This is initially encouraging;
The Conservative MP appointed by David Cameron to oversee the future of the BBC believes the licence fee is “unsustainable” and “worse than a poll tax”. John Whittingdale, who has been appointed as Culture Secretary, said in October that the compulsory charge to fund the BBC should be eventually ended.
“It’s actually worse than a poll tax because under the poll tax, if you were on a very low income you would get a considerable subsidy,” he said. “The BBC licence fee, there is no means-tested element whatsoever; it doesn’t matter how poor you are, you pay £145.50 and go to prison if you don’t pay it. “I think in the longer term we are potentially looking at reducing at least a proportion of the licence fee that is compulsory and offering choice …”
And then he goes and spoils it by saying…
When I say it’s unsustainable I am talking about over 20-50 years.”
It’s unsustainable RIGHT now! The BBC is already campaigning for the return of Labour in 2020 and NOW is the time for the Conservatives to strike.
Even if you could get the tax cut by 50% in 2 years hence it would be a sizable contribution to the £12 billion welfare reductions .
In fact it would take care of half of it.
John Whittingdale is an MP who has spoken out against the BBC quite a few times before.
The BBC are clearly not pleased with this new appointment and their initial reaction was to launch a host of tweets about what they see as his sins.
In fact, reading them, I am more drawn to him than otherwise.
The BBC claimed later, obviously realising that antagonising JW was not the best way to deal with what might be their future, subsequently deleted them.
Shows their real nature though, not that I’m surprised.
BBC at war with Cameron over appointment of hard-line Culture Secretary who said the licence fee was ‘worse than the poll tax’
who cares miranda its the end of the BBC we want to see.
They won’t like it up em.
No they don’t.
The question is will it be just bark without bite.
I cannot believe the Tories aren’t aware of how much damage has been done to this country already by the BBC.
They have enough evidence of bias and corruption within the corporation to have put it out to pasture long ago, much less continue to force the public to pay this suicide tax.
So unless they view it in a similar unethical and immoral manner that we are used to by previous governments as a self serving propaganda tool , we would expect them to get rid of it.
Personally I’d like to see them privatised so at least we can enjoy watching them drown. Their arrogance deserves at least that.
The Tories are well aware of the damage the BBC continues to do – BUT – they will need the BBC as we approach referendum time.
Slippery Dave’s pro-EU stance will get supportive coverage from the BBC and together they will form an unlikely alliance against UKIP and Tory EU skeptics.
I hope to God that Whittingdale is shadowing the bloated, arrogant and unaccountable BBC.
Witness this mornings Today programme-just before 8a.m
The appalling Sarah Montague somehow felt herself entitled to dictate Britains “red lines” over EU membership with-an equally smug, feather bedded and unelected boobie like herself…
Jose Manuel Barroso…ex Top sardine at the EU…not that we had a say in it.
What kind of country have we become when Montague DARES to negotiate our EU membership-before the Cabinet has even met, before an Osborne or Hammond have been out to Berlin or Brussels to discuss the new reality?
And what the hell is an ex-EU President doing on a moblie, discussing his views on our membership to a BBC hack?
Unelected, unaccountable, arrogant,presumptous and blustering grasses and snitches…both the BBC and its doppelganger of pomposity that is the Godawful EU.
Montague couldn`t find Shannon Matthews newsagents when SHE dared to go to Bradford-which is the BBCs idea of foreign affairs-so to have this Bloomsbury bluestocking daring to speak for the (over) 50% of us who specifically want our “new settlement” with the EU is a bloody disgrace.
50+% of us voted UKIP or Tory last week in the UK-that the EU and the BBC DARE to allow us to listen in to THEIR agendas so arrogantly and shamelessly only shows that Whittingdale needs to get the BBCs fingers out of his partys arse and ensure that they don`t do this again.
We can`t afford the BBC representing us-we all saw last week that they only represent the New World Order-and they have GOT to go.
