I wonder is it FEAR that makes the Conservatives seem so mild-mannered about the BBC?
The BBC could be forced by an incoming Conservative Government to accept a cut in the licence fee. The party has already called for the licence fee — currently £142.50 — to be frozen. But Jeremy Hunt, the shadow Culture Secretary, strengthened its stance with a warning that the Tories would expect the BBC to offer further economies in negotiations over the size of the licence fee from 2012.
“I think it would be pretty hard to make a case for an increase in the licence fee now,” he said yesterday. (Not half!!!) “We are not ruling out freezing the licence fee or cutting it, but the BBC has to make its case very strongly because times are very difficult for licence-fee payers.”
No, it’s public opinion – most people do not share your views and would rather just spend less money than dismantle the BBC, as you would like – that and the conservatives have no balls, or policies, but they would like your vote (note: not an endorsement of labour in any way)
How come the licence tax was allowed to increase this year in the middle of a recession and with no inflation to justify it? Why wasn’t there a public outcry about that and why didn’t the Tories make a stink about it, instead of bleating ineffectually after the fact?
Yes, I know I could have asked “Why didn’t the government stop that happening?” but I know only too well how they love taking money from the public, so it’s pointless to expect them to put a stop to it. Besides, too many of them are corrupt, as we now know (see MPs’ expenses, the long years of excess, long row of snouts in troughs etc) and have no morals or standards of decency or fairness nor any sense of obligation to the public or to anyone but themselves.
Because they agreed a 3% annual rise in 2006/2007 – adjusted for inflation, there was a ‘normal’ amount of inflation last year (Aug 2008 CPI: 4.7% RPI: 5.2%) – this year the figures are at more like 1.1% – justifying a freeze this coming year
The Tories are just playing it cool, what they say at the moment doesn’t matter, it’s what they do to the BBC once they get power.
We’ve already seen the BBC (through the Guardian) attacking the the Tories by making up this story about Rupert Murdoch and Cameron having some sort of alliance.
The BBC is really starting to cack itself how, it sees the Tories on a roll and knows the game is up, the licence fee is simply unsustainable in the long term.
The BBC should go to a subscription based service, some money should be provided for public service broadcasting to ANYONE who wishes to make a TV programme.
The clock is ticking for the BBC.
I doubt it is fear. We have a political, executive, professional and administrative class that has lost all touch with reality. An ancien regime in the 18th century French style. The price of bread is of no concern to them. The television tax a mere fleabite. Council tax a bagatelle.
Cocooned in and expecting as of right absolute wealth this class is now so far removed from the lives of ordinary people that it really appears that it no longer notices we exist except as an irritant to be kept as quiet as possible whilst this class enjoys luxury and freedom from the real fear that now haunts the lives of so many.
A care worker is lucky to earn 15000 gross a year. For hard essential labour that makes a difference to many lives.
This Mark Thompson earns., the word sticks in my throat, more than 50 times this. More than a lifetimes work in one year.
And we,all of us, are persuaded by this same parasitic class that this is just. That he, Thompson , is worth it. That this is the going rate.
It is their going rate not the going rate of a rational society.
Of all the sins greed is the worst since it encompasses and engenders all the others.
We are ruled by those whose greed has long since set them apart from us. Expect nothing from the Tories.
I think you’re pissing in the wind, onto a loser and very much deluded. And a lot of other phrases with a negative connotation. Hurray for the Tories! They’ll keep everything the same!
Do you like egg, David? Hmmm? On your face? Hmmm? Suits you, David. Oooh.
Hello infidels.
What you cretins don’t seem to understand is that the licence fee is currently far too low.
We are suggesting a Ten-fold increase and the reason is simple.
No more Didgi boxes or Sky ( with the exception of Aljazeera 24 hours a day ) because if the stupid British public are paying that much they will tune into the BBC to see what they have been “missing”.
And this where our sympathetic Editors in the BBC News room come into their own. Yes, there will be plenty of positive stories celebrating our just and righteous cause of Militant Islam.
But because we are not afraid of other news being aired, we don’t mind the odd story about the nasty Tories. Some-thing the BBC excells at.
