It looks as if Dominic Cummings is "not bluffing".
Tim Shipman of The Sunday Times has been told by "senior aides" to the Prime Minister that Downing Street is determined that the licence fee will be scrapped and the BBC turned into a subscription service. The BBC will be "pruned" and forced to sell off most of its 61 radio stations, with Radio 3 and Radio 4 preserved and protected. The BBC website will be scaled back, the BBC's TV channels reduced in number from the present ten, more money invested in the World Service, and BBC stars banned from "cashing in with lucrative second jobs".
John Whittingdale will return to the Government to lead the charge, which "one source" described as "Mission: attack".
"The PM is firmly of the view that there needs to be serious reform. He is really strident on this", a "source" says.
Batten down the hatches, BBC!
That sort of plan will certainly win more votes for the Conservatives in the old pit villages around Wakefield and Barnsley, areas where they have long memories and the BBC is despised.
ReplyDeleteSounds very sensible - definitely the sort of thing I would support. But it's not enough.
ReplyDeleteWe want a BBC that reflects the full range of democratic opinion in an impartial manner.
That requires a number of measures including in my view (a) election of the board of management by all licence fee payers (as we do with Building Societies and Trade Unions) - to be extended to subscription payers eventually (b) external selection boards to interview candidates for all posts earning above £100K and (c)an Impartiality Board with real teeth (power to dismiss, demote and deny funding) to ensure the BBC meets its commitments on Impartiality.