Empty-chairing suckups for the Juncker Bunker.
Come on John-send them to Hades and soon-before their worthless fat sandbags like Heseltine, Ashdown and Blunkett get shored up to provide their sordid shelter from reality.
How reduced we`ve become-would anyone have thought to phone De Gaulle in 1969 from the BBC?
Arrogant fuppers!
Ironically Sarah Montague is I believe a Channel Islander and therefore not even a “Citizen of the EU””!
Ah, that explains why she grovels to the Germans…
Typical of the Leftard McBBC going on the attack without weighing up the consequences of their actions. Is this going to make John Whittingdale more pre-disposed to them or otherwise?
Same line of reasoning they are using that the left-wing arm of the Liebour Party are using by saying we “weren’t left wing enough” and ” we need more mass immigration”. i.e. – they are not in touch with the general consensus at all.
Can we tow certain suburbs of North London out into the Atlantic to make artificial reefs? The lifeforms that would live off these reefs would be more useful than the “progressive” pondlife that currently inhabit these suburbs.
Naa – Barrel bomb the b@st@rds.
John Whittingdale has indeed been scathing about theTV tax,but I still think he comes across as having too much deference towards them.
I also don’t want the tax tagged on to my council tax,that wouldn’t be popular I’m sure.
The BBC is not going to change itself.
The BBC is already preparing the propaganda on the EU referendum and the new government.
No prizes for guessing which position will be adopted.
Privatise the BBC in a manner which will make the privatised parts likely to fail financially.
Then when the bankruptcies occur the ex BBC staff will lose their jobs, without redundancies and with minimum pensions.
Nothing less is acceptable: these Marxists have done incalculable harm to the UK and have to be stopped.
How about this? For every unfair and biased article, interview, tweet or social media post, the McBBC will get “fined” £1 which comes off everyone’s next TV Licence bill.
This time next year we could all be living a life of luxury thanks to the McBBC 🙂
Your hopes are wrong, if no money for redundancy then the cost is passed to the taxpayer. As for Pensions, what has been awarded cannot be taken away, so that is why a gov will still want a telly tax, just to pay for the pensions.
‘Still want a telly tax, just to pay for the pensions’
Especially the unique variety that can only go up as well as up.
Too… everything to fail.
You could write a song about it.
So lets look at what Whittingdale has actually said on the subject (according to Guido)
http://order-order.com/2015/05…
1/bye-bye-telly-tax-whitto-in-at-culture/#_@/qeqMNHerEiGE0A
.” It’s actually worse than a poll tax because under the poll tax, if you were on a very low income you would get a considerable subsidy”
“I think there’s quite an attractive option of linking it to a specific household tax – maybe council tax.”
So to summarise his position the licence fee is unfair to poor people (which it might be)
and he wants to fund the BBC from the rates, so every household that pays rates will be forced to subsidise the Bourgeois Broadcasting Collective whether they watch it or not and no exception
(Some ‘conservative’ you Tories voted for)
If you think the BBC is biased now ,wait till its funded from general taxation
With a bit of OFCOM ‘nothing to see here’ oversight to top it off.
Hence, the expressed concerns of some.
It will be a Tory executive decision as to whether the bBC is emasculated or not. I expect the answer will be NO. I think they will not want to be loaded with the accusation ‘they killed the beloved BBC’. Hope I am wrong, but they will weigh up the pro’s and con’s, and decide against it.
Does it need to be ‘killed’?
Should not a first step be to give it the opportunity to put its house in order and run a lean and efficient machine? £1.8+bn ought to be, in a period – hopefully – of near zero inflation, sufficient to run a couple of TV channels, four radio stations, local radio & World Service. There are a number of highly paid presenters who are past or close to retirement age and a number of others who do not glitter in their chosen field who could be encouraged to depart. Not having to pay vast sums for repeat fees to American networks & production companies would save a bob or two when BBC 3 is axed.
