’s ‘arse’ please. Sorry, but we must keep these things correct.
December 10, 2022
Well it is Grass up North and Grarss for some daft reason down South. Is it the same for Ass and Arse perhaps?
December 11, 2022
It predated toilet paper, I think.
December 10, 2022
@Lifelogic +1
You also have to ask why is the taxpayer having to fund, those political movements(as that is what they are) that exclude views that donât match theirs. That’s not opening minds that is indoctrination
As with everywhere taxpayer money is for funding the âbest of the bestâ. Taxpayers funding for âdiversityâ and âinclusionâ is in itself funding exclusion, as it excludes ability first.
December 10, 2022
+1
December 10, 2022
“”Blackouts will trigger a peopleâs revolt against the new eco-tyranny
Green policies are popular in theory, but can only be sustained if they donât threaten our quality of life
ALLISTER HEATH””
2 hours to kick-off
42Gw demand -Wind 6%, interconnectors 14.6%
Population at pub or at home watching England
What might happen if it all goes dark at half time ?
December 10, 2022
Oh, so you believe in localism do you Sir John?
Well, the people of NI and of Scotland – and of London etc. – voted convincingly to remain in the European Union, but you don’t even want them to have anything other than the absolutist, obsessive version of brexit that you and the ERG demand be inflicted on all of us do you?
So we’ll file this with the rest of the pious proclamations, I think.
Reply We gave the people of Scotland a vote and they wanted to stay in the UK. So do the people of NI. I want good UK government and more powers to people and businesses to run our own lives. You always want the opposite.
December 10, 2022
Well well ! The lefties never miss a try, even though they must see they are not wanted by the majority.
December 10, 2022
To reply – exactly.
December 10, 2022
NLH: I”m puzzled – in what way exactly does locality-based broadcasting of news/entertainment equate with regional governmental autonomy?
December 10, 2022
The Scots were provided with their very own news channel by the BBC. The viewing figures were extremely low. Basically there wasn’t much news but alot of Scottish historic events to fill the time.
December 10, 2022
Most news would consist of ‘a drunken fight erupted in Glasgow and several men were treated for broken noses after being head-butted.’
December 10, 2022
Suppose, lad, that in a new Scottish referendum there was overall a 52% vote for independence but e.g. Perth & Kinross and the Scottish Borders voted to remain in the UK. Are you suggesting those areas should then stay in the UK, while the others leave?
December 10, 2022
NLH: I guess we were supposed to follow the EU’s example and rerun the referendums indefinitely … or until the ‘right’ answer was given (and then no more referendums, ever!)
December 10, 2022
Run our own lives?
Previously if people were aggrieved by e.g. the Tories’ egregious failure to enforce river and seawater quality against their friends the privateer, only-for-profit lads in the sewage companies, then they could have done something about it by reporting the matter over the heads of the do-nothing, laissez-fair government to the relevant European Union body.
Now THAT’S having some control over our own lives, and which you have zealously snatched from our hands – and for all-too-obvious reasons.
December 10, 2022
So the point of the EU is to save the people from the decisions made by the government they elect.
How about the people lobby their MP and make it clear his/her actions on their behalf makes a difference on whether he/she is re-elected?
December 10, 2022
Seriously? Our governments ignore âthe peopleâ all the time – because first-past-the-post letâs them get elected no matter what they do that people disagree with.
How many people want government to borrow masses of money for future generations to repay? Very few, but they still do it.
December 10, 2022
NLH :
What on earth makes you think the ârelevant European Union bodyâ would take any action?
They didnât take any action against the German diesel emissions testing fraud.
December 10, 2022
During that referendum campaign, the voters in Scotland were told that voting to remain in the UK was their best chance of remaining in the EU.
How has that worked out for them, exactly?
Reply The EU made clear it did not offer membership to Catalonia or Scotland if they left their current states.
December 10, 2022
Not getting involved in such internal politics of a member state is a perfectly reasonable position for the EU to take. However, the UK is no longer a member state and, if/when another vote happens, the EU may choose to take a different position.
December 10, 2022
Oh god, not again.
December 10, 2022
I would welcome Scotland leaving the Union, and if the EU want to extend the hand-outs they would do it with my blessing.