Funny how my comment about muslims visiting this board get deleted but these pair of twats get to stir up the shit without moderation.
Fuck this place.
Easy Leonard. Go easy, man.
David, I fear the Conservative party has become as dhimmified as our Nulabour chummies.
Both are desperate now to win PCman, a risable but influential group.
Yes, the Conservatives are obviously politically, tactically intimidated by the BBC and its relentless dibilitating of anti British, Judeo/Christian basics.
Its unfortunate that the Conservatives have not independently, intellectually challenged the Islamic issue in the UK, and sought to open the immigration debate INTELLIGENTLY.
Cameron and his CP/NWO stooge comrades will never reform the BBC because the BBC is the voice of the CP NWO.
Cameron is fully signed up to the man made global warming lies and so is the BBC, doesnt that little fact tell you anything?
Cameron and his new social democrats are fully signed up stooges of the CP NWO, Dave and boy George will exactly what they are told to do when they are told to do it, they are in fact cardboard cutouts and if you look closely you can even see the strings when they appear on TV!
The degradation of our parliament over the last decade or so has been very carefully planned, packed with nodding head robots whose only desire is to obey and take the £££££, power has been syphoned away from Westminster to the point that we are no longer a free nation.
We are about to jump out of the newlabour frying pan and straight into the tory fire, the general election is being manipulated to provide the perfect stooge parliament, everything the BBC does from now on will lead to a desired end, a stooge puppet UK regime led by a stooge puppet leader leading a bunch of stooge nodding head lackeys,
The clearing out of any MP with the slightest independence continues apace and after the next election parliament will look like a sad version of a Warsaw pact fake soviet peoples congress with lots of clapping and nodding and backhanders and corruption and payoffs and insider trading and electoral fraud.
The result of the next election will see our democracy dismantled at a fast pace, our nation is booked for the EU butchers block and the dismembering of the UK into powerless stooge regions of a greater forth reich will happen very quickly. In fact this next election will be the very last free election the UK will ever have, the tories have a dark secret that they will unveil after the election and that is electoral reform, the elections of circa 2015 will be a charade where the very last people to have a say will be the actual voter.
I am sorry if my interpretation of the future upsets our resident tories, where I see a weak stooge they wish to see a Clake Kent figure biding his time untill he whips into a metorphorical phonebox and comes out as superdave tory he man of action sweeping away the forces of socialism with his mighty arms!
Dave throws the odd bone to a traditional tory rump ever so desperate to believe they still have a tory party to vote for, wishful thinking and denial of the the cold hard reality that the old tory party no longer exists, it has been replaced by a new social democrat NWO stooge party.
Many will scoff at my post and in fact I cannot blame them one bit, I could be wrong after all but everything I have seen leads me to the conclusion that Dave&Co have plans for the UK which do not include anything remotely right wing/free market in nature.
Cassie 8:56
I suspect the next election may be the last ever in the UK. Even if not, all future elections will be meaningless.
On the main topic, the licence fee should be scrapped and anyone who wants to watch the dumbed down BBC trash can pay a subscrition for it.
I do actually like the BBC’s programming, but I would completely agree with scrapping the licence fee and having commercials like everyone else. No need for a subscription. Just use the money they get from adverts, DVD sales etc, maybe get a ‘goodbye pay off’ from the govt. – and then fend for themselves on the free market. I actually think they’d survive and do okay; and hopefully get rid of the likes of Graham Norton and Chris Moyles.
That does make sense FFPS, a privatisation would raise capital for the BBC to make the transition and the taxpayer might actually get something back at the end.
I wonder how long a privatised BBC could manage to keep the top heavy management structure in place without the uber generous subsidies though? no more staff meetings with dozens of suits to decide on which record to play on the radio.
The licence fee should only be used for programmes that commercial TV could not make and shared out between all the broadcasters.
You are quite correct about the BBC making some good programmes, perhaps a commercial enviroment would force the beeb to up its game.
or even a subscription !
I’ve written to Jeremy Hunt about this. It’s clear the BBC will fight any changes to the license fee.