I strongly disagree. There is NO chance that the BBC can reform itself. It is just too dyed in the wool leftist to do that. No, the only way is to force change on it. Personally I would favour privatisation or at the very least having it fund itself totally through subscription. Just tinkering with it will only make it even more leftist when it has the chance with a change in government.
But I think that either of these option will be too difficult for the new government to achieve owing to the enormous support that the BBC will whip up to protect itself.
My view is that the government will get rid of the LF and go for a mixed source of funding for the BBC , tax and subscription. Unfortunately this will still allow the BBC to pursue its leftist agenda and come the next sympathetic government it will be restored to full health and be even more anti Tory.
Therefore the government must not only attack the funding of the BBC they must reduce its reach and scope. Getting rid of all local BBC radio and encouraging commercial radio to fill the gap is one way. Another is stopping it moving into new ways of distributing content leaving it to wither on the vine. A third is to close down the web site. A fourth is to limit the number of TV channels and national radio stations it runs.
All this can quite rightly be done under the banner of modernism ,pluralism and the free market, with a modest tax cut for every family to boot. Of course that won’t stop the tidal wave of protest from the chattering classes and Labour, but it would be taking the philosophical high ground.
Using their Guardian bibles as comfort blankets, beeboids will be gripping them to their bosoms, as they watch this great new Tory “Satan”, wondering what will happen next……
Well!….Nothing much at all really!….But don’t tell the beeboids that..
https://youtu.be/mag7ug6XsCY
I wish Phil Davies (Shipley) had been handed the BBC brief. I remember with enjoyment his forensic dissection of Chris Patten and he is no fan of Cameron’s.
First vital step is to decriminalise non-payment and stop 100,000 women going annually to court. That alone would save the Ministry of Justice millions.
Sajid Javed MP, Whittingdale’s predecessor, was known to be in favour of 50% tax cuts on the basis that ‘You then get more coming in.’ If he had a stack of letters, requesting a 50% cut in the Licence Fee, I hope he left them behind in his desk for the new Culture Secretary to find and read.
John Whittingdale to sort BBC out…his words
Lets hope ithappens
His words
“I think there’s quite an attractive option of linking it to a specific household tax – maybe council tax.”
Yeah the BBC must be sh#tting themselves
”HIS WORDS”
I really hope the appalling left wing bias is included in his brief….and your right,they must be crapping themselves
Explain to me how getting their snout into the general taxation trough rather than having to depend on the licence fee would worry them, I’m keen to know.
For all its size, “influence” and self importance the BBC is actually becoming irrelevant to the younger generations.
The World Wide Web has created a culture and environment where people source their own news and interests for themselves.
For all its faults, Facebook shows this as much as anywhere.
To explain what I mean, countless “posts” appear on my FB page every day with my Friends sharing news and other items.
I will see links to Metro news, Buzzfeed etc, etc etc.
None of it is ever a link to the BBC.
The younger generation in particular have no place in their lives for the BBC. It’s too bland and boring and besides this, the world is a far bigger and more interesting place.
It might not happen in the next 5-10 years but with every passing year, and in particular generation, the BBC is becoming a “voice in the wilderness”.
An interesting survey would be to ask all the 18-25 year olds in the UK how many times per week they watch or listen to the BBC.
I’d hazard a guess that 5% might reply that they have.
The world is changing and the BBC is becoming a small fish in a big pond.
It won’t survive.
Exactly!
Decriminalizing the tax would be a good start for Whittingdale and the tories now they have a majority (albeit a tiny,tiny,miniscule majority that will be destroyed by the ‘bastards..blah,blah) and now the interference of Clegg and co has gone.
If the tories, many of whom are supposedly fuming after the way they were constantly stitched up by the bbc scum during the pre GE, don’t get rid of the bbc now then they never will and could pay the price in future elections. The rise of UKIP should serve as a warning to Cameron, this could be a last chance for a ‘main’ party to deliver the goods.