December 10, 2022
@NLH – and the Nurses in England voted against strikes but have found themselves on strike
December 10, 2022
There are no such people as âthe nurses in Englandâ. The Royal College of Nursing, a national organisation called for a strike but, by law, nurses in different individual hospitals had to vote at least 50% in favour of strike. They did so in a number of hospitals, in others the 50% was not attained.
So your comment is essentially wrong, Iâm afraid. Is that because of a lack of information or a lack of comprehension?
December 10, 2022
Hefner, â2 Apr 2021 â The NHS was the largest area of public spending devolved to Scotland, Wales and. Northern Ireland in 1999. Institute for Government.â So nurses are devolved into regions. Scottish nursing staff all voted to strike so did the Welsh but many trusts in England didnât. Are you saying the union for the whole country is only located in one place? Where is that place?
Here is the Claim âWhatâs happened is that year after year, nurses and public sector workers have experienced a gradual erosion, thanks to pay freezes or pay increases of less than 1%,â explained Gavan Gavan Conlon, a co-author of the study commissioned by the RCN.
Steven Barclay needs to tell us the truth of this. Is it true that since 2010 nurses have only had a 1% increase? Does this include going up the bands in each pay grade, what is the % increase the majority of good performing nurses get each year. Why would a nurse only get 1% because they have attained the highest part of the grade for their capability? Were they given extra days holiday instead? Were their hours kept the same? What is the hourly rate of pay for each grade and each band in each grade. No Hefner I donât have the time to look all that up, but if Barclay wants the public to get behind the government holding off on a 17.5% pay demand we need all the true information.
December 10, 2022
Whatâs that got to do with my comment to Ian B?
December 11, 2022
You said âthere are no such people as âthe nurses of Englandâ.
December 18, 2022
There was no such thing as âthe nurses of England voted against strikes but have found themselves on strikeâ. This was wrong as the votes occurred not on a national level but by hospitals.
December 10, 2022
So Martin, in what way do the peoples of the tyrannical EU enjoy localist decision making and authority?
December 10, 2022
MT, In France, a EU country, contrary to what you seem to suggest, an awful lot of decisions affecting the day-to-day life of people are taken at the local level (âcommunesâ by the local mayor and their âconseil municipalâ). More often than not the police is organised locally (Only the CRS and the âgendarmesâ are organised nationally, and obviously not by the EU).
The next level, âle departementâ, is where schooling, health, state of roads ⊠are dealt with. Provision of water and sanitation is often a local, sometimes âdepartementalâ, rarely regional, not national, obviously not EU responsibility.
I would think that it is quite possible for a French person to live their whole life without particularly feeling the effects of âthe tyrannical EUâ.
December 11, 2022
Martin stop using other names…you do have form.
I do realise that burning live animals being imported to France is not an EU directive, in fact Third Countries paying for ineffective beach observations prior to a chat with RNLI is also not covered by EU Customs regs either etc.
December 10, 2022
Some of the best presenters in the country work on local radio, often getting paid buttons, doing it for the love of the job. Sadly the management of local radio is shockingly bad. But national BBC management is worst, a complete woke fest which is actively anti white working class hetro males, despite their large percentage of their audience.
December 10, 2022
Iain, are the presenters of local radio from working class families? Perhaps that is how they are held down and disposable. The Guardian is concerned about this topic today: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/dec/10/huge-decline-working-class-people-arts-reflects-society.
Radio is a form of the arts, the BBC hold one of the biggest mandates to be representative and in-fact we are told hire lots of diversity officers on ÂŁ80k pa to ensure this is so. I donât even know who is what is termed âworking classâ nowadays. So many working-class kids started going to university in the 1990s are they now automatically middle class just for the fact of having a degree, or does that âclassâ only come with a degree level public sector administration jobs; would their kids be considered middle-class, but they be working class for life because their parents were factory and shop workers lol. What if you got a completely free ride through university through scholarships and funding of a benefactor does that make you middle-class not dependent on family at all from then on?
