Monday, 20 April 2015

"Cut (the BBC) back to the bone"


Talking of Nigel Farage, here's a breaking news story from the BBC News website's homepage. 

Yes, it's in the small print, sitting in the BBC's news chart in a lowly twelfth place, but it's still there...

....so just in case you missed it:


The BBC should be "cut back to the bone" and the licence fee reduced by two thirds, according to Nigel Farage.
The UKIP leader told a public meeting in Rochester he believed the BBC should not be privatised but retained as a public service broadcaster.
His proposal would mean the current fee of £145.50 would be reduced to £48.50.
Some of the other parties have set out their plans for the licence fee in their manifestos, including the Conservatives and the Green Party.
Mr Farage said: "Do I think the BBC needs to involve itself and engage itself in many other fields of entertainment and sport, given the whole world has changed with cable television and satellite television? No.
"I would like to see the BBC cut back to the bone to be purely a public service broadcaster with an international reach, and I would have thought you could do that with a licence fee that was about a third of what it currently is."
The BBC's Robin Brant said while UKIP had committed to reviewing the licence fee, which comes up for renewal next year, this was the first time the leader had put a figure on it.
Last week Mr Farage accused the BBC of fielding what he called a "left-wing" audience in the TV debate between him and the leaders of Labour, the SNP, Green party and Plaid Cymru.