Just listening to any bbc reporting today was just unbelievable, the same biased garbage, the same toxicity, the same desperate format of loading any debate with lefties. It has to end, It’s now obvious that democracy means nothing to them. Their new mantra is ‘Britain is a divided nation’ and the bbc are the scum who are providing the wedges to do it.
If people keep signing the anti bbc campaigns, such as the 38 degrees end the bbc fee, and lobbying the tory MPs then action will happen, they know there is a voting alternative now.
Sign here
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/end-the-bbc-licence-fee
Keep this petition available. People will sign.
I don’t have much confidence in this government to tackle the BBC, they need the big foot of public opinion behind them.
I do not think this government will take on the BBC because Cameron and the BBC are pro EU and are devising ways to scupper the referendum or render it a piece of junk.
I am told that Whittingdale does not answer emails from Mensa members about the “Future of the BBC“, nor does the secretary of the Space Special Interest Group know if he is a member of the group or not. But apart from Robin Healey, for an article in the Mensa magazine in April 2013, I cannot find anyone else that has talked to him about the issues, and Healey did not talk to him about the BBC or Climate Change. We have acknowledgments from two members of the the Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s inquiry into the Future of the BBC, that Whittingdale is aware of the complaint from Space Special Interest Group members about the BBC‘s censorship policy for climate science, scientists and scientific debate, but does not seem to show any interest in Astronomy any longer. Up to now, the only time the issue has been raised with the BBC, was when Philip Davies MP asked Lord Patten and Lord Hall, why the BBC had spent a quarter of a million pounds on resisting a freedom of information request for the names of the 28 ‘best scientific experts’ who have turned out to be significantly less qualified than many of the complainants fobbed off by the BBC complaints process, using the ‘best scientific experts’ excuse. Hopefully, Cameron would not be foolish enough to block Philip Davies being appointed the new Chairman for the “Future of the BBC”
From the new blog “end the bbc licence fee”;
https://endbbclicencefee.wordpress.com/
Pensioners do not get a free TV Licence. The TV licence for pensioners is paid by the treasury.
Another point highlighted in the blog is that the Government empower the BBC to collect a licence fee but this is not an obligation.
Very interesting well researched in formation; read it.
I believe that not only should the TV license be abolished, the bungs from the EU, with EU tax payers money should be halted.
How can the BBC claim to be impartial with sums of £30 million being handed over ? No wonder you never hear the truth about Europe, from the bought and paid for BBC.
When considering whether the TV licence should be collected as part of Council Tax, it should be remembered that 4.33 million over-75s currently get a free licence. If the TV tax were part of the Council Tax, it is hard to see how that concession could be continued without extra expense and possible abuse, even if Local Authorities were willing to take on the burden of issuing varied demands. The Government might therefore find it expedient to withdraw the concession and save £608 million a year. Incidentally, the BBC is already reimbursed by the Government for the revenue ‘lost’ through this concession. (See http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/about/foi-licences-facts-and-figures-AB18 )
In these heady days when the likes of Charlie Booker and Polly Toynbee are imploding in the pages of the Grauniad and David has delivered the coup de grace to his erstwhile brother, along comes Mr Whittingdale. While we must all hope that he can indeed drive a stake into the rotten heart of this media vampire, the ‘progressive forces” are already gathering to thwart him. So here are a few suggestions: 1. Decriminalise the licence fee 2. Cut the fee and extend free viewing to anyone aged 60 and over. 3. Abolish the Trust which serves no useful purpose and only upholds complaints against the McBBC when hens grow teeth.4. Ensure that the National Audit Office has full and unhampered access to every single element of the MCBBC’s accounts. 5. Ensure that there is an effective regulator and a complaints procedure which DOES NOT require the public to have to tug their forelock first to the McBBC mandarins. 6. Ensure an effective cap is in place on salaries, pensions and redundancy payments.
6 points for an 8 foot concrete slab perhaps ?