Are business people who started with nothing still working class such as the billionaire guy from The Hut Group? JK Rowling is a good candidate for confusion, her parents were navy, then worked their way into good position in civi street, she got a degree, earned a fortune from her books is she now upper-class, middle-class or working-class as she earned it herself through work? Can you marry into the upper-class and automatically just become. Marcus Rashford earning more a week than people can dream of, what class is he in his mansion what would his kids be if privately schooled? Does getting to hob nob with Royalty get your ranking higher?
Is middle-class a pay band? Does someone earning the 40% tax band rate suddenly âbecomeâ middle-class? Or do they have to be on that pay band for at least ten years đ. What about a child born to middle-class parents, who were in public sector jobs and the child goes on to drop out of uni and work in a shop, is s/he then working class?
December 10, 2022
Well said Sir, I personally think the BBC should be scrapped as a public service. Our local privately run radio station is vastly better, talking and informing local information.
Better use could be made of the large airspace the BBC have.
Personally I have not watched or listened to the BBC for years so I may be a tad biased.
They need thrown into the market fully and made to earn their keep, not hiding behind a licence which most people begrudge
December 10, 2022
+1
December 10, 2022
The BBC isn’t interested in your views Sir John, let alone ours.
Perhaps you could tell us when the Pretendy-Conservative Government is going to remove the BBC’s right to prosecute as criminals those who fail/refuse to pay the Poll Tax and buy a Permit to Watch Live Television?
I’m guessing like everything else they “promise” it’s a case of this year, next year, some time never.
We have a great little local radio where I now live. It’s run by a Charitable Trust and the presenters are all volunteers. The playlist is excellent and varied because the wide variety of presenters play the kind of music they like; they advertise local businesses and they give local news.
We really don’t need the arrogant, dictatorial, blatantly left-wing BBC providing ANY local radio whatsoever.
December 10, 2022
Whether its for the government or the opposition, the BBC is just a propaganda tool
December 10, 2022
Donna,
All the promises by Tories are never honoured. Pass the blame, the wind blowing in the wrong direction or whatever.
I do not watch BBC or listen to BBC radio. I do not want to hear left wing propaganda ie climate scam and all ânudgeâ themes by socialist Tories at all let alone pay for it. The BBC is a tool of govt paid unfortunately for by the taxpayer. That is why it will never change. If decriminalised they fear no funding. They need fear for compliance. JR knows it but will never admit it. Party before country.
December 10, 2022
Correct. But you only absorb the propaganda if you are foolish enough to watch or listen to the BBC.
I choose to do neither.
December 10, 2022
So do I, Donna. It constantly amazes me that so many people commenting on this website complain about BBC programmes that they’ve knowingly wasted their precious time watching.
December 10, 2022
It maintains that it is unbiased….yet it comes on strong on certain subjects and all the presenters on those subjects stick to the party line. Overdue dismantling and preferably closure of several aspects of its operation – and finally the excessive funding from the masses of people who happen to use a particular device has to stop.
December 10, 2022
Donna
Indeed if you contact the BBC (National Programme service) to express your views on a chat programme, you always get the, “what are your views” request before you are put up for selection, so the double interview technique that our host outlines, also applies to phone in’s as well.
December 10, 2022
The BBC doesn’t prosecute.
The CPS does.
December 10, 2022
the CPS does sometimes when it shouldn’t and other times when it should, all according to the political persuasion exerted.
December 10, 2022
Donna :
Iâm afraid the current Conservative Party will not be making any changes to the BBC.
The reason is because the propaganda broadcast by the BBC is perfectly in tune with the views of the Conservative Party even if they are not matching their manifesto promises.
December 11, 2022
Donna
The solution is simple -Don’t break the law by watching LIVE TV !!!
You can watch ITV and Channel 4 services on catch up oe, just dump the TV and watch Netflix or go onto YT were the people producing content there are brilliant and far better than the BBC as they care about both their content and their audience. ie The more clicks and subscribers the more revenue they earn.
Just leave Auntie to wither on the vine.
December 11, 2022
Vines do, but they grow back often stronger.
December 10, 2022
I generally agreed with your points, but do wonder why it can’t be left to the Private sector?
Also, in Wales we end up with BBC Wales/Cm taking over, simply because they can?
They use it to promote Welsh Nationalism!
Why can’t we have “Local” radio, not control by the Welsh Assembly, and Labour Wales/PC, and we do not want BBC Wales!