Clearly the BBC say the ‘serivce’ will degraded if cuts are made.
I think it’s worth starting a list of instutionalised wastage. The culture of excess needs to stop.
Simple exercises, like how many BBC journalists attend the PM’s presser compared with Sky, why Stephen Nolan has to fly to Manchester every week to conduct his 5Live weekend show when the BBC have studios in Northern Island.
So many examples of waste.
Is it possible the Conservatives simply have no policy on this?
When I listen to discussion of the Tories I hear echoes of Obama/Bush. The Tories (read Obama) have to be supported because they are not Labour (read NOT BUSH).
Not technically about bias…but I agree. The Tories are ahead in the polls because of Brown’s unpopularity. We all know that we don’t want Brown again, we just haven’t yet been convinced of the Tories. People in the middle of the spectrum worry that Cameron’s a bit too Blair-like, people on the right think Cameron isn’t Thatcher-like enough. The Tories might well win at the current rate of progress simply for being the opposition party. I will prob vote for them, but many will think ‘Labour have screwed us, Lib Dems are no hopers, and Tories won’t tell us who they actually are’. Whether that leads to a very low turnout or a big increase in support for the nutcase fringe parties, who knows.
The furore over the Norfolk candidate tells us all we need to know about the party Cameron leads. An apparatchnik chosen by the party machine and foisted on the local people. Yet another member of the professional political class with minimal experience of life.
It is time to boycott them all
I am hoping this is Call Me Dave indulging in realpolitik. Butter them up now bit cut their throats when elected but I’m not betting the house on it…
Hippiepooter
The license fee and BBC bias are two separate issues, although one could argue that the BBC’s funding strengthens arguments for it to adhere to its duty to impartiality.
The more people here focus on the license fee issue the more it appears that they are ideologues grinding axes against the BBC. It completely detracts, in my view, from the purpose of this site.
As a 45 year old, I am old enough to remember when the BBC was a Great British Institution. I would like to see it become so again, instead of the national anti-democratic and anti-semitic disgrace it currently is. Isn’t it always the case that when democracy weakens anti-semitism rises?
To me BBC bias and the Licence fee are not two separate issues they are very much linked. As I don’t want to watch the BBC’s biased programs therefore don’t want to pay for the licence fee. I’m of a similar age and don’t think the BBC is a great British institution any more than ITV is as on balance during the 70’s would watch both about equally. I cannot see the BBC changing its ways or effectively being made to and I believe the BBC has done a lot of damage to this country’s confidence, patriotism and society as a nation. Due to its biases it should be made to drop British from its title, better still dismantled and sold off, the public paid archive should be made public.
It completely detracts, in my view, from the purpose of this site.
Although the name Biased BBC has become too much of a brand to change this is what I believe is the consensus among posters(F.A.Q. anyone?) from long-term contribution to this site. It has become considerably wider than simple bias.
This site exists to cast a critical and generally hostile eye on the BBC and all its activities. It is an anti-fan site.
This includes bias, of course, but also incompetent journalism; sloppy writing; failure to live up to its charter; failure to live up to its guidelines, funding, including but not restricted to the license tax; programmes and programming; behaviour of BBC staff; behaviour of subsidiaries; salaries and corporate culture. This is not a complete list but only an off the top of my head guide.
On occasion the corporate culture area gets stretched a bit thin. This is particularly true of coverage of the Guardian newspaper which provides a huge proportion of BBC jobs through its classified ads (and would not survive without the BBC placing those ads) and is mostly ideologically completely in step with the BBC. Many of its corporate processes with complaints and comments are remarkably similar in a bad way. The process also goes the other way when ex BBC staff find a cozy home in some media from the Guardian to Al Jezeera.
Deegee, as far as I’m aware B-BBC is the best public resource there is for documenting BBC bias. I have stated this before and will do so again, in a revolution or coup the putschists first take over the broadcasting stations. The subversive left has taken over the BBC without firing a shot. It is a huge threat to British democracy. It is a tragedy if B-BBC lost focus on this. DEPRAVADISATION NOW!
Hippiepooter