“The thing is, John” said David, “You’re saying that the BBC is biased, bloated and out of touch. But at the end of the day, they did not stop us getting elected with a majority, did they? We need to keep some perspective: treat it like we treat immigration and the EU, recognise that some people feel strongly about it, make a few token gestures but best not rock the boat too much. What do you say, John? I don’t want to influence you in any way, but it’s just my honest opinion”.
“Yes, prime minister”
Exactly. There is an old saying ‘If you get the name of rising early, you can lie in bed all day’. Cameron is, first and last, a PR man. Everything is for effect. He has no dog in any future GE, his only interest now is getting a stay-in-Europe vote… and the Beeb is his best mate on that.
This morning on Radio 4, they briefly discussed the appointment of Mr Whittingdale and what effects this might have on the BBC. To do this discussion, primarily about bias at the BBC, they had a BBC interviewer interviewing a BBC interviewer. You couldn’t make this stuff up unless you work at the BBC!
To make matters worse, it was James Naughtie (exGuardianista) interviewing Norman Smith , who has consistently reported the election from a pro-Labour standpoint. The conversation was a blatant but unconvincing attempt to dismiss accusations of BBC left wing bias.
Standard boilerplate.
Nothing of significance will change.
Yes the bBC is biased, but the Tory’s will use that pro EU, pro immigration bias to their advantage, ie to ensure a stay in vote in 2017 and for that reason don’t expect much to happen to the bBC at least until then.
I’m not too struck on this “Means Tested” element that has somehow crept in.
“The more you earn, the more you should pay to watch telly”… really?
Why stop at TV? Why not make everything more expensive for people on higher incomes thereby completely nullifying the whole bloody point of making a few quid.
I’m also not sure why he says it’s unsustainable given that it has been sustained for decades already.
No. The real problem with the Licence Fee is the element of force that is used to make people pay for something when there should be a real choice.
This and the fact that it is now a completely outdated concept which belongs in era long past.
http://conservativewoman.co.uk/david-keighley-bbc-in-shock-election-defeat-will-whittingdale-finish-it-off/
Don’t hold your breath
Also worth reading
http://www.iea.org.uk/blog/why-the-licence-fee-isn%E2%80%99t-the-best-way-to-fund-the-bbc#.VVGztcGAa5c.twitter
A point to ponder : If the BBC is sorted out. The bias is eliminated and the license fee scrapped……..what happens to this site?
We would all live happily ever after- the end
The biggest party.
Ever,
The ‘out of control’ BBC have become the third political force in the United Kingdom. Rather than just report the news, they have not only become the mouthpiece of Labour, they have tried to set the agenda ‘bigging up’ the SNP and Greens, but denigrating anything they perceive as right of centre.
Not content with censoring anything positive about UKIP, they smeared, sneered, and ridiculed that party at every opportunity, for years prior to the recent election.
It continues this day, with the biased BBC, setting the agenda, trying to pit Douglas Carswell against Nigel Farage. Time they had their wings clipped, or preferably amputated. Of course in Londoncentric BBC land 3.9 million UK voters are of no relevance, unless of course they are Scottish. See http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-32696505
Headline ‘ The BBC is a sinister organisation, it must be abolished not reformed’
http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/05/12/the-bbc-is-a-sinister-organisation-it-must-be-abolished-not-reformed/
Well, for every Ying, there’s a Yang, so…
http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/speedo.html
‘..you can more or less rely on Chris Bryant to rally round.’
One is sure ‘you’ can.
Does the BBC have any influence anymore?
We here spot the Bias, but perhaps the BBC is lost in a deluge of alternative and growing media options?
Is the BBC becoming a side-show?
I hope so.
..
BBC 24 Online News.
No mention that UKIP awarded the £650k because they only had one MP despite 3 million votes.
BBC states that it was awarded because they are in ‘Opposition’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32707357
{BBC Note To Self: Don’t mention UKIP had 3 million votes as the reason for payment. Divert attention to ‘internal squabbles’).
..