At ALL!
Cut BBC Wales, and push the resources down to Local Radio, and Websites promoting Local content, like Local Radio, or to be part of a Local Radio setup!
Get rid of the Nationalists hiding within the BBC, all they go on about is independence !!!!
December 10, 2022
+many
I was going to sayâŠ
Beware of localism because now it can help âentryismâ.
Much of that going on now re Welsh Independence ie agents of global concerns promoting faux nationalism to split up U.K.
December 10, 2022
I think you’ll find Labour Wales/PC/Small c conservatives (Councils) will be happy with a Federated UK, as long as they can get their own way!
Meaning; they can re-join the EU, a long with the SNP/SF.
We need to replace devolution with a UK wide Parliament of Local Councils, ASAP!
December 10, 2022
+1
December 10, 2022
Much as I support your views and the request for change, if this is conceded at some point by existing executives and managers it will take years as they will be as slow as they can.
What is needed are new people to replace the existing.
December 10, 2022
Iâve just had to go online to look it up because I donât think we have a local BBC radio station, Iâve never listened to one. Apparently my area is in a black hole. I used to listen to radio 1 until they got rid of Chris Moyles, I tried Radio 2 but didnât like it. So now itâs Smooth. News in the big cities 45 minutes away by car only have no interest to me.
Times are changing people at work seem to go online for local news, and read facebook local news.
Part of this problem is government constantly messing around with boundaries, counties, connections. A County into two it should never have happened, we were much better off with borough council and county council. Now connections have been broken.
December 10, 2022
….and the arrogant taxpayer BBC will ignore it or twist it, privatisation is the answer.
December 10, 2022
Much of the BBC output contaminates.
If the BBC licence charge were a fee people could pay to stop its rubbish being broadcast, many of us would willingly pay it. Golden silence is more valuable.
December 10, 2022
Public sector strikes very much in the news. Can we have your views on what should be done?
December 10, 2022
Dave, whatâs your solution pay up 17% extra and just tax everyone else extra to pay for it, and stand and watch the resultant fall out as private sector workers strike to keep up to pay their extra taxes and everything then grinds to a halt. Or just close up businesses, because you do realise that when the public sector starts to tip the balance then the whole kit and caboodle comes down round our ears.
For what its worth, Iâd contact Spainâs south coast hospitals who normally privately serve predominantly British holiday makers who are put out of work in the winter, to discover if they have staff willing to come to work from January to March when the season starts up again to help get rid of the backlogs. If staff are striking then there is money you donât pay them, redirect it to people that will do the work even if that means having to put flights on. Threaten our lives and people will retaliate if someone dies.
I wonder all the people the papers say are being treated in the EU, are they EU born who got their right to reside in the UK, who have moved back to the EU or go to stay with family get their treatments and then get those treatments billed back to the UK? I know people now that have done this!
December 10, 2022
So, the BBC is supporting regionalistaion, as Brown is, and that seems to be where we are headed.
Yes, of course, we should maintain local services, including radio and TV, but that will become increasingly difficult when 15 MINUTE CITIES are fully realised.
Oxford has already zoned city areas with roadblocks to ensure people only can move within their own zone. In future they will be fined for going to another zone without a permit. (See The Oxford Mail for more details) The excuse for this zoning is less traffic in the city centre, but the aggressive way this is being rolled out suggests there is much more to it!
15 MINUTE CITIES are the latest fad associated with alleged climate change, approved by WEF and the UN, and if implemented country-wide will become the most oppressive and freedom removing actions by the myth tellers so far.
December 10, 2022
What if you live 45 miles away from any city Bryan? They canât want to stop that because theyâve just put 10,000 new homes in the middle of nowhere.
December 11, 2022
The rules will develop slowly I suspect – See what WEF and the UN say on the subject.
The point is this is all another step in the direction of removing liberties and forcing us to be compliant with their agenda by reducing our capacity to live as we wish.
December 10, 2022
The problem is that the BBC culture is in its own weird minority bubble, disconnected from the majority,
That is why the BBC is constantly surprised and wrong-footed whenever the People get a chance to vote.
Brexit is but one example.
December 10, 2022
I doubt whether there would have been a brexit if not for the BBC’s giving Farage an unchallenged platform more than any other politician pre June 2016.
He wasn’t even an MP.
Other MEPs who actually turned up for work barely got a look in.
December 10, 2022
NLH. or Martin. I love the way you get angry about Farage. It’s most amusing.
December 10, 2022
Martin, do you really think Nigel Farage is that powerful, for goodness sakes, I canât the man. He just likes to agitate.
Now if you really do want to think of one person that swayed people that person was Boris, help by Cummings who he went on to stab in the back. Isnât that why your lot brought him down.
December 11, 2022
Johnson certainly swayed me, I found myself using bad language on his every appearance and mumbling, cultivating hand through blond locks, blabbing on about some Greek myth with millions thinking ‘WTF is he on about?’
December 10, 2022
I agree with you. The BBC overboard with Nigel Farage at the time.
However, the fact still remains that the BBC was shocked by Brexit because it was not in tune with the British People and even less so with the English majority.
December 10, 2022
The BBC WENT overboard with Nigel Farage (sorry)
December 10, 2022
Perhaps that was because Farage had something important to say, lad, unlike the other nonentities and timeservers who get themselves elected via party machines.
December 10, 2022
But few ever stood up to speak as MEPs to the EU. They knew Farage would not mince his words.
December 10, 2022
Very few people outside the BBC would disagree with a word of this. Is there any process though, by which the views of MPs in a debate in the House of Commons, are communicated to BBC management? And if there is, then is BBC management under any obligation to study, or take notice of them?
There is no discernable sign that they take notice of the requirements and preferences of any of their audiences.
December 10, 2022
The BBC is low down on my list of disappointments. The Tories have had many years to flush EU and Socialist ideas out of our system and have shied away from them all. The fact that we have a State Broadcaster at all is appalling. The fact that we can be prosecuted for not paying it is criminal, not the other way round. The biggest failure of all is to perpetuate the model of the NHS as a healthcare system. The Government slogan during the pandemic “Protect the NHS” says it all. Was there another medical system in the world that encouraged sick people not to use it? The backlog thus created will gradually be solved by people dying, not from any solution used by the NHS.
December 10, 2022
Agreed. I’d have to be literally dying before I would attempt A&E, in which case I probably wouldn’t make it anyway so better to stay at home and die in as much comfort as can be achieved, and dignity.
December 10, 2022
My local A&E was a hell-hole the last time I visited, choc full. I made an appointment online for an x-ray as instructed by the GP, had to get there in 40 minutes as that was the only appointment slot, it was still on my computer screen as booked when I got back, but the A&E NHS computer said no. If there is one thing I pray regularly for its that I donât need to go.
December 10, 2022
I have almost given up watching the BBC ; I consider them biased and very anti this Government . Perhaps they are convinced that they will lose their financial support through the licence system .
December 10, 2022
Sir John
Agree with you 100%
What some of us disparagingly refer to as the âWest London Metro Leftâ give the appearance of being in agreement with only those that agree with them on a personnel level, and then cancel all other views. The BBC is a big culprit in this methodology and I have to say this type of thinking is riddled through out Parliament and particularly in this Government. One area of London is no where near able to reflect the UK.
It should not be in the BBCâs gift to define areas or for that matter the Governments.
You could also argue that the BBC should be broken up and if any element of the fee is kept in place it should be the licence payers that define the service.
December 10, 2022
I have never listened to Radio Berkshire- only Radio 4, which I find far too biased. I will have to give it a try.
December 10, 2022
Sounds of topic, but relates to recent weird trends in the UK, which includes the BBC.
The Senior US Judges in the Federal Government have said that recent actions at Universities, to what we term over here as to âempty chairâ speakers, and to close down those down those with alternative views i.e. the WOKE and Cancel culture. Means that the students of those Universities wonât be considered for positions in the Legal Departments of the Federal Government. In essence the denial of free speech leads to the inability to understand alternative views â therefore the students cant be considered impartial and are not fit to practice law at Federal level.
December 10, 2022
The structure in the UK is such that what is perceived as Local Radio – isn’t. It is centraly controlled and broadcast, just on a large spectrum of wave lengths to give the allusion of being local .
December 10, 2022
And also to gobble up all the bandwidth/frequencies so as to further limit competition.
December 10, 2022
I cancelled my TV licence more than 2 years ago and the only thing I miss is being able to watch other providers’ live output.
The BBC needs to get out of the way:
1. We MUST legislate to end the need for a licence in order to watch non-BBC live TV.
2. It must also stop trying to dominate every market in the broadcast and news sector.
Local radio should have nothing to do with the BBC, but as long as an organisation such as BBC provides a “free” service other orgs cannot realistically survive in that market. It’s basically a state-run monopoly.
They have already shown that they can bother run and secure a subscription service when they ran BBC Select back in the 1990s whereby people had learning materials downloaded overnight to a recording device. They cannot claim in the technology of this age that they can’t do it.
Also, in the past the TV licence gave the viewer access to almost everything that was going on in the world, from unbiased news through to every sporting event and top class drama without wokery in the script.
Now, we see sport and drama spread across a number of platforms all with high subscription fees and the BBC provides less and less while raking in money by providing little more than a “right to watch” ticket – and some low-quality dramas that subject us to history as if it were enacted with today’s woke values and attitudes.
What funds it has are wasted on “talent” such as sports highlights presenters that could be done by an AI programme for all the value they add. And on providing “local” radio and TV stations that few care to watch. I noticed a couple of years ago that the latest Scottish TV channels ratings were officially recorded as “too low to measure” (i.e. probably zero).
Please stop debating local radio and get rid of the anachronistic TV licence. And legislate to prevent the BBC pre-screening an MP! That’s utterly ridiculous behaviour.
Lastly, if the govt makes an agreement with the BBC such as that over pensioners’ licences, enshrine it in law, no more of the kind of agreement on which they can (and will) simply renege.
Best option imho – can the TV licence and fund a national news service from general taxation, heaviliy limited in scope and funding.
December 10, 2022
XY : âBest option imho â can the TV licence and fund a national news service from general taxation, heaviliy limited in scope and funding.â
As the national broadcaster, funded by an enforced tax on all TVs, the Government should insist that the BBC separates news from analysis and comment.
December 10, 2022
Sir John, you may not be aware of local DAB which could provide a service for just Wokingham.
I have inserted the URL below. Something WDC could support ?
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/manage-your-licence/radio-broadcast-licensing/small-scale-DAB-licensing
December 10, 2022
please don’t encourage any more daft spending.
December 11, 2022
please study the URL before comment. Are you paying for Hospital Radio ? a similar local service
The system is set up just need to use a channel. The Mickey Taking hour would be good and we could all phone in
December 11, 2022
well, you might!
December 10, 2022
Closing down BBC Local Radio would be a good start.
The BBC is evil. Its false claim that the Westâs CO2 emissions is causing a climate catastrophe, designed to destroy the West with the message that Western CO2 is bad, Chinese CO2 is good, and thus telling children that the world will end, is child abuse.
The BBC are gaslighting us to transition from cheap, abundant reliable fossil fuels to meagre, expensive, unreliable renewables supplied by coal-burning China and advocates our converting to impractical electrical replacements, again supplied by China as UK manufacturers will neither have the raw materials nor even sufficient energy to produce these goods.
There is no empirical evidence that Increasing atmospheric CO2 will cause CAGW but there is instead very good evidence that it will prevent famines by promoting growth and making plants more resistant to drought.
December 10, 2022
What JR and the ERG want are a lot more Neo-Con radio stations in the style of the late “Rush Limbaugh” show in the US. Stations dedicated to keeping the âfaithfulâ loyal to the right-wing dogma. Conservatism, like Church based religions, have to keep their nonsense, frequently reinforced in the minds of the âtrue believersâ else, they will stray back to being less vicious and bitter; more normal tolerant people.
A US colleague told me a while back that such right-wing talk radio stations syndicated there, attract advertisements for men’s erectile dysfunction cures. Which basically sums up the participants in the three UK versions of such radio stations.
December 11, 2022
acorn
If there is a demand them there will be a willing supplier no matter what is sold. The fact that there is no Left Wing radio station tells you all you need to know about the support they clearly do not enjoy.
December 11, 2022
I wonder which firms sponsor the adverts? Somebody has to raise finance (big grin).